Monday August 2, 2010
We arrived safely yesterday afternoon to the beautiful island of St. Lucia. Upon arrival our bus driver Nigel was waiting for us to take us to our accommodations in the town of Soufriere. Although it was only about 20 miles away, it took an hour due to the winding roads. We did, however, get to see the beautiful coastline along the way. The only hiccup was that our seven boxes of equipment and donations never made it onto the plane in Atlanta. Once settled into our rooms, we strolled downtown to take a brief look around. It was a long day and everyone was up for simply relaxing and getting a good night's rest.
Today is Emancipation Day here is St. Lucia, a national holiday, and it is also the rainy season. We had breakfast at 9 a.m. with a customary breakfast of tea, coffee, island juices, cereal, breads, and fresh fruit. With a few hours to spare until we met our St. Lucian friends who will be assisting us this week, Shauna Walker (softball) did a practice run on her NCAA CHAMPS Life Skills program that she will be presenting tomorrow at the local school. Much to her delight, she garnered an A from her audience. We are excited for her to present tomorrow.
In the afternoon we walked to the soccer fields to meet with the head of the soccer academy down here, Gig, to discuss how we would collaboratively work over the next few days. He has about 80 kids he works with every Saturday and Sunday morning, and with relatively no help, he is overjoyed that we have come here to run a week's camp for him and his kids. He makes every effort in trying to keep this kids focused and "on track" but it is often a hard task and in many cases, these kids don't have the opportunity for positive role models in the home.
We are working with some teenagers who will assist us this week and the ultimate hope is that they will become community coaches and assist Gig on a weekly basis after we depart. We are excited about this and truly hope to inspire these teenagers to "give back" to their own community. We returned later to watch a local soccer game and the whole town came out to watch. The heavens opened up and the game still went on as players splashed around on the field, much to the delight of the locals and the SRU group!
Experiencing the local food has been an interesting experience. We've learned you can't plan to be in a rush to eat, as it truly works on "island time." The positive is that is gives the group a chance to sit and chat, and chat, and chat... all part of the Island experience.
We are ready to get up and running tomorrow with our projects... take care all of you... until next time.
