Crab Wars!

I wanted to share some of the night time adventures in my community and probably others across Jamaica.

1) Car Alarm Insect

• As those of you who have called me in the evening, you may have noticed the loud beeping in the background. This is what I have deemed the car alarm insect. It is VERY loud and sounds like a car alarm going off.... maybe a microwave completion beep is more accurate, but it has the volume of a car alarm. It goes allllllllllll night. The good thing is that I got used to it the first night and I don't hear it anymore.

2) Mosquitoes

• Apparently I am delicious because I have more bites than I have ever had in my lifetime. The mosquitoes like to party! I think I have it figured out now though. This is my nightly routine. 1) Spray my room with bug spray leave to 10 min. 2) Get a new VEPE cartridge and plug in the warmer. It's like a plug in air freshener but for mosquitoes. 3) Apply liberal dosage of spray. With these three steps, I have cut down the bites to 1 or two a night. I'm thinking of putting up my net, but there's nothing to hang it on. Something to do in the next couple nights.

3) Other bugs

• Um yeah, the bugs here are big, bold and beautiful? Um maybe the first two. I'll get used to them eventually.

4) CRAB WARS!!!

• My host family has three dogs, and the 2nd night here it started raining heavily. This apparently flooded out the underground living quarters of crabs. Yes, underground crabs. They are the size of dungenous if not a little smaller, and for a good 6 days after the rain, they came up from underground and started harassing the dogs. The dogs FLIPPED out and barked and barked fighting the crabs. This happened 3-4 times a night for usually around 30 min a shot. The fight always ended with a "Crunch" indicating that the dogs won and got a tasty meal. Apparently you can eat the underground crabs, but I have not been offered any.

So these have been my nights. I'll be able to get used to it, but it makes a fun story. The days have been spent at my site, working with my counterparts and principal. The principal has aggressive timelines for new equipment setup and older equipment re-imaging and repair, so these first few weeks are going to be busy! I got to take a couple side trips to some nice places so that was pretty nice. Sorry for no pics but I really don't want to look like a tourist. I tried to get pics of the crab wars, but the crabs always seemed to be out of frame. Sorry!

Host Family

I am now staying at my site for two weeks of on the job training!

I drove to my site with my supervisor somewhere north of Kingston. It's a nice town with an interesting cast of characters whom I hope to meet soon! Sorry for being vague but the whole security thing you know....

The host family is great so far and have welcomed me into their home. I'm trying to be as open with them as possible asking many questions like "Is this OK with you?", "Am I dressed appropriately?", "Sure I'd love to come to church with you on Sunday to meet some of the community" or "Do you mind if I hold a kegger in your house?"............ JK on the last one. I'm SURE they would not appreciate that......

I really like my supervisor, he's a principle and obviously really cares about his school. The work they are doing at the school that I'll be involved with is very exciting and forward thinking. He's looking at me to do a lot of technical tasks that I am only moderately familiar with so I may be calling some of my tech friends.... (Yes you Jeff and Joe!!)

The real work has begun and the quick paced, hard training with the beer filled evenings with my fellow trainees are put on hold for a couple weeks. I'm getting a real taste of Jamaican life right now and so far so good.

More Pics N' Stuff

So I've been having a good time here, training is interesting and useful. We went to a school yesterday and had a really nice time. I got to meet some kids and exchange interests and dances!

So this is what I've been eating for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Lunch is pretty much the same as dinner.

Can you guess what is what??

The people here are really nice. The staff at the place where I'm staying (Still a mystery I know!) help me anytime I ask. I've needed a lot of language assistance so this has been huge!

Eh mon! Waagwon!

Some Pics

Training

So I'm here now in Jamaica since the 3rd.

The first day was pretty intense, with leaving the hotel by 5:30am (1:30 still to me with pacific time..), getting to the airport to wait five hours for our flight (Peace Corps policy to ensure timely arrival) then flying to Jamaica (only an hour and 1/2) and then a REALLY long customs line, getting the luggage and out the doors. The Peace Corps staff and some current volunteers met us at the entrance with big smiles and needed water bottles. So I knew it would be hot, but ooooooh boy, it's HOT here!

We take a quick group photo and then jump on the buses. It was a really interesting ride to the place where we are staying (exact locations will be left out of this blog for security reasons) Jamaica is truly a mixed land of poverty and beauty. When we arrived we were immediately hit with tons of paperwork. We then got to purchase a cell phone and given a few minutes to take a shower. After the shower we headed for dinner. To my nice surprise we were joined by the US Ambassador and the Jamaican Foreign Minister. They gave lovely speeches and the dinner came. It was really good. I can tell I'm going to love the food here. Fish and Chicken and "Rice and Peas" with some cabbage. Then some excellent sweet potato pudding dessert. More speeches by the Country Director and then some Entertainers singing and dancing Jamaican cultural songs. The night, while fun, couldn't end too soon because I was EXHAUSTED. After talking to the folks and Summer via internet I crashed out and sweatily slept until morning.

The first full day of training was very informative going over beginning language skills, security, health, program (mine is Youth) and some other useful stuff. Today we got to go into Kingston with a staff guide. WOW. Yup pretty much WOW. The bus system is pretty complex and the people speak Patois really quickly. This is going to take a bit to get efficient at, but my staff person was informative, patient and helpful so it turned out to be really enjoyable. After giving in to the chaos it was really great. We went to several spots, which I am supposed to remember the names of but cant right now..... Except for downtown. That was where the mass market was and I picked up a couple items. We went for lunch and had more great food, this time I got my first bite of authentic Jerk Chicken (Yum! Yup back to poultry) We made it back to where we are staying and have the rest of the afternoon along with tomorrow off. Phew! I need it, this is really tiring.

More later!

(Some of you have been asking for the address for packages here, e-mail me and I will send it to you)

Turn a Negative....

I arrived at the airport plenty early to find that my flight was delayed 45 min. A little scary since my connecting flight was leaving in Dallas to Mimi 45 min after I landed. Waiting around in the airport they announced that the flight was delayed an additional 30 min. I checked with the gate agent and the next flight was at 6am and that I would have to pay for the hotel myself... Humph! "I think your connecting flight is delayed though so you will probably be fine...." We pushed back and additional 15 late and I didn't have much confidence. We landed at 7:45pm just as my Miami flight took off........... The gate agent said I would have to leave the security area to re-ticket. I thought to myself (With some previous info given by my good friend the Jet Blue Captain) I wonder if I can get on a Ft. Lauderdale flight.... Sure enough there was a 8:15 flight to Lauderdale that was delayed 30 min. I went and chatted with the gate agent giving my Peace Corps credentials and he offered me a seat as well as a free shuttle ride to the Miami airport. Sweet! So he printed my new ticket and then said because I was doing such a nice thing he was bumping me to first class! Extra extra bonus! So American Airlines went up a notch in my book and I flew in luxury to Ft. Lauderdale. I arrived and went down to collect my luggage and my shuttle pass to find something missing....... Luggage! Not there! So flash backs of the last time American lost my luggage (3 months gone!) and crossed my fingers that the lost luggage lady believed my stuff would be sent to the hotel tomorrow. So I jumped in the shuttle (A town car none the less!) solo and paid the driver an extra $20 to take me right to the hotel. Went to bed and had a great first day of training. The luggage actually arrived at 6pm, so I was a little smelly during the training but I got my stuff back and I am ready to go!