Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers! In Saint Lucia, I’m told, Mother’s Day is a big deal – rum parties at the beach and tickets to the jazz festival happening this weekend.

Tomorrow marks three weeks since my arrival. The first two weeks I spent with my Cuso in-country program officer who found my apartment, oriented me to where the supermarkets are, helped me set up a local bank account, took me to get a Sim card for my cell phone, explained where and how to pay my electricity bill and showed me the ropes of the bus system to and from work and the hospital. Sprinkled in between learning all the practicalities of life on the island were online meeting with the Cuso program manager in Jamaica to discuss safety and security, emergency contacts and my work plan for the placement.

The third week I met my Department of Gender Affairs colleagues, the director, two gender relation officers and an evaluator. I was invited to attend a two-hour workshop one of the gender relations officers presented to a group of 25 local women who are part of a mushroom farming project sponsored by Taiwan.

https://www.govt.lc/news/taiwan-assists-rural-women-in-sustainable-mushroom-production

https://stlucia.loopnews.com/content/mushroom-collective-receives-grant-support-sustainable-production

The workshop spurred many lively discussions and interactive exercises on the roles and expectations of women, and together the group unpacked the power dynamics and gender equality issues women here face. It was a fabulous opportunity to hear local voices and see first-hand just a sliver of the work the Gender Affairs department is involved with.

Next week, I move into my office in the Ministry headquarters in downtown Castries. The Gender Affairs department is within the Ministry of Public Service, Home Affairs, Labour and Gender Affairs. So tomorrow, I meet the Hon. Dr. Virginia Albert-Poyotte, the Minister, and will be sharing an office with the Ministry’s one communications person.

To those of you who have sent emails or messages over the past three weeks, THANK YOU. I did not have the capacity, mentally or emotionally, to reply, but I heard you and so appreciated those tethers to home. To say I have been overwhelmed is an understatement. The transition for having total agency over your own life to what felt like none, was a shock to my body and my mind. There were more than a few extremely hard days, many sleepless nights and a lot of mentally telling myself to take it one day at a time.

Looking back, I’m much more grounded, but I’m not 100%, and I suspect it will be a month or more before I can see where I am going clearly. Every day is full of a million lessons.

The silver lining –

• The neighbour downstairs, an expat from Guyana, is one of the kindest most emotionally intelligent souls on the planet. 
• The neighbour next door, a local and the first person I met in the area, has the biggest warmest smile, and he and his wife are simply what my dad would call “good people”.
• The neighbour whose side yard backs onto my kitchen door is an expat engineer from Cuba, who calls out loudly “Hello, my friend!!!!” across our yards whenever we chance to cross paths.
• My Gender Affairs colleague, a local woman who lived in the States for 25 years before coming back to the country recently, makes me laugh constantly and is helping me, in her words, “get comfortable” here.
• The hot pink and white orchids in the front yard of the house across the road, and their cat who sits and watches me in the evening from the window when I take some air on the front porch, are daily reminders to be in the moment.
• The small quiet cove, a 20 min walk away, has stunning sunsets and is an excellent spot to swim.
• The rum, it is good and inexpensive; however, the diet coke is exorbitantly priced ($35 Canadian dollars for 12 cans)

Below are a few images from the past few weeks.