Life skills skills

Several events have happened since the last post. So here's a quick update. I shadowed a current Peace Corps Volunteer last week, in St. Elizabeth parish. I was near the coast, but the PCV lives in the mountains overlooking Treasure Beach in the distance. It's quite rural, with green lush spaces between each house and fruit trees scattered in which people can just pluck an apple if you wish. I saw how it is to work with children in the Phys Ed field for a day there. I played the 100 yard scream game with the kids. We worked with 1st graders, 2nd graders and 5th graders last Tuesday. The school is small and has two buildings. Both of which house several grades, separated by a wall divider. The closeness of space and the multiple voices of teachers and students can be distracting for students. Back to the scream game. The kids are to give out one big scream as they run. Once they run out of that one scream, they must stop.

Physical Education isn't consistent in these kids lives, so when explaining how to play this game and even telling the kids how to stretch is new and confusing. Such requests as spread out arms distance from each other, is confusing. So patience is big. Overall, the three day experience got me revved up to go out to my site-to-be! (which is still unknown to me...but sooonnn!!)

I also got to visit the Agriculture and Environmental group last weekend in Woodford. The view from Woodford in picture above. Woodford is beautiful! It's in higher elevation than Stony Hill, and therefore cooler. Getting to see people I haven't seen for weeks was refreshing. The group there is having a blast growing plants. I got excited hearing about their excitement. All in all, a good day trip, and not too far. We took 3 different modes of transport up; a JUTC (greyhound) bus, another bus and a taxi. The taxi drove up and twisted through the mountains curves, which gave a gorgeous view all the while thinking you were going to tumble down the mountains because of the driving. But I'm alive and well, so no worries, haha. (below, the other three YAP kids walking up the road to meet with the Green Initiatives.)

Now, today, the Youth As Promise (YAP) group went to LEAP, meaning Learning for Earning Action Program, me thinks. It is a place where teens go who had a difficult time with high school instead go here to learn a certain skill. It's mainly boys, but there are girls who attend the program too. YAP trainees seperated the 50 students into smaller groups. I, and two other trainees worked with 14 boys aging from 16-18 years old. We started with some HIV/AIDS info. We played a hot potato game with pieces of paper crumpled, layered like onion. This became the hot potato. The paper pieces held a number which decided which trivia question to ask the unfortunate holding the molting ball of paper. The boys did a pretty good job of knowing safe sexual health practices. From HIV/AIDs info, we discussed a life skill. Goal making! I asked these boys who their role models are and how did they become successful, and they ranged from music artist Vybz Cartel (currently in jail) to God. I know, quite range. 

From there we led to short term and long term goals. As a group we worked on their career goals. The boys I worked with are currently learning how to become a shoe maker, an electritian, a visual artist, or work in food preparation. We talked and played games in getting their noggins going on how, why, when,which way they're going to achieve their goals. It was inspiring to hear them talk about how they can work toward their career jobs and how their faces show pride in the work they do at LEAP. The boys who are learning shoe making wore the shoes they made. They look like Clarks! One boy had a toothbrush and would brush his shoes when they scuffed. It was clear he wanted to keep his work well taken care of. 

 By the time the YAP trainees got back to the bus, we all felt accomplished. The 5 small group sessions we led were all successful. The LEAP boys and couple of girls were responsive, respectful and fun. Days like today make me feel more prepared and ready to impact more lives. Tomorrow, we learn more skills on life skills. And I'm ready. 

One Month Mark

How yuh do?

It's been a month of training and learning and heat and salutations. Now from Hellshire, the Youth Development crew is at Stony Hill. This city is bigger than Hellshire, but I miss the closeness Hellshire gave. Yet the weather here is as refreshing as the view I get to see from my window every morning.

Stony Hill's community is spread among the hills and surrounding mountains. In the center of the community are two patty restaurants. Tastee and Juici. Juici has a vegetarian option, however is also located by the bus stop. This was a learning experience last week when a PCT and I almost got hauled into a bus. Aggressively I might add. There are people who try to fill up the bus as much as possible before it heads away. Therefore we were just numbers to the pile. We pulled ourselves out of the beeline towards going somewhere we didn't want to go. I know how to better ground myself when I'm near Juici patty. Not to mention just simply walking around the bus stop to get my occasional veggie patty.

