Well, that time has come. I am finishing up service in Peace Corps Jamaica. My time here has been filled with highs and lows and has been a very educational experience. It was interesting being at our COS (close of service) conference because you realize that for the last time you are going to be surrounded by people who know exactly what you went through. We heard many stories of returned PCV's and how when they went home and tried to describe what this experience has done to them, they most often get blank stares, or ambivilent nods. I think I am starting to understand what they mean. It is difficult to blame freinds and family back home. It is understandable that thier lives have been preoccupied with work, family, relationships, and bills and dont understand quite how to approach the question of "so what was it like over there?" It's a loaded question no doubt, and one that volunteer might get overwhelmed trying to answer; the unsuccessful popular choice being "great", or "interesting". And then everyone goes about their business feeling satisfied that they took enough interest to ask, and releived that they did not recieve a long drawn out memoir in response.

In two years of journal writing (granted sporadic at times), although I might have described in detail the projects that we worked on, the parties we went to, and the culture we experienced, I failed in expressing the magnitude of an impact being here has had on me. Hating and loving a place at the same time. Wanting it to end so bad and at the same time knowing that you will look back and think of it as the time of your life. Few people can understand that. Our COS conference brought that home to me. And that is why for two years we were preached to about "the peace corps family". Only the volunteers that I have served with for two years here will agree when I say I am so excited to leave and understand when they see me crying on the plane. They wont need to ask questions, and everyone else will wonder why.

Life here has been simple and chaotic at once. Time slowes down, but not in the city where you are trying to watch out for cars and donkeys at the same time. Watching a big rig drive by is just as common as watching a herd of goats pass. Pigs are just as common as dogs running in front of the house. And it's not strange to see and hear people singing at the top of their lungs at all hours of the day. The traffic control guy might have a "spliff" in his mouth as you drive by in the taxi listening to a reggae version of "My Heart Will Go On". Normalcy has a whole new meaning here. Shopping in the market, watching pigs get slaughetered, spending your morning trying to find a way around a flooded ditch to get to work, reading by lantern light, being entertained by lizards hunting mosquitoes, and appreciating the efficiency of ants, talking to jamaicans in taxis, watching people dance in the middle of the road to reggae and dancehall music, dreads that touch the ground, women in African garbs, eating magoes off the tree, thunder that vibrates the bed, heat that wakes you up at night, insects that eat your clothes, learning to live with roaches and accepting their presense, waking up at night to kill mosquitos in the net, running up and down the hall way chasing a mosiqito, shoveling rats out of the house, chasing pigs back into their pens, determining the difference between a fungus, rash and bite, washing in a bucket, taking a bath in a bucket, boiling water to drink, having no money, waiting for the perfect laundry day, taking cold showers, waking up at sunrise, and learning to appreciate it all. And doing it all over again in Guatemala!!!! One Love. Bless.

There is nothing like waking up to sweet smell of a giant hog getting slaughtered in your back yard. The sad thing is is that I have become use to it. There is something very ritualistic about the whole provedure. From the giant barrel of boiling water heated by wood that is used to clean the animal to the way the two old Jamaican men tie it up to the tree in complete silence with nothing but the sound of the pig shrieking, and then the quietness of it. It is actually very gracefull the way they clean the fur with the machete, like it is so easy or something. It still doesnt make want to eat pork but it definitly makes you think about where your food comes from. Maybe if everone had to watch their chicken getting its head snapped or the bacon they are going to eat morning getting tied up and sliced open, or their roast beef getting its throat slashed, people would have more of an appreciation and respect for their food. But its much easier to pick up a selophane wrapped pork chop than it is to watch a pig get dragged out of its pen and watch the 30 minute process of killing it. There are new lessons everyday here about life.

For example, I have become use to the children of the people in my office running around like its a daycare, it takes away from the manotany of the day, what I just experienced for the first time the other day were 2 of the little girs (1st and 2nd grade) examining in my office like a was a science experiment. Mostly they are intrigued with my hair cause they have never seen or felt a white persons hair before. So instead of asking them nicely to leave which might be a common reaction in the states, this situation pretty calls for you to just stop what you are doing and give into their curiosity. So the hour invloves 2 little girls trying to give me a cane roll (corn rows) and plats (regular braids) and twists. Their discovery that my hair does part or stay the way thiers does is guite entertaining. And the looks on their faces when I tell them that I wash every day or every other day is priceless. This is why it is almost necessary to wear my hair up everyday. Not only does it help with the heat but if I leave it down, just about every female, including adults wants to touch it. I never though my hair would be so popular.

New lessons are why we have decided to extend out service in another country. We fortunate enough to be accepted by Guatemala (Napallo doing Sustainable Ag. and Municipal Development for myself) and we will see what lessons (aside from spanish) they have to offer us.

Napallos biodeisle project is comming along, he almost has all the necessary components to make his first batch. I the meantime, I am putting together a GIS workshop for volunteer and their counterparts. This will be a 6 hour workshop that volunteers had to apply to be a part of, and seeing as how it will be my first time teaching GIS in a classroom like setting, I hope I don't royally screw up.

