Scott and Carrie's Jamaican Peace Corps Blog

Monthly Post

2009-07-25T08:10:00.002-04:00

Looking at the blog for the first time in a while, I see it is time for the monthly post. This one, however, will be a bit different. We have now completed our Peace Corps assignment and are back in the US. July 24 was our last day. We were working very hard up until July 22, even working weekends, to finish up a project, so we didn't have much time to really reflect on our service until now.

It is different thinking about it from the states rather than in Jamaica. I am glad that I did it and if I had the opportunity I would definitely have made the same choice, although I will admit that I would hope for a different country. Jamaica isn't really any one's first choice for a country. It is a tourist country which makes it hard for people to understand our life there, which was much different. It is also difficult to travel around to other countries (almost all flights go to America, London, or Canada with a few others to Grand Caymans, Bahamas, and Cuba) which is one of the reasons we joined Peace Corps. Since Jamaica is so close to the US it feels a little bit like cheating too. You can duck out and head home if you want to at any time. Some volunteers went back 4-5 times. When you are living on the other side of the world you can't take a quick 5 day trip home.

I feel that I got a lot out of the experience and grew immensely as an individual. Jamaica can be a hard place. It can be dirty, hot, difficult and at the same time it can be beautiful and wonderful. I would not say our time was wonderful, but it was good. We worked hard and I know that we made a difference for a lot of people. The victories were peppered with failures and disappointment, but that is what helped me to grow as a person and to learn so much. Hopefully they will keep up the work now that we are gone. The want and the need is there, they just need a little motivation and assistance.

We now have a little bit of travel and visiting friends and relatives before starting our new jobs.

Summer in Jamaica

2009-06-27T16:24:00.000-04:00

I don't know how many people are still following the blog as we only post about once every month, but we are still here. Summer has hit Jamaica with a bang in the past couple of weeks. This is in contrast to the winter when summer is here, but it is a milder form of summer. It has finally stopped cooling off at night. A couple of nights ago it was 87 when we went to bed at 10:30 and 83 when we woke up at 6 the next day. This morning it was 85 at 7 AM. When we leave, we are moving to a place where the July lows average 48. I think Carrie will invest in some sweaters.

We are nearing the end so are starting to think about the past two years. People are asking what we think of Jamaica and the Peace Corps. There were very difficult times and very good times. Overall it was definitely worth it and the experience was great. Another common question is would you recommend this for other people. I would say that I would recommend this for some people. It just isn't right for everyone. All in all, it has been a very good experience and hopefully we can take some of our remaining time here to spend quality time with the friends we have made.

Vacation

2009-05-17T11:48:00.002-04:00

We recently returned from our first real vacation on the island. Daimon and Kirsten came down for a week and we had a great time showing them around. we spent the last night in Montego Bay with them and once they flew out early in the morning, we took off on our own vacation. 10 days traveling along the north coast. We spent 3 days in St. Anns Bay with Kelly and had a great time cooking, walking, and we did successfully spend most of a day at the beach. This is a greater accomplishment than you might think because we can't sit still and I don't really like sand. We then traveled to Portland where we spent 4 days with Josh and Jesse in their amazing site. Hiking, playing in waterfalls, swimming in the river, and catching up on The Office on their wall (their projector is awesome!). We spent the last couple of days staying at Great Huts in Boston Bay enjoying jerk pork and reading books. We actually spent a whole day reading books. I don't know if that has ever happened before. Then home.

Dolphins

2009-04-17T11:15:00.000-04:00

Several weeks ago we went for a 4 mile run and when we were finished we were walking along the beach to cool down. Every morning between six and seven there is a large group of older Jamaicans who come down to walk and swim and they are very friendly. This morning they were all focused on looking out at the water and they didn't say much. Then I saw a fin break the surface. There were two dolphins a couple hundred yards out. They just swam along with their fins and tails breaking the surface every once in a while. We slowed our walk and watched them for about 10 minutes. It was the first time we had seen dolphins, but we had heard that they were in the area. It made for a special morning.

Milestones being reached...

2009-04-16T13:13:00.002-04:00

As of next week, I can proudly say that I will have completed my secondary project. My adult literacy program will be officially turned over to the community center for continuation. I will spend the rest of my time at the center working to organize my materials and create a few more easy-to-read adult literacy booklets. I will also continue to tutor my students on a more informal basis. It has been such a pleasure to work with all of them and so rewarding to be witness to their progress.

It's clear to us that the season is shifting into full summer. Yesterday was the first day that an afternoon rain shower caught us without umbrellas. This usually only happens once or twice before we get back in the habit of carrying umbrellas every day for rainy season. This will be our third and final Jamaican summer!

Peace,
Carrie

A Massive Post of Everything-ness

2009-02-08T18:48:00.003-05:00

It is incredible hard to believe that we have approximately six months of service left. Our of 26 total months, a measly six remain. Crazy.

We spent the holidays in America with our own families, though we had several festivities we had to decline in Jamaica to accommodate our trip. Of the 28 days we were in the US, we only saw 1.5 days of bare ground. We wished for snow and we got it. We loved all of it, from walking to skiing to hiking to driving. The time with family, friends, and familiar comforts was rejuvenating. Also, our cat still remembered me and slept at my feet every night. Just wonderful.

Returning to the island was also very heart-warming. Within an hour of landing we both received several phone calls from friends and coworkers. It was good to come back to our home and our community. This place has become comfortable now. The true test of that is to go away and come back.

That being said, we are full-fledged back in working mode now. With this comes the true realization of the continued existence of the frustrating and disheartening parts of this experience. It also brings with it the prospect for continued success and reaching out to just one more person.

We have already had some good fun since we came back as well. We went to our first Jamaican all night stage show, Rebel Salute. The music was good and the overall vibe of the concert was positive. We saw some big name artists (such as Queen Ifrika, Taurus Riley, Beenie Man/Ras Moses) and felt just a little more Jamaican for having had this experience. Though most of our good Jamaican friends that came with us wanted very little to do with the comfortable tarps and blankets we brought. They were up front dancing all night long! The all night long part was hard enough for me.

We were also able to watch the inauguration live on CNN, which was a treat for us. We happened to be at a Peace Corps conference and they altered the schedule to let all the participants watch the coverage. Huzzah!

Remember, I said this was a massive post of everything-ness, so get ready. Upon leaving my job in the US, I figured that I would miss working in the laboratory after so many years. I do miss it, but not in the way that I expected. I still get the same sense of challenge and accomplishment through the development work we do here. Thers is a real-time feedback mechanism in social work (the other person or people) that adds another dimension to the experience of challenge, inquiry, execution and analysis. The highs of success seem higher and the lows of failure seem easier to endure as there is a human on the other end driving you to try again. I do miss the precision, accuracy and ability to investigate single variables at a time...

And finally, I would like to say how much I love banana pancakes. They are delicious. And there is a very good song by Jack Johnson that should be played while making them.

Peace,
Carrie

New Pictures

2008-12-22T10:55:00.001-05:00

It took me about 3 months, but I have finally updated our photos on our Flickr site. Hopefully I will have even more up in the next week or two.

We Are Still Around

2008-12-17T17:25:00.002-05:00

For the past four months or so our blog has been pretty sparse and boring. That is partly because we have been so busy and partly because we have been in Jamaica for so long. We just reached the point where it didn't feel like there was anything to write about. I am going to try to catch up on the past couple months. Some of this may have been posted already, but bear with me.

I will try to fill some information in on the past several months. Carrie has been spearheading adult literacy classes two nights a week that I am helping her with and I tried to start a literacy class one night a week in my community that I was doing. Carrie's classes have been excellent and all is going well. We had assessments last week to see what progress had been made since August and several students had made excellent progress. I wish I could say the same for my class. It has probably been my biggest flop as a Peace Corps volunteer. I will give it one more shot after Christmas, but there just doesn't seem to be any community interest. Everyone says they want the classes, but no one shows up. Oh well. Other than that I have been working on my rural water projects and have been branching out into other communities and am now actively working with three and have a fourth that is ready for assistance. I am currently in the grant writing stage, but hopefully will have some projects getting off the ground next year before we are done with our service. I am also working with an organic farming group that has been getting excellent support and has been promised quite a bit of funding in the new year. It has been a huge success.

In September and October we mostly just working. No big trips or really much travel. We found that we had community events most weekends and mostly we were feeling very integrated into the area. The last week of October and first week of November my parents were in town. That was an excellent visit and gave me a good break as I was working partial days and then spending time with them. They saw the office where I work as well as the communities were both of us work. It was also the first time we did a lot of the tourist activities in the area. We went to YS Falls, Black River Safari, and the Appleton Rum Tour. We also spent a night in Negril and a day on the beach. Hopefully soon I will have some pictures posted on Flickr.

The rest of November was mostly work again. We didn't do much for Thanksgiving. We had a dinner planned with some local Americans, but the teacher we had lined up for our class had to cancel so we ended up teaching instead. They did save us some turkey so we each got a turkey sandwich the next day.

December has been busy but fun. The first weekend was the Reggae Marathon in Negril. We were planning on volunteering last year but ended up moving that day so we said we had to go this year. It was well worth it. We were working at a water station so had to be there Friday night for our "training". There was also a free pasta dinner for all of the runners and volunteers. The race had 700 runners and 300 volunteers and the organizers got 8 hotels to cater the event. Each hotel set up a tent with 5-6 different pasta dishes, salads, fruit, bread, etc. It was wonderful. The race was set to start at 5:15 am to give the runners the best part of the day to run in and the water station people had to be there at 4:15 am to set up. We woke up at 2:30 to get across Negril and to the check in for breakfast that wasn't there. The breakfast ended up showing up at 10:30 with the lunch (luckily most volunteers had left by then so no long lines). The race started on time and we were at Mile 4, which was perfect. We handed out bag water and bag Gatorade (for those of you that don't know what bag water is, imagine a closed plastic bag full of water). The race included a full marathon, half marathon, and 10k race. 4 miles in most of the runners/walkers were still in a pack and it only took an hour from the time the race leader passed us until the last walker went by. By 7 am we were cleaned up and done. We walked back up to the finish line and watched the first marathon runners come in, some of our Peace Corps friends finish, and stuck around until lunch. Then back to our hotel for a nap before heading home. It was an excellent experience and I loved it all.

The weekend after the marathon was the Bluefields Bay Marine Festival which was put on by Carrie's organization. She put a lot of time and energy into the event and I came to assist however I could and to put up a booth for the health department. There were two days of the festival with a conference of fishermen, policy makers, and other persons involved with or impacted by the fishing industry on Saturday and a fun day with boat races and cultural events on Sunday. The festival couldn't have gone better and everyone involved thought it was excellent.

