Breadfruit Salad

• 2 Roasted Breadfruit
• 1 can Mixed Vegetables; Carrots, green beans, peas, corn, etc
• Couple stalks of Celery
• 1 Onion
• 1 Green Pepper
• 1 Whole Garlic
• Alot of Mustard
• A good Amount of Mayonaise
• Generous Amounts of Black Pepper

1. Roast breadfruit, peel the shell, cut out the center seeds, and then cut into small chunks. -or-
2. Boil breadfruit. Cut breadfruit into 4 sections, boil with salt, and peel after cooled.
3. Add all ingredients and mix together.
4. This dish is the equivalent of potato salad.

Callaloo Something or Other

• Approx 4-8 bunches of Callaloo (type of spinach. Its actually the leaves of the dasheen).
• 1 Whole Garlic
• Couple tablespoons of Olive Oil
• TONS of Curry
• Generous Amounts of Black Pepper
• 2 Cups ish of Coconut Milk

1. Peel callaloo stems if old. Otherwise just cut the end of the stalk. Cut up callaloo into chunks, like lettuce.
2. Rinse with water and let them steep for a bit in water, but not too much water, after the leaves have dried a bit.  If you touch them, they can cause your skin to itch, so be careful.
3. Add olive oil and garlic to a pot. Let cook for a little bit.
4. Add all the callaloo, curry, pepper.
5. Then pour over the coconut milk.
6. Let it boil down for a long time.
7. Will turn to a mush.  Let it boil until all the water is gone and the consistency is like a paste.
8. This takes a long time, but remember to stir, otherwise it will burn.

This takes just like spinach paneer that you would get at an Indian restaurant. So good!

Stewed Pigeon Peas

• Olive oil
• 1 Whole Garlic
• 1 Onion
• A lot of Pigeon Peas
• 1/2 cup? Ketchup or tomato paste
• 3/4 cup? Sugar
• GENEROUS Amounts of Salt and Pepper
• 1 cup or more depending, Water
• Couple tablespoonsMargarine
• LOTS of Curry

1. Coat the bottom of a wok type pan with olive oil and add 1 whole garlic.  Add 1 chopped onion. Stir around and let brown or something.
2. Rinse pigeon peas.
3. Add pigeon peas to garlic and oil.
4. Add all the other ingredients.
5. Let boil for a while, I lost track but probably like an hour or more.  Might have to add more water. Add the end, you want kind of a thicker type sauce.

My First Weekend in St Vincent

So this concludes my first weekend in St Vincent with my homestay family.  Saturday didn’t really consist of much. We left our hotel in St Lucia promptly at 7am.  Only to have to wait at the airport for 4.5 hours to get our 20 minute flight to St Vincent.  We took LIAT, the local Caribbean airline, which stands for Leaves Island Any Time. This is definitely true, since we arrived in St Vincent only 5 minutes after we were scheduled to leave St Lucia.  The views from the oh so tiny double propeller airplane were magnificent.  We could see the vivid blue waters off the coast of St Lucia all the way to St Vincent.  Once we got closer to St Vincent you could see the mountainous terrain, albeit lush and green.  The water coming into St Vincent airport in Kingstown was the most amazing cobalt blue I have ever seen, it was practically glowing.  When the sun hit it just right, it looked like the color of aluminum.  It had a metallic hue and was just absolutely breathtaking with the reflections from the ripples caused by the waves.

Once we landed, we proceeded through customs and all that, only to wait (because we were so early, which never ever happens) some more for our Associate Peace Corps Director (APCD), Mr Cool.  We were all pretty anxious and excited to meet him and every man that pulled up in a van, or any man that got out of a car in the parking lot, we speculated that it was Mr Cool.  At first, we didn’t think we would be waiting that long, so we continued to hold our bags.  Never wanting to give up hope that Mr Cool was going to show up any minute, we hesitated on putting our bags down (this meant we had to pick them back up-and they were quite heavy).  Eventually, we believed that if we put it down, it meant that Mr Cool would show up.  One by one we put our bags down, but with not much luck.  So much for that theory.  At any rate, Mr Cool came to the rescue and retrieved us from the airport and we proceeded to pack all our bags on a bus and head to the Peace Corps Office.  We were greeted by current Volunteers and some more staff. We had a tour of the office, a light snack, and soon enough or host family’s were there to pick us up and bring us “home” for the next two months.

Once “home”, I was pleasantly surprised.  Well I should say before I got to my homestay.  My Host Mom drives a Lexis. She drives on the left and drives on the left.  Which, to me, is pretty confusing.  She doesn’t seem to be affected by it though. So, back to my homestay.  My Host Mom owns and operates a grocery store.  The store is on the first floor and the house in on the second floor.  And its huge and very lavish! They have a housekeeper 5 days a week, wireless internet, every kitchen gadget you could imagine. They also have 6 pigs, 80 chickens and grow some other veggies and things.  My room is in the front of the house and I share a bathroom with my Host Sister, who is 27, and works for a financial firm in Kingstown. The bathroom is pretty big too.  (Pics of all this and more to come soon). So, for the rest of the day I just hung out with my Host Mom for a while and unpacked my stuff and organized my room.