The rest of our time here is going to be spent having as much fun as possible. There is the Yam festival we plan on going to in April and Napallo is taking part in a triathalon with two other volunteers (he will be doing the running part of it). There is also the Treasure Beach Literary festival we missed last year but have every intention of attending this year. And then one more hike up the Blue Mountains. Then I think I will be able to safely say that I did everything I planned to do while on this island.

It has become common place here on Jam Rock to come home at the end of the day and scan your body for any tingling sensations, itching parts, or anything else that might signify that a spore, fungus, or microbe has attched on to you. This is done so you can address the probelem as soon as possible. Sitting on the bed at the end of day, the common phrase "how was your day honey" is replaced with the now oh so familiar "what the hell is that" as you are staring at foot. Then the 10 minute examination continues to try and determine if its a fungus, rash, bite, etc followed with the line up of creams and ointments that we hope might take care of the problem. This was how I ended my day (again)a week and a half ago. Staring at my foot asking Napallo what the hell that is. Napallo and I sat on the bed trying to determine the problem applied some cream and thought that was the end of it. Lo and behold whatever had attached on my foot was spread. This is where the nurses come in. We come to the conclusion that what is now on (or in) my foot is not a common fungi of sorts, not a bite of some strange creature, not a rash of an obscure plant that does not like to be touched. No, for reasons unknown to me, a worm had decided that my foot was prime real estate for hatching its little eggs, procreate at a rate that would impress bioligists everywhere. Yes, I had a worm in my foot, playing Suzy Homemaker (Cutaneous Larva Migran, if anyone is interested in the details). Nothing a little pill can't take care of. Hopefeully this mass genocide has worked, if not, we do it again. And once again, another one of Jamaicas treasures has landed on me.

Now in non-disgusting news, Napallo got a grant approved to conduct a biodiesle pilot project. Where he works, there is a tractor operation and maintenance course. Now all the tractors are run on diesle fuel. Napallo got the grant approved to teach the tractor teacher and the students how to make biodiesle out of waste vegatable oil and run the tractor on that. So, he is going to collect all the waste vegetable oil he can from the plethora of KFC's and other fast food restaurants around here and doctor it up so that a tractor can run on it. By the way, this technology has little or no pollution output. We are both really excited about this and we are hoping that in the future, this will encourage people to start recycling their waste vegetable oil and run their diesle cars (or at least tractors) on it to help help minimize pollution and CO2.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and new year. We had a very nice Jamaican one ourselves. We started off going to Ochi to stay with a few freinds that was really nice. We went to the beach on Christmas and actually got to see sea turtles hatching and making their way out to the ocean. That was really awsome to see. Then we spent the next few day going into a food induced coma. Once that was over we went to a great flower farm and went swimming in a beautiful watering hole. Our next stop was Mo Bay where we picked up my freind from the airport. We spent the next two days in Mo Bay where we had a bad encounter with some bad jerk chicken. On new years eve we went to negril and went to the beach where they were having some live music and a fire breather and then we saw some awsome fireworks. Then next day me and my freind went cliff jumping in the ocean off of a 30 foot cliff. I think I land in wrong cause I hurt my tailbone, but it was fun. Pictures are soon on the way.

Now its back to May Pen and work. I am hoping I will be able to get everything I want to finished before we are done here. All in all it was another great Jamaican holiday. Our second and last one.

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. We spent thanksgiving with our embassy home stay family. We stayed with them last year. We were there for three nights and its was really nice.

Last weekend we went to our first peace corps jamaica wedding. One of the volunteers married his jamaican girlfreind in Negril. It was a very nice small wedding.

Things at work have been busy lately. I have been doing a lot of GIS maps for people as well as trying to train them. and trying to put together this database as well. Napallo's projects have been coming along nicely. He is going to be giving a nutrition power point presentation to a number of schools and he has built a "worm hotel" to start composting projects at a number of schools as well. He finally got in contact with the jamaican organic agricultural movement to start some projects with them as well.

The weather has been getting slightly cooler, which just means we dont need the fan on us at night. I'm we can eventually get to the point where we need an extra blanket.

I am a little concerened about the elections here starting soon. They can be announced anytime between now and next october. Election time in Jamaica is a very dangerous affair. I was told a story about a woman who in the last elections, on election day had several men come to her door and held a gun to her head asking why she hadnt gone to vote yet. They then told her she had two options, one was to go with them and vote or they would shoot her. She got into their car and they then proceeded to hold a gun to her as she checked the box for the specific party they wanted her to vote for. Apparently now, her and her daighter have been sleeping on the floor at night because of all the gun fire that is occuring in their community. So, needless to say when elections are announced, we might have to stay home for a little while. Not to mention the colors we are not suppose to wear. You see, the two main parties have the colors of green and orange (like the dems are blue and reps are red), well, lets just say that if you are wearing green in the wrong part of town, you can get killed and vice versa for the color orange. They are essentailly gang colors here. So, from now on when we travel, we have to avoid wearing these colors or any blend of these colors. So just to be on the safe side, no green, orange, yellow, blue, or red. Imagine that happening in the states.

