Pictures!

Moods fluctuate like the wind down here, and though things are generally decent, today I am particularly motivated. Maybe it was the two eggs and piece of bread I had for lunch, but probably not. Whatever the reason, I thought I would try to catch up on sharing some pictures with whoever cares to see them...

Here is me in my backyard with a shaved head. I don't really have many pictures with me in them -- I had to dig deep for this one. You are welcome!

This is the view from the top of my roof looking at my host family's yard. Since this picture was taken, all the high grass has been plowed down and we have started planting corn and banana trees. I stupidly never took a picture of the part of the yard that is already planted with stuff... I'll get on that soon.

This is Falmouth on a decently crowded day. I think this picture was taken on the day Usain Bolt was coming into town, but not positive. Anyways, yes. Old-ish buildings and wan oul eep of di yaadi dem. (Patwa for lots of Jamaicans)

Yeah, not too much to share, but something is better than nothing right? I'll work on getting pictures that actually show how beautiful this place is... it truly is worth seeing. Shameless plug for anyone who wants to come to the Caribbean anytime soon -- free housing and tour guide!

Love,

Me

Cockpit Country (Metaphorically Speaking)

Now this might be the worst metaphor in the history of metaphors, but just go with it.Wikipedia has a quasi-blurb on the cockpits of Trelawny:

 

The southern section of Trelawny is part of the Cockpit Country, and is uninhabitable. It is therefore a natural reserve for flora and fauna; most of Jamaica's 27 endemic birdspecies can be found there, along with the yellow snakes, and the giant swallowtail butterfly, the largest butterfly in the western hemisphere. Most of the parish has the typical limestone features of cockpits, sinkholes, caves and underground passages.

 

Now, I have never actually been to cockpit country, but that’s not the point. The cockpits are quickly rising, quickly falling mountains. Now, the metaphor part is that my emotions/general state of mind has been a lot like cockpit country for the last month. Highs one day were replaced by lows the next. There was one week I recall actually having three really awesome days spread apart by two pretty horrible ones. You get the point. I would go into all of this in detail, but I really prefer not to relive bad memories, and the blog isn’t really a place to do that. And yeah, everything is generally chill.

 

I haven’t posted since October 3^rd. While I said a long time back I would try to post every week, I guess I have come to terms with the fact that I was just plain wrong. I would be more motivated to post if I got more than one comment every two months though, cough cough… Regardless, since I haven’t posted in forever, this one will include pictures, and fun ones at that!

 

 

This is a picture of Water Square, Falmouth, with about 10,000 people in it. Very hard to capture the ridiculousness of this scene. Usain Bolt is from my parish, so there was a giant rally where all the Jamaican Olympic athletes came through town on floats, and people (myself included) waited for hours to see them. There are normally about 50-100 people in Water Square at any one time – mostly taxi drivers and conductors. So yeah, we waited a few hours, and finally saw the dudes…

 

Usain Bolt came into town on a float all of his own (the other athletes shared one). He was dancing and singing and riling up the crowd – it was pretty sweet. I got up super close to him (see above) and a friend of mine got this picture. The ties on his head are from William Knibb high, the high school he attended. Incidentally, Knibb is about two minutes from my worksite.

 

I got to Negril two weekends ago, where I did a lot of cliff jumping, chilled with friends, and got attacked by a baby nurse shark (sort of). It really went for a friend of mine a lot more than me, but it was definitely a 12” shark. Very strange. It didn’t really have teeth – it was trying to gum us.

I got to Kingston last weekend for the Peace Corps Quarterly meetings – it was great to get out of town. I am now on the executive board of the Health Across Sector Lines volunteer subcommittee and am trying to get a national registry of HIV/AIDS testing centers and other fun stuff made available to all volunteers in Jamaica.

 

I assume you notice I really don’t have many stories about my site. That is sort of true, and sort of explains the mood I have been in lately. To sum it up, I am not entirely thrilled with my job. I love my counterpart and supervisor, but working in a school guidance department isn’t really for me. Nonetheless, I have busied myself with my parenting programs and peer education programs and tried to keep things interesting. I am also looking into secondary projects – might be getting involved with the Jamaica Red Cross or the Jamaica Family Planning organizations and their HIV/AIDS testing programs.

