On the Island...

I have now arrived on St Vincent and have successfully moved in with my host family, the Davis'!

They're wonderfully nice and helpful. Mrs. Davis is insisting on doing all my laundry, although I did at first protest a bit. We were told that this might be the case, but that we should be prepared to do our own. The Peace Corps agreement with the host families states that the host family must provide a room with doors and windows capable of locking, a bed, and a bathroom with bathing facilities. Additionally, three meals a day are provided, including a prepared lunch.

When I came out of my room this morning, Mrs. Davis had already made me breakfast and packed me a lunch, both of which were sitting on the table. (Don't worry, mom, I thanked her profusely). She had been up since 3am. Mr Davis sells drinks, sandwiches, breadfruit, and codfish in Kingstown so she gets up at the crack of dawn to prepare the food. He used to work on a cruise ship, but was laid off a couple years ago. I guess that he got another job recently that he starts next week, so they both seem very excited about that.

There are two boys who live here as well. The oldest is Antonio who is 15 and the son of Mr and Mrs Davis. Joshua is their nephew and somewhere between 8 and 10. He was telling me that he wishes he didn't have to go back to school next week.

The house that I'm living in is beautiful. There are tile floors throughout the house and the entire front is lined by windows which look down over the hill ending at the black sand beach below with a view of the Grenadines. The house that I'll be moving into is two houses over, so I'll be retaining my view! :)

There's a little market right at the bottom of the hill which is also where the bus drops me off, so I don't have to worry about walking too far by myself. For the next 6 weeks, I'll be heading into Kingstown most days for training, but after that I'll be able to almost exclusively walk to work. It's just a little too far to walk to Kingstown, but the bus only costs $1.50EC, so it isn't any particular hardship. I typically will only have to pay this one way as Mr Davis is able to drive me in on his way to work most days.

Tomorrow we open our bank accounts. I currently have about $550EC floating around in my purse, so it will be nice to have a place for all that to go...

Tomorrow is also the day that we get our cell phones! We have to put down a $200 deposit which we'll get back at the end of the 2 years. I should be paying about $50EC/month for my phone plan, which isn't horrible. The best part of it is that incoming calls are free for me, so if anyone wants to use skype or the new gmail phone to call me on my cell here, you're more than able to! I'll make sure to post my new number.

Living down here is making me incredibly thankful for the genetic anomoly that has made me immune to bug bites. Most people are covered with swollen bites even while using repellant. I'm getting bitten, I suppose, but the bites don't itch or look like anything in particular. I am, however, continuing to sweat up a storm, so I suppose it's a tradeoff in some way.