Rejuvenation!

The past few months (January – March) were very difficult for me. I just got back from our mid-service (yes its been a year!) conference where we talked about the volunteer life cycle and the one year slump. Most volunteers have a difficult time right around the one year mark. It was definitely a slump but I’m pleased to announce I’m on the way up and out! The biggest contributing factor was my recent trip to the U.S. for Easter. Thank you, thank you, thank you to my family for listening to me complain and giving me so many pep talks. I am energized and ready to dig into the second year of service! It should be noted that most of my community says foreign was good to me, that I’m glowing now, and also that I look so fat and pretty (a major compliment in Jamaica).

I was really trying not to go home for the full two years in order to totally immerse myself if something different, but I didn’t make it. I managed to explain to my community that no, I don’t have money my family is paying for the ticket (sorry Mom and Dad you might get begged big-time when you get here) but I still heard a lot of ridiculous requests. Foreign is a magical land where geese lay golden eggs and ipods grow on trees. So I was SUPPOSED to carry back several computers, three pairs of shoes, a blackberry, pizza, a variety of gourmet cheeses, pounds of broccoli seed and a few mp3 players. I ended up bringing 100 lbs of used books that students from Loomis Elementary School generously donated and some soaps and candles that we had gotten at one time or another and never used. It was tricky, but I think I managed to walk the fine line between every parent in the district asking me to pay their child’s school fees and insulting someone close to me because I didn’t “carry something back for them (do please do).” The Jamaican pleading “do” and “come now” are so hard to say no to!

Grades 6-9 pose for a class picture with their new books on Literacy Day 2011

Bringing the books to the school was a major feat which involved a car, one airplane, three taxis, two buses, and 17 hours of travel time. It also included me getting stranded in downtown Kingston (yeah the dangerous part of the island) after dark and two very kind strangers, angels really, each carrying a 50 lb box of books about 7 blocks for me. To celebrate, we organized a last minute Literacy Day 2011 celebration yesterday which was held, you guessed it, today! As a procrastinator, Jamaican planning is just my style! It was a huge success. All the students are SUPER excited about the new books and better still SUPER excited about reading. The principal and I had to forcibly herd the children out of the library appeasing them with promises that they could check a book out on Thursday once they have been organized.

Reading, books, and more reading!

Everything is looking up. We’re going to build shelves for the books, move the library into a bigger room, and put in a computer with reading games. Our garden is looking fantastic (who knew everything could grow so much in three weeks?!) and students are EATING VEGETABLES EVERY DAY and even taking some home for the rest of their family. Also, even though the National Water Commission is full of false promises and bureaucracy it looks like not all hope is gone for the community water project after all. Hopefully, more on that is to come. Until then, our eyes are wide and dreamy and we look fat and pretty!

Landslides at my new site

The Peace Corps Jamaica country director called me in early August to informed me that my safety and security had been compromised. While Negril is a wonderful spot with a relaxed atmosphere, sunny climate, and low crime rate there is an active sex tourism industry. Part of my work with NEPT involved implementing the Blue Flag Programme at the various resorts to try to encourage eco-tourism as an alternative to sex tourism. The typical sex tourist in Negril is a white woman who finds a dread-locked companion in a union commonly termed "rent-a-rasta." Sexual harassment is present all over the island and is something that you deal with whether you are American, Jamaican, male, or female. However, Negril's sex tourism industry naturally fosters harassment of white females in Negril. While I thought I was handling most situations fairly well, Peace Corps told me that I was no longer safe in Negril and that I had to move.

Due to the situation, I was faced with an opportunity that most Peace Corps Volunteers never get to experience: choosing my own site. My ideal Peace Corps service would be in a small rural area with a strong sense of community. The people would be motivated and hard-working but might lack the formal education or resources required for self-advocacy. I took out my Jamaica road map, looking for towns that were located at the end of a road. I knew that a town at a road's end was sure to be rural. Generally, communities at the end of a road in Jamaica have very little crime because the way into the town is also the way out. I started reading newspaper articles, ministry reports, and lonely planet entries about all the towns I could find. In my search I came across Westphalia. Located in northeastern St. Andrew near Blue Mountain Peak, it has the highest elevation and lowest literacy rate in all of Jamaica. I paid a preliminary visit where I fell in love with the beautiful views and cool weather. I wanted to go there; but did they want me?

The highest settled local community in Jamaica, Westphalia is nestled under Cinchona Botanical Gardens and looks up at Blue Mountain Peak.

Peace Corps called a community meeting to discuss what a Peace Corps Volunteer is, what she does, and to ask if the community would be interested. Though the meeting was held on a afternoon in the middle of the week when most of the community would be working at the farms, 45 people attended and unanimously agreed that they wanted me to live there. As an older Rastafarian farmer said "People better than money."

I moved there last Friday and stayed there over the weekend before having to leave for a Peace Corps conference on the north coast in Ocho Rios on Monday. The first two days at site were wonderful. I didn't get hit on once. The harmonies at church were IN TUNE. My host family is SUPER nice, and I already got an "I love you" hug. An I love you hug is the name I've given to when an older Jamaican woman wraps her arms around you and says "I love you." When kids at the soup kitchen want an I love you hug, they usually say, "hug me up." I'm living with a host family: Miss Bev, her two daughters who are my age, her 17 year old son, her last daughter who is 7 and her 4 grandchildren 3, 5, 5, and 7. My living conditions have gone from air conditioning, hot water, and a grocery store to a pit latrine, bucket baths, and no internet. I'm happy about living simply and falling asleep to donkeys braying instead of loud reggae music. I'm a little homesick for my friends in Negril and the sense of community I had there, but I'm sure it won't take long to get that in Westphalia....once I get back up there...

Jamaica has been in a tropical depression since Tuesday with heavy rains falling on much of the island. There have been flash floods, power outages, and landslides. The power in Westphalia has been gone since Wednesday. The hillsides are very steep and prone to landslides. The road to Westphalia has been blocked in several places, and the bridge over the Yallahs river, just past Mavis Bank is flooded. Luckily everyone in Westphalia community is safe and healthy. They are staying in their houses until the rains stop. There is another system reported to hit Jamaica next week. If it hasn't reached by Monday I think I will try to take the bus to Mavis Bank and walk from there. Most of the people in the area are subsistence farmers. No one will know what state the crops are in until the rain stops. I imagine there will be plenty of work to do by the time I get back!

Blue Mountain coffee in the foreground and the Blue Mountains in the background.