Should I be worried about my lack of anxiety? I’ve joined the Peace Corps (PC) as a Special Education Teacher in St. Lucia and Grenada for the next two years. I can’t help but to be excited about meeting new friends, learning new life lessons and skills, hiking on the islands, and having frogs jump out of my sink as I wash dishes. Ironically, I’ve decided to take up knitting during my pre-PC transition time, something I hear won’t be necessary in the West Indies. Unless, of course, I figure out how to knit an air conditioner or a mosquito net.
Many people have been asking what I’ll be doing in the Spice Island and the official answer is: it depends. Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) have a primary job, but also establish secondary projects based on their community’s needs. My primary duty is “to assist in the development of special education programs through teacher training, assisting students, and providing technical support for policy makers.” PC then writes a loooooong list of possible components for the job, such as:
· Assisting in the development and implementation of special education programs in primary and secondary schools
· Facilitating the establishment and implementation of extracurricular programs for special needs students
· Supporting policy makers to define policy in relation to special education
· Aiding community organizations to develop programs that are inclusive of people with special needs and that advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities
· Furthering the technical skills of special education teachers, who may not have specialized training in the field…by introducing new information, methods and ideas, and modeling appropriate techniques in classroom and remedial/resource room settings
· Improving the identification of special needs with diagnostic tests
· Helping staff learn to identify and access resources (financial, human, and informational) to meet programming needs
· Assisting in developing and implementing community outreach programs to train parents of special needs children
The secondary projects in the Eastern Caribbean (EC) are usually associated with HIV/AIDS prevention, youth and female empowerment, environmental sustainability, health and nutrition, or life skills. In essence, as one returned PCV recently told me, my job will be to, “plant trees under whose shade I would not sit” since us PCVs are “not here to move mountains...we're here to get behind the people that are already trying to move them and help them push.” So, in short, I won’t know exactly what I’ll be doing until I get there :)
Preparing for the Peace Corps is starting to feel like a full time job! From shopping to wrapping up projects to visiting people, I am swamped busy. I just returned from California last week to visit my siblings, father's side of the family, and grandmother where Sean and I ate a record amount of tamales, cactus salad, and guacamole (muchas gracias tias y dad). Fortunately, there are avocados in St. Lucia and Grenada (whew!). ¡No tengan miedo, todo el mundo!
My going away gift: 33 tamales from the family
