Gustav and all of his friends...

In reference to August 28^th, 2008 -- Written on the 29th

I went to bed in the middle of Tropical Storm Gustav, which had been building all day long. The sky was dark and pensive, and the rain was about as bad as I had ever seen (except perhaps the time my mountain got destroyed and a landslide closed my road for two years). In addition to the often-torrential downfalls, winds were inconsistently up to 70 or so miles an hour, but consistently above 30 miles per hour. Now here is the Christmas part. I went to bed around 10:30 with heavy rain falling and moderate winds and expected Gustav to be gone by morning. When I woke up however, the tree in the center courtyard of our consolidation hotel (Peace Corps required that volunteers stay together during the hurricane) was about half the size it had been then night before. The hotel is a bunch of cottages and two-story buildings with one central area near the pool. I have been in the second floor of one of these buildings overlooking the pool and general outdoor social area. The bar is the only thing on the first floor. Anyways, it is quite odd to wake up today (Friday) and look out the window to find the sky the same color it was 24 hours ago, and the courtyard tree ripped down to a less-impressive version of its previous self.

Another fun tidbit… at its best, the rain filled the pool right up to the lip last night, water was simply overflowing from the pool. There were also waves. Very cool. If I hadn’t been bed ridden with a horrible fever/flu combo for the first time in years yesterday, I probably would have gone swimming. Wouldn’t you? How awesome would it be to go swimming in a hurricane? My brother thought it was a bad idea so I didn’t go, but had I been healthy and motivated as opposed to sick and aching and lethargic I probably would have jumped in for the sake of telling people I swam in a hurricane. So yeah, Gustav is kind of a douche. But whatever, it has been a fun and true Caribbean experience.

I mentioned above that I have been consolidated with most of the Peace Corps volunteers in my group to a hotel in Kingston. I am writing this blog entry from the hotel (and hope I will have internet later on to actually post). What I didn’t mention is I have been staying in the hotel for a week now, as yesterday (Thursday) I swore in as a fully-fledged Peace Corps Volunteer at the United States Embassy. The U.S. Ambassador swore us in using the same oath that all government officials are given, and heard speeches from Peace Corps staff and the Jamaican Minister of Agriculture. Because of the weather, the attendance was rather dismal – my counterpart made it to the ceremony but he was one of five or so non-Peace Corps staff. Hurricanes can do that sort of thing. Allow me to jump back to the beginning of the story (the description of Gustav above is actually quite recent) to explain a bit about what has been going on for the past week or so.

I have been in Kingston to take my final examination, do final processing work, and swear in. It has been a fun week all around – seeing friends I won’t see for up to three months has been both fun and sad. Having passed my exam (five people actually failed), we had a pool party at this place called Colin L. Powell Plaza, a residential compound for embassy and other U.S. workers in Jamaica. It is quite the building, though it really does feel like a fortress – it is on the top of a hill and about 10 stories high overlooking much of New Kingston. I played some quality ping pong for the first time in a while, and had my first ‘Trelawny Gold Label’ rum, produced locally in my parish and only a few miles from my home. Not that bad actually. I have also been living for the entire past week with only $280 JM in my bank account ($4 US), and eating peanut butter to scrape by -- except for one day, and what a glorious day it was. It was ‘two for one’ day at Domino’s Pizza (yeah they have it here, too), so naturally I had two pizzas for myself and immediately regretted the decision. Oh, and this one other day… I went to a highly recommended Jamexican place called ‘Chilitos’ and had a jerk chicken burrito that was simply amazing. I had heard great things, but this was truly something. It was Chilitos that both allowed me to make it through the rest of the week on peanut butter, and required that I do so. Their assortment of hot sauces was spectacular – especially a combination of Scotchbonnet (-ish as spicy as Jabanero) pepper sauce and Jerk Sauce for an ultra spicy kick.

