Category: St. Lucia

The ambassador for the East Caribbean Phillip Hughes speaks to the EC57 trainees. More info on the ambassador is at this site: www.presidency.ucsb.edu My notebook indicates that there was also a Q&A session with the trainees but maybe I deleted it. I doubt many people can get through this video, but it does show how people talked about developing countries and what US foreign policy was like in the early 90s. In less than a day google put this you tube video pretty high in the searches for Phillip Hughes.

Yesterday was the last small group discussion of phase 3. We have been having these discussions to review our inventories of community analysis, personal objectives and other topics. The whole purpose is to assess our own commitment to the Peace Corps. So far no one has dropped out and I for one have no plans to drop out.

In a few weeks I should be sending out a postcard to Harvard Law School to get information. I plan on going to law school, and I hope it’s Harvard, when I finish my two years in the Peace Corps. In some ways that is helping me to make it through because I do not want to have an early termination on my record and I want the full readjustment allowance.

Yesterday I spent the most money ever in St. Lucia. I went to Kentucky Fried Chicken with Don and Sue for lunch and joined a large group of volunteers at Key Largo Pizzeria in Rodney Bay. The prices were 8.75 for KFC and $17 for a pizza. Most of us were sore from our typhoid shot. Denise and Lee, two current volunteers, were also there as well.

written on Aug 3 

All our flights have been taken care of by the Peace Corps training staff, but all of our flights to and from Dominica have been plagued with troubles.

First in Antigua after a confusing customs procedure and a long check-in at the LIAT counter, we arrived at Melville while all the Dominica volunteers were at Canefield waiting for us.

The second problem came in our plans to leave for St. Lucia training. We were first scheduled to leave 8am on Sunday but then the flight was switched from Canefield to a later flight at Melville. Because two volunteers were on stand-by we all got bumped and stayed at the Floral Gardens Guest House near Marigot.

The most recent problem has been trying to leave St. Lucia. We were scheduled to leave for Canefield on Saturday in two groups – a morning group and an afternoon, my group. Then we had to have 4 leave Friday and the rest on Sunday. I was going to leave Sunday until I found out today that now, I will be leaving Saturday with a couple others. I doubt that this will be the last change.

August 1

Today started out with breakfast at Burger King and a bus ride to the Federal Building for immunization. I had to get all the shots because of poor records. I received shots in the arm for yellow fever and MMR. I had an MMR shot during high school. I also had an oral vaccine for polio. It tasted horrible.

When I get shots in the arm the nurses asked me if I lifted – I said I did push-ups but that IS all. The same thing happened once before at Great Adventure. I guess I better keep up with the push-ups for the next two years.

After the shots a couple of us went to K-Mart. It took much longer than we thought. I was late for my group instructions, which I needed to lead my group safely to Dominica, i.e., get them passports and tickets.

My last American meal was a Bacon Cheeseburger and Fries. I got to play PAC-Mania, saw Die Hard 2, and caught some HBO before packing for tomorrow’s transition.

July 11 1990