For All those who read Marcy's Newsletter re Sewing Supplies

Thank you so much for sending your comments and questions about how you can send much needed sewing supplies to me here on St. Kitts.

If you will click on "My Complete Profile" and once on that page, under my 'tree hugging' picture you see a blue link for Email. Just click and you go directly to my email and I can answer each and every one of your questions personally.

FYI, anything sent to me at my Peace Corps address I do not have to pay duty. And the cheapest form of sending packages from the States is the good ol' post office. If several go together and fill a box, then you can split, yes, the very outrageous postage charge. Sorry, but there is not way to get around this - no deal other than duty free entry on packages for Peace Corps members.

Again, many thanks for your interest in helping me help these wonderful women. I just came back from class tonight where we learned that those that work (the majority) at the small American and foreign-owned manufacturing factories here on the island are being laid-off through the end of the year. We are suggesting, hoping and helping them as much as we can in their starting up home-based sewing business to tide them over through the holidays. Almost every one is a single-mother with several children at home to cloth and feed. So your gifts will be even more useful and appreciated during this very difficult time.

ReAnn

Sunday Afternoon in my own home!

Here I sit, gazing out over the Caribbean Sea, sweating and dreaming of fall, sweaters, jeans, hot chocolate and the smell of wood burning in the fireplace. I'm averaging at least 2, and sometimes 3, showers a day in my itty-bitty shower. But at least I have hot water and great pressure.

Let's see what's happened since last I wrote - had another meeting with Mr. Widdowson of Wingfield Estate and now have a long list where I can start researching the history of this wonderful historical site. Our first big ship of the winter cruise season docked downtown yesterday. I can see the top half of the ships and the stacks from my balcony. Downtown was busy with 'cruisers' filling all the shops and bars.

Thinking I would be less alone if I agreed to adopt 2 of our PC nurse's latest litter of kittens, I, a lifelong animal lover, discovered in some cases I'm not. She forgot to say that they were 8 weeks old, had never been held or loved by human hands, we're the kittens of feral cats and didn't have a clue how to use a litter box. They also howled and mewed constantly and with these high ceilings, you cannot even being to imagine the sound. After they had been here for less than a hour, running like mad all over the house and litterally bouncing off the walls, the gold & white one dove through the grate off the balcony, landed on top of a car parked on the street, shook itself off and went racing down the street. The black and white one spent the entire night screaming at the top of his/her very strong lungs, refusing to be petted or even allow me to get close. Then at 5:30 a.m. the sound increased and when I struggled out of bed to see what was happening, there was the 'balcony diver' sitting at the door wanting in. They both ate breakfast and then went together through the holes in the door, down the stairs and out the front door - I really hope never to return!

The Kittians do not do 'pets' as we know them. They also do not know the word 'neuter. Packs of homeless dogs and cats roam the streets with no homes to claim them, multiplying like bunnies. And the chickens roam through all the yards and alleys. I have a rooster next door who is sure that sunrise is at 2 a.m.!

I've spent several days cutting up my PC-issued mosquito netting that I can't install over my bed because of the height of the ceilings, and sewing them onto the 'burglar bars' which cover each window. They make excellent 'screens.' I have also spent 2 days trying to get the gecko that came in the guest bedroom window out from under the bed and down the toilet. The kitchen sink backed up - again, and when Jeffery (landlord's son) appeared with a hammer (instead of Drain-o) in hand I learned the best way to clear the jammed pipes was to bang on them. It works! Oh, and there was a big funeral at the church catty-corner across the street. This happens to be one of the 2 main streets through town. They set up a tent that covered the entire street, visitors and the choir sat down on chairs under the tent and the traffic for the entire 4 hours on a busy Saturday had to be diverted around them. The music of the gospel choir was fantastic as it came pouring through my windows.