Now to jump back to Thursday. I have been eating rather poorly (can you tell? I also had a whopper somewhere in there), have been in debt to multiple people, and as a result started to get horribly sick on the eve of the swearing sick ceremony. I had a high fever for the first time in many years, and a head cold and joint aches to boot. The embassy kicked us out rather quickly after we swore in as Peace Corps Volunteers (silly Gustav!) and the first thing we heard from the Peace Corps was that we would be returning to the hotel and that “if you leave hotel grounds you will be administratively separated.” I found this part both frustrating and rather hypocritical. The original deal was that any supervisors showing up to the swearing in ceremony would be responsible for driving their volunteers back to their site. Some supervisors did show up (as opposed to my counterpart), and those who did have supervisors attend were required to get a ride back to their sites while the rest of the group consolidates with the threat that if they leave hotel grounds they will be kicked out of the Peace Corps. Does that seem strange to you? It makes no sense that Peace Corps would threaten to kick people out for taking one step out of hotel grounds, yet at the same time send volunteers in cars across the island and surely be hit by the storm mid-travel.

After an appeal to Peace Corps staff a bus was obtained to take volunteers to Mega Mart, a Costco-like store only 1 km away. We were to grab our food stuffs and return to the bus immediately. Well, when we got to the Mega Mart we found that it had been closed because too many people were already inside. So we drove to the other local Mega Mart across town, and found the same deal. By this point, the fact that there were about 40 people in a bus made for 25 (many were standing, including me) was starting to wear. I had been feeling horrible all morning, but at this point – swerving around corners and all the sudden slamming of brakes – was really starting to wear on me. I felt sick to my stomach and like I might faint at any moment, and claustrophobic to boot. Yeah, not so fun. Anyways, we drove by a supermarket that was still open at just the right point and we were let out. I checked my account to find my September living already deposited (no more peanut butter! Now if only I had an appetite), so I gathered some grape nuts, soy milk, water bottles, and coconut water and immediately got in line to check out. 45 minutes later, I hadn’t really moved. The store was packed, and no one really wanted to be caught without food in the storm that was already threatening. After what seemed like forever (I was really in bad shape here – aching and having my faucet nose in full flow) of sitting on the floor in a not-so-clean supermarket, I got back on the bus and got back to the hotel. I immediately took some ibuprofen, chugged my coconut water, and passed out.

Waking up in a sweat and overheating (while I have the tendency to do this anyways, it really shouldn’t happen in an air conditioned room) – you know the feeling – I ate some grape nuts, realized the storm was in full swing, and for lack of anything else to do, watched ‘The Notebook’ on my laptop.

After another nap, I found it to be 8:55 pm. Why is this important, you say? Well, in approximately five minutes, Barack Obama was to take the stage at Invesco Field in Denver, CO and accept his nomination for President of the United States in front of 75,000 people. Though the cable television was out, the wireless internet near the main lobby of the hotel was still working. www.demconvention.com was a lifesaver. I stood under a balcony with a group of a dozen or so other volunteers, and streamed the speech to Jamaica mid-hurricane. Maybe it was my sickness or the weather outside, but that was an amazing speech in a surreal environment. Barack Obama gave his speech to a stadium full of screaming supporters, and with a group of volunteers, I got to see it in the middle of a hurricane with wind whipping and rain falling all around. Please people, get out the vote. We need Barack Obama. The whole convention has been quite a success, and I can’t wait to get my absentee ballot. And if you didn’t see his speech, you can go to the website above to watch it, along with all the other speeches from the week (Michelle, Hillary, Bill, Joe, and John were particularly good).

I think that covers it. I actually feel pretty bad right now (again), so I might take some more ibuprofen and get back to sleep.

Thanks so much to all of you who made it this far, this was quite a long-winded post, but there has been a ton going on and hurricanes don’t really let me do much else.

More updates to come, but entering the second day of the hurricane with no end in site.

Love to all, 

Tommy

P.S. Posting this on Saturday -- the sky is clear for the first time in three days. Hopefully they will let us go back to our sites, but we won't find out for sure for another hour or so.