It's worse before it's better

Or as one of my co-workers said "Chantal is not going back upstairs."

I have experienced six summer camps thus far. Basically one new summer camp, in a different town, every week. Each town has their own flavor and excitement. The children are thrilled to be out of their home. They can barely contain their energy when asked to sit in their seat to hear what they get to play at day camp. I remember when I did day camp. I was just as eager and curious. Camp is a terrific way to meet new peers and learn life skills through games- how can you beat that!?

Now, these six weeks of camp have grown the mental data base of songs, games, and grout (shout out to Camp Ernst for using that term ) that I have when interacting with the likkle picknees (little children). The ability to invent a game or use masking tape and a permanent marker have become invaluable for me. I am so grateful for masking tape. I use it a lot (as do the other camp facilitators with me), especially recently- already on my second roll! Like I said, it helps sooo much to have masking tape!!!!!

I've used masking tape for the following:

• name tags
• to mark the beginning of a line 
• make four square
• make a masking tape ball to throw around 
• use you imagination!

I have one more camp next week. However today's events have given me much to reflect upon. 

The funding for this week's camp has been fantastic. It's completely free to the children. Also free to the parents who signed them up. Giving a free camp attracts a whole heap of children who need a week of something to do. Typically I see kids using their time wandering the neighborhood or not at all (my guess is they're inside watching tv, playing with the sibs or bothering their parents, like all kids in elementary school -- I know I did, and I doubt the inside activity for children has evolved much). 

Anyways, focusing on today. I helped make a game called Minefield. It's where you take yarn or string and wrap it around posts and chairs crossing a room to make "laser beams". Then, you take trash bags and label them with masking tape (haha! another reason why masking tape is awesome) with Dynamite! TNT! or Explosive! You throw those on the floor of the laser ridden passage, and viola! There is your minefield. 

We split the fifty-ish children into three groups...I reflect now, and I should have done more groups, or have chosen a better suited game. Each group chose one person to be blind folded and guided by the team through the obstacle course, with one person on the team  to tell the vision impaired team mate where to go. I had camp facilitators manage each group. I guided the blindfolded and their teammate in the minefield.

Quickly, things went sour. Children started all at once yelling commands to their team mates where to go. That's fifty-ish voices all at once. I tried settling them down, I asked the camp facilitators to help settle them down. The kids were getting competitive and excited. Therefore, in this case, they were not listening. 

I yelled. I yelled at the top of my lungs for them to calm down and be quiet. I had their attention. The fifty-ish of them. I asked for them to respect their camp facilitators and listen to them. They calmed down. for 2 minutes. Then they started up again. I let them try another way of going through the minefield, then stopped the game. 

Everyone wanted to go through the lasers so I let them. This quickly changed to tearing up the string and using the trash bags as devices to hit other kids. I approached the chaos and boys who thrashing about and removed the bags and got everyone to sit down. I was so upset. So disappointed, that from Monday, I met the most well behaved, respectful group of children... to turn into creatures of nightmare in four days. 

During snacks, I talked to them all about my disappointment and my apologies of raising my voice ( I truly felt bad, but the ability to control the situation was lost to my temper.) So I resorted for most of the rest of the day in the downstairs of the building where I could talk to my co workers, and regroup ( just like this meditating baby. a pic I found online, tho how funny it was for the person who captured this moment). 

In all of this, I discovered a lot of insight and feedback from the camp facilitators and my co workers. Of their annual experience with these children. Of the difficulty of getting volunteers to assist with the camp. Of getting funding for meals. For sport equipment and camp supplies. The children VERY MUCH need attention and direction ( of which most, as I was told, may not get at home). Today was the worst day of all my camps. I don't want to say worst camp. But it was a true test for me. And that's why I didn't want to go back upstairs where the open room of children dominated.

oh and my electric kettle decided to break. so stove top kettle replaces number 3 fav house hold item , haha. 

My 3 Favorite Household Items

I'm in cleaning mode, so this is what's been on my mind.

1. Bleach:

Today I cleaned my home. I do this weekly (well, I try). I have found bleach to be my best friend when I do. I am appreciating tiles more and more. In comparison to carpet, tiles definitely win. Though if I didn't live in the hottest place in Jamaica, I'd probably want carpet, its softer. But then I couldn't slide around in my socks....

After I sweep the tile floors. Which, to be honest, I first thought was stupid, but I did it from imitation of other tile floor owners. And MAN! Do you know how much loose hair and dirt get on these tiles?! Like, A LOT. It's gross. I also wonder how I'm not bald.
I also get a chance to kill all the little spiders that have somehow made my home a spider refugee. I don't think so Anancy. Get out.
Back to the bleach, I use a mix of water and bleach to mop the floors of the main space, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. The floors get disinfected and aren't grainy from the dirt. And again, each room I find my hair.  Gross.

