A Title Change Coming Soon: From Trainee to Volunteer

Sa ka fet toutmoun?

Translation:  What’s up everyone? (in Kweyol)

I hope this message finds you in a wonderful state of mind.  Since I’ve last written on this blog, I am still vastly enjoying the island of Dominica. 

Currently, I am fully immersed in the training process for the Peace Corps.  The coursework has been really informational about techniques for the trainees to work effectively within our villages.  Also, it has been an “eye-opening” experience to be exposed to many of the issues and areas which could be improved upon within the Eastern Caribbean.  The end of training is getting closer thus the other trainees and I will be able to get involved within our villages on a full-time basis soon.  Training finishes in about two weeks and I will officially “swear in” as a Peace Corps Volunteer on Thursday, April 7^th. 

In addition to transferring my title from “Trainee” to “Volunteer,” I will also be moving to my own place within Castle Bruce on April 2^nd.  I’ve only lived either with family members or roommates during my life so it should be interesting to live on my own.  I’ve built a solid relationship with my host-family during these past few months so hopefully I will still be able to stay connected with them when I move out.

The Peace Corps celebrates its 50^th anniversary this year.  In Dominica, we are commemorating the milestone by throwing a luncheon party at a resort in the south part of the island on April 8^th.  The party will honor the service and hard work of past and current Peace Corps Volunteers on Dominica.  The keynote speaker of the event is the current Chairman and former Executive Director of the Sierra Club, Carl Pope.  I’m very excited to meet him!  With being “sworn-in” as a volunteer on Thursday and attending the 50^th anniversary party on Friday, that weekend will be quite a memorable one!

All of the Caribbean islands, including Dominica, have an annual celebration which they call “Carnival.”  The islands wisely space out the dates of their Carnival events so they will not compete with each other for tourists.  In Dominica, the event takes place during the week prior to Ash Wednesday when Lent officially starts.  Dominica’s Carnival is based off of the Mardi Gras celebrations.  The entire island literally shuts down to have a giant party.  

The Carnival has many interesting aspects to it.  The holiday revolves around Calypso music which is a popular music genre around the Caribbean Islands.  It has fast-paced beats mixed with interesting lyrics which are easy to dance to (for most).  The music is composed and sung by local artists.  During the months leading up to Carnival, the top five most popular artists are invited to compete to see who the Calypso King/Queen of Carnival is.  The songs written by these artists are played non-stop on the local radios prior to the Calypso contest.  Constant activities taking place pack the Carnival week.  Beauty Pageants for women and young girls is another popular event that people enjoy.  

Besides the Calypso contest and the Beauty Pageants, the main attraction to Carnival is when the island shuts down the capital city so people may participate in J’ouvert or “jump up” in the streets to the Calypso music.  Large speakers are put on many street corners so the music blares all over town.   “Jumping up” is a form of dancing to the Calypso music that may be described as flowing to the beat of the songs while prancing through the packed, narrow roads.  Personally, I did not attend any of the “jumping up” activities but I did watch some of it on television.  I watched it with my host-family who encouraged me to show them my “jumping skills.”  My host-family got a good laugh out of watching me attempt to “jump” to the music in the middle of their living room.  My host-father even said, “It’s true what they say, white men really can’t jump.”

One fact I didn’t know about the Island of Dominica is that the second and third installments of The Pirates of the Caribbean were both partly filmed here.  I was watching the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie and I was intrigued that my entire host family was sitting there watching it intently too.  We rarely turn on the television but we were all just hanging around the house on one Saturday afternoon so we decided to see what was on.  They told me that part of that movie was set in Dominica including in the villages of the Carib Territory near my village of Castle Bruce.  The movie producers used the secondary school in Castle Bruce as a place for local Dominicans to audition for parts in the movie.  I thought it was neat that Disney used actual people from the Caribbean for the films.  I then told my host-family members that another Johnny Depp movie, Public Enemies, was filmed partly in and around my hometown of Madison, WI.  They thought it was cool that he has made movies in both of our hometowns.

