St. Lucia

Hello all! I'm writing you from beautiful St. Lucia, where we've been staying for the past 2 days (after 30 minutes spent trying to connect to the FREE wireless). We flew in yesterday afternoon at about 3 pm and after a 2 hour, slightly nauseating bus-ride, we made it to Pre-Service-Training (PST). So far, we've gone over everything from hurricane preparedness (yes, there is a plan) to how to brush and floss our teeth...with much more to come tomorrow (our last day of PST). AND, we got some very exciting news today...our assignments! I will be in a city called Mesopotamia (like the Fertile Crescent), which is on the southeastern side of the island and I will be working at a high school assisting with remedial reading, IT and building a library system. So, pretty cool. I haven't really gotten a chance to research much more than that (plus, with this internet connection, it may take me all night just to find a map!), but I'm sure you will all look it up as soon as you read this, so, let me know! When we get to St. Vincent on Saturday, we'll go immediately to our host families to get settled in, so I may be able to call (or at least e-mail) that day. I'm pretty sure that we're looking into cell phones next week, so I'll let you know how that goes as well. But at least they gave us some information (finally!!) and now, you can all really confuse your friends when you tell them I'm in Mesopotamia (you mean, like the Middle East?). :)
Tonight, we are hoping to catch Obama's speech before the dining hall closes. The food here has been really good and there is TONS of it. Each day, we eat big breakfasts, lunches and dinners (with an ice cream dessert), plus 2 snacks. Our days pretty much revolve around eating. But the best part is, we get to try all the local foods. For example, the first night we ate something that I could have sworn was potato salad...except it was made with a green banana, which they call a fig. We also ate something that looks like a blue potato, avocados with red skin and tons of fresh fish. Today during training, we learned all about the local foods, including many things we absolutely cannot eat (including the Manchineel fruit, which is so poisonous, rainwater dripping from the tree will cause your skin to blister). Good things to know.
Another thing about this place is that it is HOT! We have no air-conditioning in our rooms (and only one mosquito net, even though two people share a room...knock on wood, because so far, the mosquitoes have been kind to me). Our first major accomplishment in the EC involved a chair, a hanger and the "on" button of a fan hung 8 feet in the air. It was our shining moment. I actually didn't even mind getting up at 6:30 this morning because it was COOL! Nights are nearly unbearable, though, even after a cold shower! I hope we adjust soon, because I think St. Vincent is even hotter than St. Lucia (I also hope we get our regulation mosquito nets soon, because some people here look like they have chicken pox and it's only a matter of time before the mosquitoes discover my roomie and I)!