My first summer in Peace Corps is over. The six-month vacation ban has also been lifted. A lot has happened since I last updated my blog. I figured this would be the appropriate time to give a update on what I have done and talk about what I have coming up my first full school year of Peace Corps.

First, what exactly did I do with my summer? Well to start off the summer was pretty boring for the first two weeks. Then in the third week of July things got interesting. The Youth Center, where I work year round, had a camp from Guadeloupe. The age range of the campers was 12 to 17, both boys and girls. The fun part of it was that they did not speak English at all. I do speak a bit of French, but not very well. My role with the camp was essentially two parts, to serve as a liaison between the Dominican kids and the French kids, and to solve any and all problems that might have aroused. The group consisted of about 32 kids and 5 counselors. The week turned out to be pretty hectic, think I worked over 80 hours, but fun non-the-less. We visited the Kalinago territory, what seems like every waterfall on the island, the Roseau market, the Coal Pot Soap Factory, and numerous other sites around the island. This turned out to be a great experience for both the Dominican kids and the French kids, and I believe both groups enjoyed the company of each other greatly.

The second the French campers left, the Work Study Camp sponsored by the Youth Division began. This one was a bit different, not a sleep over camp, and all Dominicans. The theme of the camp was co-operatives, in honor of the United Nations recognizing this year as the year of the co-operatives. The campers this time around were a bit older too, ranging from 14 to 20. This was also the period of the Olympics so it was nice that we ended pretty early some days, which gave me a chance to go home and catch some of the events live in London.  I also invited campers over to watch with me, and as a rule of thumb to Peace Corps, don’t invite teenagers over in the middle of the day. They expect food. I also made a few new friends from the group. This was my first exposure to kids from my community who were attending college. I discovered that I had a lot more in common with them than I previously thought. It was also nice to make friends close to my age. Previously I spent most of my time hanging out with 14 and 15 year olds, but I think that is the average age of all Peace Corps Volunteers’ friends.

I also got a lot of work done outside of camps this summer; I have been working for Waitukbuli Entrepreneurs Lévé (WEL), a NGO dedicated to developing entrepreneurs on the island. I have had the pleasure of helping to write their by-laws, and I think I have edited about 50 by-laws. I have also been serving on the board and helping to plan the retreat that is held each year to train new members of the Dominican community that want to start a business. This is probably the most professional and well-run organization I have encountered on the island. It’s due mostly to the effectiveness of the president that things get done. I cannot wait to see where this organization will go over the next two years.

I have also started working for another NGO on the island. Probably the most exciting part of my experience so far has been the Dominica Amateur Athletics Association (DAAA) appointing me their Administrative Assistant. My goal is to help shore up their internal controls and create protocols for how everything should be run in the organization. The group has great deal of potential and the president and vice president are both great leaders whose love for track and field is unmatched. I think out of all the organizations and projects I will work on while in Dominica, this one may turn out to be the most rewarding.

So what’s coming up now? Well, a few weeks ago we started back up athletics practice with the Pierre Charles secondary school kids. I think this year will be a very good year for the team and the kids and the potential there is superb. In conjunction with the team, the head coach and I decided that it would beneficial to the students if we incorporated academics into the team. Starting sometime in September, two hours before practice I will be offering tutoring and homework help to members of the team. I want to stress the importance of academics to them the same way my coaches did when I competed in athletics.  I also want to ensure that being a part of the team does not adversely affect their grades, but rather allows them the opportunity to improve their grades. Athletics and tutoring will be in the afternoons, because my mornings will be spent running the libraries at both Pichelin and Bagatelle primary schools. I have decided to shift my role at Pichelin solely to working with reading and the library because I think that would be the most effective use of my time. As for Bagatelle, I believe I can help ensure that the library is utilized to its fullest potential.

That is what I do during the week. For the weekends I will be serving as the coordinator of the Youth Center Club in Grand Bay. The club recently got a new president, and she is very driven. Now that the summer is over I would like to see the club get things going in the next couple weeks. The club once boasted about 50 members and help activities in the community every weekend. I would like to see it return to that prominence. I also traveled with the Adventure Club and Environmental club last spring on their Saturday outings. I plan on continuing to do the same.

I hope to start updating my blog again regularly again. I have been awful the past couple of months and hope to have tons of photos up this week from all the activities I did over the summer.