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On December 31st, 2003 my father married his companion of the last 7 years, Pamela Stanley in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The wedding was held at their church, and the reception at a hotel in downtown Albuquerque. The reception peaked at midnight, when the year changed to 2004. I traveled to New Mexico by car with my long-time road trip companion Vince Firn, one of my very best friends. |
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After returning from the southwest, I spent almost three months in Ann Arbor, Michigan, working for Creative Solutions and spending time with friends. The adjustment was pretty rough at first, especially the feeling of being so distant from strangers. I lived with my friend John Simpkins, who helped me get my feet on the ground while I was working to make enough money to buy a car and pay off some bills. Particularly important to me was the time I spent with my family, especially my grandmother. |
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Southwest Exploration with Dad Shortly after returning to the United States from the Peace Corps, I flew to New Mexico to visit my father and embark on a trip around the southwest. We drove from Albuquerque to Mesa Verde National Park to Silverton, Colorado, where we spent the night before hiking Handies Peak, one of the 14,000 foot peaks in the Colorado Rockies. From there we drove to Moab, Utah, where we spent the night before visiting Canyonlands National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park, and Zion National Park. The premier stop on our trip was Grand Canyon National Park, where we hiked from the rim to the river to the rim in one day. |
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Peace Corps Life - A Reflection Although I was only a Peace Corps volunteer for two years, I experienced a lifetime's worth of growth. This page is a collection of photographs and stories from the two years I spent in St. Vincent, mostly pictures from the village of Troumaca. In putting together this page, I can only lament the loss of more than an entire year's worth of photographs (July 2001-August 2002) when my laptop's hard drive was destroyed. Even so, this page paints a collage of the life I lived as a PCV in St. Vincent. |
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A week or so before I left St. Vincent to return to the United States upon completion of my Peace Corps service, I threw a going away party. In the Caribbean, when someone has a birthday or an anniversary or a wedding, they throw the party for all of their friends, so that's what I did. With Roxie's help, we bought enough drinks and food to cater for 150 people and threw a great party at Jules Anthony's house on the Cumberland hydro station in north leeward. Roxie and her sisters cooked a great meal, Mr. Cool DJ'd, and a few of my best friends from the Grenadines came up for the party. |
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Peace Corps Pre-Service Training for EC 71 in St. Lucia For the second time, I was invited by the Peace Corps to act as the Information Technology technical trainer for a new group of volunteers coming to the region, this time EC71. Unlike the first time, I was no longer "officially" a PCV, so I was paid for my work and was able to have Roxie come and spend two of the three weeks with me in St. Lucia. Working as a trainer provided me with a great opportunity to promote all of the positive aspects of the Peace Corps to new volunteers, and to spend time with Roxie in St. Lucia, the first time she had ever visited. |
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After spending a few days working with Adonal Foyle and his team in Canouan, Roxie and I spent a few days in the Grenadines. It would be my last visit to my favorite place in SVG until I returned one day. I met up with Charlie Boehm, my friend who was a PCV in Grenada for a couple of days. Brian Essenmacher came down from St. Vincent for a few days and visited Mayreau and the Tobago Cays with Roxie and I. I played a last game of dominoes with Papi (and lost), took a walk around Mayreau, and saw for the first time the beach where I would one day like to construct the Paradise Beach resort. |
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Adonal Foyle's Island Basketball Camp - Canouan In August of 2003, my friend Rod Westrate, a Peace Corps volunteer in Canouan told me that NBA player Adonal Foyle of the Golden State Warriors, born and raised in Canoun, was going to hold the first ever Adonal Foyle Island Basketball Camp, and that he was going to be helping out. He managed to get Roxie and I a hotel room at the Tamirand Beach Hotel and Roxie and I spent a few days working with Adonal and his crew. It was a great experience working with the kids and getting to know a few NBA players. |
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Vincy Mas 2003 was a festival to remember. For Roxie and I, it was somewhat of an anniversary, as we got to know each other during carnival 2002. This year, Roxie played mas and I followed her around taking photographs. J'ouvert was a blast, and so was the Soca Monarch show. A few months after carnival, Roxie and I discovered that the St. Vincent & the Grenadines tourism magazine featured a full page picture of her in her carnival costume as part of their promotion on carnival.
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In late June, my good friend and landlord Jules Anthony celebrated his 50th birthday by having a party at the Cumberland Hydro Station, where he lived and worked. It was a good chance to relax and enjoy the company of a large group of people whom I had gotten to be pretty close to over the course of the last two years. It also gave me a great idea about how and where to have a going away party. Jules and I worked together on the North Leeward Sports Association, and he introduced the game of cricket to me. |
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One day in June, Roxie and I decided to take a walk to the Troumaca dam with Maxi and Paul. We had heard about the dam, but had never visited. It was a typical day in St. Vincent, hot and humid, and the trees were thick with green and fruits were all around us. It was a nice chance to enjoy the natural beauty of St. Vincent without having to go too far from home. And, to top it all off, we came back with a nice bag full of mangos.
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In the beginning of June, Roxie and I took an excursion to Mustique. It was the third time that I had visited the land of the rich and famous, but the first time for Roxie. The day was a bit overcast, and Roxie wasn't feeling too good, so we spent most of our time relaxing on the beach rather than exploring. Little did we know that half a year later we would both be moving to Mustique to start a new life on this interesting little island...
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Of the many acronyms one learns in the Peace Corps, one is COS, which stands for Close Of Service. COS is basically a two day conference for all the volunteers in one group, where you get together and talk about the readjustment process of life back in the states, plans for grad school, careers, etc. I turned it into a week long vacation, and spent much of it with friends John Davis and Charlie Boehm, touring Grenada and visiting Carriacou. Charlie Boehm was a volunteer on Grenada, so he was our expert guide and gracious host. |
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Union Island with Brock & Roxie For two months from February to April in 2003, my good friend Brock came and lived with me, working as an extra in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie filmed in St. Vincent. While we took many trips and engaged in many adventures, one of the most interesting and enjoyable was our trip to the grenadines in March of 2003. My new girlfriend Roxie came along, and it marked the very first time that she had ever traveled to Union Island, Mayreau or the Tobago Cays. I tried out my underwater camera one day, and this is the result.
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Just a couple of weeks after I returned to St. Vincent in early 2003, my cousin Tara came for a visit. It was really great having her, not only to spend time with her, but because she was so eager and interested to tour the island, and I loved showing her around. We visited Dark View and Trinity Falls, climbed the volcano, visited the Owia Salt Ponds, spent time at the Beachfront Bar in Chateaubelair and took a trip to the Grenadines where we took the Captain Yannis day charter to Mayreau and the Tobago Cays. Special thanks to Tara for giving me her digital photos from this trip which are used on this web page. |
