John's Next Step

Or “How I came to change my mind about where I could live!” Or “A puny cat 5 is not going to keep me from Dominica!” Or “My daughter Samantha told me so!” Picture taken 7/21 from the ferry as I saw my island for the first time.  My village is behind those mountains. I remember saying that I would never live on a Caribbean Island.  Years ago I was in Baltimore when a remnant of a hurricane passed by.  I remember the massive rain and wind and thought then that if that was a remnant I never wanted to be close to the real thing.  So I decided I was never, EVER going to live on a Caribbean island.  Particularly with a globally warmed ocean making hurricanes strengthen faster. Over the years since I made that pledge I gained a lot of experience and training as a Red Cross local disaster response volunteer. I volunteered for over five years: opening and serving in shelters for mass care, doing disaster assessment after fire, flood, and tornado and the like...

A few of the students tested. Older student came by to greet. I had a full week of school!!  I’m just beginning to get into the swing of things so more on school in a later post.  I started observing classes, assessing student’s reading skills, and helping out with some computer issues.  I still need to set a preliminary schedule, but needed to wait for other schedules.  Those were completed on Friday.  School this week will likely be interrupted (more later). Peace Corps life is hard on computers But right now, speaking about computer issues I’m having some of my own.  Electronics issues are not uncommon for Peace Corps volunteers.  I had a phone just die (would not turn on after charging on a USB charger overnight) in training so I’m using my backup.  Two other volunteers in Dominica had their computers die in the last two weeks and on Friday, when I tried to start working on this post after not using my computer for a ...

This week was supposed to be two days of teacher planning and three days with the kids at school.   That was until hurricanes Irma and Jose decided to go north of the island, but still possibly close enough to cause a little trouble. Monday Monday was a planning day and I was able to go all day and get to know the school and the teachers I’ll be working with a little better. Tuesday Tuesday was to be a second planning day – however, when you are on an island and a category 5 hurricane is in the neighborhood it is best that you sit up and pay attention.  Rather than have the planning day I traveled  to Roseau to consolidate – all volunteers collect in one place and remain there until given the all clear.  The government shut down at noon to give people time to prepare. Looking at the Caribbean before the storm. We got a little rain, but nothing horrible Wednesday Wednesday there was still some concern about traveling to some of the sites...

This week was devoted to getting back to shopping and cooking for myself, a little getting the school ready for this week, and watching to see if an uninvited visitor, Irma, was going to crash the party. Settling in and budgeting Like everyone else, Peace Corps volunteers need to learn to live on a budget – and we get to do that while adjusting to our new community.  Peace Corps want volunteers to live like an average, maybe upper middle class, villager: definitely not like the wealthy, but not poor either.  Peace Corps gives you a “settling in” allowance to help set up the house.   A volunteer gets a monthly living allowance which should cover monthly expenses.  We also get a rent and utility adjustment.  There is also a travel allowance that is to be used to explore the country. Settling in continues as I try to fill out my kitchen with things I can cook and things I need.  Ghana was easier – 2 burner stove top, no fridge, and limited food ...