I also use the bleach to get stains out of my clothes. I got ginep fruit (these little green fruit with a big seed, you pop open the outside and suck the seed that has the fruit) stains on my dress. I just dot bleach straight on it. However, I got a little too excited on the amount a drop of bleach means, and I think I may have bleach stained my dress. The dots turned the white yellow. Ugh. Whoops! Maybe I'll just dye it a different color? Like....yellow? :)

2. Electric Bug Swatter

This should probably ranked first. But because I cleaned my house, and I smell bleach. Bleach was first. But in terms of use- I am constantly swatting mosquitoes down. My favorite thing ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I always have my swatter a hands length away, because the moment I see a little black dot drunkenly bopping around ( that's what mosquitoes fly like), I turn the on switch and press the button and wave the racket like a mad lady. There is no real technique, because of the pattern less flight of the blood sucker. Then  ZAP! I got it. Sometimes it gets even crazier when the mosquito gets stuck in the racket, then it cooks. And it smells like burnt bug. Ew. (yet I'm so happy).

3. Water Boiler

It cooks my oatmeal, my tea, and my ramen. Done. and done.
The only bother is the little thumb ants are attracted to it. I dont know why. Plus the treated water (with chlorine) gets separated from the water and cakes on the metal plate. Do ants like chlorine? Because I catch them sometimes IN the kettle, in the water. bleh. I rinse them out though. I don't like ants in my tea.


I hope to get a camera soon, so I don't have to tell you about my cleaning habits, and show you other interesting things that I do. Haha.

Summer Cyamps

Summer cyamps (as it is said here) are in full swing! The children are out of school and running about using all that energy they preserved when sitting in a classroom. I've been in several different town summer camps across the parish. And each one is unique. This is mainly to do with the children that attend the camps. Some children have been accustomed to organized activity, and others not so. It is with GREAT patience that I develop the team building skills of the children who are not familiar with the games. However, once they get it- it is so rewarding. You can actually see the light switch click on the bulb.

Two games that have been effective at all the camps thus far are backward clumps and the human knot. For Human Knot:  I get the children into groups of 4-6 kids and have them hold hands across from each other. At first, the children do not have a clue what to do. But I encourage them to think and try to find a way out. They usually get themselves more tangled up. This leads to laughter. Then I give one hint of advice and the ball rolls. They start figuring it out. I've noticed the younger kids, around 7-9 year olds are the quickest and most effective age group for problem solving. They are resilient. This age group is willing to try and have the sweetness and hope that children naturally have.

The 10- 13 year olds are just too cool. I was like that too when I was that age. I mean, weren't you? I wanted to be seen as cool (even though that was not the case! haha!), therefore I'd sit and look pretty. The older kids would give up quicker. But I would have the younger kids help, and some how, everyone would solve it together. When the last person unravels them self they feel such a sense of accomplishment. So proud to have figured it out on their own. Then I challenge them to get more people in their knot.

The addition of people make the backward clump difficult too. But the kids love it! They don't realize it immediately, but they are supporting each other with their backs to lift them up from the floor. They have to use the strength of many, not the individual.

By the end of each camp day. My voice is dry and tired. I don't yell, I do raise my voice to speak over the 20 plus kids. Days such as these, I fall asleep before 9:00pm. But those are the best days. :)

The day after the fourth

Happy belated 236th birthday America. I did not eat hotdogs, smore's or drink lemonade. Though that sounds delicious right now. It was a typical work day in the hotness of my tropical life. Today I got to enjoy another downpour...these rains clearly get my blogging initiative going...and after the rain and wind sweeped away, I went to get some lunch. I ate a slice of cheese pizza (i needed it.) a small cup of peanut porridge- whoever comes to visit me, I will have you try it. I'm going to convert you into having that as your breakfast meal, because it's awesome. And I also ate a callaloo loaf. yum. Three things dat I indulged fo sho, but my belly is happy!

I also enjoy how everything is packaged in a scandal bag. My food was put into a scandal bag for me to take back to the office. Scandal bags are black plastic bags. These bags are used to put EVERYTING in. When you go to the market for produce, its put in white plastic bags which are then placed in a scandal bag. I have a lot of scandal bags that I use for the bin dem at home. Back to today. As I walked up the path to the office, there are these little shops, I mean they're one likkle room shops of electronics, snacks, music.... and between one a dem are these two Rastas making cane juice. one is getting bottles to fill, and the other is pushing cane through a squeeze juicer. I approached them and asked what they were up to. Clearly it was obvious, but nonetheless. The man who was getting the containers organized said they were making juice, and usually they add ginger but none was around to add in. I also had not seen them there before. Again the man who spoke said they were from Brae's River. Brae's River is a town just up the road. I was offered to try the juice, so I did. It's pretty good!

This morning I went out with a CDO ( Community Development Officer) to a town that asked the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) to help improve their primary school. JSIF helps fund community based projects like building primary schools, health clinics and such. But in this specific primary school, there are only 6 children attending. To make sure its a worthwhile project, we need to survey the numbers of kids who live near the school and why children aren't going to that school. I did surveys with about 11 families and most live in big family units and take their kids to other schools. The survey will function as a guide as to whether it makes sense to put in the effort to help the primary school. Especially when there's such a low number of students currently attending. Hopefully the survey will answer that question with obtaining the amount of children attending school in the area, which schools and why they aren't going to a closer school. So...that the JSIF can decide.

