Happy holidays everyone!
I hope you are all surviving the winter weather if you are located in a cold location.
The climate in Dominica is very consistent throughout the entire year. Either immense sunshine or bucketing rain bestows itself upon the island. At times the rain attempts to drown the island in its entirety as it relentlessly pours for days. This results in potentially hazardous landslides, flooding, power outages, and undrinkable water. The island experienced a two week period where the rain clouds were always present and all of the previously mentioned hazards were occurring although fortunately no one was seriously injured.
On the flipside of the stirring, dual-minded weather in Dominica are the rays of sunshine. Having the weather steadily around 95 degrees during December is something I’ve never experienced before but I could definitely get used to it. Since my collegiate athletic career came to an end, I’ve always gained 25 to 30 pounds of “bad weight” during the Wisconsin winters due to the increased intake in comfort foods (holiday treats and family get-togethers) and the decrease in cardiovascular activity (discontinued biking for enjoyment and transportation when the streets are filled with snow and ice). Without fail in the spring and summer months I would shed the “bad weight” as I would be more active and didn’t have as many opportunities to devourer 3,000 to 4,000 calories in one sitting. Since the two aspects of my normal winters are not present currently, I’ve kept the “bad weight” off this winter.
Things have been going extraordinary for me since I last posted.
Cricket league update: The national cricket team’s coach and manager and I have had several meetings to discuss the prospects of creating opportunities for a youth cricket league on the entire east coast of the island. The manager and coach are highly respected individuals among the cricket community in the West Indies and they are on the board of directors for the Dominica Cricket Association (DCA) and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). I’ve been meeting with both of these gentlemen for a few months now. I feel very fortunate that I have been put in contact with these two individuals so that I have the ability to use my past experiences of working in the sports industry to creating a successful program.
During one of my previous blogs I posted the idea of the youth cricket league along with the mission statement, vision, and objectives. Initially, I only wanted to include the fifteen or so communities which surround my village but we have decided to expand to the majority of the east. Talk about ambitious. This will be quite the undertaking but with the clout of my two partners in the manner, I am confident that we will be able to hold a fantastic experience for the youth. One key development is that I found the major sponsor for the junior cricket league. Scotiabank, a prominent international financial institution, has pledged that it will assist financially in this program. Scotiabank is a huge supporter of international cricket and they are very interested in creating opportunities in developing nations for youth and women’s cricket.
We have several cricket activities cooking up for 2012. Currently, we are planning to hold coaching sessions for adults interested in training young people in mid-January. The workshop will focus primarily on the foundation of coaching cricket for youth. Nationally renowned experts in cricket will teach cricket fundamentals while equipping participants with the knowledge of working with youth successfully. Each participant will receive an authentic set of cricket gear compliments of Scotiabank.
At the end of January, we are holding a tournament in my village among all the schools on the east coast of the island. The two finalists from the tournament will be invited to showcase their skills during the intermissions at the international test cricket match between the West Indies national team verses New Zealand’s national team which will be held in July of 2012. Cricket has several breaks during the five day test matches including breaks for lunch, tea (odd, I know), and other traditional occurrences during a cricket test match. One international test match happens annually on Dominica at the Windsor Park stadium in the capital city of Roseau. The children will be thrilled to play cricket at Windsor Park and in front of the usually sold out stadium of Dominicans. With all of this youth cricket excitement, we hope to organize a cricket league for this coming summer as well.
The NGO where I work has successfully executed two major events that positively affected the surrounding communities during the past few weeks.
The first event was a “walkathon” through the main streets of the capital city of Dominica. The event promoted the importance of early childhood development. Over 600 primary school children marched through the streets with signs and posters while chanting clever sayings. The march ended at a community park.
The second event the NGO held celebrated Universal Children’s Day. Around the entire planet at the end of November, Universal Children’s Day commemorates and honors children. In Dominica, the NGO organized an event in my village that over 1,000 people attended. A motorcade from all the various parts of the island transported the children and their parents to my village. After everyone arrived, we set up a stage and hired a DJ to play music during the festivities. Each village held a creative skit, sang a song, or read a poem pertaining to the issues that affect children throughout the island. Delicious ethnic food was served to all participants and guests. The event was a major success and it will hopefully gain the NGO recognition in appearing as an accomplished organization among the youth development sector.
Thanks again for all your supportive and kindhearted emails, facebook messages, letters, skype calls, and other medians of communicating to me while I have been in the Eastern Caribbean.
I want to specifically thank teacher Jake Ludlow and many of the Blessed Sacrament students for putting in the effort of creating a “Merry Christmas Joey” banner then sending me a picture of it with them standing behind it. The children who produced the banner and who posed in the picture were a few of the kids I coached in both swimming and football during the past several years while residing in Madison. It makes me feel really great to know that I have the support of so many inspiring friends from my hometown community of Madison.
Thank you to the Blessed Sacrament School and Parish! They donated scores and scores of footwear for the people who live in my village. They sent the packages recently and hopefully they will reach the island in the near future. I plan on taking pictures of the villagers in their new flip flops after I distribute them so Blessed Sacrament people can see all the people they have positively impacted. So exciting! Thanks again for your efforts!
Finally, I want to thank Elizabeth First for writing an outstanding article about my service in Dominica. She conveyed the first year of my Peace Corps experience in a fabulous manner through her words while spreading awareness of the immense difficulties people experience in developing nations.
The living moment is everything,
Joe
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