Week 0

Hey hey friends and neighbors!

I’m writing to you from John Paul II dormitory on St. Lucia. There’s a large photo of Jesus watching over me; I find this reassuring as I’m giving up mortal sins for lent this year.

Thus far the Peace Corps is pretty great. This weekend we had vaccinations (I got Hep A, Hep B, Typhoid and Flu which seem fairly innocuous) and medical exams but the rest of the weekend free. On Saturday I took my first bus (which are vans that you hail on the side of the road), ate some meat that was called turkey but looked decidedly more like beef, and hung out on the beach with old white people.

Also, I did what true Buffalonians do best; lose (enthusiastically) at competitive sports. We played beach volleyball on a resort court (all the beaches are public here!) and I lost handedly (8-25); but cheered for my team relentlessly. It’s unclear whether the other team thought this was quite as fun as I did…

There are 45 people training in St. Lucia right now and we will be dispersed between St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, and Dominica. 10 of us are heading to Dominica on Saturday. (I’ll arrive just in time for the final week at the Bills Bar of the season!)

Some of the people are hilarious; some of the people are trying to party like it’s early 2004 (at the tiny garage bar down the street from the retreat center we are living at, also one of them puked in the sink of the communal bathroom last night. Don’t worry, I’ve been conducting investigations all day); some of the people take volleyball quite seriously; some of the people are competitively “talking to the locals”; and some of the people I haven’t yet judged.

the view from my room!