We are now on vacation and enjoying the time to relax for several weeks to regroup ourselves before getting ready for the last 6-7 months of service. I should find some time to post pictures and make sure everything is up to date.

I also have to say Go Griz!! The University of Montana is in the FCS (I-AA) football championship game on Friday night. I was able to listen to the semifinal game on the internet last Friday night. It is nice to be able to follow some of these things.

Scott

Chicken Foot Soup

2008-11-21T11:29:00.003-05:00

Jamaican food is excellent. There have been very few things that I have tried and not liked. One item that we get at social functions a lot is chicken foot soup, and it is always delicious. So, we decided to give a shot at it (after a brief lesson from a local).

The first thing is, it is weird to work and cut chicken feet. I kept having an odd feeling of cutting the fingers off little children. Yes, quite odd. But the results are well worth it. The soup was fantastic and probably one of our best attempts at a Jamaican dish (although I think we make a really good stew peas with pig tail).

I eat chicken feet in the soup when it is fresh cooked and they are hot. I don't like it as much as pig tail, but it's not bad. I'm not sure I can do it in leftovers and I know I couldn't choke down cold chicken feet. Just how it goes. They are a key ingredient in the soup though. I like a thick soup so full of vegetables it is almost a stew and it seems that the feet release gelatin during cooking that makes for a perfect soup consistency. Lovely!

2nd Annual Sparky the Plug

2008-11-17T16:17:00.004-05:00

Thanks to those of you last year who made it worthwhile for me to advertise local fundraising events on our blog, I’m going to do it again.

The Bluefields Bay Fishermen’s Friendly Society is hosting the Bluefields Bay Marine Conference and Festival on December 13^th and 14^th, 2008. The conference is the first grassroots effort to bring together fishermen, interests from the tourism sector, and government officials to discuss the environmental issues surrounding the marine environment in Jamaica. After all, these are issues that impact everyone's livelihoods, whether they are harvesting from the sea or marketing it to visitors. The festival is a community cultural event which includes cultural music, food, and educational booths, as well as a fundraiser for the Society’s yearly operating budget. Here is a ticket for the festival:

My proposal to all of you is to purchase a ticket to support this event. $350 Jamaican dollars is about $5US. Please contact us via email and we will work out the logistics. No international checks this year, we promise. We have another idea that is flawless and secure for all involved.

Thanks!! And happy beginning of the holiday season! It's only in the upper eighties these days...it definitely feels like winter is coming.

-Carrie

Wow, It's Been A Month Again

2008-11-13T10:51:00.002-05:00

It has been another month since we have posted. I think the large time frame is because time is different here. I may have mentioned this once before, but it bears mentioning again. It is summer here 12 months a year so it is hard to tell how long ago something happened. Cory came and visited the last week of June. That was over 4 months ago but it seems like only a month or two because there have been no seasonal changes to indicate a break. As such, something that happened a month ago can seem like just a couple of weeks ago. I only wish the time going forward felt as fast (and some days it does).

Mom and Dad came down to visit the last week of October and stayed for 10 days. It was fantastic! We took them to see all the places we work and to the different communities. They seemed to have a real good time. We also enjoyed the weekend with a trip to Negril, YS Falls, and the Black River Safari. It is difficult balancing work and pleasure when there are visitors here, but it is great seeing family. I hope to have some time over the holidays to post more pictures as work slows down. Right now I am too busy trying to get some work done before December. It seems like everyone wants everything now because once the holidays are here everything slows down.

Scott

It's Been Awhile

2008-10-15T12:05:00.002-04:00

It has been a month since we have posted to the blog. Why the long wait? There are a couple of reasons. One reason is that nothing significant or interesting has really happened for the past month. This isn't exactly true, but more or less the case. For the past month we have been going to work and coming home. We haven't traveled or really done anything exciting.

What has happened over the past month. I got bit by a dog while running about two weeks ago. He took a pretty good chunk of skin out of my right calf. For those volunteers who are looking for a way to meet more people and integrate into the community, I highly recommend getting bit. I was in the community where Carrie works. Every time we would go there all I would hear is "Miss Carrie, Miss Carrie". Nobody even knew my name. Now I hear "Scott" and "How is your foot" (in Jamaica the foot starts at the hip and ends at the toes). I get more attention than ever.

The only other thing that I can think of right now that has happened is the ocean has cleared up so snorkeling has improved. In the past month I have seen lobster, sting ray, jelly fish, and too many little fish to count. Some of the fish are plain, some are pretty, and some are down right ugly. They are a lot of fun to watch.

Scott

Photos Added to Flickr

2008-09-15T17:48:00.001-04:00

I have uploaded photos to my Flickr account from the past month. A link is at the right hand side of the screen.

Scott

Continuing Success Stories

2008-09-15T13:58:00.002-04:00

I really enjoy sharing our success stories with this blog audience. Of course there have also been challenges and failures, but those aren’t near so uplifting to write about. Our recent successes:

Community work day: Scott organized a Peace Corps/community work day to help clean up the community and do some landscaping work. Together with people from the community, we picked up more than 25 bags of garbage. It filled up the entire back of a truck (the bed was about four times the size of a pick-up truck). As we walked along the road, children from the yards would run out to see what we were doing. Several of them put on gloves and worked with us for a while. It rained before we were finished, but we still got a lot done including cleaning out some drainage areas so roads and yards don’t flood. To follow up the work day, we had a cook-out dinner at our house for all those who were working. We fed about 20 people from the Peace Corps, the community, and our yard. It was wonderful to cook and host.

Literacy Class: My literacy class participants dwindled over the summer so I moved the class to a larger, more central location. The first class was Tuesday, and there were six people there. Disappointed, I talked with several people I knew in the community to bring more people to the class. On Thursday, there were 18 people. Huzzah! We had a very vibrant second class and I hope most, if not all, come back this week. Plus, I now have a classroom that I can permanently keep materials in (no more running a class out of our tiny house and carrying everything we need up the hill each day) and we have secured $100US per month in donations for teaching supplies and to rent the facility.

Let’s hear a “hip hip” for these victories!

Peace,
Carrie

Gustov Blew Off My Hair

2008-09-08T17:07:00.001-04:00

We weren’t very good about keeping people informed during the storm. Sorry, but it didn’t seem like anything that needed updating from here. The eastern side of the island apparently had more heavy rain that resulted in some serious flooding that took out houses, roads, bridges, etc. On our side of the island not a lot happened. The storm moved so slow that we sat outside having a BBQ in the yard with our landlord and other people in the yard until the sun went down while the storm was raging on the other side of the island. It came quietly in the night, knocked out the power, and then rained for a day. It was mostly like a good thunderstorm that lasted for a couple of days. We were without power for 1.5 days, but that is about all that happened here.
I did get bored during the storm and shaved my hair off with my battery powered beard trimmer (which took all the rechargeable batteries in the house and had to be touched up a couple days later). It had been a year since I had cut my hair. Everyone now jokes that Gustav blew my hair off. In reality, I think I was just frustrated with the lack of control with my life and needed to change something. I cut my hair, changed my ring tone on my phone, and put a new background on my computer. I feel like a new person. That is about all that I have control over right now. Also, my hair was hot and was getting in my face a lot.
This past weekend we went to Ocho Rios and spent Saturday with a group of 21 volunteers playing in a waterfall called Blue Hole. It was a fantastic day jumping and playing in a couple of deep pools under a few waterfalls. We try to avoid large groups of volunteers, but we were in a remote location so the fact that almost 1/5 of all volunteers on the island were there didn’t detract from the fun. Carrie and I then went to another volunteer’s site and helped with some water sampling on Sunday before coming back early Monday morning.
I haven’t posted pictures for a long time. I try to do it once a month (because that is about how often I take pictures) so it must almost be time again. I will try to do it in the next couple of weeks.

The 200 M Finals

2008-08-20T10:29:00.002-04:00

The Olympic spring races are like Jamaica's Super Bowl. Especially this year when Usain Bolt is running like he is. We watched the 100 m final at home on Saturday morning before going about our business. This morning I was at work when the 200 m final was shown. I tried to find it online, but couldn't. With only a few minutes to spare I knew that there was a tv in the waiting room at the clinic next door, so I walked over. I was near the back of the room with approximately 40 people between me and the tv. I knew I was in trouble early when they showed Bolt getting ready to get in the blocks and everyone stood up and yelled. I figured I only had a small chance at best to actually see the race.

The start was subdued with everyone getting very quiet and waiting. There was some light cheering as he came around the first corner. That was all I saw. Once it was clear that he was out in front coming down the back stretch everyone between me and the tv stood up and rushed the tv. Only about 1/10 of the people in the room actually saw the race as everyone else saw people jump up and down and cheer. I knew Bolt won, but that was it. I hung around for a few minutes and saw the replay. Wow. It was an interesting experience. Everything shut down for 15 minutes.

A proud moment of sorts

2008-07-21T19:26:00.005-04:00

We have been fiddling around with a garden for several months now. Our space is limited and our tomato and bean plants didn't yield much more than tasty snacks (though they were tasty and fresh). However, our pumpkins did great! Just by using the seeds from a pumpkin we purchased at the market, Scott managed to grow and harvest three pretty decent pumpkins. Here is one that we picked today and should manage to feed us for the rest of the week. Pumpkin pasta...pumpkin soup...pumpkin souffle...pumpkin omelets...pumpkin rice...red peas and pumpkin...pumpkin bread...pumpkin pie! We are also saving the seeds to toast and plant another vine or two.

So hats off to producing enough of something to make a dent (ding?? scratch??) in our food expenditures for the week.

New Photos

2008-07-15T11:41:00.000-04:00

More photos have been added to the Flickr site.

Summer Is Here

2008-07-09T12:19:00.001-04:00

Today it felt like summer for the first time in a while. Then I realized, schools are out. Suddenly it was easy to get a taxi and there aren't children in uniforms every where. Schools here let out in early July, not May or June. Two months of easy travel!!

However, the ease of travel comes at a price. In the last couple of weeks the weather has gotten hotter. What does that really mean? It doesn't cool off at night. The temperatures during the day really aren't that much different, but the extra 4-7 degrees at night make it really hard to fall asleep. Last night our bedroom was 86 degrees when we were going to bed at 10 pm. It cooled down to 82 during the night. This is a big difference over those 72 degree nights back in March. Even just a few weeks ago it was in the low 80s as we went to sleep. I guess I will stop sweating some time in November.

One Year

2008-07-06T09:37:00.002-04:00

On July 3, it was both our one year anniversary for coming to Jamaica and our third wedding anniversary. That means about 14 months to go (give or take). The past year has been a mix of ups and downs but in general it was been a good experience and I feel like I am getting a lot done. The time has been going fast and I hope that continues. I am still coming around to the thought that it is summer back in the US. It was May before I figured out it was spring so hopefully by September I will remember that it is summer. I do miss seasons.