There is also a supermarket and several churches in the community as well. The supermarket is well stocked. Though so is my house here. My host dad is an avid cook. We also have banana and coconut trees on the property. Several PCT's have families that have their own garden of greens. All of this natural from the ground goodness makes it easy to eat well. Yesterday for dinner I had Rundown Mackerel. It's a coconut creamy sauce on mackerel. deeelicious.

This past weekend was Easter holiday! I hope everyone had a wonderful time with family. We had Friday through Monday off. This four day weekend gave me a chance to travel! Well first I went to service with my host family for Good Friday. It was awesome. The pastor was well spoken and after the 2 and a half hour service I got to meet some of the congregation. I appreciate the closeness of the church goers here. People stay and chat for such a while after service too, just calmly catching up. Saturday night I went out with some PCT's because it was Ity's birthday! Ity's real name is Claire, but we call her Ity. Anyways, we went out to a club in Kingston with some of our young adult home stays. Then Sunday was Easter! Monday a handful of us went to Dunn's River in Ocho Rios.

We left in the morning and got to Ochie before lunch. We went in with resident passes ( which is cheaper than tourist passes, yay!) and then blended in with the crowds of cruise tourists. A Carnival Cruise stopped at Ochie. And boy, can you tell a tourist. Little bit of pinkness from the Caribbean sun, and then the others who obviously had Carnival ponchos. I've become so accustomed to being here in a month I forget the color of my skin. haha!  The picture above is the falls and I'm in the pink shorts with the tarheel blue bandana on my head.

Oh. I forgot to mention. IT WAS POURING THE WHOLE TIME. The rain went on the whole day. But it did not damper our spirits to walk the falls. Its the only waterfall that enters the ocean directly. It's beautiful and so fun to climb! I suggest people go there and try it!

Today is my host dad's birthday. He is now 60! But what's crazy is he looks 50. So serious. I have found people in Jamaica hide their age well. How fortunate right!? A couple children of his have come into town to celebrate his party this weekend. I'm excited for the weekend. He has boxes of records and loves country music, so I anticipate hearing his favorites.

Mi name Vybzies

First off- I had my birthday on this past Monday. Wahhooo! I get to spend two more birthdays in Jamaica before I end my Peace Corps service. I have to say, we are off to a good start. On Sunday another PCT (Peace Corps Trainee), Marie and I celebrated our close birthdays (by 3 days) at the beach! It was initially overcast, but the sun eventually came out of the clouds. I had some red stripe, and festivals. Festivals are almost like churros. Just fried dough without the cinammon sweetness....that reminds me, its Friday and my neighbor cooks them...I'll be getting some festivals after this write up. Yum!
Back to Sunday, people came to the beach to hang out, and some wore the birthday cone hats I found at the market in Kingston. I wore mine in the ocean, slightly foolish, but overall funny. Around 2ish or so a Red Stripe promo car drove onto the beach and blasted out some great dance music. The homestay kids that came to the beach with us were dancing and naturally I had to join. I'm a work in progress.

Then Monday, my actual birthday, friends came to my house after the days session and we watched Hunger games and ate rum cake that my host sister made! Delicious!

Now, last Saturday Group 83 had to experience the Carnation Market in Kingston. It's big. Theres people who come from all parts of the island and sell their fruits and vegetables. A lot that are new to me, but DELICIOUS! For instance, I love love love toasted breadfruit. Its like the way sounds, it grows on trees and the inside is like soft bread. I also tried star apple, its a purple plum looking exterior, yet has a gooey slime-like fruit center. It's...different in regards to texture, but the taste is good.

In the market, there are booths/sections of which farmers/sellers have with their goods. Everyone want you to buy their fruit or vegetables. The market area is also shaded by tarps to block the sun which creeps into the cracks of the makeshift roofs. My host family and I went at 7:30 in the morining, and we left by 11:00. We also went by the clothes shops too. These shops are small entrances into a building and are set up like a closed hallway. The clothes are displayed on mannequins in the front, and the rest on one wall pinned with their price. The other "wall" is a big gated area upon which the other side resides the owner with the clothes in clear bag packages. When you decide on the clothes item, they get it from the inventory and you purchase the clothes like you would buying movie tickets, with that partition.

