Greetings everyone!
I have gone through many changes in the past few weeks! First of all, I moved into my own place in the Castle Bruce village. My place is great! I’ve never had so much room to put all my things. I’ve gotten so used to just having a bedroom to put personal items in because of living with roommates or with my parents. The place has had a Peace Corps Volunteer living in it for many years now so it had all the kitchenware and furniture that I needed. Also, I have a huge bay leaf bush in my backyard to make delicious tea. My place now smells like a combination of incense and bush tea. I plan on planting more bush tea plants in my backyard in the very near future. I’ve already gotten used to the taste of instant coffee too. I have the option of taking a warm shower now as well since this place has one of those hot water heaters for the shower! I still find myself taking cold showers or bathing in a river after exercising because of how hot the weather is outside.
My new neighbors are really cool too. One house has an avid sports fan in it who is the coach/player of the Castle Bruce basketball team. He invited me to be on the squad already. He loves all American sports too so him and I have had great conversations! He was very impressed that I had previously done work with the Houston Astros and the Milwaukee Brewers. Another neighbor I met is a Rastafarian man. He’s an entertainer/musician who performs all around the island. He loves showing me the garden in his backyard. He lets me try some of the herbs in his backyard and he tells me about the health benefits from them. I should probably be more leery about what I ingest from him but he’s a genuine fellow so hopefully he has only solid intentions. He also wants to start going on runs with me around the community. Everyone I’ve met in Castle Bruce is so nice and welcoming! I’m beginning to feel like a true member of the village but I still have a ways to go in developing deep relationships.
No longer will I have delicious food prepared for me by host-mother; but, it gives me the opportunity to make food for myself. I must say that my culinary skills are a bit lacking (especially when I don’t have a microwave or food that I can just heat up in the oven) so hopefully I will be able to improve them while I’m living on my own. One benefit about living in a rural farming community is that plenty of fresh fruits, organic eggs, and vegetables are available all year long. I have definitely taken advantage of this fact already! Another thing I have to do now is hand-wash my clothes. I washed some clothes by hand just recently. The work was time consuming and tedious but it was pretty enjoyable to accomplish cleaning my clothes the ‘old-fashioned’ way.
A major change that occurred since I last wrote on this blog is that I became a Peace Corps Volunteer officially! At the end of the training process, Peace Corps celebrates the occasion with a Swearing-In Ceremony. Peace Corps Volunteers take almost the same oath that the President of the United States takes when they are sworn into office. I thought that was a really cool fact. The Peace Corps Country Director for the Eastern Caribbean was in attendance to swear the new volunteers in.
For the ceremony, I was selected by the rest of my trainee class to give the vote of thanks speech at the end of the ceremony. The speech was intended to thank all the dignitaries and other special guests who were in attendance. I felt pretty honored that the other trainees elected me to give it. I put in tons of work in French and Kweyol during training so it felt good to be acknowledged for my efforts. An almost full length version of it is on facebook that you may check out if you wish. As I spoke in Kweyol, the people in attendance laughed hysterically. I’m pretty sure people in the audience thought the speech was hilarious due to my natural mannerisms and voice inflections. It was difficult for me to keep my composure throughout the speech because how much everyone else was laughing. I also tossed in a few jokes with solid deliveries which amused people. I was giving my best efforts in pronouncing the words correctly so hopefully the locals could appreciate that. Many of the locals after the ceremony told me they were impressed with the speech. I will post the transcript of my speech at the end of this blog.
Clips of the vote of thanks were apparently playing on all the national radio stations all weekend long. The people that I work with and people around my community told me that they heard me on the radio. Also, many random people I have come in contact with since Thursday recognized my voice from the speech. Even some random women I sat in on a meeting with, who came into my office at work this week, asked me if I was the Peace Corps person on the radio…I apparently got my ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ moment on Dominica already.
Full-time volunteering will now commence for me. I’ll definitely share stories from my interactions with the Non-Government Organization who I will be working with to assist the eastern region of Dominica.
Peace Corps Dominica recently celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Peace Corps as an organization. We had a ceremony celebrating the 50th which was really well organized by the current volunteers. The speeches were amazing and so was the food. They somehow arranged for the current chairman and former executive director of the Sierra Club, Carl Pope, to be the keynote speaker. He was a former volunteer in India. His speech was very fascinating.
Dana, a volunteer who has a year left of service, made a wonderful video which was shown at the ceremony. The video depicts the life of a Peace Corps worker on Dominica. She followed around someone from the new group of volunteers, someone a year into service, someone finishing their second year, and someone who extended a year. The video was really well done and is very impressive considering she had never done something like that before. The video is quite entertaining because it shows raw footage of the Volunteers interacting with local Dominicans. Here’s the link if you would like to watch it: http://vimeo.com/22201136
The day after the 50th Anniversary Ceremony, Peace Corps Volunteers organized a “Go Green” day in the capital city of Roseau where we arranged youth from our villages to come to town and pick up trash in the streets. We also put colorful trash bins around Roseau to encourage people to throw garbage away rather than just tossing it in the street gutters. I was designated as one of the guys who had to carry the big bins through town. They probably weighed well over 80 lbs. The task was definitely a solid workout.