I went to bed fairly early, after talking to my mom and slept “in” til 930.  However, I was awoken by the fiercest rain I have ever heard, not once but twice!  I sprung out of bed in a panic until I realized what it was.  After I woke, I showered (with hot water), cleaned up my room a bit more and ventured out into the living area. For the rest of the day, I learned how to cook authentic St Vincent cuisine! I learned how to make callaloo (which is pretty much spinach paneer) and it was so delicious; stewed pigeon peas (again very good); and breadfruit salad (potato salad); for dessert I learned how to make breadpudding.  Recipes will be up at a later date. This took the majority of the day.  Afterwards, I went for a walk around the village with my Host Mom’s good friend who is visiting for a while from England (but is originally from St Vincent).  Here comes that fierce rain again, as I write this blog entry.

While on our walk, which was very hilly, (it goes without saying that I was sweating profusely), we ran into a fellow volunteer.  What are the chances! After the walk, we got ready for church.  I went to my Host Sisters Boyfriends church.  I think the denomination was Pentecostal.  There was much singing and clapping.  It was hard to understand, but from what I could understand, the Pastor talked about being “home” which made me sad a little bit as well as happy.  This is home for the next 27 months. 

More to come later!

Need my sleep, I have a long day of training ahead of me tomorrow in Kingstown.

Im Actually Going to Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia, St Vincent that is.


So today concludes the first week of Pre Service Training (PST).  We have covered the very basics of PC policies and procedures, some common health problems and how to deal with them and/or prevent them, health and wellness, nutrition, Safety and Security.  We took a trip to Castries for a scavenger hunt, managed our way on the bus system (which is more like an overcrowded mini van), where we learned how to treat the common cold and fever with bush remedies (lemon grass, peppermint, bay leaves, and some other things). We have ended each training session with a trip to the beach to swim, watch the sunset. you know.
Tomorrow morning I will fly from St Lucia to St Vincent, where I will continue my PST for two more months.  During that time I will live with a Homestay family so that I can effectively integrate into the community and culture. I will attend training sessions three times a week at the Peace Corps office in the capital, Kingstown.  One day a week I will be visiting my work site, a high school in the Mesopotamia Valley, for observation. Upon completion of PST, I will be sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) (currently I am a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT)). Surprisingly, wearing business clothes has not been too bad, considering that it includes black dress pants and blouses in 85F heat.  I have acclimated to the weather rather quickly.  Luckily, too, there is almost always a cool breeze, which helps with the heat. No AC though.  But I actually prefer it that way.

            There are 44 volunteers in total, 12 of which are going to St Vincent.  The ages range from 22 to 66.  There are a fair number of retiree volunteers, and two married couples. The volunteers come from all over the country with a concentration originating from the Midwest (Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, etc) and California and Texas. There is one from Philly, one from Delaware, and one other from NY.  Every one has a very different background; from what they were doing before PC, what they studied in school, and their views and beliefs, and lifestyle in general.  For the most part every one is pretty cool.  However, it was very striking to me, how similar and yet how vastly different we all are.  This leads me to my next point-The peculiarities of PC EC.  PC EC comprises six island nations.  However, all volunteers have a week of PST in St Lucia, PC EC’s headquarters, together.  After the first week, we are all dispersed among the six island nations.  This is unfortunate because in the extreme circumstances that we are in we have already formed close relationships and now we are being separated.  We will all meet again in St Lucia in May of 2012 for Mid Service Training.
            Now on to thoughts about being a PCT and living in another country.  Right now, it feels like I am away at summer sleep away camp.  We play games at night, hang out on the beach after training, get to know one another, go to “activities” (training sessions), etc. I think the realization that I will be living and working here for the next two years has not really sunk in yet.  We talk a lot about integration and being culturally sensitive, but none of this will seem relevant until I am fully immersed and alone (which will happen starting Saturday). This week has been quite an overload of information all at once.  It was a bit overwhelming at times. And I am willing to bet that it will only get worse in terms of overwhelming with information and in every other aspect. In summary, every thing is very overwhelming right now.  there is alot of things to juggle and take into consideration all at once.  On the surface, adjusting to this endeavor is going well, but only time will tell. 
More on my inner thoughts later, but i need to go to bed now! Gotta be up at 530am to leave for St Vincent! So excited, nervous, anxious, curious, etc about what life will be like the next two years and especially in the next few weeks!

  

Mmmm...

The view from my room in St Lucia in the Eastern Caribbean (Carib-bean. not Ca-rib-bean)...  

View from Pigeon Island, St Lucia.

View of Pigeon Island, You can see Martinique in the distance in pic#4.

Palm trees on the beach.

Basically our own private beach near where we are staying for Pre Service Training (PST). 

Another pic of the beach. 

Tomorrow officially starts PST.  We were fortunate to have the weekend off to enjoy the beach and the town, and other semi-touristy things.  This is so surreal.  But right now it kinda feels like a mix between vacation and camp.  Im excited to get acclimated and integrated into the community in which I will be living in for two years, and really get to work.  As beautiful as this is, and how amazing its going to be and how excited I am to have this wonderful opportunity, a part of me still wishes I were in Lesotho.  All I can hope for is One Day I will get there.  Until then, I plan on making this the most remarkable, life changing two years of my life.

Upon arrival and meeting all the other volunteers, it has be clear to me, that i really didnt over pack at all.  In fact I was about 4 lbs less than the 80lb limit, not including my carryon, which probably was more than my checked bag! But anyways, there are so many things I wish I brought, and others I wish I left home. So that means, you should all send me stuff!!!

Well, Im tired and training starts promptly at 8am! Off to bed.

Im in St Lucia

I finally made it to St Lucia. Safe and Sound. And i just got two shots. Typhoid and Hep A. I was awoken by a rooster. Also took my first of many cold showers. It wasnt so bad. Its 85F and so beautiful. Everyone is pretty cool.