We Left for Miami One Year Ago

2008-06-30T11:23:00.002-04:00

As I sit here writing this blog it has struck me that we left for Miami exactly one year ago. We spent two days in training and then left for Jamaica on July 3rd. Thursday will be our one year anniversary on the island. We still have a little more than a year left as our volunteer service didn't start until training was over in August, but it is still a milestone.

My brother Cory and his girlfriend Marie have been in town for the past week. We have had a lot of fun going around showing them our little corner of Jamaica and our projects. It makes me proud of the work we are doing and the people who are our Jamaican friends. Some days it is hard to stay focused and positive on our projects and the seeming lack of progress and how it seems like we aren't integrated enough into the communities. Then we start showing what we have been working on to outsiders and we get a new perspective. I can see that we are making progress and that the people really do appreciate the work we are doing.

I haven't posted new pictures for a long time and they are building up. We took a trip to the St. Thomas lighthouse a couple weeks ago. It was a very nice trip and I have some photos from it. It is the farthest eastern point in Jamaica. I was curious about the garbage that had washed up on the beach near the lighthouse. Most of it had come from Haiti. Hopefully there will be more up in the next couple of weeks.

One of those moments...

2008-06-19T22:39:00.004-04:00

This afternoon I had one of those moments that just makes me so glad that I made the choice to come here. I am fairly certain that it won't come across very well in text, but I feel like it is one of those key moments that I just want to share. I started to write out the context and it got cumbersome and boring. So I will just sum up:

1) The idea to ask adult literacy class participants to perform community service projects of their own creation and design in lieu of payment for the class IS NOT a bad idea. I am so proud of them and their initiative.

2) The literacy primer that I wrote is a hit (which was a risk for me since I am really not a writer or an illustrator). Today my class groaned when I said we had to stop reading in order to go on to other things. There is absolutely no reason that books that are easy to read need to be boring. We are in the middle of the second 10-week session and they are clearly excited about reading. I can only hope this keeps up. Again, I am so proud of them all.

Hopefully we will have some new pictures up soon. It has been a while since we posted and we have traveled a bit recently. I'm hoping to have pictures of the baby goats that have to be born any day now at the end of the beach road...the momma goat is huge and has been so for weeks now. Soon come.

Summer in Antartica

2008-06-06T09:06:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we were watching a nature program that was talking about the poles. When they started to talk about summer at the poles Carrie mentioned how funny it is to think about that. It struck me, it's like talking about winter in the tropics. It is currently June and we have been here for 11 months. Some days I can barely tell what month it is and if I don't think about it I couldn't tell you what season it is back in the US. Winter here is a little more comfortable, but it is 12 months of summer. Even the US south has a period where a jacket is nice and you know that the season has changed. Not here. It's not something you can really prepare yourself for. Time does pass quickly though.

Time has been going fast and it is hard to believe we have been here for 11 months. Our projects keep us busy and we really don't have time to think about it. We are starting to realize that we are closing in on 1 year left and if we have anything we really want to do we had better get started. I know that I need to start computer classes at the health department and I know that if I don't get them started soon they will never happen. I also tend to pick up small things every week or two that I help the health department with that fills my time.

Congratulations Rob and Layla!! We are looking forward to seeing you in Jamaica.

Labour Day

2008-05-27T12:42:00.002-04:00

Last Friday was Jamaica's Labour Day. This brings to mind the last camping trip of the year, grilling, etc. Usually a three day weekend that is spent as a holiday. Not so in Jamaica. Labour Day is a day for just that, labour. Most communities or groups chose a project and people get together and work on the project. These projects include fixing potholes in the road, painting crosswalks at schools, cleaning up litter in communities, planting trees, and the list goes on. I like the idea of a day for all of the country to donate their time to a community project. If only there were one Labour Day a month.

Language Barrier?? Yup, I suppose so.

2008-05-25T00:10:00.002-04:00

This past week I prepared a classroom lesson on nutrition, and vitamins in particular, since one of the classes was studying foods in science class. I broke down the lesson into 1) identifying the vitamins (A-K- a fun alphabet game- where is vitamin F?) 2) learning how the vitamins help our bodies (vitamin C helps our immune system!) and 3) discussing what foods have each of these vitamins. This all followed up with a fun bingo game. With a few exceptions, I don't usually know which classes I will be visiting on a given day, so my lesson plans are vague enough to adapt on the fly to kids from 3rd to 9th grade. The vitamin lesson was a little more advanced than usual, but I ended up spending an hour with third grade anyway.

Vitamin K is a lipophilic compound involved in post-translational modification of blood coagulation proteins. Yes, I do understand all that with my molecular biology background, but my grade 3 class didn't stand a chance. I summed it all up by describing vitamin K as helping blood clotting. Does anyone familiar with patois see where this is going?

As I started to talk about vitamin K and it's helpful effects in making our blood clot, I received wide open stares from the students. I repeated myself. Same wide-eyed stares. I kept on with the lesson by asking kids what happens when they cut themselves, do they keep bleeding or does it stop? They said it stopped, and I said that's what vitamin K helps with. On we go with the lesson. There was even a blood clotting question in the follow-up bingo game.

It wasn't until my walk home that I realized my mistake. In patois, "cloth" (pronounced "clot") is a general all-purpose swear word, especially with partnered with certain words, many of which I will not mention here, but yes, blood is one of them.

Oops.

Sea Phobia Continued...

2008-05-20T09:32:00.002-04:00

We finally did it. We live so close to the sea, but we rarely go for a morning swim for exercise. This morning we did it. Finally.

It was a very nice morning for it, though the sea was cloudy and a little rougher than it usually is at that time of day. I was wearing my nifty prescription goggles, but they didn't make much difference since the water was so cloudy. We probably managed to swim for about 150 yards before I got stung by a jellyfish. We pondered getting out to walk back, but decided to just swim back in the more shallow water, avoiding the general area where I got stung. Then Scott got stung by a jellyfish. It was a very good lesson for me to know that the sting isn't terrible. It has completely gone away now with the exception of a bit of a lingering rash (just what I need...). We didn't get a fabulous workout, but it is a start.

I think next time we will wait for the water to be clear. Then we can at least see the jellyfish coming.

Jamaica Is Kind Of Like A Dostal Family Reunion

2008-05-19T10:29:00.002-04:00

For any Dostal in-law, the feeling of being somewhat overwhelmed during a family reunion is a familiar one. There are many conversations at once, often in the same circle of people, and the key to participating in the discussion is the volume of your voice. I love the feeling of community, family, and love that these reunions (and conversations) evoke, but there is a development process for actually participating in the chats.

Scott and I had a familiar experience in Jamaica the other day. We spent an afternoon in a village just chatting with people for a couple hours. Though, I should say, it felt more like being an in-law at a Dostal family reunion. The conversation ranged from the health of their babies, to water, to what happened (or didn’t happen) at a party last week, to the fact that Scott and I could actually understand what was being said, back to the party last week, and on to other parties that people may or may not have been to. It was loud, boisterous, full of opinions, and laughter. The patois was so thick that we really could only follow what one person at a time was saying, which meant we missed out on 75% of the conversation.

On the walk home, Scott asked me why I was so happy with being a non-participant in a conversation about a subject that I couldn’t really relate to. I think Scott finally may have experienced what reunions are like to an outsider. Step one is just being there and holding your own. From Dostal-family experience, I know that being a full-fledged member of the family (or community) is only a few steps away. And next time, they will welcome you back with open arms.

The Frustrations

2008-05-19T10:24:00.002-04:00

Sunday was a bit of a frustrating day. It was a nice day and we had nothing to do. We both commented that if we were in the states we would have a car and we could go for a nice drive, take a hike, go to a movie, go visit friends, etc. Instead there was really no one in the area to go see, we had no car, and there was really nothing to do. We ended up filling the day, but those are the days that make us pine a little bit for home.

In general, things are going very well. We are both having successes and that is important. The days seem to crawl by, the weeks go by, and the months fly by. It is hard to believe that we have been here for almost 11 months. It really has gone fast. It is also hard to believe that group 77 will be leaving the island soon. We have just over 15 months of service left. Hopefully they will go as fast as the first 10.5 months have.

What the $&^% Did He Call Me?

2008-05-03T23:36:00.003-04:00

Since coming to Jamaica I have been called many things. Here is a short list in order of most frequent: Big Man, Boss Man, Brownie, Whitey (yes, I do get brownie more than whitey. I only get called whitey about once or twice a month), red man, rasta boy. There are others, but they are infrequent or inappropriate for this blog. Then Friday I heard one that really made my head spin. While walking down the street I heard, "Hey, raggamuffin!" I looked around and saw one man yelling in my direction, and there was no one else around me. I was being called a raggamuffin. I don't even know what that means. I guess it may be time to think about a trim or at least shaving (I was thinking that when I was called rasta boy a couple weeks ago). Things that make you go WHAT?

New Pictures

2008-04-30T12:30:00.001-04:00

I have added pictures to my Flickr account of our Blue Mountain hike and some photos of my project in Beeston Spring

Blue Mountain Peak 2, Back To The Peak

2008-04-28T10:15:00.002-04:00

On Sunday, April 20 we made our second attempt at Blue Mountain Peak. For our first attempt, see our previous post from January. The second attempt was both better and worse than the first. We did learn somethings from the first time and we were much more prepared. We knew that we needed to leave as early as possible and to bring flashlights so we could hike back in the dark if we needed too. As a result we left at 6 am and brought flashlights. It was a good thing too because we needed all the time we could get and we still came home in the dark.

We left Mavis Bank at 6:15 hiking toward peak. We're not sure exactly how far it is, but we are guessing between 12 and 13 miles. We like to say 13 so we can claim to have walked a marathon. Either way it is a plenty long hike. We kept a nice relaxed but constant pace and made it to the top almost exactly 6 hours later. We were tired but not in too bad of shape. The last time we made a couple desperate pushes to try to make the top and the result was cramping muscles and overall exhaustion. This trip we were relaxed and feeling good at the top. We sat there for an hour eating lunch and relaxing before heading down.

Heading down we made a mistake. The three of us (Carrie, JJ, and I) felt that the reason we hurt so bad last time was our big push to reach the top, which we didn't make. Not so it turns out. It was 11 miles of walking downhill. We reached the river crossing at the bottom around 7 and the sun had set. We were slowed down slightly by some tasty yellow raspberry like berries (little yellow crack berries as we called them) that were highly addictive. They were the first berries I have had in Jamaica. In reality they were more forced rests than anything else. By the time we were done my knees, ankles, calves, hamstrings, and every other muscle and joint in my legs was in agony. Just to say we did it we walked the last two miles on the road back up to JJ's. The only reason I think we were able to do that was because we had been in so much pain that now our legs were mostly numb. We finished 6.5 hrs after leaving the peak.

