August 15, 2005: Headlines: COS - Eastern Caribbean: Wellington Daily News: Megan Hawks is currently living in the Eastern Caribbean as a Peace Corps Volunteer
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August 15, 2005: Headlines: COS - Eastern Caribbean: Wellington Daily News: Megan Hawks is currently living in the Eastern Caribbean as a Peace Corps Volunteer
Megan Hawks is currently living in the Eastern Caribbean as a Peace Corps Volunteer
"I am also realizing that this is tough work. It's the hardest thing I've done so far in my life; however, I know this is just where I should be. I am also letting the idea sink in that this is now where I live. I live here. This is not a vacation, dream, or field trip. I live here and the Eastern Caribbean is now my home for 2 years."
Megan Hawks is currently living in the Eastern Caribbean as a Peace Corps Volunteer
Family maintains daily visits a world away
Megan Hawks is currently living in the Eastern Caribbean, and although she will likely enjoy the island life, she's not there for a suntan.
Hawks moved to the Eastern Caribbean in July of 2005 and will return from a two-year commitment with the Peace Corps in September of 2007. She will be helping children with special needs.
Hawks is the daughter of Jerry and Lucretia Hawks, Wellington, and a Wellington High School graduate with the class of 1997. In 2002, she graduated from Kansas University with a degree in Occupational Therapy.
Lucretia Hawks says Megan's decision came "out of the blue." She worries about her daughter in motherly ways, such as how her daughter, the "picky-eater," will manage the cultural changes in food, but she has been comforted by her daughter's accounts of her experience.
With the advent of technology, Megan is able to address these and other concerns through a blog site where she posts updates to her family and friends and responds to questions and comments they post.
Lucretia Hawks says she is thankful for the facility to have constant updates from her daughter.
"Today's communications keep me so up-to-date and are so much faster than if we were sending letters to each other," she said. "I'm so thankful we can keep up-to-date so easily."
The topic of food was one Megan volunteered on such a blog just after her arrival. She said she has been served pigs mouth, pigs tail, spam (for breakfast,) as well as fresh mangos, bananas, and some cherished grapes.
"I am adjusting and integrating fairly well," she wrote. "Yesterday, I chewed on sugar cane for dessert -- yum! Pig's mouth -- not so yum."
For volunteers of the Peace Corps, the first six weeks of the appointment are spent with host families, until they are each assigned to the permanent islands which they will call home for two years. This is the process Megan is in right now, Lucretia says, living on a farm with a large local family.
Lucretia says that while the islands have many resort areas, the people who live there have much simpler lives. Megan's host family are farmers with pigs and roosters, fruits and vegetables. Women bathe in the river, or "mud style" as Megan says, and children may ask her for the remainder of her lunch if they're still hungry.
Communication is relatively easy. Although spoken in a different manner, English is the native language to the area and Creole is also spoken.
Dancing though, is entirely different, and Megan reports she has been aided by her 13-year-old host brother in participating in a traditional dance of the West Indies.
Megan has already spent some time teaching in local villages, but she tells her family the kids are the ones who teach her.
Although getting easier every day, the transition is slow, which she admits had her longing for home at times. And, also practical, she posts, "I am realizing what I wish I brought and what I wish I left at home."
She continues, "I am also realizing that this is tough work. It's the hardest thing I've done so far in my life; however, I know this is just where I should be. I am also letting the idea sink in that this is now where I live. I live here. This is not a vacation, dream, or field trip. I live here and the Eastern Caribbean is now my home for 2 years.
"I am having the experience of my life, and I realize it. I have to be brave each day, but at night, I can think about the day and be thankful for my experience."
Lucretia Hawks says Megan will be allowed one or two visits home during this time and that both look forward to her welcoming the family on the islands when they go out to visit.
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Story Source: Wellington Daily News
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Eastern Caribbean
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