The Jamaica list thus far
things I love about jam:
the size
the beauty
most people
patties
dancehall
white rum
cheap veggies/delcious fruits
driving way too fast
wtf things:
heavily bandaged hospital escapees
goats, everywhere.
things I hate:
smalling up
abused dogs
extreme religion
mosquitos
water lock offs
Jam time (aka a half hour late-- I thought I was late till I came here..)
Greetings from my rooftop in rural Trelawny! I am currently overlooking the
beautiful mountains of Cockpit country. A lot has happened since my last entry. I moved from the bat cave into a
beautiful family home. I now have my own tv with cable(!!), 5 windows(!! aka no
more moldy clothing), a washing machine(!!) and my own entrance and exit. I
basically just share a kitchen. My homestay sister is 31, she's also a teacher
and awesome. my homestay brother is around the same age, also really cool and I
enjoy spending time with both of them.
My homestay parents are are sweet but very religious-- the other day I
ran into my host mothers room hearing wailing. I open the door and she is
kneeling begging for God's forgiveness like she was crying. I slowly backed away without her noticing my presence.
I've never heard anything like that before.. it was alarming to say the least.
The past few weekends I have been visiting other PCV's at beaches and
other rural areas so I decided to keep this weekend to integrate despite other
pcvs going to Ochio Rios. It ended up being worthwhile because I had a great conversation with my homestay
brother for the first time and found a co-worker at church. This sunday's
church by the way, was a pentecostal five hour long service led by my host mother
which I begrudgingly agreed to despite my strongest objections. I only went to
the last three hours of screaming and
reptition of the same statements, yet it was still maddening and needless to
say I will be back to my usual church the following sunday. Upon returning from church, my homestay
mother informed me that she had a vision from the lord to preach and thus she became a pastor. While I very much respect her religion and beliefs, the
screaming and wailing sort of freaks me out-- I guess its something I need to
get used to.
Extreme religion is definitely an
integration struggle for me, as is life here in such a rural area. The bush is
slow and chatty (aka everyone talks about everyone else) and its taking time to
get used to the lack of things to do and the chattiness. A lot of times I find
myself sitting on this roof blasting music and writing letters. I've also
developed a love affair with 100 Jamaican dollar burned DVD's from street
vendors. For a little more than 1 US dollar my sanity is kept intact with
illegally burned dvd's of crappy American movies. Thank God for piracy.
As far as work is concerned, school has been going fairly well considering
its only a few weeks in and I have done a lot of teaching (and have gotten to
know most of the teachers.) I teach
full classes of 3rd to 9th graders multiple times a day. I usually do HIV
education, however I have also been teaching various other life skills such
as goal setting and emotional health. I
created an HIV monopoly game, and a few other games to simultaneously interest
and educate. While there are classes I simply cannot control, most kids seem to
enjoy and behave in my classes,
particularly the 9th graders. After each class they ask me when I'm coming
back and become upset if I can't return immediately. I'd like to think my
education is effective, but I will never really know how many students are
still participating in risky behaviors. My attention is still being pulled in
so many different directions-- the principle is retiring and wants me to begin
the school farm Tuesday to help with many students inability to afford
breakfasts, a cop wants me to start a group for sexually abused children, my
supervisor wants me to do a literacy group, etc etc. I could probably live here
for 15 years and not complete all the projects needed so I guess its a matter
of time before I feel out which projects will work and when.
Oh here's a fun
fact, I went into kingston for an HIV meeting, and had Armageddon of the body
for 24 hours due to Yao's chinese food. Who knew tofu could be used as nuclear
warfare? No more Chinese food for me, lesson learned. Right now I'm looking
forward to a few important visitors in a few weeks, learning how to control my
classes, and ATI (the biggest party in Jamaica in August.) That's all for now.
One Love,
D
