Christmas in July

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