Medical trip to St. Lucia

Off on another flight - chewing gum to help with the ears
 
As I have said before, Peace Corps takes medical issues rather seriously. My ear problem got me a trip to St. Lucia on Friday. I arrived late on Friday and sent a message to the Peace Corps doctor. I was hoping to see the ENT on Saturday, but that didn’t happen, so it will be Monday. I don’t know what he will say or recommend but I’m initially scheduled to be return early Wednesday morning. 

 It is possible, although unlikely, that I’ll be sent back to the states to fix the problem. The ear issue is not horrible. It is a weary low level background pain and some minor hearing issues.  Still it needs to be resolved.

So I’m back at the Palm Haven hotel. My first night here I met another 50+ volunteer. He is a response volunteer serving St. Vincent and had previously served as a response and twice as a traditional volunteer, including in South Africa. The local Director of Management and Operations (DMO) is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) for Equatorial Guinea. She was very very kind and took us out to eat and hang out on Friday. As I’m an RPCV for Ghana, we were able to talk about service in Africa and Eastern Caribbean.

A lot of tourists!!!


The amazing DMO waving and the response volunteer in dark blue t-shirt

In addition to food and drink vendors a number of artists display their work

We ended up going to the Gros Islet Fish Fry – which is a multi-block party with street vendors and music. It is now popular with the tourists as it is close to Rodney Bay. We met a local, always a good thing, and went to an out of the way spot for dinner. We had conch, lobster, and mahi mahi shared with the four of us. All were very good. That was the first time I had conch and as close as I’ve come to eating snail.

Garden


Beans in the winter without a greenhouse - big enough now to be certain they are a pole variety

 I’ll have more pictures and a full update later, but I wanted to mention my garden. I immediately started a compost pit when I arrived. I planted beans after I got some garden tools to prepare the ground. I don’t know why I thought the beans I planted would be bush beans – the label on the small paper bag simply said “beans”. 

 Poles beans are better for space and typically produce more beans per plant than bush varieties over a long period. Now that the plants have grown enough I can tell they are a pole variety. Anyway – I didn’t set up a trellis and didn’t have enough time to find and cut bamboo and buy string after I realized my mistake. I decided to plant another "sister" – corn. Planting corn would have been my preference rather than a trellis anyway.

The “three sisters” - corn, pole beans, and pumpkins are a very old companion planting arrangement used by native Americans for thousands of years. The corn provides the “poles” for the beans. Beans are associated with a nitrogen fixing bacteria. The nitrogen helps the beans and the corn. The pumpkins provide a natural mulch to reduce weeds. I am growing sweet potatoes (one I bought sprouted so I thought I'd try it.)  The sweet potato that might serve as my mulch but I could add pumpkins. I only have a small plot of ground so I’ll have to see how it goes.

When I return the corn might be sprouting so I’ll cut down the beans and replant more later to give the corn some time to get started. The bean roots left in the ground and vines on top will add organic material to the heavy clay soil anyway. 

 My method of gardening is to focus on improving the soil. I commonly use composting, mulching, char, manures, and vermiculture (worms). I also tend to use heritage “pure” seeds and “seed save” each year (rather than hybrid varieties). However, as I did not have time to go get corn seeds from Grenville – I planted some popcorn I was going to pop.  It is very likely a hybrid but I hope viable seed. I’m just planting poles, but you never know...

More on medical and gardening later.


Love always,
John

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