A Massive Post of Everything-ness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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