so in very sad news, mamma dog has passed away. She was very old (about 9 I think) and I just dont think she had it in her to have another litter of puppies. So, becuase mamma didnt make it, her puppies died as well. They were only a few days old, and they needed their mammas milk to survive. It was a sad and frustrating day. And to top it off, the ants in house (of course there are always ants in Jamaica, we were just living in harmony with them for a while)have started going crazy, eating the sponge and crawling in places they never did before. And the cherry on top of it all is the rat that has made a home in our house (of course we always have had mice, we have 40 pigs behind us after all), andyway, this rat is not your ordinary rat, it is a super evolved one that can climb and jump. I my self have never seen it, but Napallo seems to run into it all the time, it has in a sense become his arch-nemesis. So we will see if rat poison cant take care of the problem. I tell you, there is nothing like moving to a tropical country to make you appreciate and respect the apptitude of rodents and insects. I never thought I would be trying to outwit and ant or a mouse, but alas, this is the situation I find myself in. Napallo and I are constanly thinking of new ways to secure our food, but this is not as easy as it sounds. We cannot even let bread defrost or soup get cold on the stove cause in a matter of minutes, ants will have invaded. The rat has managed to climb up our refigerator (on the back) and climb up the handles of the cabinets to get to the counter, and jump back from the counter to floor, not to mention its amazing abilities to get ontop of our stove. So it goes. And the battle for our territory and food continues.

so mamma dog had puppies again. She had 5 but two have died so far. When we first went out there to see them we saw that one was already dead, so we had someone go and bury it. A few hours later I went back out there to see them again and mamma dog had gone and found the dead baby and put it back with the other ones. I don't think she was ready to let go yet.

Anyway, things are tudging along here, everything is going fine. I am really finding it frustrating trying to put together this database because of the lack of participation with my co-workers, but things are moving along slowly. Napallo's project is coming along. He is making ground trying to put together a bio-deisel project, but he is having some frustrating moments too. I am getting pretty frustrated having to come into May Pen everyday. Just to paint a little visual of what it is like, imagine a big long street with no sidewald covered with people and cars. Schools kids meandering about the place, taxi drivers trying to get you into thier car, street vendors selling everything from vegetables to underwear to notebooks, its about 85 degrees, there are men who want to marry you and hiss at you, everyone else shouting "whitey" or just about anything else that pops into their head. The street is covered with cars and trucks and of course there are no catalytic converters here so the constant stench of exhaust permiated the air, there is garbage covering the ground dogs running around scavenging through the garbage. Now I have to walk through for a half a mile to get to work every day and a half a mile back at the end of the day to get to a taxi. Lets just say I never know what is going to happen my way to work. Needless to say it will be one of the few things I will not miss when I leave.

This last weekend we went to Kingston and stayed with one of the Jewish volunteers there. On saturday we went to temple for rosh hashana. There is only one temple in all of Jamaica. It was built in the 1600's and the congragation was established in secret by Sephardic Jews who were escaping the Spanish Inquisition. Today the congragation consists of mainly old white Jamaicans who are probably the ancesters of the people who started it. The congragation only consisted of about 70-100 people, which means that in another 50 years or so, there is basically going to be no Jewish population left on the island. The temple had sand all over the ground which I think is a Sephardic thing (sephardic=jews from spain). You could definitly sence the christian influance during the service. Never before in my life have I ever sang a hymn in temple. The rabbi who led is not even a real rabbi. It was definitly one of the strangest services I have ever been to. Nevertheless, we are going back on sunday for yom kippur.

In other news, work is going good, I am starting some more GIS projects and doing some training. Napallo is working on a biodeisel power point presentaion to promote biodeisel, and he is also doing a food preperation course once a week where he teaches students to cook internatioal food (mexican, asian, italian, african, etc.) In the afternoons, my work kind of turns into a day care, because since there are no after-school programs or anyting parents just bring their kids to work. And of course this means that they all want to play on the computers, which they do. Its just very interesting to see becuase I think about in the states in an office setting what it would be like if someones child was consantly poking you on the shoulder asking when you are going to be off the computer so that they can play a game. It would just never happen. But the parents really have no other option, so it is pretty much culturally accepted. It lightens up the office a little and makes it seem a little less formal.

We have been really busy almost every weekend either going somewhere or having people over at our house. I think this will continue through about mis October. This saturday we are going to a birtday thing for one of our rasta freinds. He is putting together a stage show (concert) and wants all the volunteers in the area to come. This mean of course that it is not going to start until about 2am, because no concerts start before that time really. So I am hoping to be home by no later than 5 am because we are then going to kingston for yom kippur on sunday. I think going to a raging jamaican concert will be a good way to bring the jewish high holy days to an end :)