And though I was looking forward after 7-weeks of training to some time alone, because of my very central downtown location, I have at least 2-3 of the young PCV's drop by daily. I was warned that I might become a substitute 'mom' and it looks like that is happening. I get calls for recipes and the latest was if bleach could be used to clean wood floors. My years of knowledge is really paying off!

I didn't take any new pictures this week but thought I would share with you all one of the 'men in my life.' From left to right are my oldest, Tobin, my nephew Justin, and my youngest, Sean. Our dear friend James Woodward invites the guys to an annual meet-up each Fall in Chicago for the Bears-Vikings game where he has season tickets. This was a tradition he started after John passed away and they guys have a blast - no matter which team wins. This was taken last Sunday at Soldier Field and all reports were a fantastic time was had by all!

We are going to be sworn-in once again on Friday with the complete official ceremony that was canceled because of Omar. And believe it or not, we have one last training session that also got canceled because of the weather. ARGH and just when we thought we were all done and 'official.'

Well, that's about all for this week. Take care of each other, "see you" next weekend.

ReAnn

More Pics of my Apartment

1) - Guest Bedroom. 1dbl bed and 1 twin - large armoire for clothes
2) - My bedroom - each bedroom has it's own sink.
3) - Different angle of my bedroom - with 2 armoires
4) - Very funny little bathrooms (2) side-by-side
5) - Back hallway to back exit out the building and my washing machine sits outside the door on a ledge. They have to build me a special step as when standing on the stairs I can't reach the top of the machine! But it works. No dryer so have a clothes line on the balcony.

All in all, for being built in the early 50's and really dusty from being on a busy street, it's perfect. Miss all my 'nice things' at home in storage, but this will do for 2 years - and lots of room for guests!

The tour of my apartment continues...

1) - You enter directing into my living room (thanks to the Marriott I have a comfy chair, TV and reading lamps
2) - Huge dining room - little table - great pass-thru from the kitchen
3) - Hallway to kitchen & bedrooms
4) - View 1 of the kitchen
5) - View 2 of the kitchen - huge - great built-in cabinet that goes thru to DR

My Apartment on St. Kitts

Welcome to Blakly Flats - my new home on St. Kitts
1) - The door to my section of the building
2) - My apartment is the 2nd-floor balcony and stretches the entire length of the bldg.
3) - Sunrise over Nevis as seen from my balcony
4) - A great, breezy place to rest and watch downtown St. Kitts walk by
5) - The gated entrance to my house.

Hurricane Omar slams into St. Kitts

I’m sitting in my very own apartment, having just returned from the Marriott where I joined the regular Sunday NFL crowd in the casino, with it’s wall-to-wall TV’s, to cheer on our favorite ‘home teams.’ How exciting to watch Da Bears whip the Vik-Queens (48-40) knowing that both my boys were there, having flown in from opposite coasts, for their annual meet-up. What a perfect way to spend this Sunday, especially after such an exciting week.

Hurricane Omar came rushing at our little island on Wednesday night, making landfall at 2:18 a.m. early Thursday morning as a Category 2+, with winds up to 110 mph. It’s what they call here a ‘backward storm,’ as most hurricanes come out of Africa, across the Atlantic and hit us from East to West. Omar came from the West and did a lot of damage along the coast on the Caribbean-side. Roofs blown off, beach bars buried under sand, fishing and even huge ferries thrown up on the shore, the main Bay Road flooded out and covered in sand but thankfully, no one was injured. After hitting the north end of St. Kitts, the storm slammed into Charleston, the capital of Nevis, flooding the downtown and wrecking havoc at The Four Seasons, who had wisely evacuated all of their guest on flights returning to Miami on Wednesday morning. And what, you ask, did I do while the winds were whipping and the lighting and thunder crashed all around? I slept. I never heard a thing and never once woke up! Elvira and Oliver were up putting plastic over all their furniture, as their roof has a tendency to leak, moving stuff around in their open carport, and basically battening down the hatches. And I continued to sleep.

