By The Numbers

I really miss working exclusively with numbers, so here is a recap of my first year as a Peace Corps Volunteer in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

1 bat living in my house

1 trip to the Tobago Cays

1 week in the US

1 Nine Mornings Festival attended

1 haircut given

1 earthquake experienced

1 time swimming with sea turtles

1 hammock on my porch J

1 mash up camera

1 Christmas Light Up attended

1 beauty pageant attended

1 grant proposal written

1 dead chicken being eaten by my dog on my porch

1 1/2 dogs-mine and my neighbors, sort of

2 fashion shows attended

2 mash up internet modems

2 weeks with CRD

2 times carrying 6 children to the beach

3 stool samples

3 cans of Bop

2 concerts attended and 2 all-nighters pulled as a result

3 tarantulas found [dead]

3 doctors appointments

3 ascents to the top of Soufriere

3 subjects taught: reading, math, information technology

3 weeks of art camp

3 all-nighters for Carnival

4 times I have been told I “look like a true Vincy” J

4 gas tanks

4 times slept past 8am

4 inches my hair has grown

4 trips to Bequia

4 vaccines

4 times I have been offered someone’s child or baby

5 times partied until the sun came up

5 planes to get back to the states

6 weeks of adult education classes taught

8 weeks without a gas tank (8 weeks on a raw food diet)

8 weeks of no internet!

8 packages from friends

8 cans of Off! Bug spray used

9 new vegetables tried-dasheen, christophene, pigeon peas, callaloo, breadfruit, cassava, pumpkin (different from ours), eddoes, yams (which are not sweet potatoes)

9 months living alone and surviving

10 cards from my grandparents

10:1 the ratio of people who know my name to the names of people I know

12 months living in SVG

15 packages from my mommy

16 boxes of crystal lite packets drank

17 new fruits tried-sour sop, sugar apple, plum rose, guava, passion fruit, golden apple, wax apple, sorrel, sugar cane, cocoa, star fruit, papaya, plum (not the same as ours), 3 different types of bananas, tamarind, mangoes, coconut, I think there may be more (and some of these I have had, just not in their natural existence.)

33 books read completely

tens of days with out water

tens of marriage proposals

tens of chickens in my yard

tens of goats seen on the way to school every morning

tens of days with brown water

plenty times limed on the beach

60+ new students’ reading assessments conducted

107 letters written

145 days of school

hundreds of inches of rain

hundreds of van rides, literally

hundreds of guavas, mangoes and bananas eaten J

200+ students taught

300 lbs of books and educational material from IACL

500 new books for the school library from Hands Across the Sea

Over 5000 pictures taken (don’t judge me)

More than I’d like to admit: rides taken by strangers