So after a wonderful weekend in Negril, full of relaxation, rest and good food. Me and Napallo came back to May Pen and arrived around 10am. About half an hour after we got here when I was at the office working, a gang mob rushed the streets in retaliation for some cops that killed 4 gang members on saturday morning here in May Pen. Well everyone in the office was looking outside and told us not to leave, I guess some gunshots went off or something and the mob blocked the streets. All of a sudden we were looking out the window and saw a flood of people running down the street fleeing May Pen and taxis and all the cars were all leaving. Then in a matter of 10 seconds I saw all the lights being turned off in the office and someone was telling everybody to leave and go home. Well I couldnt very well go home cause I have to walk all the way through May Pen just to get a taxi and there was pretty much a riot going on, so I just get into one of my co-workers cars and told them to take me to where Napallo works. It took us about 15 minutes to drive 2 blocks and as we were driving we pass the mob and the cops and there was garbage thrown all over the place and all the cops had their rifles out and for a moment I thought we were going to be caught it a shootout. All the shops were closing down and everyone was fleeing the market and shutting down stalls. Luckily we made it out though and I just had to spend the rest of the day at Napallo's work. My co-workers in the car were apologzing for to me having to have seen all that, but I told them that I am not that surprised, I mean after all, I do work in one of the top 4 most dangerous cities in the murder capitol of world, I figure something might happen sooner or later.

so year one is coming to a close and I think I can include frustraiting, difficult, fun, interesting, challenging and rewarding as words to describe how the first has gone. I am excited about coming into year 2, now that I am settled at my new assignment and I feel very productive here. The new trainees are coming in on sat and we are going to meet them at the airport. Its strange to think that they are in Miami right now going through the exact same thing I went through one year ago today. Things are picking up at work here and at the same time I am really excited about going home for a couple of weeks and taking a break. Currently at work right now I am creating these GIS lessons to give to my counterpart and to the guys at the Parish Council. I have been really busy running around this past month doing everything from GPSing disaster shelters and meeting with other parish office to set up their GIS programs getting data and making maps. I can honestly say that I am one of the few people around here that has been productive this past month cause well in you dont know, its the Football World Cup this month. No, not American Footbal (which people think is a joke out here) the other football. This just so happens to be the most exciting thing going on in the world right now (except for in the US). You know, every single agency, store or any work site for that matter has to have a TV showing all the matches other wise people just wont come to work. So while I am in my office working on GIS lessons, every one is in the conference room watching a match. Even Napallo has been hit by the bug (cause of course they have a tv at his job too showing the games). The final match is this sunday with Italy against France. That is the day after the new trainees arrive and can you beleive the Peace Corps staff is going have a 3 hour lunch on their first day of orientation so that everyone can watch the final. For some reason, this makes perfect sence out here. I don't mind, I'm actually looking forward to watching it too. I guess I have hit by the football bug as well.

So it seems thins weekend while me and Napallo were in another parish visiting some freinds. Someone came in and stole our puppy (well, actually our landlords puppy, but I felt like he was mine too). The nerve of some of these people to jump over a fence and steel a puppy really makes me angry. Our land lady is so sad. It is especially disheartening because our landlords do so much for the community and this is the type of behavior that still goes on to a supposidly very respected family in the community. I think what bothers me most of all though is that most most Jamaicans, especially where we are dont even have the money to feed an animal. The dogs in out community look like they just came out of a concentration camp, so the fact that dogs et stolen on a regular basis and dont even get fed baffles me. It just makes me so angry that people dont even like dogs here and yet they steal them. Just another example of the contradictions that occur on this island. They really sad part is too is that the same people who stole our puppy probably also went to church on sunday (cause everyone goes to church here) and were preaching to love thy neighbor. So if you would like to see pictures of our puppy who was effectionatly known as "Puppy Dog", you can find him in our shutterfly album. http://jamaica.shutterfly.com

"wi nuh no wata". I know it sounds like a toddler learning how to talk but that is what people say out here when there is no water. Yes, thats right, the national water commission decided to strike yesterday leaving almost the whole island without any water. Finally this morning around 8am it came back on, but that does not necessarily mean that it is not going to go off again, so we spent most of the morning filling every single empty bottle that we used and all our buckets with water just in case. The peace corps issues us each a 15 gallon drum for situation like this or if there is a hurricane, and we had already gone one of them, not to mention all the bottles we have in our house that are filled with water. So, hopefully everything is taken care of now.

Mango season is in full effect at our house and we were practically swimming in mangoes for a while there. Before coming here, I was completely unaware of all the different varieties there are. In our yard, we have the common mango, which is ok, a little stringy for me, the east indian is a nice one, the number 11 is very good, the blackie, the julie, and the green. The one that trumps them all though is a little larger than a softball with a very small seed and is effectionatly know as the Bastard mango. Extremely juicy and not stringy at all, me and Napallo will cut about 2 of them up (when we have them, as they are only in our neighbors yard and he just gives some to us) and sit on the verandah with juices running all down our arms trying to figure out a way we can mass produce and market these.

New volunteers are coming in a couple of weeks and me and napallo are on the welcoming committee that is going to greet them at the airport. Then we're off to visit home for 2 and half weeks!!! Can't wait!