 

The first workshop I am putting together with my peer educators is on Substance Abuse. I asked around the campus, and from what I can figure out the main problems facing my students are Ganja and Skin Bleaching. Ganja is obvious – that part of the presentation hasn’t been too hard to put together. Skin bleaching however is something I had never heard of before arriving in Jamaica. Essentially, skin bleaching is when kids rub chemicals on their face to make their skin lighter, with the belief that a lighter complexion will lead to higher paying jobs and more social success. Besides the obvious social implications of such an undertaking, there are serious health implications as well. Bleaching mechanisms vary from hydroquinone creams (the most safe) to toothpaste/bleach/curry homemade mixes (the least safe). Regardless, all of these mechanisms have potential carcinogenic side-effects, and I am doing my best (with the help of a few of you from back home) to put together a decent presentation on the issue.

Besides work, I have been spending about three hours a day studying MCAT material for the last month. I have registered for a test on March 28^th in NYC and will be flying back. It will be my first time back to the states in about nine months at that point, so it should be interesting. I think the studying is taking a toll on my mood, but I need to get it done and need to do it well. Yeah.

 

That’s about all I have to say for right now… hit me back with comments or emails or whatever. It gets lonely out here, and as much as this blog is a good way for me to chronicle stuff for myself, comments would be nice every now and then.

 

Miss you all,

TG

Ramblings and Nothings

Well I made it through my first month of service – now just 23 to go. Hah. Holland has been an interesting place to work (albeit only sort of in my area of interest). The people are all very attentive, and they all respect my opinion (sometimes maybe too much?). The one qualm I have with the situation here is that 90% of the day I am left to my own devices while the guidance counselors are teaching their classes. This means a lot of down time or more so, a lot of busy work. The guidance program we (I) wrote was submitted to the ministry of education on wednesday, and we are praying for good things. Oh look, I said praying. This culture is taking a toll on me. We are hoping for good things.

As the school year moves forward, I have started arriving at Holland closer and closer to 7:55. During the first week, I was arriving here at 7:30 or earlier, and since then I have pushed it back. Or rather, pushed the snooze button on my phone alarm more and more times. This means that as opposed to leaving my house a little after 7:00, I am leaving more generally around 7:20. And what a difference that time makes. When leaving at 7:00, I don’t ever really see anyone on the walk from my house to the main road. When I leave at 7:20, I consistently see two pre-teen kids taking bucket baths outside right next to the road I walk down. And just to clarify, they are completely butt-naked. Like, wiener flopping about and such. Incidentally, these are the same kids that I go running with, and the same ones who followed me that day back in July. And they aren’t shy either. The little boy and little girl both scream, “Hi Tom!” as I walk by, and I say something like “Morning, morning!” (I have deduced that this is an acceptable thing to say, though I feel silly saying it). I try to avert my eyes, but really? I guess that is just a culture thing – people aren’t that worried about public exposure.

After I got dropped off in Martha Brae (near my school) this morning, I was (thankfully) given a ride down the dirt road to my school. I have a feeling like my shoes (the loafers I wore a lot in the snow at Williams) aren’t going to last much longer. Anyways, while I was mid-ride to the school, “We are the Champions” came on the radio. But Queen wasn’t performing it. Imagine a reggae remix. Now imagine putting one of those irritating, never-ending base lines on it. Think Collie Buddz style – B flat, B flat, B flat, B flat… repeats till infinity. It was comical. They do a lot of that sort of thing here – the best ones are the Celine Dion-esque remixes with gunshot sounds or laser noises in the background of an otherwise powerful and heartfelt mid-90’s ballad.

The past two Thursdays, I have been privy to a ‘Welcome Ceremony’ in my honor and a PTA meeting at which I was a guest speaker. The former was awesome. Essentially, the faculty at Holland hazed me by making me run around campus looking for things. But it gets worse. They made me try to do Jamaican dancing (Nuh Linga! Except not Nuh Linga). I had to try the Gully Creeper. I should have done some daggarin’. Well, o.k. the food was amazing. Eskovich fish, curry chicken, ackee and saltfish, mackerel rundown, bammy, yam, rice and peas. I think that was the meal. It was awesome. The PTA meeting was a little less interesting, but full of interesting lessons to learn about Jamaican parents. One parent complained that the lines her child were told to write were too much, and that the teachers should implement punishments that the children want to perform. I don’t think she really got the point. That one started a huge debate over what is an effective and what is an ineffective form of punishment. General conclusion? Don’t hit kids, but lines are fair game.

So yeah. I have started MCAT studying -- that consumes a fair chunk of my time and will until the end of March. I am also trying to buy a guitar here, but the task has proven difficult. Yeah. Mood goes up and down these days, but the chill idea of Jordan and Will visiting sometime early in 2009 is a good cheer-me-up. It would be plain out silly.

Sort of spacing out this morning so not that much more to report. Happy weekend! Oh, I am writing this from an internet connection in my office. Very very cool. Though I won't really have it for too long. Not so cool.

-TG