I am glad we did it and I am never doing it from Mavis Bank in one shot again. The top was clouded in so we didn't get very good views, but it was beautiful up there and hiking in the clouds is really neat. I would still like to do a sunrise hike from the hostels 7 miles from the peak.

We also found out that the last time we tried for peak we came up about 1/4 mile short. It took us 10 minutes to get from where we turned around to the top. If we had known we would have gone all the way up the last time, but we made the right decision for that day as we weren't sure how far we had to go, we started an hour and a half later than we should have, and we didn't have any flashlights for night hiking.

I have lots of pictures and hopefully one day this week I will have time to upload them.

Random Mumblings

2008-04-14T10:34:00.005-04:00

I have had a cold for the past week. I am now going to blame that for one of the more disturbing things that has happened to me in a while. Last night I wanted a blanket. I was satiated with our blanket that is about as thick as a sheet, but I really felt like the second layer was nice. When I checked the temperature in the morning the low was 73 degrees. Six months ago I was praying for 73 so I wouldn’t wake up soaked in sweat. It is going to be hard going back to seasons. Another interesting thing happened. I completely lost my sense of smell, and so the same to my sense of taste. This was a bad time as we got a couple packages with tasty treats in them. Carrie didn’t appreciate that my comment on the gummy worms was, “Yes these are good. They taste like chewy.”

Here is an odd comment on the mail that we have been getting. Paul has the most interesting stamps. No one else has sent us Jury Duty stamps. We also like the stickers.

Construction has started on my project in Beeston Spring. Things are moving very fast there. Hopefully construction will go fast as the community has a stand pipe but the tank needs to be done during the rainy season.

Before
After

Our hobbies outside of work are coming along nicely. Our garden has beans and tomatoes growing well. My pumpkins that I planted in the yard over a month ago are starting to bloom, but I don’t know that they are being pollinated. We planted some summer squash that I am a bit surprised to see bloom even though they are a foot tall or less. I’m not sure exactly what they will do. We also have six cucumber plants ready for transplant. My wine experiment is also going well. I racked the pineapple wine into the secondary container on Monday. The color is beautiful. After I had taken out the good wine and left the sediment in the primary I poured a little bit out of the primary and tasted it. It tasted like alcohol and old yeast. At least we have succeeded in the alcohol part.

Pineapple and Orange Wine

A translation of sorts

2008-04-08T23:00:00.002-04:00

I find that I try hard to be constantly optimistic in my work here. That can be a definite asset in so many ways...often situations are difficult for reasons beyond the control of those involved and there is no need to get upset or frustrated. Those emotions really can just get in the way of figuring out what is the real problem. Of course those emotions don't just affect those of us from Foreign, but locals as well. So, I try to stay upbeat and detached to help myself and others move on.

That being said, I find that I could be falling a bit too much into this habit. Scott and I helped to facilitate an event today that was, to say the least, haphazard and stressful for all involved. After it was over, I said, "That went well." I meant to give the team involved a lift and to encourage them not to walk away with a downcast feeling. But I guess the more accurate translation of my sentiment would be, "Well, that wasn't the absolute disaster that it could have been, I think one or two people learned something, and we all handled the situation with relative grace." What kind of message am I really sending?

On another, genuinely positive note, I want to send out a big up to our literacy class students. The rainy season has officially started (complete with heavy downpours every afternoon) and we still had almost 10 people in class today. Big up, unu! (Translation- "Well done, y'all!")

Peace and good night.

Hey Sippy Cup Man!

2008-03-28T16:02:00.003-04:00

I have told people back in the states that you can really buy anything on the street, but that was always an exaggeration. Then last week I saw something that made me think maybe you can buy anything on the street. I saw a push cart vendor with a cart full of sippy cups. Well over 100 sippy cups. The vendors usually have carts full of fruit, veggies, and other such things. This man had sippy cups.

It is starting to warm up. Today we walked down to the Sav market during our lunch hour and I had forgotten just how sweaty I can get just walking down the street. It is one thing to have a slight sheen of sweat on my arms and face from walking down the street. Today I had that wonderful feeling of sweat running down my thighs and my shirt stuck to my back so that not only did I sweat through my undershirt but all the way through my work shirt as well. I can't wait for full on summer when this is a daily feeling.

We have started some hobbies in our off time. Last weekend we planted a nice little garden by our house. We have tomatoes and green beans in our garden plus some pumpkin and squash that we planted in the yard by the ocean. I have more squash plants to transplant and some cucumber plants have come up in my little starter trays. We also have some herbs planted that we are waiting on. This weekend we are going to start a batch of wine. Our first attempt at wine is going to be pineapple wine made from juice. In a couple of weeks we are going to start a small batch of orange wine and then once mango season starts we will do a large batch of mango wine. I am sure somewhere we may do a banana wine or a grapefruit wine.

As time goes by...

2008-03-23T18:31:00.003-04:00

I find that the second time a remarkable event happens, it is distinctly less remarkable. I recall very clearly what it felt like that morning back in January when Scott, Gabe, and I all discovered the dozens of tiny tiny ticks that we were playing host to. This past weekend, when I inadvertently picked up another dozen or so, I simply plucked them off, had Scott check my back, and then carried on with my day. That is just how it goes.

I would say, however, that the seventy-seventh time a remarkable event happens, it can still elicit a helluva response from me. We have ants in our house; always, everyday, we can find at least a couple dozen and that really isn't a problem. Yet when those sneaky little bugs get gutsy enough to start parading across my wall (or bed, stove, couch, shelf, clothes, towels, shower, etc.) in a nice organized line of hundreds or more, the full arsenal of chemicals and frustrations comes out. I cannot go on to another task until I determine 1) their entry point and 2) their destination. As far as I'm concerned, those two things constitute my being able to address the root of the problem at the moment. Though my rational side knows that since this happens so often, the root of the problem really probably resides under the foundation of the house which is sadly beyond my reach.

If You Like Good Folk Music

2008-03-12T13:51:00.002-04:00

I am a huge fan of folk music. While out of the country I don't get many chances to check on new artists, but the other day I spent some time looking at some Canadian folk music online and found David Francey. If you like folk music I suggest you check him out.

Stupid Ankle Bitters

2008-03-11T13:17:00.003-04:00

The weather is starting to turn and summer is just around the corner (an odd statement when the daily highs are in the mid-80s and the lows are in the low-70s). It is time for a change of seasons. Not seasons like we know them in the states (spring, summer, fall, winter) but rather the dry and wet season. I am pretty sure the wet season officially starts in April, but it has started to rain more and most afternoons in March it has clouded up and given us a nice shower. With the return of the rain comes the return of the bugs. I had hoped that I hadn't itched for the past four months because I had gotten used to the insects. I am finding out that is not so. I now spend most mornings and evenings walking with an odd shuffle as I try to scratch my ankles with the other foot as I step forward. I don't know why I don't really itch during the day, but I don't. Mosquitoes and sand fleas are now out. I hadn't missed them.

New Pictures

2008-02-25T14:31:00.002-05:00

I have uploaded new photos to my Flickr site. These include photos from Gabe's visit and the Negril Donkey Races.

Donkeys Are Funny WhenThey Race Too

2008-02-25T10:31:00.004-05:00

Two weekends ago we had a great time in Negril at the donkey races. It was fantastic. The rotary club puts on donkey races each year with small carnival rides and games as a fund raiser. As Peace Corps volunteers we are asked if we would like to assist with projects like these and we usually say yes because we tend to get food and/or a t-shirt. Well worth it. The donkey races are as funny as you think they would be. First they dress the donkeys and riders (Jamaican donkey jockeys) up as a theme. We saw pirates, lifeguards, and other similar costumes. Then the riders race the donkeys three at a time so there are plenty of heats to spread the day out. The donkeys do not care to be ridden so there are donkeys running under bamboo rails to knock the rider off or bucking the rider off or just not moving at all. A fantastic day.

I found out this week that my community has been approved for the grant to complete my project. We will have 2 plus million (Jamaican) to rebuild the storage tank and put in a wash house at Beeston Spring. This should make me ecstatic. Just by getting the grant I have made my Peace Corps experience a success. But I have been apathetic towards it so far, which makes Carrie also wonder what is wrong with me. I am pretty sure I just need a vacation. This month has wore me out and I feel like a couple days away would be good. Carrie’s parents are coming down in a couple weeks and we are going to spend some time at Treasure Beach. Hopefully that will give me a recharge.

"You are looking tumultuous today!"

2008-02-20T14:19:00.005-05:00

I had an interesting incident of harassment today. I was walking through a schoolyard and a kid chirped at me and called out, "You're looking tumultuous today!" I kept walking, as I usually do in this kind of circumstance, and then I stopped almost laughing out loud as it registered what he actually said. I went back to the kid and asked if he knew what that word meant. He said no. I told him to look it up before he used it. I walked past again a bit later and he asked if it meant having multiple personalities. I said no, and that he should try to find a dictionary. What a strange interaction.

I wish this would happen more often. I have never had an easier time bantering back and forth than in this case. And with each back and forth, everyone in the surrounding area laughed. This is generally my ultimate goal in bantering with people on the street. And I managed it this time with vocabulary knowledge? How bizarre.

How would you feel if this happened to you?

2008-02-11T13:44:00.000-05:00

During the first several months of service, I found myself often longing for home (or at least the familiar) and wondering if I made the right choice. Last week I experienced something that helped to affirm my decision to join the Peace Corps. After hearing about the violence following the December elections in Kenya, I thought about those volunteers often and wondered where they were and if any were still at their sites, half expecting to hear the news of a program suspension any day. Even though I was anticipating such an announcement, hearing the news that the Kenya Peace Corps program has actually been suspended broke my heart. My eyes filled with tears when I read that email and imagined leaving my communities tomorrow and unexpectedly not being able to go back for the foreseeable future. Even given the challenges that arise, the frustrations of working in an unfamiliar culture, and the uncertainty of what impact we are actually able to make in the lives of the people we work with, I am invested in and enamored with this experience. This is a good place for me to be and I cannot imagine leaving it tomorrow or the next day.

So, my thoughts are with all the former Kenya PCVs and their supervisors, counterparts, host-families, friends and co-workers.

I’m going to go out and enjoy my community today.

You Sure They Don't Have Lyme Disease in Jamaica?

2008-02-07T09:24:00.000-05:00

On interesting item from Gabe's visit. We woke up one morning and Carrie found a tick on her foot. That of course leads to everyone checking themselves. I had Gabe check my back and everyone said that was it. Then about ten minutes later Carrie found another tick only this one was much smaller than the first. This was followed by a much more careful check. This time Gabe found 18 ticks on my back. In the end Gabe had about 5, Carrie had 18-20, and I had 37. What an interesting morning.