So 4 days into the hurricane season and we already have a tropical depression. It has been raining since Sunday and yesterday was the worst. I left the office to find a river in the steet, water was up to people calves. The entire town was flooded. I really didnt think I was going to be able to make it out of May Pen. While I was in the taxi, if I put my hand out the window I could practically touch the water it was so high. But, I made it home, and of course there was no electricity this morining, so once again I took a bucket bath. You would really be suprised at how little water you need to clean yourself in the morning, just a few liters of water is all you really need. It makes me saddened by how much water people actually go through when they take a 10 minute shower. I know, I am guilty of it too. I try to save water by taking shorter showers, but maybe I should just stick to bucket baths from now on. The amount of water we waste is just rediculous. But coming from a country like the U.S where you can always count on it coming out of the faucit, we never even think about it or where it is coming from. Until we have to start catching our rain water in tanks on our roofs and then boiling it all for at least 5 minutes like the majority of Jamaicans do, water will never be valued the way it should.

So the rain is continuing to fall and I hope it will be done by the weekend so I can do my laundry, cause you cant wash your clothes and just hang them out in the rain to dry. Its so funny how I use love the rain in the states, cause I could just stay inside and do my laundry and curl up and watch a movie. Now the only thing I can think about when its raining is when its going to stop so I can wash my clothes. And instead of watching a movie, all I can do is read a book, that is if there is electricity, and if there is not, I usually manage by the lantern light.

So just to give everyone an update as to what is going on here. If you havnt heard already, Napallo was in the hospital last week. He had to have surgury to have an abcess removed from his back. He is doing good now though, and of course I have to play nurse by changing the gauze everyday. It was a bummer because it was out one year anniversary and we were going to go to the literary festival in Treasure Beach but we had to cancel that. And we were also going to see the Da Vinci Code which we had been waiting for for a long time but we had to cancel that too. After he got out of the hospital on Friday, we stayed in Kingston with our embassy host family that we have stayed with a few times. We tried to see Da Vinci Code on Sat but it was sold out so we ended up seeing X-Men instead. So our anniversary gifts to each other ended up being teh ticket stubs from the movie (at least it fulfills the paper requirment for the one year anniversary).

Work is going good and I am getting a lot of things done. I wrote an 80 page GIS manual that has been handed out to a number of agencies across the island and I have put together a bunch of other stuff. We are just getting ready for the hurricane season which starts tomorrow and I am going to make some resource maps for my agency.

The last group of volunteers are on their way out and we are getting ready for the new group to come in. I heard some rumors that we are getting 10 married couples, so that will be cool for us to hang out with some more couples. So other than that, just getting ready for our vacation home in July which I am very excited about.

Hello everyone, just wanted to give a little update as to how the new job is going. I have started on my GIS manual that I am going to give the Social Development Commission (SDC) and the Parish Council and I have started on putting together a database for SDC. Things are going good. Napallo got the solar fruit dryer working and to test it we dried some mangoes and tomotoes. It worked great, they tasted just like the y would in the store. I wanted to keep it at the house for a little while and dry a bunch of mangoes cause they are just about coming out of our years now, but Napallo took it to the 4-H Club and the people there are very excited about it. He is going to have a both at the upcoming 4-H acheivment day and he is going to have another booth at the ag fair in August. This is a project he is very excited about becuase you would think that with all papaya and mango and pineapple they would a dried fruit market out here but everywhere we go and see dried fruit regardless of what it is, we see that it is imported. So hopefully this will be a good small business project for him.

This last saturday was Earth Day and me and Napallo went with about 10 other people up to Ochi and helped out with a snorkel clean-up. We went snorkling around the reef there, and picked up any garbage we saw on the reef. It was actually a lot of fun and ironically enough, the best snorkling I have done on the island since I have been here. We picked quite a few things too. We got a tire, a paint can, bottles, wire, can, etc.

This week we have our In-Service Training up on the north coast and we have to bring our counterpart. So I am looking forward to a couple days of a hot shower and some t.v.

The family had a great time out here (so they say) except my dad never wants to drive on the island again, which I can understand, but it was nice just hanging out and relaxing. I realized when they were all leaving the intensity of island fever I have. I am really noticing it now. All I wanted to do when I heard about their itinerary home was just get in a plane and go somewhere. You have to understand that no matter where we go on the island we only travel a max of about 50 miles in any one given day. For example, our trip to Ochi this weekend took us 4 hours and we only traveled about 30 miles. So needless to say I am ready to get off the island for a little bit. Just a couple more months.