The PC Caribbean command center put all the St. Kitts volunteers on Standby and then called for Consolidation, which means we have to pack a bag and move to a designated safe house. The 3 ‘old folks’ asked to remain at our home-stay locations, realizing that ‘the kids’ had just found a great excuse to party all night long – which they did. When they did sleep, it was 3-4 to a bed. George, Mike and I were so glad we got to stay put and sleep in our own beds! Thursday the entire island got to work cleaning up the mess and restoring order. We had no power or water for the entire day, but thankfully both came back around 9 p.m.

We were scheduled to have our swearing-in ceremony, with the American ambassador administering our Oath of Office, at 10 a.m. Friday. Local dignitaries, business people, home-stay families, etc. were all invited to this celebration. Well, guess what? Very few planes were flying in and the Ambassador had a few things more important to attend to other than we 12 new PCV’s. Plus most places were without power and the locals were busying cleaning up the mess. So we 12 gathered at the little, PC office and our area director, via speakerphone from St. Lucia, administered our Oath of Office while we stood with our hand’s raised looking at the phone! A wee bit anti-climatic after 7 weeks, to say the least. We have to make up our last day of training that we missed on Wednesday and they are planning to have an official ceremony, when we will re-take the Oath on October 31st. The ‘kids’ want to come in costume instead of getting all dressed up.

But for now, it’s down time. I moved my things into my apartment on Friday afternoon, spent all day and night Saturday and Sunday scrubbing this mammoth place, which the landlords had not cleaned for over a year! It was filthy. But I do have all the necessities except a TV, so that’s on my list to purchase, along with reading lamps and a ‘real couch.’ I have 2 purple, vinyl loveseats and multiple chairs that came with in the living room. I don’t see watching TV or even sitting reading a book for more than 5 minutes on one of the rock hard seats! And combine this weather and vinyl and you sit and you stick!

The only other problem is my bed does not have a regular mattress. It’s 2 huge pieces of memory foam on top of one another. Therefore, you sink into a hole when you sit on the edge and when you lay down, your heaviest part sinks into it’s own little hole. Think ‘V’ formation sleeping. I barely slept last night and my back is killing me! My first stop tomorrow is the lumber yard to order sheets of plywood which will fit between the 2 sets of foam and hopefully give my back some support. I’ll keep you posted if this actually works.

Well, that about wraps up my exciting week. I’ve stocked the fridge, have a couple bottles of good wine in the cabinet (you cannot believe how expensive wine is here -where as booze is dirt cheap!) and am starting to feel like this is home. None of us very tired and brain-dead volunteers plan on working this first week of freedom-from-training. I’m scheduled to have my internet and cable service installed tomorrow and still have at least a 100 more things to pick up from the store.

And so saga continues…,

Have a great week and take care of each other. Pixs of my apartment coming later this week once I get a little more settled.

ReAnn

PS: It’s now Tuesday and I penned the above on Sunday night. After 3 nights of no sleep due to the foam, I was wandering the apartment about 3 p.m. this morning and happened to sit down on the guest bed. Guess what?! It’s a real mattress and box springs. So I cooked a huge pot of chicken rice soup last night, fed the young male PCV’s in exchange for moving this monster from the guest bedroom into my master. I can’t wait to lay down tonight! Little things become so important here. And I want to give a big shout-out and thank you to all my sewing friends in and out of the industry for answering my plea to send fabric, notions and fabrics for my sewing class. Everyone said yes and the ladies can’t wait for the packages to start arriving.

Just 5 More Days!

It doesn't seem possible, now that it's almost over, that I will be sworn-in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer this coming Friday. The U.S. Ambassador to the Caribbean will be administering our Oath of Office, the very same one that the President of the United States must take. Two more classroom days of training, a final interview with our Country Director - and then the real work begins.

