Arrival in St. Lucia!

So after two days of training in Miami I’ve finally arrived here in the gorgeous island of St. Lucia. It has been great to meet so many other people who are just as eager, nervous, excited, and clueless as I am. Orientation was jam-packed with lots of information, but ultimately I think it was helpful in preparing us for this initial phase of training. One of the highlights from Orientation was a poem/rap that some volunteers and I wrote for a performance on becoming integrated into a community. Just imagine the white kid from KS (bojangles!), a 65 year old woman, and some other atypical rapsters bustin' out the following...

July 26th, an auspicious date
For we must learn to integrate
Into this Caribbean state
But first…contemplate

Integrate, integrate, it’ll be great to integrate

Just take it day by day
‘Cause you know, persistence will pay
Culture shock will go away
And 6 G’s, they’re sure to pay

Integrate, integrate, it’ll be great to integrate

We must remember to stay cool
Learn their ways, don’t act a fool
All work towards the golden rule
To exemplify and maintain the stool.

Pretty cheesy I know, but a lot of fun to come up with in 15 minutes. Oh, and the “stool” reference is an inside joke (a labeled picture of a stool was used to describe what processes are involved in integration…)

This evening those of us who weren't extremely tired (or just too giddy to notice it) walked to the local beach. Walking barefoot in the sand of the warm, blue sea and seeing the lush, green mountains of the island definitely made the 4:30am wake-up time this morning well worth it. Later on there was a big welcome dinner with lots of different types of Caribbean food. I’m happy to say that I loved everything, from the fish to the rice (with some really good seasonings) to the guava/papaya juice.

I’m really excited that tomorrow I’ll meet my homestay family for the next three weeks. On Thursday (sooner than I expected), I’ll find out which island I’ll be stationed on for the next 2 years. Needless to say, I’m anxious to find out.

All in all I’m doing well…kind of physically tired and emotionally drained after all the travel, excitement, and crazy sleeping schedule, but at the same time mysteriously energized. Well, I don’t have time to write much more now, but I wanted to post something while I'm here in the hotel and have internet access. I’ll hopefully write more and post some pictures sometime soon!