Finally, I have still been taking advantage of the mystical trails and scenery that the “Nature Isle” has to offer. I hiked one of the Waitukubuli Trails with some Peace Corps people. I cannot recall if I told you all about the Waitukubuli Trail but it’s really fascinating. It’s broken up into fourteen sections that all connect to each other from the southern tip of the island to the northern part. The trail was developed on the same paths that people hiked to get from their villages and communities to the markets in the bigger towns. Before the roads were built, many people would leave their villages in the middle of the night to walk with their large amounts of produce so they could sell it in the market. The way people get their food to the market is definitely different now with cars and roads but it’s interesting to imagine how things used to be not so long ago.
Anyway, the group and I hiked Segment 5 which concludes in my village of Castle Bruce. My village connects segments 5 and 6. We decided to meet in Castle Bruce and hike segment 5 backwards which made it completely uphill. The hike was intensified due to the fact that rain fell tumultuously the entire day. The rain descended to the ground with utter force. It made the hike very adventurous. Calm streams appeared to be on steroids with all the excess water flowing in them. We splashed through the muddy, flooded path as we climbed our way up the flourishing mountainside. The rainforest masqueraded as a natural covering from the gushing rain. As we made our way, we crossed some fast-moving rivers with some noticeably elevated water levels.
The segment 5 trail goes right past the Emerald Pool which is a tourist destination waterfall. The group decided to hang out there. Normally, the Emerald Pool has a tranquil waterfall that collects itself into turquoise waters where people may peacefully bathe. It’s a relaxing place to unwind after a long day of hiking. On this day, the water appeared to be cloudy and extremely rough. The volume of the water coming out of the waterfall was doubled or even tripled to how much water usually flows out. The pure power of the waterfall astonished me. We all decided to get in the pool even though the water looked dangerous. None of us swam too far away from the side because it would not have been safe. I posted some pictures of the Emerald Pool on a normal day and on the intense day when I saw it in the Dominican photos section for you all to view.
I send my heartfelt love and adoration to all my friends and family who read this blog. Thanks again for being so supportive as I continue forward on this “Peace Corps Voyage.”
I hope this blog message finds you all in a euphoric state,
Joseph Bridwell
P.S. The “vote of thanks” speech written in Kweyol for your viewing pleasure:
Kwéyòl Mési Pawòl:
Bonn apwé midi tout moun,
Non mwen sé Joseph Bridwell.
Asou Kont gwoup EC 83, mwen ka wimēsyē’w pou atandé séwémoni sa la jòdi. Nou byen kontan pou sav kon nou ka koumansé kon Peace Corps nēf an Donmnik, ki ou ka sipòté nou.
Poumyéman, nou vlé wimésyé Diwēktē Peace Corps an OECS-la, Kevin Carley, Chēf Pogwanm évé Trénin Elizabeth Nielson, Ofisyé Trénin, Leonette Jean-Pierre, Chēf Peace Corps Donmnik, Patrick Henderson, Ofisyé Administwasyon, Rhoda Josephs, évé Sonia Phillips ki ka enndé an ofis-la. Zò tout sé yon enspiwasyon pou nou, pis ou dédiké lavi’w pou ba sēvis pou lēzòt.
Nou vlé di spésyal mési pou ministé koultyou, Jennés évé spò Justina Charles, ministé pou developman communité, madamn Gloria Shillingford, évé Senata Alvin Bernard ki ka wépwézanté Poumyé Ministé-a.
Nou ni otan moun pou wimésye ki twavay wēd pou pwépawé nou pou moman sa la Ofisyé Trénin local, Marcus Francis pou developman Jennés, Ron Ezidore, pou developman ti biznis, Herbert Sabroache, PACA, Beverly Le Blanc pou edikasyon an lékòl, évé Felix Henderson mēt Titja Kwéyòl nou! Nou byen kontan ou sévi ēspéwéyans ou pou enndé pwépawe-nou pou twavay nou ési.
Mési pou tout ògannizasyon évé lékòl ki ba nou òpòtyounité-a pou twavay épi’w an sé simenn-la ki pasé. Nou ka gadé pou twavay épi’w padan nou ési.
Dényéman, mési, mési pou fanmi nou an Donmnik, we-la nou té ka wété. Ou Ouvé tjē’w évé lapòt ou epi lanmou, pou fé lavi pli ézé évé konfòtab ba nou. Zò fé nou vayan épi bon manjé!
Mési ankò tout moun, Bondyé bēni’w! Nou enmen Donmnik.
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