Ash Wednesday is a public holiday here. I'm still never really sure what days we have off until a day or two before. We were also excited because several months ago we heard that Carnival was really big in Jamaica. We never heard more about it and were surprised when all of a sudden we learned that it was Ash Wednesday and there weren't any big parties planned. Then we learned that Carnival was a traveling carnival (i.e. circus) that travels around the island over the summer. I am still looking forward to Carnival, but I do miss the king cake.

The US election is starting to become a talking point in Jamaica. I have people at work ask me about it almost everyday. I would like to say that I am informed because I get and read Newsweek free from the Peace Corps, but that would be a lie because I get and read Newsweek a month late. Right now I am just reading the January 7 issue. I also don't spend as much time as I would like online reading about them. In the end I know how the delegate count stands but I don't really know much of the differences between the candidates. I'm not voting in the primaries because I haven't figured out the absentee ballot from Jamaica yet, but I will be voting in the general election in November. I will just have to find time to read more about the issues before then.

Our First Visitor

2008-01-30T12:48:00.000-05:00

It has finally happened. After so many people have shown interest in coming and visiting us in Jamaica, one of you has finally stepped up to the plate. That person is…. my sister Gabrielle.
Gabe came down to Kingston January 17. She then spent two exciting days watching us go to meetings at the Peace Corps office. YEAH! On the 19th we went up to the Blue Mountains and spent the night with another volunteer. Sunday we got up later than we should have and set out for the top of the world, or at least the top of Jamaica. Our goal, Blue Mountain Peak. The highest point in Jamaica. Unfortunately we made several miscalculations in our planning. We were assuming 8 miles to the top so we didn’t get out until 7:30. We then proceeded to hike three hours to a sign that said we have 6 miles to go. This was after hiking an hour to reach the beginning of the trail. As Carrie said in an earlier post, we didn’t quite make it but we had a great time.
After the Blue Mountains we came back to our end of the island and Gabe spent three days tagging along as we went to work. Almost as much fun as the Peace Corps office. We did take some time and show her around the communities where we work and she met a lot of people. Then last Friday we finally got back to the tourist activities. We went to Negril and met up with Keith. Most of the day was spent walking on the beach, swimming, and drinking Red Stripe. Then in the mid-afternoon we went down to Pirates Cave for some cliff jumping. It is about 25 feet there and Keith jumped several times and I jumped once. Then we went down to a shorter cliff so Gabe could jump a few times. We watched the sun set over the ocean and then headed home.
Saturday we went to explore Beeston Spring where I do most of my community work. We walked through the community and saw the sights, had a farm tour, ate a jack fruit, saw a doctor bird (the national bird), and relaxed. I did have a community meeting that night so we also saw the nightlife in a small rural town. It was another great day.
Since Sunday it has been mostly back to work. Thursday I go to Kingston with Gabe and she flies out Friday morning. I have been really busy so I haven’t had a chance to post much, but hopefully soon I will be able to upload pictures we took over the past couple of weeks to my Flickr page.

Mi wan ten poun plummi, massa!

2008-01-29T10:14:00.000-05:00

I just need to boast for just a minute. Just one quick minute, please.

We got up early today and went to New Market in St. Elizabeth. This is where the open air market sellers go to purchase their wholesale produce. We got fresh tomatoes for $10J per pound. Yup. That is $0.14US per pound.

Needless to say, we have a lot of tomatoes now.

An amusing anti-litter participant

2008-01-28T09:31:00.000-05:00

I walked into the office the other day, and everyone was crowded around the newest addition to the anti-litter contingent in the community.

Scott's sister had been visiting us for the last week or so, and we have been able to show her a good bit of the island that we know as well as going on some new adventures. Two weekends ago we spent time in Mavis Bank (home of Jablum coffee factory and PCV JJ) and attempted to climb the highest peak in Jamaica. We started from Mavis Bank and climbed for five and a half hours and we were still about 30 minutes from the peak. In order to get back to the river fording at the bottom before dark, we decided to turn around. Even though we didn't make the top, it was still one of the best days we have had here. Total of 21 miles, 6000 feet in elevation gain and I did it all in Chacos. Big-up for Chacos! Nary a blister was to be had and it was wonderful to have the full utility of my toes while hiking on uneven terrain. Huzzah!

The Yallahs river fording- this was one of two forks that had to be crossed.

Scott and I at the turn around point about 30 minutes from the peak. If the clouds weren't there you would be able to see the top in the background of the picture...

Gabe and I overlooking the coffee farms on the "Jacob's Ladder" portion of the upper trail on the way down from the top.

Oh, the new year

2008-01-15T16:10:00.000-05:00

Well, I must start by saying Happy New Year to everyone and, of course, my apologies for not posting in so long. I have not been sure exactly what to post lately, and I will partially blame that for the delay in writing. No matter how I spin it, though, I will admit that 2008 (thus far) has been a tough one for me. As Scott mentioned, the holidays were fine but strange given the weather and absence of family.

As for my recent challenges? What can I say beyond this is what Peace Corps is all about. I realized that for a couple weeks I was really just seeing the negatives and the things that I probably won't be able to change in my time here. Those negatives are a reality here and I am just one person. Along with recognizing my capacity, I need to make sure that I pay attention to the beautiful things and events around me. The people that I work with are wonderful, and it is really thanks to them that I feel empowered to come out of my funk.

It also really helped that Christmas arrived this week. We received so many cards and gifts last weekend that it really lifted our spirits. Thank you to everyone! Among the gifts was a book from the Eklund's- a compilation of essays from the NPR series This I Believe. Just reading the forward by Jay Allison brought me back to reality and made me think about what is really important. Many of the essays really are beautiful, thoughtful, and pertinent no matter where in the world you might be.

Christmas in July

2008-01-04T12:39:00.000-05:00

What happens when the weather doesn't change from July to December? It still feels like December and you get Christmas in July. That is what it felt like here. Not really Christmas. It was nice to have the time off and we enjoyed spending time with friends, but it still doesn't feel like Christmas has happened.

For Christmas day we stayed in Belmont and had brunch with five other Peace Corps volunteers. We woke up early and made cinnamon rolls for brunch. We hung out by the sea and visited until mid-afternoon and then went home and made dinner (roast chicken, mashed potatoes, dressing, and gravy). It was a very nice day.

Boxing Day is a big holiday in Jamaica. Our host family as having a large holiday meal for family and friends on Boxing Day and we said we would help out, so we got up early and headed up to Cave. It was a fantastic day. We spent the day helping our host family and some other family friends prepare a ton of food, and then we got to eat all of the food. It was great. Definitely the best day of the holidays.

We spent the rest of the week relaxing and buying our bicycles. We still haven't ridden them. In the US when you buy a bicycle the place where you buy them puts them together and tunes them so they are ready to go out of the store. In Jamaica they just put them together. The wheels aren't trued, the derailleur and brakes aren't adjusted, and the wheels were only inflated right before we left the store. It took me a week to get a bike tool with a spoke wrench from another volunteer so hopefully in the next week we can get them all tuned up and ready to go.

For New Years two volunteers from Manchester came out Sunday night and stayed with us. We spent Monday on the beach getting a nice light burn and then cooking a very nice dinner. We spent the night at a party nearby.

Now the vacation is over and we are back at work, which is good. The holiday season did feel like a week and a half off in the middle of summer and that is just a little bit hard on the system. On Wednesday a "cold" front hit Jamaica and the weather this week has been cooler (highs in the upper 70's, lows in the low 70's) and windy. It feels nice, but the gusting winds tend to make a lot of noise at night (slamming doors, scraping branches, blowing things about) and wake us up.

Peace

Catching Up on December

2007-12-19T10:58:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in a while, so this may be a bit scattered. The Beeston Spring groundbreaking went well. Check out Matt's blog for some photos of the day. Once construction starts I will take some pictures and post the finished product. The groundbreaking was for rebuilding the springhouse roof. The week following I helped do some cost estimates for rebuilding the holding tank and putting in a wash house. We should find out in February if we are successful.

We have been enjoying our new place. As Carrie said in the comment to her sea creatures post, I did get stung by a jellyfish on Sunday. Initially I could see where four tentacles struck my bicep and left lines from my shoulder down to my elbow. It felt like stinging nettles but the pain went away much faster. We have seen several jellyfish around the area so it was not a surprise to finally hit one. The water was so murky that I really couldn't see anything.

Christmas is in less than a week, but I feel very disconnected from it. There are decorations around the office, but every time I try to listen to Christmas music it just feels wrong. I think the fact that the temperature hasn't varied for the past six months may have something to do with it. It still feels like July here.

Seeing the Sea

2007-12-10T15:04:00.000-05:00

A brief update on our more recent encounters with Jamaican flora and fauna. So far, off the immediate coast of our community and home, we have seen the following:

- puffer fish (unpuffed) both in the daylight and at night when they show their luminescence
- unidentified (but very pretty) black and yellow striped fish
- unidentified (also pretty) blue/green/gray “needle” fish
- sea urchins (black and red)
- potential red sea anenome (unconfirmed due to proximity to sea urchins)
- an abundance of coral varieties
- lightning bugs of the sea (what are they really??)
- sting ray (unconfirmed due to distance from the sea floor and lack of goggles- but it was big, roundish, black, and moving, which means it was not sea grass)
- schools of small fish (also unidentified)
- school of jelly fish
- starfishes

I'll admit that this posting makes it seem as though I am not a scientist at all. I really need to get a book on marine coastal environments...then I can offer better descriptions than, “oh, that's a pretty fish! Oh wait...maybe it's not a fish...is it alive? Maybe it's a leaf.” That's pretty much how our conversations at the sea sound, but we are quite enthusiastic about it. I do find myself somewhat irrationally afraid of the sea (though note that almost 30% of the creatures that we have seen have the potential to inflict significant pain), so most of my observations are from the shore or a boat. Sorry there are no pictures due to the fact that these are all underwater things.

Beeston Spring

2007-11-27T13:15:00.001-05:00

As a Peace Corps volunteer, I have been very lucky in my project and the community group that I am working with. My main project right now is to rebuild the spring house at Beeston Spring. The first step, find funding. The community recently placed third in best community in Jamaica by the Social Development Commission. The community group has graciously set aside some of the prize money for my project. Next step, design a spring house. One member of the community group is an architect who has done a design complete with drawings. Next step, start work. There will be a groundbreaking ceremony on December 8. The ceremony will be recorded by a local radio station and broadcast later in the evening. The radio station is webcast so I will give out more information later for those interested in listening. Things are moving fast on this project thanks to the great people I am working with in the community.