I walked around with a CDO talking to the people with kids. It was hot! 98 degrees. And we're in rural area, up closer to the Trelawny/ St. Bess border. A lot of women were doing their laundry. I guess its an unspoken thing, Thursday's do your laundry! The women were washing by hand, just so you know. So the situation would go like this " Hi, We're from the SDC, here to talk to parents with kids going to primary school...blah blah.." And the women would be squatting over their wash bucket scrubbing away and answering. Kinda awesome. I felt the pressure to wash my clothes too. It's like watching TV and seeing the same commercial every time. The idea creeps into your brain.

This week, all of the schools in Jamaica are out for the summer. Next week I begin the wonderful world of summer camps! more to come :)

Taken for granted.

This weekend, the rain gods were merciful and let it pour upon St. Elizabeth, and all of Jamaica. This was a joyous time. Cool air filled the valley of Santa Cruz which led to breezy sleep-filled nights and lesser burning light during the day. But in all this grateful celebration there was ONE thing that really made a damper: the electricity. It simply does not want to work when it rains. Nope. No way. This weekend it would go out. Just like that. And then when it felt like it, the creak of the fan signaled it was working again.

Oh! You’d like to finish typing this sente-. WELL TOO BAD. The computer screen goes off. Not with my laptop, because it’s charged. But at the SDC office it was exactly like that. The electricity would go off. Then it would blink on, and then go off again like a light switch. The rain wasn't that strong. just continuous. I really though a duppy ( Jamaican word for ghost) was behind it. I think Casper and his evil uncles were up to no good.

Even the two street lights weren’t working. So all of Santa had no electricity. Though it was kind of funny, as in “really? It’s just rain,” was that there were no officers directing traffic in that intersection. I saw about two police cars in the jammed traffic. Come on, I know they have ponchos.

Another thing I won’t take for granted is cold showers. Yea, COLD. In the humid yet burning heat that could only be from my little slice of heaven, the water pipes have a bounty of refreshing water only to be boiled warm and gross for me to shower in. Here, it is actually possible to wait until your shower gets cold. But wasting water isn't nice. Awesome, I know.

I also have to say I miss driving my car. It’s a twenty minute walk to town from the neighborhood, and that’s not too bad, but it’d be cut by 75 percent if I used some petrol and wheels. When I come home in a year, I'll be driving myself everywhere!! J 

So there you have it folks. My quick snap pout-fest, I just really wanted to get that out. I don't mind sharing it on the inter webs. The five hours of no electricity at the office really got to me. Apologizes.

Twenty/20 Feature Cricket Match

This past Sunday there was a Feature Cricket match. 20/20 is a type of game for Cricket, I have figured out. Cricket can last a loong time, like 3 days for one game (Those are called Tests). But to make it manageable and in one day, the SDC has a 20/20 Cricket tournament within the parish, that by the end of June becomes inter-parish matches. This means there are 20 overs given per team. Each team gets 6 official balls for one over. A ball is a throw from the bowler. The bowler is the guy who swings his arm like a windmill.

 There are also two batsmen on the clay strip. So when the bowler throws the ball there is a batsman on his side and the two batsman run back and forth across the white lines that are in front of the wickets (those 3 stick things on each end of the clay rectangle strip). Are you still following me!? Haha, if you don't, you have to watch about 30 minutes of the game after reading this. I say 30 minutes, because like I said, its a long game. Each time the batsman who hit the ball into the field runs past the white line its one point. There are two of them because if they run to the same side as the bowler they're not moving from that side to show how many points they've gotten. So the balls and the overs are really dependent on the bowler. Not so on the batsman. Which in baseball, it seems more dependent on the batter than the pitcher. whew!

So! I went to Ballard's Valley, St. Bess at 7:30 with the rest of the SDC staff and we met the main SDC office staff all the way from Kingston. The whole lot of us began preparing the field and the sitting area for the spectators and VIP (Members of Parliament (MP) and sponsors). We set up until about 10. By ten, the first two teams began to play. They game lasted until 2! Then the next teams started a little after. Unfortunately, one team did not show and forfeited. This was no good because apparently this team would have brought out more spectators. Instead, there was a friendly match until 5pm. After the match we had to break down all the work we had made for the Feature match and went home! I was there for about 10 hours! I had 2 cups of coffee that day, I was awake still by 7pm that night, but physically pooped!

By the way, this is how I've understood it. This game was the first time I've EVER seen a Cricket match. Like, ever paid attention to one. I've known about Cricket since middle school, but I never cared about it because the name sounds like an insect and without explanation the game looked really confusing. And now that I've seen it, the game does have the name of an insect and its less confusing. :)

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....