So, me and Napallo finally got our new jobs, and beleive me, we cant be more excited. I am going to be working at the Social Development Commission. I was doing some work over there previously becuase I had nothing going on at the office. So, I am going to working in 3 parishes developing and starting up their GIS programs and training various people to use the GIS software. I am also going to be helping out the parish council develop their GIS program which I have already started, and they want me to continue helping them. We are still going to be living in the same place though. I am really excited about doing this work. It will also look really good on my reasume to put down that I developed the GIS programs from the ground up at 4 different places. It is also some of the most sustainable work I can be doing out here becuase these offices will now have trained individuals using a database (that I am going to help put together)and the GIS program for poverty erdaication and environmental work, along with some urban planning. The job we were doing at CCAM was not working out. We had no counterpart, and nothing really to do. Everytime Napallo was in the office he was pacing like a caged animal. All they wanted me to do was sit at a next and update the website and make photocopies for people in their cyber center. My new job is going to be a lot more along the lines of what peace corps is all about. Napallo is going to be working at the 4-H Club which is basically an organization that trains young people agriculture skills, cooking skills, home-economics and other life skills. He is sooooo excited about they are going to have him do. So far, plans for him are doing some international cooking lessons with cooking classes they have. Just the other day he did a mediterranean theme and made hummus and homade pita bread and baba ganouge for them. He is also going to be working on the dried fruit project he has been working on. We have a solar fruit dryer at our house and he is going to be working on small business prject with that. He is also going to be working with some schools with their environmental programs. So, all in all things here are looking much better as far as our jobs are concerned. I think now we are going to be doing some really good work.

Next week I have the family coming out, well some of them anyway, so we are excited about that. So, other than that, just sweating a lot out here, doing a lot of yoga and running three days a week and reading a lot of books. I am baking my own bread now which I must say is really good. And Napallo has turned into Mr. Betty Crocker. He is making his own pita bread, cinnamon buns, bagels, banana bread, pies cakes, frostings, sauses. Everything from scratch. And I am taking full advantage of his culinary creations. We are also doing all kinds of soups from scratch now. Tonight I am making a homade minestrone, homade stock and everything. Apparently me and Napallo now have reputations among all the peace corps volunteers for being gourmet cooks. I dont know how we got that title or if we even deserve it. Ok, well thats about all for now. Take care.

so we started teaching this kids in community how to play chess. We had about 10 come over the other day in 7 last night. I figure if we cant teach them how to read maybe at least we can teach to play chess. Oh man you guys, if you just spent 10 minutes with these kids, you would thanking your lucky stars and considering yourself so fortunate to have the opportunities you have. So I have been spending a lot of time working at the parish council in May Pen getting their GIS program set up. I was hoping to work there exclusivly but we will see. Other than that, Napallo got an old solar fruit dryer that an old volunteer made and we are going to start drying fruit and seeing how it goes. My environmental club is still going good, but its just depressing here seeing the lack of attention and care and resources are put into these kids. So many of them cant read and they dont have nearly half the opportunities that some of the other kids on the island have. So we are just taking it day by day and learning a lot about ourselves and the island of Jamaica.

Is it bad to say that I sometimes find myself longing for the country of convenience (this being the U.S.A)? I mean there are things I find myself wanting that I never really thought about before or that I just took for granted, like spinach, olives, certain household products or just the ability to obtain almost anything I felt I needed. And then there is the whole concept of variaty and availablity. The mere fact that when I was home and I went to the store, and I could spend the whole day just picking through a hundred different products I wanted or needed. I mean, I could get all organic products, free range meats, organic asian teas, organic soaps and shampoos, exotic foods, any kind of fruit and vegetable. I mean when we first got here, Napallo ate all mangoes that were on out host families mango tree cause he thought they grew year round, same thing with avocadoes. It didnt even occur to us that these wouldnt be available because for the last 25 years we have been living in a country where you could go into a store and get anything you wanted and not even thinking about where it came from or how it got to you. I dont know, I guess I'm rambling and this isnt coming out like it sounded in my head, maybe its b/c I have like 12 people yapping behind me.

I will write angain soon, I got to go to some meeting now.

So work is starting to pick up, mainly because me and napallo have taken some initiative and just started going on our own and working. Napallo put a grant proposal through to have 2 solar fruit dehydraters built and he is excited about possibly starting that small business project. We also have 2 different proposals to do some healthy lifestyle workshops in our community. This would mainly involve having child rearing workishops for young mother and sex education for possible mothers. Me and Napallo might also be getting involved with one of the main agriculture organizations on the island where they have a training center. They want us to come and do some cooking lessons with the students. They have the kitchens and they can get all the ingredients and supplies. So I would do some cooking lessons on things like gnocchi, some indian cooking and soups and all kinds of other things, incorporating nutrician and organic and quality of ingredients. That should be fun. These are all what we would call secindary projects. For my primary projects, I am going to help 2 governmental organizations, the Social Development Commission and the Parish Council develop their GIS programs. Its basically a situation where they have the software and no data nor anyone who can use the software. So next week I am going to Kingston with one guy from the Parish Council to get some base data from the National Environment and Planning Agency and I am going to start from scratch with guys training people as well as getting there programs started.

Last week me and Napallo went to this Crocodile training workshop where we got to get up close and personal with the crocodiles and lean how to relocate when they end up on resorts or whatnot, that was cool, but I forgot my camera, so no pictures. Speaking of my camera, for some reason, the computer wont read my pix to download off the camera, so I have to wait to I see someone who has a camera that holds the same kind of memory card to get them off my camera on to the computer. Thats why I havnt put my vacation pix on shutterfly yet.

In a couple weeks me and Napallo are going to this peace corps Peer Counseling training thing in kingston with some other volunteers so that we can be peer supporters, now I dont really know what that entails, I just know it means a week in a hotel paid for my peace corps and a hot shower. So for that I am pretty excited.

