John's Next Step

Public bus is the typical method to get around the island for those without a car. This includes Peace Corps volunteers who are not allowed to drive cars in countries served by Peace Corps. So, for example, if I vacationed in Jamaica, which has volunteers, I would not be allowed to drive because basically the Country Director there is sort of responsible for me during my stay. However, if I were to go to Guadalupe, which does not have volunteers, I could rent and drive a car. But enough about cars and what I can’t do – I can ride public transportation. And like most of the people on the island I depend on it for my travel. There are bus terminals in St. George’s and in Grenville. One can generally also pick up along most routes. Outside portion of St. George's Terminal Buses also queue up inside to cover all the routes Part of the bus terminal in Grenville.  The first red bus on the left is for Munich, local 9s to different villages line up next to the buildi...

The school had a broken projector, The diagnostic code indicated that it had a faulty temperature sensor. With some research I found out that the problem can be caused by a faulty fan near the projecting lens.  If this was the case – cleaning the fans might fix the projector. I would just need to take it apart to get to the fans. Add OK, where are the screws I need to remove This was my second attempt at electronics repair. My first was to see if the keyboard problem with my old computer was in the ribbon cable. It wasn’t or what I did did not fix it, so my computer is still broken. That exercise did give me practice with taking something apart, carefully, dealing with ribbon cables and connections, and putting things back together. I was hoping this attempt would be more successful. So, with a screwdriver and a clean table – I got started. OK, so that's the first part There were nine screws holding the case in place. Some of the screws were not easy...

Three days this past week I got word of three deaths. Two were of older men, the father of an experienced teacher at my current school and the father of the principal of my school on Dominica. Any death is hard to bear, particularly for those close, but these two men had lived long successful lives. In such cases we tend to think of the greeting “well done good and faithful servant.” In my part of Ghana we would wear white to indicate a life fully spent. The third death I heard about was of a younger man who taught French when I was teaching at my school in Ghana. We lived in the same compound when I served there. People will wear red to the funeral to indicate a death of someone full of life cut short. Mr. Roland My friend Mr. Roland was a very dedicated teacher, a hard working man, full of life and smiles. He was friendly and helpful to everyone he met. While we can use the same saying about his life of service to ease our grief, it is harder not to dwell on t...

This past week was our last week of school. I was hoping for pictures of our field day with games and such. However, it is also our rainy season, so no field day and no games. We had rain off and on pretty much every day last week. I spent the first part of the week working with the principal on some end of year paper work. The teachers handed out report cards before the end of year staff social. Our last assembly of the school year So – school is out – what do I plan for my first week of break? I’ll be at school working with the 6th grade teacher and the incoming 6th grade class. The students will need a writing portfolio that includes a book report and several essays to graduate. So this coming week we will be helping the students work on the book report they have already started. I’m also going to pack up the library. Putting books, learning aids, and games in plastic bags to protect against storm damage. I wanted to do that last week, but I didn’t have plast...

We had our graduation this past week and it was very nice. All of the 6th grade students will be going on the secondary school.  Although we are a small school with limited resources the teachers worked hard to make it nice. Various awards were distributed including nice first, second, and third place trophies for each class. After the graduation ceremony in the church we had a luncheon for the students, parents, and invited guests. I was impressed with all the work and resources to celebrate the student’s success. I didn’t work much with the 6th graders this year, other than some one on one work and a little bit in math. I wish them well. Theme for the class of 2018 Church decorated 6th grade teacher introducing the graduates Procession Priest giving his prayers and blessings 6th graders with their song Choir singing Poem for a recently retired teacher The primary school, obviously, ends at 6th grade. We also have kindergarten and...