The beginning...PST

Hello everyone! I hope you're all well and keeping cool in the late-August weather of the US. Being here this week has made me appreciate that sentiment more than I ever have before as the humidity level of the Caribbean is greater than anything I have ever experienced.

I want to make sure to keep everyone up to date on everything I'm doing, and it would be wonderful to be in constant communication with everyone, so if you'd like to know something about this whole experience that I don't touch on, I'd love it if you'd leave comments in the form of questions (or just comments in general) at the bottom of the post.

That being said, I've now been on St Lucia for five days, and it's wonderful. We're all staying in the botel Bel Jou in Castries. It's a British owned all inclusive hotel which explains why all the sockets are British (something almost no one was expecting). We've all been borrowing the few British adapters that people brought along with them to keep our laptops charged.

I've been making many friends, and the end of the week is going to be incredibly bittersweet. I'm very excited to make my way to St Vincent to see where I'll be living for the next 2 years, but I'll certainly miss the people who I've become good friends with who will be heading to St Kits and Nevis and Antigua.

Insofar as our training is concerned, I'm going to be in PST (pre-service training) until October when we'll all be sworn in as official Peace Corps volunteers. Our training thus far has been very comprehensive to say the least, and it's wonderful to have the wealth of information that the Peace Corps provides to us all in relation to cross-cultural integration. We've had sessions on health, safety and security, IT, meet and greets with other PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers), local food and it's preparations, what to expect in the community, drug and alcohol policies, and many others. Our trainers have been wonderfully honest about the risks that we may face. They aren't trying to sugarcoat the potential dangers and are making sure that we're all very aware of what we need to be on the lookout for socially.

Although none of us are going to be staying on St Lucia, the Peace Corps wanted us to be acquainted with Castries, so yesterday we were sent on a scavenger hunt throughout the city. The highlight was, of course, the little ice cream shop that we had to locate. There wasn't a single person who turned down the opportunity to have something cool to eat.

In addition to training, I've been eating very well. Every meal is full, diverse, delicious, and includes multiple desserts. Although obviously well out of the ordinary in relation to what the rest of the Peace Corps experience will entail, it's been really nice to experience the local foods prepared in this lavish setting. The only thing I haven't been a fan of was the okra, but Norma Jean, one of my fellow PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) assured me that it was just because it had been boiled and was therefore slimey.

Aside from strictly Peace Corps activities, I have found people to play guitar with, which has been wonderful. I'm the only one who brought a guitar, but both Andrew and Camille play, so we've been happily pulling out the guitar in the evenings and playing away. Camille also happens to be a yoga instructor, so she's been holding yoga classes which have been wonderful. She taught us all an incredible back stretch: a derivation of child's pose. My entire back felt like it unzipped, and I think that I grew about 3 inches.

There is, as always, more to tell, but it's time that I began heading toward my delicious dinner buffet!