Thanksgiving in Jamaica

2007-11-27T13:15:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving was different this year. Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Jamaica, so there was no lead up to it. Also, we don't get American holidays, so it was a working holiday. I spent the morning in my community of Beeston Springs, which I will post another blog about soon. Carrie went into work. After work we were invited to celebrate and have dinner with an American family that is near Carrie's work (and our new neighbors). This year, Thanksgiving meant kayaking in the ocean, swimming, and rum. Nice, but we did miss having family around.

On Saturday I went to Lucea and had a Thanksgiving celebration with other volunteers. Carrie had a meeting at work and decided she wanted to weekend alone. I had dinner with about 10-12 other volunteers. That felt a lot more like Thanksgiving. Lots of food, way too many deserts, and football. A very good day.

Our new house has been approved and we will be moving the end of this week and over the weekend. We will now live on the ocean less than a quarter mile from a beach and we have our own private access on some rocky cliffs.

Sparky The Plug

2007-11-19T10:29:00.000-05:00

Yes, this is my first outright plug for my host-organizations on this blog. I know the holiday season is fast approaching and that is a time that a lot of people are looking for organizations to donate to. When I was a young professional, I started a search every November to find a good, worthy recipient of my annual donation. I don't think I donated to the same group twice as I kept renewing the search every year and finding new great organizations. So, for those of you searching, look no further!

The Bluefields Bay Fishermen's Friendly Society is hosting the Bluefields Bay Marine Show on December 23, 2007. There will be boat and canoe races for fishermen and an exposition on the bay environment and healthy living. Now, I'm guessing that many of you won't be able to make the show, but you would still be supporting the organization if you bought a ticket. Tickets are J$300 (~$4.30 USD) and if you are unable to attend (ha!) I will send you a ticket via snail mail as a souvenir. Checks can be made out to the above society and mailed directly to the society at:

Bluefields Bay Fishermen's Friendly Society
Bluefields P.O.
Westmoreland, Jamaica
West Indies

I also work with the Bluefields People's Community Association. You can click on the "How to get involved?" link on the lower right of their website for more information. If (when!) any of you come to visit, we can arrange for a work day or other projects as well. Helping hands are always welcome!

Happy Holidays!

Other Jamaican Firsts

2007-11-13T06:46:00.000-05:00

As far as weekends go, it was an exciting one. On Saturday we were invited up to one of my communities for a relaxing hanging out afternoon and dinner. While there we had several firsts for Jamaican food. The first was jackfruit. How to explain jackfruit? First, it is about the size of a small watermelon with a rough, bumpy skin which resembles, other Jamaican fruit that you have never seen in America. Once cut open, the inside looks like a breadfruit with some seed pods. For those that have never seen breadfruit, I'm not really sure how to explain it. On the jackfruit, you pick out seedpods that resemble an artichoke heart but taste like...a jackfruit. It is sweet and very delicious. This description isn't very good because it is like no fruit I have had before.

Then, for dinner we had chicken foot soup. I had seen it but never eaten it. The soup is delicious, but I wasn't sure what to do with the chicken feet, so I decided to just put it in my mouth and suck the broth off of it. To my surprise I did that and spit out bones. The skin and connective tissue really just melts off. Not a lot of flavor. I had no problem eating all of the chicken feet in the soup and it is a wonderful soup, but when I got the curried chicken foot it got set aside for the dog. Just too much foot.

The ants, the ants!

2007-11-08T11:18:00.000-05:00

Scott and I recently found a large sack of unused garden seeds at my organization. Included in this bag were seeds for cilantro (wonderful!). My coworkers said the seeds were no good because they were too old. We decided to try to germinate some just to see because seeds would be so useful, especially because I want to do some gardening work with a nearby village. So we had a sack of seeds in our bedroom for a while while we wait for small samples of them to germinate. They had not attracted bugs for weeks so we really weren't worried about storing them there.

Alas! Today I was toweling off after my shower and felt all tickly. Ants ants ants! Luckily they weren't the biting kind, but they are oh so tiny and tickly (and tiny enough to escape my glasses-less inspection of my towel prior to drying- the inspection has been necessary ever since I found a centipede all curled up in the furriness of the towel). They were in my towel. Many many ants. And since I was damp from the shower, all ants, both alive and smushed from the toweling off process, were stuck to me. Oi! I went back into our room to find that the seeds were indeed the source of the ants and spent some time smushing ants on the desk after removing the seeds to the yard. Scott was rather unconcerned with this and just thought it was in my head (since the ants were so tiny, I guess he couldn't see them from across the room or he just figured I was overreacting, which I probably was). Alas, I have been at work for an hour an half and am still finding little ants crawling along my arms.

Where does it end? Because my mind is definitely playing tricks on me and every tickle is not an ant. But perhaps one in ten tickles is an ant! *sigh*

This could be a long day.

Chunky and Delicious!

2007-11-05T09:54:00.000-05:00

I find myself singing along with Jamaican advertising slogans…the age of the catchy jingle is alive and well here! I will be walking down the street and see a billboard for a company and find myself unwittingly singing the jingle. Often Scott will join me as well. We definitely sing along during the evening news and our host family laughs- at us or with us I am not sure. The particular slogan of “Chunky and Delicious” did prompt us to make the unlikely purchase of canned mackerel. We had it for breakfast today along with callaloo, fried dumplings, and papaya and it was quite wonderful. We will definitely be going back for more.

Overall I have been quite proud of our assimilation into Jamaican cooking. Our host family has been wonderful in both giving us a wide variety of traditional foods to eat as well as helping us learn how to make them. Last night was a wonderful feast of curried goat, rice and peas (our family makes the best rice and peas on the island, I think), salad, and fried plantains. Topped off with a dessert of rum and raisin ice cream. Fabulous. The true test will be how much of that cooking we maintain once we move into our own place. I am pretty certain that we keep making Jamaican-style breakfasts and I hope we at least keep the Sunday dinner tradition of curry goat.

A Pleasant Weekend

2007-10-29T17:20:00.000-04:00

We just returned to our site this afternoon after an interesting overnight trip to Kingston. The original dinner event that was planned was cancelled, so we were able to enjoy the company of the other group 78 volunteers in the hotel for the evening. We also purchased true american pizza for the first time on island. Quite a treat!

I would also like to point out that we were able to watch the last game of the World Series thanks to cable at the hotel!

Hopefully we will get some more pictures and stories up shortly. I'm optimistic that my internet access is improving...we will see.

Peace to all.

Nothing New

2007-10-28T12:34:00.000-04:00

I had intended to upload and post some pictures to this blog, but for some reason the computer is being snarky and won't let me do it. You can check out a few that I have posted on my Flickr account (link on the right side of the blog). Mostly, I wanted to show people Carrie's hair cut. I did for her in early September ("Can you cut my hair?" "NO!!" "Fine, I'll do it myself. (short break) Now you have to cut my hair." "Fine." "HOW SHORT ARE YOU MAKING THIS???"). Now her hair is shorter than mine (I haven't cut mine since mid-August).

We are starting to look for our own place. We have a few leads and hope to move around Thanksgiving. It is time for us to have our own place. More details when we know anything.

I haven't been able to watch any of the world series. We don't get Fox (or ABC, NBC, or CBS). I get plenty of college football on ESPN, Big Ten network, and Fox Sports, but I miss all the truly big games. Oh well. Better than nothing at all I guess.

Weight Loss Revisited

2007-10-19T10:57:00.000-04:00

Dad asked me the other day if I was starving myself to lose weight (my scale said I lost another 5 pounds). The answer is no. I eat large breakfasts, smallish lunches, and a normal size dinner. I don't snack. I also think my body dropped some weight out of self preservation. When we first got on the island I was sweating profusely for the first, well, technically I still am. I think my body did the same thing sailors on a ship taking on water do, lose any unnecessary baggage. My body has done a pretty good job of that, so now I need to look for other ways to keep cool. I have actually thought to myself that if I took up smoking maybe my circulation would be poor enough that I would feel better. Then I realized that it would probably take a couple of years for this method to actual reach its goal and by then I will be off the island. The negative health benefits definitely do not make that a viable option. I guess sitting in front of fans whenever possible will just have to do.

We were on the radio this week. On Wednesday we did a 30 minute radio show on VYBZ FM where we introduced what Peace Corps does, talked a little bit about our projects, and did a short educational section on safe drinking water and personal hygiene. We didn't find out until after the program that the radio station is streamed over the internet. On Sunday we are doing a short introduction of the Peace Corps on the other local radio station, LYNX FM. I looked online and didn't find a webpage.

Randomness

2007-10-12T11:28:00.000-04:00

I don't have much to say because not much has been happening, but at the same time we haven't posted in a while so I guess this is mostly to say we are still here. This week things have been very slow mostly because of rain. One of the odd things about Jamaica as a tropical country is that the people here do not like to go out in the rain. That has become very clear this week when many parts of the island have received about 2 inches a day for the past three or four days. Some areas (Kingston in particular) are experiencing some bad flooding. Nothing too bad here, although on my way into work there was about 1/4 mile of road where there was quite a bit of water over the road.

The South Sea and How A Bus Fills Up

2007-10-01T15:23:00.000-04:00

The view from the veranda of our host families' house provides a great view of the sea and the sky to the south. Therefore, Scott and I hurry outside to watch storms approach and pass from the veranda-- a pastime that we both are familiar with from our childhoods. I should mention that this is not a pastime for Jamaicans. When it storms here, people immediately seek shelter. Granted, if you don't follow that advice you are likely to get soaked to the bone in a matter of seconds if you are caught when the rain begins. Regardless, the veranda is covered, so it is not a matter of getting wet. This picture was taken of a storm well to the south of the island.

On an unrelated note, I have noticed that buses and classrooms seem to fill according to the same philosophy. If there are zero to very few people seated on a bus that is waiting to depart, no one else wants to get on that bus. However, once a critical load (probably about 75% capacity) has accumulated in a bus it fills very quickly indeed. This normally is not a problem unless there are several empty buses to choose from. Then the time it takes to reach the critical load is quite long and only made worse by the bus drivers' and dokta's (conductor) attempt to reach critical load before any other bus in the vicinity-- by aggressively recruiting the few people intending to travel that direction and very efficiently ensuring that they are evenly distributed amongst the empty buses. Perhaps the goal is not to fill up your bus first, but rather to make sure that no one else can fill up theirs.

It also seems to apply that if there are zero to very few people in a classroom, it is also not desirable to stay in that classroom even if the person is precisely on time for the class to start. This means that even the people who are arriving late can make the same argument. I have yet to figure out how to keep people in an empty classroom in order to reach critical load. As long as there are no other empty classrooms in the vicinity to fill, maybe I should hire a dokta.