We have about three piggies that are going to give birth this week and I am hopefully going to try and help with the delivery process, or at least take pictures. And I think our dog is going to give birth soon for like the 20th time, so we might have some new puppies soon.

This last weekend, me and about 7 other peace corps volunteers went to this concert called Rebel Salute. It was really great, they had all these old Roots Reggae artists there like Burning Spear and Third World and some various new reggae artists. We got to the show at about 11pm and we left at about 8:30am and the show was even over yet. We were pretty damned tired though but it was a lof fun. There were all these old rastas all decked out in some great outfits and the vibe was just all around really cool. I think we are going to go next year too. Everything else is going well. This weekend we are going up to Mandeville to watch the football playoff game cause one of the volunteers up there has cable, so I am excited about that. Not much else new is going on. I'll keep you all posted though.

Well, we are back from our island wide adventure tour, and it was a wonderful success. We started off going to Ocho Rios (Ochi) where we had a beach party with the Japanese volunteers that are our here to celebrate the collaboration work the peace corps has agreed to do with them. It was a lot of fun. They even brought sushi to the party, I almost fainted from excitment. That night we stayed with with one of the other volunteers just outside of Ochi in a place called Port Maria. He has cable t.v so we watched movies that night and spent the whole next day watching football and vegging out. I hadnt seen a t.v in a long time so it was nice to just sit and do nothing. We cooked dinner for him that night and just hung out. The next day we traveled all the way to Montego Bay (Mo Bay) and spent 2 days with some other volunteers there. Mo Bay is a crazy place. Very touristy, I mean they have a freakin casino there. I really felt like we are on vacation here. We went to this beach called Doctors Cave which is free for peace corps volunteers which is nice cause its a really nice beach. Then we went to chinese food for dinner with some of the other volunteers who live in Mo Bay (there are like 12 volunteers there). The next day we walked around and went back to Doctors Cave beach and then we went to Cuban restaurant. So basically it didnt feel like I was in Jamaica at all, except for when I got some jerk chicken at this place called the Pork Pit which is apparently listed in some book as one the top 1000 places to visit before you die. The next day we traveled to Negril and stayed with an older volunteer out there. She has a place set up on the water in a seaside resort, really beautiful and totally un-peacoresque. We did a little snorkeling and cooked dinner for her that night. There was another peace corps couple staying in Negril too so we hung out with them also. The next day we went home for the night to do some laundry and we promised our friend that we would go to his community fund raiser that he put together. The following morning we made our way to Treaure Beach where 10 volunteers including us had rented a house on the beach for Christmas. This was a lot of fun. We just hung out and played a lot of games. I made a huge pasta dish for everyone on christmas eve and then we all got drunk and had a bond fire. The next we all did nothing cause we were hung over and we had left over spegetti for our christmas dinner. The next day we headed home with 2 other volunteers who were planning on joining us for our Blue Mountain trip. The next morning we all packed up and headed to Kingston to leave for the Blue Mountain hike. There were six of us and to get to the trail head you have to charter a taxi up to a place called Mavis Bank which is about a 45 minute drive. We could find anyone to charter, then this Jamaican came up to us who I guess had nothing better to do and said he would drive us up there for $200J a piece. So we all piled up in the back of his old beat up pick up truck and headed up there. The first part of the hike was 7 miles to a hostel where we stayed the night. The secod part of the hike was another 7 miles up to the peak, but at this point we were all so wet cause it had been reaining and we were all pretty tired. We stopped half way between the hostel and the peak at the ranger station where we found some empty deserted cabin, and no one was around. One of the guys in our group had been to the peak before so he offered to stay there and start a fire and we could all drop our packs and head up to the top. So we did that. Got to the top, hung out a little and then headed back down to the cabin where we crashed for the night. The next day we hiked all the way back down and headed to our freinds cabin near Kingston for the night. We all stayed there for the night and since we were all exausted from hiking over 30 miles we just crashed. Since me and Napallo were planning on going to Port Antonio for new years which is on the eastern part of the island, we didnt want to go all the back home just to head all the way back the next day. So we called up the US embassy couple we stayed with after thanksgiving and asked if we could stay at there place. They said sure and then we spent the night there doing laundry in there washer and dryer (this was very exciting for us) taking hot showers eating good food, watching t.v and using there DSL. It was great. The next morning we headed off to Port Antonio to stay at Great Huts for new years there were 3 other peace corps couples staying there too. This is great little bamboo hut place, where we stayed in urt style tents. For new years eve they a west african drumming thing going on which was fun. The next day we just hung out on the beach and cooked a big dinner in the kitchen facilities at great huts. The next morning we made the 5 hour trip home and came back to work this morning. So all in all it was a wonderful trip around the island, and I will be uploading the pictures as soon as can. It probably wont be for another week or so since someone else has my memory card right now. Well I hope everyone had a great holiday and new year, and I look forward to hearing about how it all went from everyone. Take care.

