Pictures

I finally got my computer cord back!!

It arrived at the PC office Thursday evening so Friday morning I took off for the long bus ride to Kingston, met up with some other PCVs there and had the best Pizza I've had in a while (Goat Cheese and Jerk Chicken toppings!!) and a green leaf salad!! (Salads are a rarity here in Jamaica)

So anyway, here are some pics from my last couple months here

So this is my back yard. Can't show you the front... still have to worry about security and all.



A neighbor! Every once in a while, the entire back area will be filled with cows mooing their rump roasts off.




A little cutie who is staying with my host family for a bit.




Who doesn't love puppies! Wow babies and puppies, this really is a poof blog.... One of the family dogs had puppies right before I arrived at my host family.



Me at some really nice gardens some of us went to.

More garden...

The guide showing us a cannonball tree. The tree has a bunch of pods and a very small amount of them bloom every morning. They live the day and fall off the tree at sunset.

This is the hotel we stayed at during our final days as trainees. Was nice!

A view from the place we did our final testing (I was a bit nervous...)

Hooray! Finally a full fledged volunteer! We went to the U.S. Embassy and were sworn in by the ambassador.

Of Hair and School

So I had a really interesting thing happen to me today. I was attempting to fix some of the broken computers in the lab, and a group of young high school girls walked in. They wanted to look up some of the testing criteria for the CXC exam (SAT Equivalent for Jamaica) but they decided that they REALLY wanted to touch my hair instead. I flashed back to growing up in a very white suburb of Northern California where there was one of the few African-American families living next door. Their grand daughter would come by occasionally and I would always want to touch her hair! It was just so different!

So the girls kept pestering me and pestering and I finally let them tug a lock. "Not to hard!" I yelled, "There's not much left!" They giggled and were satisfied and went back to work.

I'm still getting the "White Man" comments most place I go, but now I take it as an opportunity to go and say hello and introduce myself. This works especially well at school because I pretend that I'm all pissed off being called white man, then walk up to the guy who said it, ask him/her their name and then smile and introduce myself. I then make the entire class repeat my name. They all laugh and then comply.

The housing issue is now settled. I will staying at my initial house (for a hefty increase of rent) but will be able to create my own kitchen giving myself pretty much my own place. This will be nice for both me and my family as we will be out of each others hair (I wonder if THEY want to touch my hair too.....?)

This morning I was pouring my coffee into my favorite thermos (Balan & Terry you know the one!) and my host father was watching TV. He asked, "Hey do you know these guys??" and as I looked I found my fellow volunteers being interviewed on the TV! One of them was my roommate from the trainings. They were really impressive I thought. It reminded me how unique the press is here. It seems even more free than in the US. They will take the smallest topic and make and stretch it out into a whole hour. Almost PBS/NPR style. They also are not afraid to say or ask ANYTHING. After the Olympics they were asking the Jamaican women's team what happened during the 400m relay race, basically asking them how could they f*ck up so bad. I really liked the style and think that the US press is just too polite and politically correct.

Anyhoo thats it for now. Please cross your fingers for me that my computer power cable will arrive tomorrow!

PCV

Hooray!

I am now a full fledged Peace Corps Volunteer with all the rights and privileges. So that means I get to travel a bit around the island. I'm thinking my first sleep over party will be in Negril. It's supposed to be very beautiful with a fun nightlife. We'll see!

The kids came to school for the first time yesterday, the 7th, 8th and 9th graders. They seemed ok and were checking out the school. Today the 10th and 11th graders (that's where they stop and can go on the an extra year (12th?) not sure how that really works yet) came and they were a little more frisky. Humor seems to work so far...

The home front is a little sketchy and I may be moving in the sometime near future. Hopefully I can find something closer to school so I don't have to take a taxi. The taxi's become packed with kids going to this school and that and much more uncomfortable if that's possible...

It's interesting how the school system works. In the 6th grade you take this test to see you skill level, based on that skill level you can go to different High Schools. The better high school can be far away though (as well as the worse high school...) so usually the kids have to travel a good distance even if there is a high school next door to their house. Somebody forgot to tell the Jamaicans that you can have different skill levels housed in the same school... Oh well. Maybe something for the Peace Corps to Suggest! It might be to the limited space within the schools to house all of those different classrooms that would be needed.

I'm enjoying a bit of internet time right now, with the son back at my home, my availability has diminished, and the school's internet was down all week. I'm still waiting for my cable to reach the Peace Corps Office, missed this week so I'll be checking next Thursday (only comes once a week)

Tomorrow is the first day of classes, so I'll be seeing how that affects my life here.

Will keep you updated as much as possible!