Making Adjustments

This is the view from the balcony of my host family. It's the Atlantic Ocean - nice, huh?

Everything is different and this is why everything is hard. Getting a cell phone was hard. In the United States, I buy a phone, pick a plan and sign a contract. The carrier bills me monthly. Here I buy a phone and then buy time and when I run out I have to find a Digicell Store to buy more time. Outgoing calls to landlines cost more than outgoing calls to cell phones unless you are using a landline phone. In other words, I think the way they do it is that if you mix cell and landline there’s more cost. Make sense? I didn’t think so. Anyway, incoming calls are free to me. Go figure.

ATM cards are new and the Bank of Saint Lucia is the first to offer them. Only one supermarket chain accepts ATM cards so people carry cash for all their purchases. I don’t have a supermarket in my village. I must get on a bus and go to Vieux Fort for that. So it really doesn’t matter that Circle J or whatever the name of the market is that takes the card because chances are I wouldn’t be able to find it anyway!

Bills are paid at the bank – yes I said the bank…the electric bill, phone bill, cable company – consequently, the bank lines are very long. I’ve been warned by almost everyone not to get caught up in them. You can pay on line by waiting at the bank with your bills while they set it up but because it’s new almost everyone I’ve talked to said they don’t want to chance their electricity being cut off due to a system that may not work yet.

The water was shut off in my village this weekend. Half the village was taking bucket baths. My family said they suppose they were repairing a broken pipe. No one knew for sure and no one really knew how long they would be carting buckets of water to their homes either.

It’s hard because it’s new and unfamiliar. It’s hard because there are new rules to learn. It’s hard because there’s so much change all at once. It’s easy because the people are friendly. It’s easy because anyone on the street will become my new best friend simply because I say “Bonjour, nom mewn se Karen. Koumonnon ‘w?” They laugh and appreciate my courage. (translation: Hello, my name is Karen. What’s your name?)