We will be going back to Kingston for some sightseeing tomorrow, I look foward to seeing some historical and cultural parts of the capital city. I'm getting a better idea of the geographics of Jamaica. Today we had due as homework a country map, a seasonal calendar and a community map of Hellshire.

As a PCT I did this to begin learning how to learn about my environment and what will be important to me in the Youth As Promise Sector. For the country map I mapped the 14 parishes and capitols and then located sports and party sites pertaining to the youth population. I found there are all kinds of events in Jamaica. One I want to do is the Reggae Marathon ( I may just do the half) in December. There are cricket, netball, football, rugby, running, triatholon events all over. As for party's it goes from Carnival/Baccachanal, Dream Weekend for Independence day, to Jamaica Fashion week. I hope to participate in some events in the future! Then with the seasonal calendar, I reflected the same information, but in calendar form. Then the community map was a way to view my immediate location and the likle shops and fields that I go by and eat at.

I titled this post Vybzies, because vybz is a description of a person whos chill with spunk, or something. haha. And the Peace Corps driver called me that too. haha. We'll see if the nickname sticks.

Now, time to get those festivals!

Rent a Tile

Today was just awesome. We started with language lessons. Learning the tenses in Patwa. Then for homework we had to write a paragraph using past, present and future tenses. We had to write what we thought about Jamaica before this week, What we know now as a Peace Corps Trainee and What we think our life in Jamaica will be in the future. What's just lovely about Patwa is you don't have to change much on the tenses. Here is a few sentences from my homework. Enjoy!

Mi did kina concern bout de people dem, but mi find out seh kind and confident. Now mi a find out seh dem like music and dance. Mi waah fi be a Jamerican afta 2 year.

There I said I was concerned about the people here, but I found out they're kind and confident. I now know they like music and dance. And I'd like to become a Jamerican( as in well integrated in Jamaica culture) after 2 years.

Plurals add dem after a noun. So girl dem, boy dem, book dem. You dont add the "s" after the noun to make it plural. Neat right? Theres all sorts of little things like that, I'm learning and practicing at home with my home stay family too.

After our language class we visited the UWI! We went to the University of the West Indies and learned about Jamaican dance and steel drums!
From Jamaican dancing, there was an evolution. It went from more African based to ska ( sixties type dancing, mash potato and the like), to reggae (a sway back and forth), and dance hall ( a sort of mix of dances, depending on the song). The dance teacher showed us how to dance a little bit of everything.

 Then our Language and Cultural Leader told us how couples would go to dance halls and rent a tile. Oh what does that mean? Well, apparently, some couples would dance so close to each other, they would also end up staying in one place. That tile that they were dancing upon, would be "rented". A small likle (little in Patwa) tile. A degeh degeh (measley little) tile. I thought that was funny, because I could think how couples like to be close. Then thinking how to dance so close the people are on one tile on the floor! This was back in the day, I don't think they do that anymore now.

After sweating a good hour or so from dance, we got lunch. I cracked... I got KFC. After our bellies were full, we went to the Pan Yard and learned about steel drums! There's all sorts and sizes of them. Going from deepest noise to lighter, we have your 6 bass, 4 bass (the one I played with), triple cello, double seconds, and double tremor and then there were your good, rock band set of drums. Steel drums come from Trinidad and Tobago, historically, and weren't played until about the 1930's. Also you can paint them chrome(environmentally bad) or just normal ( better than chrome), of course the chrome is prettier, and has the silver reflection and all that jazz.

 The students and teacher who told us all about the steel drums played a few songs for us! It was beautiful to hear! One song they played is called Palance. Its a pan song with a hop. It has a dance that the panists hop while they play- also we, the PCT's hopped around their pans too.

Over all it was a culturally refreshing experience. I loved it!

Sunday funday

Growing up Catholic, my expression of my beliefs are reserved. I have a personal one to one time with the big guy. However today's experience was not how I do worship. This morning I woke up at 6:45 to go to a 7:30 Pentecostal service. I went with my Home stay brother. It was his church. Its a big church...it even gets broadcasting to NYC! How neat, right? I spent 2 and a half hours at the service. It wasn't until my home stay brother got hungry, that we left. The service was continuing passionately after.