Assessing Weight Loss And A Comment I Have Never Heard Before

2007-09-27T15:42:00.000-04:00

Before I joined the Peace Corps, anytime I wanted to know what I weighed I stepped on a scale. To get a sense of actual weight loss I would weigh myself at the same time everyday wearing the same clothes. I have found this not to be the case in Jamaica.

We don't have a scale so weighing myself at home is out of the question. This makes it a little bit hard because I used to weigh myself first thing in the morning. There are weights a the health center where I work. Again, a little difficult because I used to weigh myself with nothing on. I feel if I tried that I would no longer be in the Peace Corps. Also, the scales at the health center tell me I weigh somewhere between 150 and 225 pounds depending on which one I step on.

Okay, now I don't know what I weigh. I feel like my clothes are loser though. Oh yes. When you don't own a dryer none of your clothes shrink. In addition, when washing by hand you wring everything out, which stretches the clothes. All of my undershirts look like they are two sizes too big for me (which they now are). I am pretty sure I have lost about 10 pounds since I have been in Jamaica. I gather this by looking at approximate weights on the health center scales. I am pretty sure it was more, but then I came Hurricane Dean and the week of buffet meals and no exercise. During the hurricane I was told that I looked emaciated, which is something I have never heard before when referring to me. I think the closest to that previously was, "If you didn't eat so much some of the emaciated people could get a little bit."

Scott

Happy Birthday, Scott!

2007-09-27T15:05:00.000-04:00

Wednesday was Scott's 28th birthday. Happy day to him! It was a mostly uneventful day as far as celebration is concerned because we had a community peer councilor all-day session scheduled that we were helping to facilitate. But our host mother put together a very nice dinner for him and we enjoyed a long, comfortable dinner complete with wine and banana cake with ice cream for dessert. We celebrated a little bit last weekend in MoBay with a few other volunteers with the other half of the banana cake and a wonderful lasagna dinner (thanks, A'Nova!).

Funny how so much of the celebration revolves around food. How wonderful!!

I Think That Dog Really Likes You

2007-09-18T12:05:00.000-04:00

Dogs in Jamaica have a different function than dogs in the states. They are used primarily as guard dogs and are very rarely considered pets. As a result most just sit in the yard and wait for someone to walk by so they can bark at them. To fill the time they breed. None of the dogs here are fixed, which led me to have the odd observation that I have never seen teets on a dog before I came here. There are a few dogs that will approach and not mind human contact. Most dogs keep their distance and try to avoid being kicked. The dogs that do approach will occasionally enjoy a little scratch behind the ears. If the dog is male he usually gets very "excited" and is "tickled pink". It takes about 2 seconds before he is trying to hump your leg. You have to be careful about what dogs you pet around here.

Things are progressing slowly. Last week was a busy week for me. I had something going on every night and spent most days preparing for meetings and presentations. There was only one day I spent trying to fill the time. I also kicked off my project with meetings on Wednesday morning and Friday night. The rest of the week was spent helping with a HIV/STI peer councilor training. This week is slow again. I was hoping to have a meeting today for my project that would hopefully lead to more community water quality education, but that meeting has been put off until next Wednesday. I don't think my project will really get going for a couple months yet. I am trying to fill my time by asking other people in the department if I can tag along on meat inspections and such and that is giving me some stuff to do. In the next month I will also hopefully start helping out the three parishes near the one where my primary projects are. "Soon Come" as they say in Jamaica. Some days I envy the teachers who have a class show up every day and they have something to teach. On the other hand I appreciate my freedom to look for other things to work on. It is just taking me a while to get to know the department and see how I can help outside of my project.

Scott

A sparkly new button

2007-09-06T10:21:00.000-04:00

The Jamaican public transportation system is quite effective. A lot of people don't have cars, so public rides are the way to get from place to place. It's also quite easy-- we just walk down our road to the main highway in the area and wait. When the bus comes that we want, it stops right there for us. There are an infinite number of bus stops in Jamaica.

The taxis and buses are heavily used vehicles. I caught a glimpse of one of the odometers for a taxi- ~500,000 km- and it was one of the newer looking taxis, though that was perhaps due to the flashy paint job and high decibel sound system. The buses, a modified 15-passenger van of sorts, are run every day of the week and take a beating from the number of passengers and the constant back and forth on the roads. I did notice one button in the bus I took the other day that was in pristine condition. It was next to the heavily used sun visors and driver/passenger reading lights, which were now bare bulbs. The button read, "moon roof" and obviously had never been touched. This made sense given that there was clearly no moon roof in this bus.

Hurricane Dean and the Hotel of Fire

2007-08-28T12:52:00.000-04:00

The big news from last week: WE ARE NOW VOLUNTEERS!! No more trainees, no more volunteers-in-training (our title from last week). We are officially volunteers. With that we can now stay out after dark and travel around the island. We also got our guitar but we are still waiting on our violin. In addition to that wonderful week, when we got back to our site our satellite was working again just in time for college football (it was down the whole month of August).

The hurricane was interesting. We stayed in the US Embassy. The embassy made all of us be there including any Peace Corps staff that is American, and then pretty much begrudged our being there. They didn't give us any supplies at all. All of our food came from Peace Corps staff that ran out to the store before we were stuck there, so we had canned goods and oatmeal for the two days we were there (which really I enjoyed. It made it feel more like camping). The building was kept cold, somewhere in the 60-70 degree range and the building is so high tech and computer operated that they can't turn it off. They also can't (or won't) turn the lights off. That made the first night really short as none of us had packed for being that cold. The second night the Peace Corps got some blankets in and we were sharing so more people could sleep (there were three people under our blanket). That was a much better night. The time was spent reading, watching movies on computers, and playing games. There are marines stationed at the embassy for protection and they took pity on us and brought us puzzles and games. It was a nice opportunity to get to know the volunteers from the previous two years. It was also a great opportunity to watch a hurricane. The embassy was just finished in the past year and is designed for a pretty intense attack. We couldn't hear the wind inside even though it was blowing 115 mph. Unfortunately, the only pictures I could take were through the windows and they didn't turn out too great.

Hurricane Dean
Originally uploaded by smemontana

The Monday after the hurricane we had a quick swearing in. Apparently the ambassador was called out and wouldn't be around on Friday when we were scheduled to swear in. It also gave the other volunteers a chance to watch the swearing in. It was interesting being in front of the Ambassador in jeans and a t-shirt to be sworn in to Peace Corps. At this point we were considered volunteers-in-training as we had not completed our final testing. On Friday we had a formal ceremony for the Peace Corps staff that wasn't in the embassy and we became true volunteers.

Swearing In Ceremony
Originally uploaded by smemontana

Monday afternoon we moved from the embassy to the Pegasus Hotel which most people said was the nicest hotel in Kingston. That may be true, but Tuesday morning it was also the smokiest as one of the generators malfunctioned and started on fire. Damage was limited to the lobby but smoke was thick throughout the first 3-5 floors and several people had a hard time finding their way out. Three Peace Corps volunteers were sent to the hospital for smoke inhalation. We were at the mall during the fire and our room was on the 11th floor so none of our stuff got smoke damage. Several people were on the 3-5 floor and their clothes had a distinct odor of smoke. We spent 8 hours in a conference room at a hotel next door before being moved to a new hotel. That made it 4 days in a row of being confined to a building. Most of us were getting stir crazy.

Wednesday and Thursday were testing days with some free time to go out and do stuff. We spent one afternoon wandering around a mall like area. We went to a music shop and were looking at music when the owner started talking to us. She asked us if we were interested in teaching guitar, violin, and music in general in Jamaica. We said once we learned the instruments better we would be. She gave us guitar music books, recorders, and told Carrie that if she wanted to teach violin she had some student violins that she would give her. She just wanted to spread music through Jamaica. It was a very nice experience to have.

On Saturday we came back to our sites. There was very limited damage in Westmoreland Parish where we are located. It seems that the worst damage are new potholes in the road. There were some areas that were hit very hard including several areas with Peace Corps volunteers. We were very lucky to come back to an area that had power and water. The island was very lucky that the storm stayed south. The damage could have been a lot worse. Many people are complaining that they prepared so much for such a weak hurricane. Hopefully this doesn't make people complacent the next time because you never know which one will hit the island directly.

Hurricane Dean

2007-08-17T10:59:00.001-04:00

As most people know, Hurricane Dean is in the Caribbean and heading for Jamaica. The reaction on the news is very different than in the states, but the reaction of the people is similar. The news has a 10 second blurb on it saying that it is coming and may be here Sunday. No windspeed forcasts,no warnings to prepare, just a note that by the way, your weekend may be interrupted by a hurricane. I am guessing some places have a middle ground between the doomsday US news on natural disasters and the Jamaican news cast. On the other hand the people have the same attitude that I saw in New Orleans (granted this was pre-Katrina). "Hurricanes that start in that part of the Atlantic never hit us, they always turn at the last minute." No one seems really worried and I doubt anyone will do anything to prepare until the last minute when they realize that it won't turn. Since nothing is showing a projected track, I am guessing most people don't know that it will probably go right over the country or give it a glancing blow north or south. Chances are slim it will shift and pass us by.

We were scheduled to go to Kingston on Monday for our last week of training and swearing in as volunteers. Now we are leaving on Saturday morning and will spend the weekend hanging out in a hotel with the rest of the trainees. I will let you all know how things go. An interesting aspect of our jobs is that if the hurricane does a lot of damage we may be pulled away and do recovery work.

The past week of training has been good. It was by far the most productive and I am looking forward to the end of the elections (August 27) and training so I can get started on my projects.

THE TRAINING CONTINUES

2007-08-10T14:21:00.001-04:00

Most days I sit and think that I should blog more. Then I remember what I did for the past week and realize that it would be pointless for me to actually put that on the internet. For those interested in what we do, we are in training. Our travel is restricted, we can't really go any where on the weekend, and during the week we are supposed to be at work. I don't think people really want to know that today I am sitting at work learning how to be patient as I become immersed in the Jamaican culture. Work here progresses at a much slower pace than in the US, and rain will bring pretty much everything to a screeching halt (interesting in a tropical country where it rains everyday during the rainy season). In two weeks we will swear in as volunteers. When that happens we will be able to begin work on our project and travel on the weekends. Hopefully that will lead to some better stories about Jamaica. Right now I go to work and then come home. WWHHEEEE!!

It really isn't that bad. Mostly right now I have no independence and the people I will be working with on my project are in the field a lot so some days I am mostly waiting for them to come back to the office. Once I am able to actually start on my project and I gain some independence then I will be able to do some of the things I want to do. At this point I am not sure exactly what communities I will be working with, but I know they will be up in the mountains. Once I know exactly where (hopefully next week), I will be able to figure out how to travel to those communities and then I can spend time there getting to know the people. Until then, it is reading Peace Corps manuals.

