I'm starting this week off with the view from my balcony this morning. At 6am, it was a rare cloudy morning, which meant that I could actually sit outside and not get fried by the sun. I also felt almost "cool" outside--imagine my surprise when I checked the weather to see that it was 80℉, with 85% humidity, and a dew point of 74℉. I guess some acclimatization has actually occurred! I sat out there reading my book and drinking my coffee and just marveling at this place I call home now.
I'll give y'all a quick school update: I spent the week visiting more classes and got to see some really positive approaches to teaching and learning. I also got to engage more with students in the classrooms, which was exactly what I have been waiting for! I got to do things like have 1st graders tell me about the parts of a tree and help 3rd graders read and write large numbers. I spent some time in kindergarten (tbh I am confounded by grade K) where I fell flat on classroom and behavior management. I got asked to take the students outside to do something active, and it turned into mostly bedlam. From our training, I know that classroom and behavior management are areas that I definitely need to strengthen. So although I wasn't entirely surprised by how it went, it's still never the greatest feeling in the world when we fall short. I also had my first experience of having to deal with students who were not behaving appropriately outside the classroom. That also fell flat! But this is a learning experience, and I am definitely learning everyday.
Speaking of learning, let's talk about what I have come to term "life logistics". People have been asking about things like how much money I make, shopping, eating, mail, etc., so I thought it might be a good idea to take a little time to explain some of those things. I went to a panel of returned volunteers about a year ago who had all served on islands, and one of them said "It's not just that everything is smaller, everything is just harder." I remember thinking that this made sense, but I had NO IDEA what that actually meant in practice. Now, I definitely have an idea! Let's use paying bills as an example. I have to pay rent, water, electricity, internet (we are actually required to have this). Luckily, I can electronically transfer my rent to the home owners account (he lives in the UK). But the rest have to be paid in-person in town. Admittedly I had some concerns because the offices are only open M-F from 8-4. But luckily, I found out that there was a credit union open on Saturdays where I can pay the electric and the water. This is something that LOTS of people take advantage of as the queue is always super long even before the place opens. But it is a viable option! The internet gets paid at a kiosk that takes cash, but won't give any change, LOL.
How much money do I make? I am a volunteer, so that means I get paid a "living stipend" to take care of all my costs. It is the equivalent of about $570US per month. That does not include my rent--I get a separate allowance to pay that. But the $570 does include all the bills, food, transportation, living supplies (think cleaning supplies, health & beauty stuff, etc). I am committed to living off of this stipend and not supplementing with money from my personal savings--I'm meant to live at the economic level of my community, and I want to meet that challenge. That doesn't mean that I won't graciously and gratefully accept packages from home! 😆😆😆 Thanks to all of you who have asked me what you could send my way. If you've sent a package and haven't heard thanks from me, it's because it hasn't gotten here yet/I haven't been able to go retrieve it yet. Which brings us to the question about mail. Two things I can tell you--it is expensive and slow. My mom sent me a package and it took a month for it to get here. All mail goes to the Peace Corps office, which is about a 3hr trip one way with a round trip cost of about $25EC. With mom's package I totally lucked out because our program manager had to make an airport run and she amazingly came and dropped the package to me--otherwise it would still be sitting in the PC office.
So while the winds of change are blowing here in beautiful St. Lucia, I am building windmills as I go. It's not always easy and there are definitely times where it is really hard, but I am still filled with gratitude for the opportunity to have this experience.
And for those of you who were curious about what the 2nd food on my "only foods list" was (read last week's post if you have no idea what I'm talking about)--it's cereal! No lie. If there were only two foods I could have for the rest of my days, it would be cereal and ice cream. 💗
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