The family of mother and two boys in the pew in front of us were interesting to observe. The boys were throwing pencils at each other and just doing what kids do at church. I would have a piece of paper and doodle or something as a kid to pass the time at mass. The choir had many songs to sing, and the congregation sang along with their hands in the air, swaying themselves back and forth to the music. At one song, before the pastor spoke, there was a change in the people in the pews. The woman was reaffirming her faith through the song so strongly she was crying. Now I didn't see her tears, but her youngest boy seeing his mom rubbed his hand on her back as I'm sure she would to him when he would cry. It was a moving scene for me. 

Oh to note, the church goers wear their Sunday best. Formal attire, as in going to a wedding attire. The youngest son of that family I mentioned wore a silk vest with a white collared shirt and slacks. Women wore matching dress suits and white hats. I wore a long skirt and pink top. I'll work on finding a hat. 

After church we went to get a pattie. A pattie is a pretty much like an empanada. If you don't speak Spanish then the Aussies call it a meat pie. If you don't speak Australian its a hot pocket. :-D

Back to the pattie. We went to Tastees. Tastees is one of three major pattie fast food restaurants. The other two are Mothers and Juicy's. There's also a debate on the difference on tastes of each. Kinda like the battle of which is better...Coca Cola or Pepsi. It's a matter of preference. I had a Tastee pattie yesterday, beef and cheese. I didn't know it was a Tastee pattie however. See, the local mini mart resells them for their own. Its a way to create income for people. At Tastees a beef and cheese patty costs 90 JD (Jamaican Dollars...little more than an american dollar) the patties are resold for 110JD. It's info like this that I'm excited to learn from my home stay family!

Here's a picture of  the beach and some of my new friends! We went to the beach after the church services.

Here's a little fun fact. To help speak Patwa you must drop the h and put it somewhere else. So thing is ting. And hair sounds like ear. So don't be alarmed when I get an ear cut. 

where to begin...

Hi everyone! This is new to me (blogging that is), as I will be documenting my experience in Jamaica as a Peace Corps Trainee...then Volunteer :)
The first three months I am training and learning all that I need to do and be.
So without further ado...

These past few days have been busy!! The adventure began in Atlanta, Ga for our staging event. I met 35 other wonderful people who picked up and left to go to Jamaica, like me! At staging we got to meet and learn a little about eachother. But more importantly, we got to understand and become confident in our reasons for leaving home and working with people we havent met yet! At the end of the day, I felt more confident in my belief of Peace Corps mission and myself. The 3 goals of Peace Corps are to create friendship and peace with other countries who want us, for the US to teach the other country about ourselves, and for that country to teach us as well.

After staging we woke early, like before last call and headed to the airport for Jamaica. Then off we went to Kingston! Upon getting to the Kingston Manley Airport, somebody took my orange duffle bag. Weird right?! There were 2 of them on the plane! But luckily the switch up was solved, it took some time, and I got my bag back. No biggie, it could happen anywhere, and without the help of the Peace Corps staff, the process of getting my bag could've taken forever! Everyone has been and is so helpful!!  The picture above is of Kingston from the hotel were we stayed for a couple days before pre-service training.

Since arriving, I've been in meetings and learning more peoples names. I've learned about safety, medical and cultural information for the next 27 mo. They're exhausting but so knowledgable.

 The volunteers in my group have all become close in just half a week. There are people from all walks of life and with so much experiences share. We are now in our pre-service training in St. Catherine's parish near the coast. It's beautiful. My host family is helpful and teaching me Patwa!

We went to the beach today and the fishermen were bringing in all sorts of sea life. Including a Conch! The fishermen told the group of us how they cook it...curry conch, stew...then he says to one of our guys " you know what its good for?", "for strength"...bahaha. if you dont know what I mean. Look it up!

Tomorrow we go to church, church can go from 2 hours to just about the whole day! I'm excited though, the people are animated and passionate, I could imagine these descriptions will be reflected in the services.
Lata!