Work wise, things are actually beginning to happen! Ten months later and I can finally say they are beginning. First, the UNDP is starting to interview people for the program manager position, the one that's required to give us the grant money. So hopefully they were telling the truth when they said by early 2010. The program assistant is also a friend of mine who's really awesome and I'm excited to get to work with her. I know she'll be great at this job.
Second, and most importantly in my book, therapy is happening! The one and only welfare therapist for the entire island and I started a group with the girls at OYQ. We've only done it once so far, but it's going to be every Thursday afternoon for an hour. Our next session is this week. There are four girls 12-14 years old. I am so happy that this is getting going. Some of the welfare staff, Mr. Abraham, and I met recently and planned sessions to train the OYQ staff about dealing with children with emotional and behavioral problems including basics about the therapeutic relationship, behavioral therapy, social work, child abuse, and how we can all work together (welfare, residential staff, therapeutic staff) to help the kids. The sessions are going to be monthly. Now, I just hope we can actually get all the staff to attend since that's been the main problem in the past.
As usual I'm not thrilled that school is restarting this week. Being there just exhausts me so much! It weekly confirms my career choice to be anything but a teacher and really makes me respect anyone who is a (good) teacher in a whole new way. But I am in the process of organizing the library so kids can take books home with them. I'm also going to be doing small group remedial reading. My mom's co-workers, along with some members of Holy Trinity, have donated so many great books – it's great to see them get excited about reading. I have to confess though – I have not given the school all the books. Some I just like too much and they are just too pretty. I keep them at home and let kids I trust borrow them. And it's a good activity for when the kids bombard my house daily. So it's not completely selfish.
Obviously, December hasn't been all work. I finally got off this island and met up with the family in St. Martin. I got there two days earlier than them. The hotel was beautiful on this gorgeous little typical Caribbean beach. I sat on the beach, swam, got a massage, sat on the beach, ate mozzarella sticks (something available at I think one restaurant on Dominica), sat on the beach, slept, watched TV, made friends with the staff, had a few Forgetting Sarah Marshall moments, and sat on the beach. For example, when I told the hostess at the restaurant it was just me, there was a whole “just one?!” kind of thing that happened with notifying the waiter and clearing off the table and so on. It was kind of nice though being alone and totally relaxing.
My impressions of the very developed St. Martin coming from Dominica were very mixed. There was so much I missed and so much I didn't about development. The first thing I noticed was how many buildings there were. Lights everywhere, including neon. Traffic. A bridge. Bridge traffic. So many white people. Left hand drive. Ethnic restaurants. U.S. money. I found myself feeling more Dominican than American. It was all very strange.
Then the family arrived. I was passing by on a golf cart when I see Dad and Mom sprinting behind calling my name coming out of the convenience store. Sean, oblivious, was still shopping, but soon we were all together riding to the room in the golf cart. It was so good to see them. We had a really nice time touring the island in our rental car. We went to a butterfly farm (surprisingly amazing), Le Galion beach, horseback riding through the Caribbean Sea, ate at an outdoor cafe in Marigot, and just generally relaxed. We ate amazing food, including sushi. Oh my God, eating sushi again...I can't really describe how satisfying and unbelievable it was. The photo below is somewhere on the northeast coast, I think. Sean and I randomly found it while driving aimlessly. Looks too gorgeous to be real.
After a few days in St. Martin, we came back to Dominica. It was weird having my family here. Kind of like when Rob came, I felt a little like they were intruding on this life I’d forged here by myself. Did my best to get over that ‘cause I was very aware of it. Could’ve done a better job. But overall I think it was good. We had a nice Christmas turkey and stuff, skyped with the extended family back in NJ, played Apples to Apples, and went to Trafalgar Falls where we bathed in the cold water near the waterfalls and in the hot sulphur springs in the rainforest. Mom and Dad were big fans of these natural Jacuzzis. Other days we went up to the north coast to see Calibishie and another day we headed south to Scott’s Head and Champagne beach. At Champagne, Mom, Sean, and I snorkeled. There are bubbles coming up, looking like champagne, from the bottom of the sea from hot springs. Saw lots of cool fish and Sean was actually able to tell us what a lot of them were. Unfortunately for Dad, he couldn’t go ‘cause no mask would fit over his glasses. The Dodds eyesight rearing its ugly head.
Unfortunately for me, the family left the same day as Amanda, one of my closest friends. She’s going to university in St. Lucia which is really great, except for the fact that I’m going to miss her a lot. Hopefully we’ll get to go to St. Lucia for MST (mid-service training) in April or May and I’ll get to visit with her.
New Year’s Eve this year was spent in my pajamas sitting in front of Michelle’s TV. Of course, we are an hour ahead of all the TV stations (all are east coast U.S.), so our New Year was anti-climatic. So we waited till the east coast one, 1:00 a.m. our time. Not that I’m into New Year’s or anything, but being away from home, we were both feeling kinda sad. It was a little pathetic. We had some red cap and some hot dogs to get us through it though.
Saw my first Dominican theater, a play called House of Shingles, last night. As someone who’s not a big fan of theater and someone whose theater experiences consist almost exclusively of Broadway-quality performances, it was interesting. I kept thinking thank gosh I’ve been here for 10 months or I wouldn’t understand a single thing that was happening. Still, there is an innate difference in sense of humor that I felt strongly last night. Feels a little isolating when everybody else is cracking up and yeah I am laughing a little or smiling, but it’s not really that funny to me.
Congrats to the newly engaged - Ryan & Kate and Evo & Cleo. I totally had a premonition dream basically at the same time as the latter engagement was happening. And the former, I couldn’t be more excited to be getting a new cousin. Don’t worry, I will be flying in from Dominica no matter what.
Hm well this is truly way too long. This is what happens when I don’t write frequently enough. Best to everyone in 2010!
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