Catching up...

Whoa. I apologize for being absent for this time! However, this gives me plenty of experience and information to share...ohhh where to begin.....

Well, this is week four of being in Santa Cruz. I now know my co-workers at the Social Development Commission. I also know that they act like a unit, a family. This makes coming into the office a treat. I am happy to work with people who are approachable and team oriented. The field officers, there are six of them now, have been taking me out and about St. Elizabeth to their communities. Here's a few places and things I've done with them:

May was Child's Month in Jamaica. There was a good bit of advertisement, and radio and television commercials on the Rights of the Child. There is a social problem with children not going to school or working at a young age for various reasons, so Jamaica has been working to encourage education to both child and parent to create a better future. The Friday we got sworn in was Child's Day. All the kids got the day off. Then there were themed days in school where kids could dress up as a profession that they're interested in.I saw the children dress up for school when I went with one field officer to the southern towns of St. Elizabeth for a BEST Community judging. Also in honor of Child's Month, the SDC St. Elizabeth Office did an outreach to the Boys Home I had mentioned in the previous post.

It took a bit of activity planning, and a trip to Mandeville (yay!) to get some treats and games/toys for the boys, but by the last day of May, haha!, a group of us from the office drove out to the Boys Home and we played some games! IT WAS SOO FUN!!! There's about 60 boys that live there, but we went when the High Schoolers were still in school, so we had the younger school age boys. We played football and minefield ( a game where one guy, blindfolded will be directed by his team to go thru a "mine field" filled with explosives (trash bags) and lasers (string) to get to the other side.) Then at the end of the games we gave them ice cream and gifts of puzzles, dominoes, uno, scrabble, and badminton. Such a great day!!!!! I wish I had pictures....but unfortunately, my camera no longer wants to work. So hopefully... (my mom is pretty AWESOME) I'll be getting sent her's to use.

another thing I've done with the SDC here is...

BEST Community: (Better. Environments. for Social. Transformation.) That's what BEST means, to be a bit clear. This contest is nation wide and is supported by the Digicel Foundation. Digicel is like AT&T for Jamaica. The Digicel Foundation is a private-sector foundation and works to fund sustainable projects and empower communities to grow. I've been to about 4 communities that applied for BEST. They apply for either all sections or a few possible categories including Environment, Safety, Health...etc. And with the SDC, who also is a partner in the competition, the judges, people who are familiar with but not part of the voted community go to the community and talk about what the town has achieved in the past year.

Here's a link to a National newspaper article that came out today about the competition : http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120511/social/social91.html

It's pretty cool, for instance, I went to one where the youth group put in their community, and they had a binder with pictures of their projects as well as their hopes and project ideas to help the community in the future. It's really inspiring. Especially when they're mainly small towns.

annnd another thing is the computer class...

I had my first one last Wednesday. And one person showed. Which is cool, because I could give my undivided attention to the woman. She was quite unfamiliar with the hardware of the computer and any basics, but I got her after an hour and a half, to know what a computer, mouse, keyboard and monitor screen are and how to navigate the mouse on the desktop. As well as getting her used to typing in Microsoft Word. Then I was supposed to go Friday, but I didn't have a ride up. So there's some organizing and preparation on the community's side to be done if they really want a class. I offered my services, but its up to the people to figure out what schedule works best for them.

Alas, that's that. I do have to catch up on the Cricket match from Sunday....