The Honeymoon is over

Part 1: The honeymoon is over.
Maybe that title sounds a little extreme, however it is pretty accurate. Traveling is almost always fun because you are experience new and exciting things. Living in a new country is pretty fun too, especially when you first move there. After a while culture shock usually kicks in. Once new and exciting, things are starting to seem more real here. Of course it's not the perfect dream land that a lot of people expect it to be. People from home always told me that I was lucky to be coming here and it would be like a vacation for two years. Ha! Of course I never believed that, when people would say it to me I would just smile and laugh. After all, people vacation to Chicago, right? Do they really think that people who live in Chicago are on constant vacation? Are native Kittitians on vacation their entire lives? Hopefully everyone who said that to me was joking.

Things aren't always easy here. While I do love it, I am certainly not as comfortable as I almost always was back at home. There are a lot of things that make me uncomfortable here, and many of them are just cultural norms that I will have to get used to. I'm not used to saying "good morning/afternoon/evening/night" to almost everyone I see (whether or not I know them). I'm not used to riding on a small bus every day. I'm not used to living with a host family. The diet is different, and I can't drink out of the tap (or at least I'm not supposed to). If I want a snack at night, I can't run down to the nearest gas station and grab something. I'm not used to being unable to understand people a lot of the time. I'm not used to looking different from 98% of the population. I'm not complaining about these things, they are just traits of living in a foreign country that I'm going to have to get used to... and I'm sure I will get used to them eventually.

Culture shock has affected probably everyone in our group so far, some more than others. With culture shock you have highs and lows. The lows usually consist of "ugh. I'm stuck on this tiny island still and won't be leaving it for a long long time." or "I love my host family but I really really can't wait to move into my own house." or "I really really don't want to use the energy to try and follow the conversation right now." I feel as if my lows have been pretty mild. Other volunteers I'm sure have experienced things that are much more difficult to get used to. Usually we are able to let those small (or large) things that get to us roll right off our backs. After a while though, they end up building and building and start to get under our skin. Some volunteers have experienced several racist remarks. Usually the remarks are created from ignorance and really are not meant to be personal, but after hearing them so many times it can cause a person a lot of stress. In this way our honeymoon is over. The ideal life of living in the sun, sand and sea has come to an end, and we are mostly experiencing a culture for what it's really worth. I'm sure that it will get worse at points, and eventually we will adjust to those things also, but for now can be difficult at times to come to terms with our reality as residents on this island. Don't worry though. We'll adjust.

We lost another member of EC80 this week. Evie went home, which is really too bad. Evie was our oldest member in her upper 70's, and really was an inspiration for all of us. This means that there are now only 9 of us left. We have made promises to each other that we will stay for the full two years. I don't think anyone else will be going home.

part 2: "A drinking club with a running problem"
Yesterday David, Saira, Tiffany, Patty, and myself joined the famed group "The Hash House Harriers". They are basically a running club that is very wild. Hash House Harriers have groups all over the world, and probably in most countries. The idea of the group is to go on a difficult/dangerous run or walk and then drink. I was pretty excited to join and looked up information online. In some groups they take a break halfway through the run to have a couple drinks, and then they finish up then run and drink some more. That sounded a little extreme to me, but it also sounded fun. Fortunately (for my liver) The St. Kitts chapter is more focused on the exercise than the drinking aspect.

The group meets once every three weeks in some spot on the island where they are going to hold their race. This week it was in Verchilds. I showed up with the others in EC80, and we met up with Geoff and Mike, who are in EC78. There was probably 30-40 people who participated. It was a pretty diverse group consisting of expats, Ross students, and locals. The course was kind of explained to us, and then we were sent off. The runners went one way while us walkers went another. In no way was this a casual stroll on the beach. We started off walking at a nice easy pace, but then we picked up significantly. We started heading south towards town, and then took some country road up a really really really big hill. I used up my water in the first five minutes, so I wasn't too sure how I was going to be able to finish without passing out. Once we made it to the top of the hill, we appeared to be in some overgrown sugar cane farm. The "road" we were on was overgrown with lots of thorny plants and thorny trees and thorny underbrush. It was not easy. But I loved it! I felt like I was in extreme cross country. Perhaps in the next few meetings I'll try the running. We eventually made it back safely to the point where we started. Once everyone was back they opened up the coolers and started grilling hot dogs and hamburgers. I drank a pop and a beer and expected that people would start heading out. No way. They had certain ceremonies they had to perform before people could leave. The first one was bringing out the two people who created the trail we followed. They were made to sit in an ice cold pot of water, insulted about how terrible their course was, insulted a little more (all in good fun of course), and then were told to chug a beer. Whatever was left of the beer they did not drink went on their heads. They did this for a few more people who did noteworthy things (such as taking phone calls or getting lost). Next, they asked everyone who was there for the first time to come forward and kneel. uh oh. We were the virgins of the group. They handed a beer (or pop if you didn't drink beer) to each of us. Then one man walked down the line and asked us our names (we had to shout our names) and then baptised us with beer. I was pretty smelly from sweat as it was, I'm sure the beer didn't help anything. After everyone was baptised they sang their beer chugging song, and we had to all finish off our drinks (or pour them on our heads. No way I'm wasting a beer!). Then to top it off, ice cold water was poured over our heads. A nice initiation.

All that said, I am very much looking forward to the next race.

I'll hopefully have pictures of all this sometime soon.