I'm So Paid. . .

I have been in Grenada since August of 2007 and it is now May of 2009. How the time flies! For the duration of my time here, I have worked at three different places, one place that I love, one place that I like, and one place that I really can't stand. I guess you could say that I have a little of everything. When I first received my community partner assignments I was thrilled, but confused as to what the hell I was supposed to do. To be quite honest, I didn't feel that my Sociology degree had really prepared me to do anything astounding and, truth be told, most of the work I've done here has been made up along the way. Peace Corps has been on the job training in every sense of the word. You need a teacher? Great. . .let me go online and figure out what curriculum I'll be needing. You need a social worker? Hmm. . .I guess I could give that a shot! You need a counselor? Well okay. . .I guess I'm a pretty good listener! Of course I am exaggerating a tad, but it is a bit like this from time to time which has forced me to become a jack of all trades.

One of the places I work is called NCH. It's a social work agency that is responsible for foster placements, parenting programs, and other matters related to children's welfare. When I initially began working here I was really excited since my specific assignment was to work with the youth group. Most of the youths are from Saueturs or the surrounding areas and they range in age from 13-20. Like most volunteers, I went in with all of these great ideas and I soon found that many of my efforts and ideas would all be in vain. There isn't funding to do anything, fundraisers are difficult because the kids aren't committed, and so on and so forth. My co-worker Mrs. Francis is great and she is really the one who holds the youth group together. While the kids are in school it is hard to plan anything, but we do try to have meetings at least twice a month. Yes. . .twice a month. Now you see my dilemma? What am I supposed to do with a youth group that is never around? I go into the office once or twice a week out of obligation and I use that time to work on other things or brush up on my Minesweeper skills on my laptop. The one useful thing I have learned here is how to write a grant proposal. Considering I did it without anyone's help, I would have to say that it was a very valuable and time consuming experience that I hope to never have to do again.

Aside from NCH, there are two other places that I work at throughout the week. The Grenada National Organization of Women is one of the most progressive NGO's on the island, thanks in large part to it's very driven and inspiring President, Elain Henry-McQueen. With this group I have been fortunate to gain many new skills and specialized training in areas related to gender based violence, sexual harassment, HIV/AIDS, etc. The women who I work alongside are incredible, strong, determined women and I am so thankful to play a small role in what is such a large movement for women's rights.

In July of 2008, I volunteered to be a camp counselor at a five day camp organized by a fellow PCV, benefitting the youths who reside at the Father Mallaghan's Home for Boys. The home is a church run facility where boys are placed when they have been removed from their family home because of abuse or neglect. Most of these boys have lived between various institutions and shelters for years and years and they have seen and experienced things that no child should. Over the course of the camp I became very attached to the boys and decided to begin volunteering there on a weekly basis. It has easily become my favorite place to work and it is the one place where I feel my passion for what I do has really come alive. It has been a tough and emotional roller coaster but the boys at this institution are amazing, vibrant, often troublemaking, but nonetheless delightful. The boys range in age from 8 to 18 years old and, until recently, I had been concentrating on remedial education and some life skills development. At present, however, my friend Annie Clift, (who also volunteers at the home with me,) and I are looking to build an entirely new home on some land that the church owns. We believe that we have located funding sources and now it is a matter of getting the okay from the necessary people. Aside from this, we have also been faced with some internal issues concerning the staff, the church, and the Child Welfare Authority. To make a long story short, there are a lot of things going on that shouldn't be and we are on the war path to make things right and hold people accountable. Enough said.

Finally, in December I was flown to St. Lucia by Peace Corps to attend a three day HIV/AIDS workshop facilitated by the ASHE Performance Group based out of Jamaica. It was the most entertaining and lively workshop I have ever been to and I was sad to have it end. Peace Corps has begun an initiative called "Men as Partners" and the goals is to prevent the spread of, and sensitize people about, HIV/AIDS by involving more men in the education and information sharing process. Throughout the Eastern Caribbean "teams" have been created consisting of PCV's and island nation counterparts. Each island is to take the training they received and create a plan that speaks to the goal of the Men as Partners initiative. In Grenada we are applying for grant funding in order to begin a series of train-the-trainers workshops with the obvious target being males. It has been a slow start thus far, but hopefully things will pick up once the grant is approved.

So yes. . .I do actually work. It's not all just about being a "beach corps" volunteer. Even though nothing I'm doing is necessarily monumental or even tangible yet, I know that I am doing my part to "plant shade trees that I will never sit under."