We arrived in St. Lucia on Wednesday after spending hours in the Miami airport (departed the hotel at 6:30 a.m. for a 11:30 a.m. flight which didn't depart until 12:30 p.m.)and then a 3 1/2 hour flight. The weather, as I am sure you can guess, was very hot and extremely humid. We stepped off the plane and was immediately drenched in sweat. I get being told that I will adjust and I just keep hoping it's soon.
We drove around mountains on an extremely curvy road for an hour and a half to the Bararnd's Hill Catholic Retreat Center. All 39 of us piled out with loads of luggage and were assigned rooms in the various on-site dorms. I ended up in the Seminary - at the very top of the hill - looking down over the Center. Beautiful view but a hell of a climb. (See picture of beautiful mountainside and look at the very bottom and you will see a little brown roofed cream colored building. That's the dining hall and will give you a perspective of the climb up and down from the Seminary!
Training classes started at 8:30 a.m. each morning and went till 5:30 each evening. We were all in a small conference room and were given so much information in the 2 days that it is doubtful that we retained the majority! Thank God they gave us handouts that covered what they taught. We broke from lunch at 1 p.m. and dinner was at 6:30 with 2, 15-minute breaks. Need I say that it was exhausting? So you would naturally expect that at my age I would fall into bed each evening and just crash - right? WRONG! Several of the rooms in the Seminary had had their mattresses infested by bedbugs! The first night my roommate and I tossed and turned and itched and got up and laid back down and just couldn't understand what was happening. We knew it wasn't mosquitoes, even though they were around. By the end of the first night, if either of us had gotten 1-2 hours sleep, it was a miracle, and we were covered from head to toe by little red spots that itched like crazy. That's when we learned we weren't alone. After much talk with the staff, they moved us to another room. The second night wasn't bad but these nasty critters seem to enjoy warm bodies and that's when they wake up, so by the third night it was worse than the first. No sleep at all! And I need my sleep or I'm not a nice person(:
All in all, the time on St. Lucia was okay. Way to much information to even try to absorb but we did get to meet the Peace Corps' Eastern Caribbean staff, including the new Country Director, who will be the main person overseeing us for the next two years. Margo is great, from Chicago and a Bear's fan - what more could I want in a CD?
The second day we were there the U.S. Ambassador to the Eastern Caribbean came to say a few words to us and join us for lunch. As you see from the picture, Ambassador Mary Ourisman is one classy lady. She's tiny, originally from Texas and modeled for a few years in NYC. She chatted with any and all of us over lunch and being the 'fashion maven' that I am, my question to her was 'Who designed your outfit?!' She laughed hysterically, said she had a degree in Fashion Design and said she couldn't remember who the designer was but feel free to flip out her label on the back of her blouse and look - Zac Posen! I was impressed! (See pic)
After a great farewell barbecue with live musical entertainment, those heading for St. Kitts were up and loading our luggage onto the bus at 5:00 a.m. We knew that not all of our luggage could be loaded on the small planes that island-hop, so we had to re-pack just-in-case we didn't get the rest of our luggage for up to 3 days. Fortunately that wasn't the case and it all arrived on the last flight in the same day.
And finally we were on St. Kitts/Nevis - our home for the next 2 years and 3 months!
To be continued.....
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