John's Next Step

Another holiday away from family, part of Peace Corps. This Thanksgiving I was among friends celebrating the American Holiday with a rather typical Thanksgiving meal. The Principal Officer and Chargé D’affaries in Grenada, Mr. Frahm and his wife hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for the Peace Corps volunteers on Grenada. And there are a lot of volunteers on the island. Sorry for the picture quality, but liked the picture anyway Sitting eating and chatting.  You can just see me in the far back sort of middle... The turkey, stuffing, gravy and all the food was very nice. The Peace Corps volunteers brought side dishes to go with the sides provided. I brought a roasted sweet potato and pumpkin dish seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg syrup. (The nutmeg syrup is made from the nutmeg pericarp, the fleshy part that covers the part of the nutmeg that is used for the spice.) No recipe, just using things grown and produced on the island. The sweet potatoes were grown in my backy...

I was really looking forward to help with the school move so I passed on an offer to travel to St. Lucia for a meeting. However, accents and my ears being as they are Friday was not “moving” day with a movie for the students to keep them occupied, it was actually just a “movie” day in the afternoon. So I had a PC video conference Fridays morning instead. The meeting was good, but my attendance in person might have been better for me. Still, it was good enough, and perhaps one less passenger on four short turbo-prop flights cut down in a very small part of the greenhouse gases emitted. (I was called “Mr. Climate Change” yesterday for refusing plastic bags for the pumpkin and plantains I was buying.) Regardless of the Friday meeting I would not have been teaching in the morning. My classroom was taken over for student medical exams and so we didn’t have classes anyway. We didn’t have classes due to continued contract issues on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Thursday half of t...

This was an interesting week. Of course the elections in the states. I hope my absentee vote was counted. Thanks to everyone for voting. Even if your candidates didn’t win – informed voting and otherwise supporting democracy remains critically important to our future. Stick with it – the only way our country will improve is with active and intelligent participation from people who care about everyone. The second goal of Peace Corps is to show American culture to citizens abroad. As Grenada has more personal exchanges with the states than Ghana I don’t get questions like “Does everyone own a big house in America?” I have recently been asked about the elections, press conferences, mass shootings, military troops on the Mexican border and such. Like other volunteers I try to give short answers about such questions without getting into political discussions. A lot of “I don’t understand either”, “People are divided like they are here”, “Good and bad in all countries”, and “Peop...

For the close of Child Month we had a school outing to Grand Etang Lake, Annandale Falls, and Grand Anse on Tuesday. Our school is small enough that we only needed two buses. Also, this Peace Corps volunteer didn’t go. But I am glad that the teachers and students got to relax for the day, well students relaxed anyway. Grand Etang lake - they don't swim in the lake Yes, the kitchen person, also a mom, with hand of face .... Annandale Falls Another view of the falls There are times when Peace Corps volunteers are not treated as Federal Employees. For example, while staff gets American holidays – the volunteers are expected to be at work. However, there are also times when Peace Corps volunteers are treated as Federal Employees. Tuesday was one such time when I was scheduled to receive the flu shot. Federal employees are required, in most cases, to get the flu shot and it makes sense in places like Baltimore, D.C., and other cities with a significant numb...