End of the Strike, Mosquitos, and Funeral Requests

After roughly 2 weeks of striking, the civil service unions and the government have finally reached a compromise. Teachers were out of school during the strike, while nurses, fireman, and some policemen were on a “go slow.” Firemen had to be brought in from neighboring islands in order to keep the airports open and national exams for a number of primary school students were cancelled. Fortunately, however, everything is back to normal now.

So I’ve finally put up my mosquito net in my bedroom…3 months before the end of my service. What’s the use at this point, you might ask? Wouldn’t you have crossed that off the to-do list within the 1st month or two? Well, I could jokingly defend my lack of action as my own unique attempt at cultural integration, as things oftentimes find a way of getting put on the backburner here (“just now”), but that wouldn’t altogether be true. In fact, for the first ½ year I had a fan, which prohibited mosquitoes from bothering me too much. Then, my parents came, so in trying to make them feel as comfortable as possible, I put the net up in the guest room. While I ultimately proved successful in this endeavor, the process of hanging the net was about as easy as eating Halloween candy with a sense of restraint and self-control. Needless to say, it was not a process I wished to repeat. Just after my parents left, the fan went kaputt. I decided not to buy a new one as it was the “colder” (yeah, right) time of the year and wasn’t essential. Then, upon realizing how much cheaper my power bill was having not had a fan, I vowed never to buy another one. Strangely enough, the mosquitoes didn’t give me too much trouble for that year following. At present, however, they’re determined to make up for lost time and are attacking at full force. I couldn’t sleep well at nights because of the incessant buzzing in my ears. I would even try to position myself so my entire body was covered, excluding a small hole for air, but they still managed to successfully be a nuisance. So, in the end, 2 years into my Peace Corps service, I decided it was high time to hang the mosquito net in my room. While my nights are now peaceful and undisturbed, my days remain spent wildly running around my house clapping my hands enough to make a passerby think a fireworks show was happening inside.

MaPego, my landlord and former host mom, once again gave me something to laugh about. She came up to me after a funeral service and informed me, with a sense of unaffected, calculated determinedness, that she wanted me to do her a favor. The conversation went something like this.

MaPego: Ben!
Ben: Yeah, MaPego. What’s up?
MaPego: I’m alright. Let me tell you that.
Ben: What’s that?
MaPego: (resolutely; to the point) I want you to come to the garden and take out my picture of me and the flowers, so that when I die, they can put a nice picture in the program.
Ben: (taken aback, but somehow not terribly surprised) No problem. Anytime.

The favor she asked wasn’t in and of itself what struck me as so funny, but rather the matter-of-fact manner in which she asked it.

My good friend, Alison Duquette, recently came for a short visit. It was great to see her and catch up on post-college life. Her trip was very short, so we weren’t able to see everything, but we squeezed just about as much as we could in. Having the chance to reunite with a good friend makes me look forward to reconnecting with friends once I return to the States.

I just recently got back from the close of service (COS) conference. All the volunteers in my Eastern Caribbean class (EC77) came together for 3 days to be briefed on all the medical and administrative forms we have to fill out before our service ends, as well as discuss wrapping up our time and the process of reintegrating to life back in the States. It was nice to see all the other volunteers from other islands again and I particularly enjoyed our Peace Corps Olympics competition. We had a variety of competitions including swimming, Frisbee, geography bee, chess, eating, and, of course, staring. It was a close race, but fortunately St. Lucia emerged victorious. :) The conference really put it in perspective that the end of my time here in St. Lucia is fast approaching. I’m ambivalent about this, but think that I’ll be ready when the time comes.

In the work world, the farmers’ co-operative I’ve been working with has submitted our composting proposal and should be receiving funding sometime soon. I’m also collaborating with a Japanese Volunteer to facilitate a recorder workshop at the primary school to teach the teachers how to play the recorder and have a solid understanding of music theory.