I made it to my homestay!!

Bonjour, Sock-a-fet (that means whatÕs up? it is the phoentic spelling for Patois. I just invented it but Patois has only been a written language for a few years so it could be close...Language class starts Friday so I will let you know!) anyway....

Hello Everyone!!
So although it has only been a week since I last wrote, it feels as if a lifetime has passed. I am currently living in St. Lucia with my amazing host family but I will back up a little to catch everyone up..... On Wednesday afternoon we arrived in St. Lucia. As soon as we exited the plane it was hot and humid. It was raining a little so the humidity was extreme. None of us really noticed though because we were so excited to be there. Thirty-nine of us flew to St. Lucia and at this point we have been dispersed to St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and St. Lucia. My group in St. Lucia consists of 13 trainees although there are already about 20 or 30 volunteers on the island who have been living here for awhile. Once we arrived we were taken to the area for our training. It was a nice place, a Catholic retreat place and we had an amazing view! Hopefully I can attach some pictures. The only problem was that the building that my group slept in was up a ton of stairs!! By the time we reached the stop everyone was breathing heavy and sweating a ton (but I am pretty sure the sweating part can be applied to my Peace Corps service for the next 2 years.) We spend 4 days at the retreat place going to class everyday to learn about policies and procedures. It was long and boring but I am sure that it is necessary. My only other complaint is that I was attacked!!! by the mosquitoes, or some sort of insect. I am hoping to attach the picture of my legs but they were covered in itchy bites. Some people said it looked like bed bugs, others said mosquitoes, I am not sure, I just want them to go away. They are slowly starting to fade but they still look nasty. The mosquitoes are much better at my house now because I have screens on my window! and a fan at night that keeps them away. Anyway, after the mosquitoes feasted on my body I was happy to be meeting my host family on Saturday. (Seriously though, I had atleast 60 bites on my arms and legs, it looked like a skin eating disease...)
We said bye to the other volunteers who went to the airport and we were driven to the Peace Corps office in Castries. My family got me around 11. Clara is my host-mother and Keam is my host-brother. He does not live with us though because he has his own place closer to Castries. Later in the day I met my host-sister, Jen. She is 24 and she lives at home so we have been getting along very well. (DonÕt worry Heath, you wonÕt be replaced, but she is very sweet and we have A LOT in common! so it is nice to have her around) My host-mom is also really great. She has had at least 3 other Peace Corps volunteers stay at her house so she knows the routine. She wants me to be very comfortable at home so she does everything she can to help me out. She even bought me Honey-nut Cheerios!!! On my first day of training I had to take the bus to get to the office in Castries by 9:00. Just so everyone knows, I am living in a town named, Choiseul. (The Peace Corps has a policy about giving away to much information about oneself so that might be removed later). It is the farthest town from Castries. To be there by 9:00 I have to leave my house at 6:30. I ride 3 different buses for a total of around 2 hours with about 20 or 30 minutes walking and I finally arrive at the office. There are a few people who live at my first stop though so I can ride with them and it makes things a little more exciting. On my first day though, Clara drove me to the first stop and talked to the driver of my second bus to make sure that I got to the right stop. Then, once I made it to the office I had to call her to let her know I arrived safely.
I went to Catholic Church with Clara on Sunday morning. She goes to the 6:30 service!!! Yikes! It was early, but also just early enough to still be slightly cool. She told me she is usually late for church and I wasnÕt sure what she meant until we arrived at 6:50 to a 6:30 service. But it turns out that we had the preacher who talks a lot so the service lasted until 8:30 and we were there for more than half of it. After church she took me to visit a girl who is a volunteer in the next town over. She has been here for a year so it was great to talk to her and get her perspective. Saturday night I was really extremely homesick and Clara felt bad for me so she made me meet Jessica to have some to talk to who I could relate with. Hanging out with Jessica was great because she answered all of my questions and made me feel better about a lot of things I had doubts about, and now I have a friend close by who I can hang out with for the next year! She does work with a lot of the kids in her community so they all came over to hang out! Even though there were some wild and crazy kids, for the most part they were adorable! It was a great reminded of why I wanted to join Peace Corps. Not just to help out the people of my community, but mainly to help the kids and hopefully give them the tools to achieve things they never thought they could... Okay, that is sort of a corny rant but the kids made everything easier. We took them to the beach and played and hung-out. Anyway, I havenÕt done much so far except for successfully making it into Castries yesterday, and going to church. Tomorrow (which is more like ÒtodayÓ because it will be Wednesday when I have internet at the office so I can post this blog) I am picking my players for fantasy football because apparently some of the volunteers have a league and they invited me to join! That is all of the excitement now. I am very happy, and very excited to begin this incredibly long journey. I think I am going to a play on Friday with my host mom and sister. They said it is in Patois but they will translate for me, it should be interesting. Then next Saturday my sister and I have plans to have a day in Canaries of shopping, going to see a movie and eating dominoes pizza!!! That is definitely something to look forward to! I hope everything is going well in the states, sorry I can't make my e-mails more individual but when I move into my own place I should have internet so I can send everyone messages... Until then it will have to be one general message.

Love, (I learned how to say it in Patois but I already forgot!),
Kelli

P.S. I met a current volunteer, Tameron in Choiseul. He gave me the GRAND TOUR (which involves about a 5-10 minute walk from one side to the other). It is a great little community and I am hoping to be a useful tool in youth development. I also got a preview of his house and it is amazing!! It has 3 extra beds and a place on the porch to hang a hammock...and the most AMAZING VIEW!!! I am really going to try to live in his place. He moves out on the 15th so I am going to talk to my supervisor today and try to secure a place there when he moves out. I just realized that I can't get my picture posted yet so it will have to be in 7 weeks when I can hook up my computer to the internet! Ok, everyone needs the computer so I will talk to you later! I love everyone and miss you all!!!