What have I learned is that the PCV is a government job, from the pages and pages of instruction manuals to the pages and pages of forms that we must fill out and turn in every three months. The do's and do-not list is miles long - you sometime wonder how you can every get anything done. We all worry that we will be here for 2 years and not be able to accomplish much of anything. The operative word for the PC is 'sustainable.' They want us to begin programs and projects that will be carried on long after we are gone. But we have learned that absolutely everything on these islands is tied to which political party is in office - and that changes every 5 years. Right now we are in the middle of an election term, which means that everything will change in 2 1/2 years if this party is voted out and the opposition is elected. When that happens almost everything that has been accomplished is deleted, the leadership of every Ministry changs, and they then start all over again, with their vision of what these 2 small islands need. It's frustrating to those who have been here before us, and will continue to be to our group and those that follow.

Speaking of our group. When we mustered in Miami on August 25th, there were 39 of us. We just learned that the average drop-out rate is between 10-12% before swearing-in. We seem to have set a record - not one of our group has dropped out or been asked to leave. All 39 will be sworn in, St. Kitts the first, then St. Lucia and St. Vincent.
We're either gluttons for punishment or a pretty sharp group of volunteers - only time will tell.

This past week has been fun, tiring, boring, hot and dark. We are still experiencing rolling blackouts all across the island due to the fact that 2 of the 4 generators caught on fire 2 weeks ago and have yet to be replaced or fixed. Here at the house we lose power now around noon, with it coming back on sometime after 7 p.m. Not as bad as the first week when the lights were out all day and night for several days in a row. We didn't even have water for 3 days. Training class is running down - only 2 more days of classes, and yes, I passed all my tests. I'm getting my first hair cut on Tuesday since leaving the States. Have had several recommendations for the ex-pat community on who cuts the best 'white hair' and settled on a lovely lady downtown named Dawn. Keep your fingers crossed. One of the younger guys went for a haircut and came back with a buzz!

Oh - I got to see inside my apartment! It is HUGE! Seriously HUGE. Has a HUGE balcony overlooking downtown, a HUGE living room, a HUGH dining room, a HUGE kitchen, 2 HUGE bedrooms and two tiny bathrooms! The problem is there is hardly any furniture. A tiny, vinyl-covered love seat and chair in the living room, small table and 2 chairs in the dining room, 2 beds in the guest bedroom and 1 in the master. It does have a microwave and washer (no one has dryers). Comes with some sheets and towels, an iron and board, desperately needs to be painted, but I have 2 years to spiff it up. Learned that the Marriott, where I treat myself at least every-other-week to a real hamburger and French fries ($20 USD) sells off all the furnishings from it's 'high roller rooms' that they redo every 6 months. Hoping to get end tables, coffee table, and lamps - and a TV!

Have scheduled to have my cable and wireless set up next Monday, but timeliness is not next to godliness here, so this might be my last report for well over a week. But once I'm up and running, I'll once again have my same stateside phone number back up and working - the very same number that was my Wilmington home phone. So you all better call now and say 'hey.'

Oh - best thing to happen all week? - while working with kids on the driving range, met an old Returned PCV who served on St. Kitts 20 years ago. He told us wonderful stories of all he did while serving here (everything of which is now on our don't-do list) and how much the island had changed - or hasn't. What's really great is he is a golfer and was really interested in our youth program with Royal St. Kitts. He promised to go home and round up lots of equipment, shirts, gloves, balls, all those things you need to 'look and feel like a golfer' and none of which our kids can afford.

Well, time to eat a little dinner. Did I mention that I've had chicken at every meal for the past 10 days? Now you know why I would pay $20 for a real beef burger! I'm feel like I have feathers growing between my toes and soon will cluck instead of speak!

This week's pics are of 2 of my Peace Corps buddies, Lauren and George. We all went to Barry's Bar & Grill after our final class on Friday. Free "Sexy Punch" during happy hour (don't ask - after 2 I was very happy!) and fantastic fresh conch sauteed in butter and garlic - Yum!