EMANCIPENDENCE

2007-08-10T14:20:00.000-04:00

No matter where you are, you can identify a celebration no matter where you are. The telltale signs are the same the world over: music, food, dance, and a large number of people. Dancing isn't always required and never does everyone participate, but when all of these factors are there is is a celebration. When only two items are involved you probably stumbled upon a party. You may not want to know what you are eating, understand what you are hearing, or able to communicate with any of the people, but you know that you should be having fun.

When you are a Peace Corps Trainee, they take away the food and the large number of people (I'm pretty sure it is a cost savings measure), put it at the beginning of a day of training, don't give you the holiday off, and tell you it is a celebration. That being said, it was still fun. Early August is a good time to be in Jamaica. August 1 is Emancipation Day and August 6 is Independence Day. To celebrate (and use it as a devious ploy to teach us about Jamaican history and culture), we celebrated Emancipendence Day on August 1. Our festivities only included the music and dance (along with a very nice play in the middle). I volunteered to sing and then was told that to sing I also had to dance. Carrie joined me in the song/dance troop and we did enjoy ourselves as we learned some Jamaican dances and songs. Some people took pictures and when I get some I will post them. Luckily I don't think anyone has any video or audio.

Baseball and Other Things American

2007-07-28T20:41:00.000-04:00

Everyone has their little things that get them through the day. In my case, it has been the days. We have been at our sites for two weeks now, and it is taking time to get used to the new setting and the pace of life. We all need those little things to make us feel comfortable and relaxed. For most of the last two weeks for me it was books. I have read three and my supplies are dwindling. That is when I discovered the satellite dish. Carrie has been less than enthusiastic unless I am watching some movie she may be interested in. I have been using this as a means of teaching our host family baseball. They seem to enjoy my switching to a game to check the score during the commercial break on their shows.

We are back in Kingston for another week of training here. It is nice to get together and swap stories with other trainees. Our situation seems to be pretty good.

Scott

The fruit, the fruit!

2007-07-24T16:46:00.000-04:00

Our host family has a wonderful selection of fruit trees in their yard. We took a tour of them the other day and would like to share it with you all. Just keep in mind that while you get to learn about them, we enjoy fresh fruit at least twice a day. Huzzah!

Ackee: This fruit is poisonous unless allowed to open on the tree. The fruits are yellow in color and quite creamy when cooked. They are not sweet and I don't really agree with the scrambled egg comparison that they often get. But when cooked with saltfish, onions, and spices for breakfast they are quite tasty. The Jamaicans knew what they were doing when choosing their national dish.

June Plum: Next to gneps (there are no gnep trees in the yard), I think June Plums are our favorite new fruit. Tasty both when ripe and when slightly green. Gneps are wonderful, by the way, and remind me of eating a peeled green grape.
Sweet Sop: There is also a sour sop, but we did not show the picture here. Almost everyone who tries this at first taste does not like it, but after a few morsels I think it grows on you. The fruit comes apart in small sections that you can see from the outside of the fruit- those little nubs. Each section has a black pit that must be spit out.
Pimento (aka Allspice): A wonderful tree! The crushed leaves and the berries smell of allspice. The ones in the picture are close to being ripe. When ripened they are harvested, dried and used whole to season a number of Jamaican dishes.
Guava: There are no fruits on this guava tree, but I know some of you will appreciate this kind of guava instead of the one you are most accustomed to working with.
Breadfruit: Our first encounter with breadfruit was not remarkable, but it is often served roasted at our host home. This gives the starchy flesh a nice smokey flavor with some incorporated sweetness and a light, spongy texture. I really like it. It can also be served steamed, boiled or fried.
In addition to learning about the fruit trees in our yards, we are meeting our communities and traveling to some other areas. We went to Negril for a PC meeting last Saturday and part of the meeting was conducted while we were treading water off the coast of the west-end cliffs. Wonderful! But really, we are working and enjoying getting to know the area that we will call home for the next two years.

We're headed to...

2007-07-16T21:46:00.000-04:00

...Westmoreland parish! We will be in the far west of the island, near the town of Savanna la Mar which is about an hour from both Negril and Montego Bay. We don't know a lot more about it right now, but we head there tomorrow to continue our training.

Hot dog!!

Out of Kingston

2007-07-13T19:48:00.001-04:00

After almost 10 days we were finally able to travel outside of Kingston, and it was wonderful. All the trainees from the Health Sector went an hour and a half out of Kingston and helped a local community center pave the area in front of the center. It was hard work, but 20 people can get a lot of work done in just a couple hours. The process was different from any cement work I had seen before. It started by moving enough fist sized rocks to cover the area and provide a base. The rocks were found by looking around the building and were all moved in buckets and laid by hand. Then several hundred pounds of sand and gravel were piled up and mixed by hand with four bags of cement. I had never done it all by hand before. It was good to see and help with the process.

We finished up the day by going into Morant Bay and visiting one of the current Volunteers who is stationed there. He is a sanitation engineer and showed us a couple projects he has done. It felt so good to get off campus.

Daimon's Wedding

2007-07-07T20:06:00.000-04:00

Today is my brother's wedding. It was a disappointment to have to miss the wedding to be here in Jamaica and we really wish we were there. We are thinking of everyone who is there.

Today was our first trip off the campus we are staying on into Kingston. We were divided into groups and given a guide to show us around. Our first attempt at public transportation and the markets. An eye opening experience.

Scott

Cell Phones

2007-07-05T20:13:00.000-04:00

We did get cell phones our first day in Jamaica. They are all pay as you go here. Also of interest, you can dial the US by simply dialing 1-area code-number. It is the same to dial Jamaica. It is charged as an international call though. If you are interested in my phone number, send me an email.

Scott

First days in-country

2007-07-05T19:56:00.000-04:00

This afternoon was our first significant free time since we arrived in Jamaica. There was a nice breeze, a cricket match on the pitch, and there was time to enjoy the day and relish in the fact that we are actually here. Our location right now is beautiful and mountains surround the campus. During the long days of training it's important to remember to take in the view while we are bustling around.

There is promise of a trip or two off campus this weekend, which will be the next step in our acclimation. PC is doing a pretty impressive and subtle job of introducing us to the culture, food, and environment. Each meal seems to get a little more spicy. All the food is wonderful, especially callaloo, which is kind of a cross between collard greens, spinach and celery and is served up spicy for breakfast. We had a sampling of various Jamaican fruits and goodies the other day. It's amazing what a tasty treat fresh tropical fruit makes on a hot afternoon. The bananas just taste a little more like bananas, the pineapple is so sweet and good, and the mangoes are unbelievable.

The weather has been good. The highs are 92-94 with humidity, but there is always a nice breeze, and sometimes a good wind, to cool everything down. The lows are in the mid 80's, but it feels cooler than that which makes sleeping comfortable.

Many other PCTs have blogs and we will try to set up links to those pages soon. A lot of people here have been taking pictures already and have posted them. We haven't got around to that just yet.

Peace!

Miami Pre Service Training

2007-07-01T21:53:00.000-04:00

We are now in Miami at pre-service training. We arrived late last night and started this afternoon at 1. Not bad so far. Training was interactive, which helps and we have met some pretty neat people. Lots of interesting backgrounds. We are both excited about the next two years. Tomorrow is our last full day in the states, then Tuesday we check out at 5:30 am to fly to Jamaica. Posts should be more interesting once we get there. It is starting to be more final as we have less than 36 hours left in the states.

Scott

Last Days in Montana

2007-06-27T01:06:00.000-04:00

We are now in Montana completing our final preparations for departing for Jamaica. We arrived June 19 after a very nice trip across the country during which we were able to see quite a bit of family. We are now down to three days before we leave for staging in Miami. We aren't stressed yet, but we feel like we should be. We haven't spent much time packing or sorting our stuff yet and we are starting to run short on time. We have had time to paint my parents new deck, play some golf, play cards, and spend time with family. Not much else to say. We are both looking forward to our adventure. Hopefully the posts will be more exciting once we actually leave the country.

Out of Philadelphia

2007-06-16T15:43:00.001-04:00

The trip has started. We are packed up and out of Philadelphia. The first two weeks of June have been interesting as we sorted, packed, got our lives in order, etc. Especially the last week ("Where do you want this to go?" "I don't give a #$^. Put it in a $*&%@& box" or "Why are you keeping that?") We both got a little short with each other in the last couple of days. We did have a lot of help from friends (thanks Nicole and Andy) and family (Daimon helped us with the final cleaning of the apartment) and that made a huge difference.

We were able to get out around 9:30 Thursday morning and got into Clinton, Indiana around 11:30. Friday afternoon we drove up to Crystal Lake, IL and spent some time with Carrie's folks.
Tomorrow we are heading out for Montana with a stop in Rockford, IL and spending a night in Minneapolis. Then off to Billings before the farm. We are looking forward to finishing up the driving as we have two vehicles (1 Uhaul truck and the civic). The gas milage has been interesting (10.5 in the truck, 57-60 in the civic). And it's tough not being able to talk much.

Not much new to report on the Peace Corps. We have made our reservations finally. We depart Montana on June 30 for Miami and leave Miami July 3 for Jamaica. Other than that, we will find out more in Miami.

It's official!

2007-06-11T18:50:00.000-04:00

We have our plane tickets to Miami for staging, flying out on June 30^th from Great Falls, MT. Somehow I feel a little bit better about quitting jobs, ending lease, etc. now that we have our tickets in hand. If only we had reassurances that our passports aren't delayed in the current passport debacle.

I've had mixed feelings during most of the packing and closing up we have done over the past two weeks. There was a somewhat appropriate commentary on NPR's All Things Considered as I was driving home from work during my last week there. Granted, I'm not in my mid-40s with a family during these times of change, but it's still all about taking risks and just not knowing how it will turn out. I find it to be a wonderfully liberating experience, even though it is partially filled with trepidation and uncertainty.

Geez. If this is what I'm talking about during moving from PA to MT, just wait until you see what comes out once we get to Jamaica.

Naming the Blog

2007-05-21T17:37:00.000-04:00

Chosing a name for the blog is more difficult that one would think, primarily because all the good names are taken (including allthegoodnamesaretaken.blogspot.com and nogoodnamesleft.blogspot.com). In the end, we ended up going less original than we had hoped for.

Planning has begun. We have started to purge our possesions, which is odd because then we go out and buy more (I haven't bought clothes in around 5 years, so I needed to upgrade some of my wardrobe for Peace Corps service). We have sent in a letter to terminate our lease the middle of June and we each have less than 2 weeks of work left. Too bad there is so much to do before we go. It will be hard to enjoy all of it.

The beginning!

2007-05-16T21:46:00.000-04:00

As we prepare to depart the states, we have at least taken the time to set up this blog to keep in touch with family and friends. Check back once in a while and see what we're up to.