Homestay

We arrived in St. Vincent on Saturday afternoon and I met my homestay family for the first time! My family consists of my homestay mom, her husband and their two children, 10 and 15. They are all really nice and have done everything to make me feel at home! They also have a really nice house with a microwave, internet and a washing maching, which will be very nice during my homestay period, but which I think will not prepare me for the small, technology-less house I will most likely inhabit for the next two years. When we told our Associate Peace Corps Director (APCD) about how nice our homestay homes were, he laughed and warned us not to hope for these things during our 2 year stay...
Even with a microwave, it is still HOT. This time, at least, I have my own fan AND it points directly at me AND it is not hung 8 feet in the air! I also have a bed-side table/lamp, but so far, I've only discovered 1 outlet in the room, so I have had to choose between fan or good lighting. I think you can all guess which one I've chosen.
Mesopotamia (Mespo for short) is in a valley, which is really nice view-wise, because we look up at some AMAZING landscapes. It also rains a lot more here than in higher up or more coastal towns (twice a day since I've been here), which cools it off a bit. We also have tons of these horrible little biting bugs called sand-flies, which are literally the size of a pin-prick and thus, unsmushable. They're KILLING me, but my host mom tells me I will get used to them.
On Saturday afternoon, we attended something called "Pan Against Crime." Local kids (including my youngest host sister) took classes at the Kingstown police station all summer, and Saturday night was their final concert/graduation. They played all sorts of instruments, including guitar, clarinet, trumpet, drums and pan (steel pan...like a steel drum). The concert was fantastic! It was amazing to see how well the kids play after only 6 weeks of training! And it was nice to see that this event was so successful in its initial run. The police chief couldn't have been more pleased and went on and on about how playing an instrument and being part of a group keeps kids off the street and out of trouble. I completely agree!
Another good thing that happened at "Pan Against Crime" was I met the 2nd in command to the police chief, told him I played the flute and was asked to play with the band! He said that other Peace Corps volunteers before me had played with them and it was a good experience for all involved. Plus, I think they can even provide a flute for me! I hope this works out, because what a neat way to integrate into a country!
Yesterday was our first day of PST and I think it went well, though we have a LOT of homework already! Before next week, we have to make a map of our community, cook a local meal, give explicit driving directions to/from our site, ask our host family about local laws/traffic AND learn a little of the local dialect. I've already worked on this last one - last night, my older host-sister invited her cousins over and they spoke to me in dialect. Then, we went to their house, where their mom (who spoke better dialect) taught me a ton of phrases, including "come ya" and "me lov comess." Translation: "come here" and "I love gossip." Plus, the oldest cousin is close in age to me and we are going to go limin' on Saturday (hanging out around the town). So, yesterday was a pretty good day!
Today we are going to open our bank accounts and I have to take the bus for the first time...I'll let you know how that goes!!