During the past several weeks I have been actively exploring the island as well.  A few weekends ago, the current Peace Corps Volunteers were planning a get-together on a beach in a relatively larger city called Portsmouth which is on the northwest coast of Dominica.  They wanted to celebrate a few birthdays that had passed and also get to know the Peace Corps Trainees better.  Also, one of the individuals in my class, David, invited the rest of the trainees over to his host-parent’s house in Portsmouth for breakfast.  He planned it to happen prior to the beach party.  Even though both of these invitations sounded fun, I didn’t think I was going to be able to make it to Portsmouth.  Since I live on the secluded east coast of the island, my only option was to get to Roseau on the southwest coast of the island then take a bus from there to Portsmouth.  At that point in time, I had never traveled on the weekends without someone from my host-family driving.  I knew that public transportation was more difficult to find on Saturdays as well. 

On that Friday night, my host mother and father informed me that they were going into Roseau early on Saturday morning.  I had mentioned my potential plans to travel to Portsmouth and they strongly encouraged me to join the other Peace Corps people.  My host mother said that I needed to get out of the village and start to figure out how the island works on my own.  I was acting hesitant because I felt comfortable in the village.  The conversation reminded me of a mother bird pushing her young bird out of the nest so it will learn how to fly.  Even though I was reluctant due to the fact that I had never traveled alone on the weekends, I decided to go into Roseau with my host-parents on Saturday morning. 

Transportation to Portsmouth worked out really well.  I arrived in Portsmouth just in time to get to David’s house for breakfast.  He served all the trainees delicious food.  After David’s house, the other trainees and I ventured to the beach and met up with the current volunteers.  When the Pirates of the Caribbean was filming on Dominica, Disney built cottages along the beachside at this location for the staff members of the film.  The island of Dominica is able to use the cottages to rent to tourists now.  Apparently Johnny Depp’s boat was docked at this location and he would walk his dog along the beach where we hung out.  I thought that was pretty fascinating to hear about. 

The beach was beautiful and the water felt perfect.  One of the volunteers brought a giant beach ball into the water.  Many of the other Peace Corps people in the Caribbean Sea were playing with the ball.  I was a bit further out from where everyone was congregating because I was so intrigued with how clear the water was.  I was ‘in my own little world’ because I had my goggles on so I could see underwater really well.  I would dive down to the bottom feeling amazed at the distance I could see out to sea.  As my fellow Peace Corps people were playing, an intense wind gust came and blew the ball far away from them.  With goggles on, I saw this happening so I decided to race after the ball and attempt retrieve it.  After a few minutes, the wind let up and I finally caught up to the ball.  I was SUPER far away from everyone.  Because of my background in swimming, I didn’t feel panicked or anything but I definitely wanted to get back to shore because I was feeling exhausted.  As I started pushing the ball back, another wind gust blew it even further out from me so I gave up.  All the Peace Corps people were impressed with my efforts.  My body felt fatigued as I swam back to where I could stand.

On the same weekend, Sunday was tons of fun too.  Peace Corps Volunteers were planning to go on a hike from a village called Grand Fond to the destination Fresh Water Lake.  Grand Fond and Fresh Water Lake are located in the southeast of the island so I wanted to go to this since it was relatively close to my village.  Once again, transportation was going to be my main issue.  Public transportation is non-existent on Sundays so if I wanted to join everyone, I had to hitch-hike my way to Grand Fond.  I’ve never hitch-hiked before so I didn’t really know what to expect.  Just like on Saturday, everything went effortlessly.  I was offered rides immediately before and after the hike from random people driving.  Hitch-hiking is quite a common practice for people on Dominica.  The hike from Grand Fond to Clear Water Lake was absolutely beautiful.  The views of the Atlantic Ocean and the lush rainforests were stunning.  Also, I got to know some of the current volunteers better.  The current PCVs are all really nice individuals and they’ve been really welcoming to the new trainees.

The weekend that I described really boosted my self-confidence as feeling like an active individual on the island especially when it comes to transportation. I'm really glad I participated in all the activities.

One more quick story: I was observing a secondary school after-school program which was being put on by the NGO I work with.  The program was about cameras and taking pictures.  The class went on a field trip to a nearby fishing village to take photos of the surroundings.  I brought my camera as well.  As we were there, a small fishing boat came in with a giant blue marlin in it.  I was very excited to see the fish which was seven feet long and weighed over 300 lbs.  I have never seen a fish that massive in person.  One of the fishermen told me that the marlin was over ten years old. 

I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted about my transitional experiences from the coming weeks!

Until the next time,

Joe Bridwell