Finally, my dental came through. OK, now I can say, "I'm going to leave for the Peace Corps on August 25". What a process! We have three weeks of training in Castries, then everyone parts for their assigned island to complete four more weeks of training. I am assigned Saint Lucia so I stay put while other volunteers will be assigned to Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada and Carriacou, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Kitts and Nevis.
While living on the Caribbean Islands may sound like a vacation, behind the tourism industry the islands are confronted with increased unemployment, growing drug trafficking, and periodic natural disasters such as hurricanes and volcanoes. Opportunities for youth are particularly limited. Economically, the Eastern Caribbean nations are sustained primarily by single cash crops or tourism.
