Five Days of Volunteering

We began our 5th day of Volunteering in Anse le Raye, with the always good and plentiful options for breakfast at Ben's Hideaway. The warm and humid weather produced our first over night showers; many of us with tin roofs overhead, heard them ~ some of us just noticed a wet walk on the way to breakfast... nothing like good snooze after a long day of volunteering, and a couple of Pitons. We completed the meal with our daily journal reading, inspirational quote and announcements before bidding fair well to our new friends, David and Jason, from KSTP ~ channel 5 News.

 

Michele left straight away for a meeting, while W3, our committed leader and bus driver took us to our posts in Anse le Raye before driving with Dawn to Castries for important government networking meetings.

 

Katie and I were dropped off first. Today was a workshop day with Lucy, and the Rovers. We spent the morning reviewing their work with the families and discussed successes and challenges encountered over the last two weeks. In the afternoon, miss Lucy instructed us on conflict resolution, and the differences between punishment and discipline. She is supportive yet stern in her approach. The Rovers understand their job is very difficult, and are commended on their efforts; their role is key to the future success of the children in the community.

 

Flo and Emily had a great day at the primary school. The principal undstood their limitations with larger groups, and today they worked with 1-2 kids at a time. They also took a stroll during the lunch break and enjoyed visiting Carita at the preschool.

 

Carita had a nice day, and didnt mind telling the tour guide to not visit again. Margeret helped out with the kids today. It was "casual" Friday. They had a birthday to celebrate, and made Mother's Day cards...the kids gave both of them cards too!

 

Warren and Dawn had a productive day in Castries. Their meetings went well, stats are available, and government support for the StLucia Project gained momentum with the new networking opportunities. They were informed the earth boxes have arrived on the island; a bit more work is needed to get them to Anse le Raye, we are praying the team can get down to the dirt work early in the week.

 

We all shared our favorite experience from the week....generally, all the human experiences of hugs and appreciation.

 

A fabulous dinner by Andy...another surf and turf, this time shrimp and steak, and the oh so yummy twice baked and cheesy christofine filled our bellies before Tracy, flo, Carita, Margeret, Katie and Emily took in an evening at the fish fry. Showers before and after... we perfectly timed our stay in town. Ian dropped us off at the town square. We listened to music, and saw many of the faces we have met and worked with over the past week. Emily's fan club kept us busy, and Flo's Ethan did a fine Jo b of being our tour guide around town. Many friendly faces, and a good time had by all, that ended with just a bit of dancing by the pier.