Nalzie, one of my favorite people here
The back view...our shirts say "only the strong survive." because it's true.
Kind of relieved they left my booth..
stampede of kids on a mission
a better view of my booth
our "silly" shot. HOW CRAZY.
The EC 78 group <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7NFYE6wjnxo92H0jE0ro0d82U23M77ckdULaG4Qun0e0xunDZ13o7Xv5mAVE3j7QTWKZviW1bEQ5tPpzCP-Kwj5NriIazukSxTndZQbJsWNcXGM7s5JWHeMKkj_Nc74Gas3_MO6NaP2o/s1600-h/IMG_0700.jpg">
My mommy taught me how to utilize resources..Hence going to stores and asking for old cardboard boxes
me and my Kelsey
Today was the 49th anniversary of the Peace Corps. We celebrated by putting on a “Peace Corps Day” that has been in conception since November. We pulled it off quite successfully if I do say so myself. We had a committee of volunteers that prepared an expose on what exactly Peace Corps is and what we are doing or trying to do in St. Kitts. Peace Corps' success is dependent on a proper understanding by locals of why volunteers are here and what it means to be a PCV, otherwise our efforts, time, and talents could be potentially wasted for two years. We held Peace Corps day in Independence Square which is the heart of downtown Basseterre. The committee members in charge of media did a terrific job of spreading the news about PC Day and ensuring that enough people came out to see us. We had schools bus students into town which created a half hour of absolute chaos as each booth was bombarded with excited children who probably barely internalized what we were feeding to them. After the overwhelming influx of students and early morning crowds things slowed down and we were able to relax at our booths and enjoy the afternoon. Each booth was set up to demonstrate the three goals of Peace Corps which are:
- Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
- Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
- Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.
My goal was #1, so I worked with another volunteer on teaching people about the kids of projects and work sites volunteers are involved with in St. Kitts. I bet you can only imagine how boring and uninteresting this was for young school children. The only game we could think of that was permissible with our generous budget of nothing was a trivia game. Some examples of our trivia questions: “How long is the training period for volunteers?” or “What is sustainability?” And if that doesn’t seem riveting enough for young kids, we were handing out Peace Corps bookmarks as their prizes. But the kids, in true Kittitians fashion, were excited regardless, and were able to exert some of their morning energy on the all-American sport of baseball. They even got to make postcards to send to pen pals from the U.S at our crafts table. All in all, it was a successful event and I’m extremely proud of my fellow PCVs.
Lately I have been finding myself having mental snapshot moments. I will catch myself caught up in a quick minute or two of the most beautiful, iridescent, fusion of everything wonderful in life, and I can’t help but take a mental picture of it and store it away in the treasure chest of my memory. Today this feeling came from looking around at my fellow volunteers that I have grown to love and appreciate so much in the past year and half and just wanting so badly to pocket away the warmth of the moment and hold onto it for as long as I can. I try and step outside of my surroundings and capture the smiles, laughter, and human connections as an outsider, as if I’m watching someone else’s home movies. It makes me think I can somehow embalm the emotions and the happiness and hold onto them forever. This sense of desperation I have for grasping the joy of life I think comes from a 19 month long journey of overcoming discomfort and frustration. It is much more often now that I feel completely and utterly at peace with my life here, and that was a hard-fought, sweat-inducing, uphill battle. I am just now understanding the sweetness that comes with the fruits of my labor. The tragic part of this is that the fullest understanding of how lovely life is here will reach its culmination when I am on a plane going home, and I will be feeling the empty spaces left from nascent intangibles that I didn’t even realize were such an integral part of my existence.
The nights when I am walking home from the basketball court, eager to rummage through my refrigerator and creatively concoct a meal together, I sometimes turn around and look at the scarcely-lit road behind me and sketch it into my memory. Just when I have acquired a deep and rooted love for my life here I have come to the realization that it is slipping away quicker than I can even comprehend, until it’s gone and irreplacable. The momentum of time is an unsympathetic force, and right now I sometimes feel it tapping at my conscience, reminding me to cherish each and every moment, because nothing lasts forever.
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