Bye for now. The next time I write it will be from my own place and I'll be a 'real Peace Corps Volunteer!

Have a good week - take care of each other.

ReAnn

More Pics from This Week

1. The dye room at Caribelle Batik

2. Worker stamping fabric with waxed turtle stamp

3. A pile of batiks laying in a work room - colors are so vibrant & beautiful!

4. The pool at the Marriott

5. The beach at the Marriott with all their individual 'huts' to keep out of the sun

Wow - What a Week!

Pictures in Order:
1-2 Ruins on the Ground of Wingfield Estate
3- A really weird, big tree that have hundreds of thorns sticking out of the truck to prevent monkeys from climbing it!
4-The grounds and buildings on Romney Manor that house Caribelle Batik
5 - Inside the Caribelle Batik store



I have really been busy this week - which makes the time fly. The island has been experiencing massive blackouts due to a fire at the power plant that destroyed 2 of their 4 generators. The longest we went without power was 30 hours. No fans, no way to cook, everything spoiling the refer, no Internet or phones (except my local cell). But...that's just at the house. I've learned that this is a normal situation so the majority of people, and especially businesses have generators. The entire town hummms with these diesel-powered machines going all day and night. It's noisy! But the one beautiful thing that came into view without street lights were the stars! It was the first time I had seen the southern sky without ambient light. It is magnificent!

So, what all did I do this week - beside continue to sit 3 days of the week in training classes? On Tuesday I taught class at one of this high schools to a group of Small Entrepreneurs. Not what I expected and not something I would like to repeat. The teacher introduced me and walked out, not returning until the class was over 45-minutes later. The kids were not attentive nor interested and talked and text-ed and totally ignored me and what I had to say. As I have heard what our inner-city schools are like, I am guessing this is exactly what you would find there. It was disheartening as these children's education is so behind what we expect of our kids and our schools.

But onto better things! On Thursday Mr. Widdowson of Romney Manor/Caribelle Batik/Wingfield Estate picked me up and took me out to explore and learn more about the site he wants me to do historical research. It is unbelievable beautiful and I've attached quite a few pictures of both the ruins, Romney Manor that houses Caribelle Batik, the store, some of the marvelous fabrics (yes, of course I shopped!) I really look forward to working on this exciting project.

I went to the movies and saw Eagle Eye on Friday night with a bunch of other PVC's. The brand new megaplex opened just last week and is located right next door to my homestay family. Cost - $12EC for Seniors which coverts to $4.50 USD. Had buttered popcorn and a coke too! Stadium seating, big cushy chairs that rock with drink holders in the arm rests. Just like home! What a treat. And the lineup of movies is all the latest.

Saturday morning was golf lessons at Royal St. Kitts. It's a great place to meet the ex-pat community and of course, work with some wonderful kids. Afterwards, Aron and I went to The Hash but decided not to stay when one of our members called from the Marriott and invited us to join him for drinks and dinner. Nice to relax in air conditioning, watch multi-screen football in the casino and enjoy a good dinner. We, as locals, get a really nice break on the room rate at the Marriott. Normally rooms run about $179 and we pay only $99 a night when rooms are available. But with 800 rooms, they usually can fine one or two. A nice place to treat yourself and just get-away for a night or two.

Today being Sunday would normally mean church but we are getting close to the end of training and are going through 'competency testing' in every core class we are assigned. Tomorrow is the biggie in my NGO (Non-Governmental Organizations) track. Had to write and type up a 5-page report and present it to the class and our Regional Director who is in from St. Lucia. UGH. I'm too old for tests. But only 2 weeks left before I move. And I did have a good excuse not to go to church this morning:)

Thanks again for all the nice comments and emails I have received since I started this blog. It's my way of 'journaling' and keeping track of how I've spent my time since I started this adventure.

Keep in touch and take care of each other.

Until next week....

ReAnn