So the last couple of days we were out of water so I got to take my first bucket bath. That basically means that I fill our wash basin with water that we have on reserve and and just take a bath in the bucket. We now have water which is a very good thing cause we were almost out of our reserve.

So just a few more days and then our office closes and we begin our island wide adventure tour. We are going start by going up to Ochi on saturday and then we are going to stay and a freinds house up there on sat night and then we are going to head over to Montego Bay and stay at some freinds house there for a couple days. I think after that we are going to try to head over to Negril for a couple days. Then we are off to Treasure Beach for Christmas and then its off to hike the Blue Mountains for 3 days and then we are going to Port Antonio for New Years. So it quite the jam packed little vacation.

Since we have been here my only source of media to the U.S is through the Newsweek the peace corps supplies all volunteers and that isnt even the US version, its the Caribbean and south american version, so its not the same stories, but I have discovered that the Newsweek you guys get out there in the US is crap full no news worthy events. I have also been listening to the BBC a lot and I have come to the realization that I am more knowledged now about wrodly events here in the bush of Jamaica than I was in the state capitol of California. So this is my plea for all of you out there who are reading this to realize that you are not getting any news from the newspapers nor CNN, Fox, NBC, ABC or anyother network claiming to be giving the latest news worthy stories. But you are all lucky that I have a few alternative answers for you to get some real news:

First I would recommend listening to the BBC, its not the most in depth stuff, it will give you pretty good coverage of world news. For good coverage of news stories they simply will not cover in your six o'clock news on CNN, go to www.alternet.org, I also encourge all of you to watch the Bill Maher show on HBO if you have it. He was originally on ABC but they kicked him off, and if you watch the show you will know why. I also recommend Thom Hartmans website for more stuff corporate america doesnt want you to hear. That should keep you busy for now. I ask all of you to try other resources for news becuase I am realizing being down here that there is so much we are not being told in the United States. I'll just give you example of what I am talking about. Like I said before, we get the Caribbean, and Latin American version of Newsweek and a few weeks ago we got this great issue with the cover feature article about the Chaney, Libby incident and well as a great article about Tom DeLay and that whole scandle, I than looked on the internet to see what was on the cover of the Newsweek that the US gets, and can you believe that most news worthy event they could find to put on the cover was all the freakin celebrities that were turning 60 this year. I was almost sick to my stomach. I mean our country is at war, we have a major scandle going on the white house, the polar icecaps are melting a rate faster than scientists had expected and the most newsworthy information mass media feels should be bestowed upon the public is to let them know which celebrities are turning 60 this year!!! So I beg you all, please don't let corporate America try to dump you down into complacency. We have come into an era where only 5 companies own all media outlets in the United States. What this means folks is that we all have become our own journalists now, and we can't depend on Catie Couric or Dan Rather to do it for us anymore.

Ok, that was my "fight-the-man, start the revolution" talk. Now back to the happening on Jam-Rock. After the new year, we going to start a tutoring club in our village for the children there. It will be after school, a couple days a week and we are going to be helping them with reading and anything else they need. I have been doing a lot of reading with the children that come into the oddice after school and that has been going well and I am continuing with my environmental club. I think I want to start going to the basic school (which is like kindergarten) and just have story time with the kids, since no one here ever gets read to, so that will be the next thing I tackle after our island wide adventure tour.

So we had our first major conflict with our agency. We had a meeting with our supivisor and boss of our agency and 2 peace corps officals from the peace corps office in Kingston. We all needed to discuss the major problems that are going on with this site and what we are going to do about it. Napallo and our roomate/co-worker who is also a peace corps volunteer who has been a year both got a little heated during the 3 1/2 hour meeting. Lets just say that some yelling occured with our boss. We basically were talking about how this site should not a have any volunteers because of the nature of the work and the fact that they expect us to do office work as part of our job. We were also very angry that none of us have counter parts (which is a requirement for peace corps to place volunteers). A counter part is basically someone from the country, in this case a Jamaican who you are transfering skills to. None of us have that, and that is a major issue whith peace corps. Basically we kind had to do a mini re-working of what our exprectations were and what we want to be doing, and if we even want to stay at the agency. We laid down what we expected, and in the end, me and Napallo felt a little better aboout the whole situation. We are going to have another meeting In January to see where we are at then. There is still a good possibility that we might have out site changed. I am going to start doing some training in GIS to a man who works at the Jamaican Socail Development Commission. They are starting a GIS program and I said that would be a great situation for me because I would have built in counter part and their office is not far from where we live. So to start with I think I am going go there a couple days a week and he come here one day a week. In all reality I would like to have my site changed there, but I think the peace corps only wants to change sites as a last solution. So all in all there issues with our boss and our angency and I dont think this situation has been remedied yet. Our boss and supervisor are going to be gone until January and we have the last two weeks of December off, so in January I think issue will be revisited. So I will keep everyone posted.

On a lighter note, our thanksgiving party went very well. About 15 were there and we did outside and had a little fire and lit some lanterns. A couple of our Rasta friends came and we had a good time. I hope everyones thanksgiving went well. Take care

So our ESC (Early Service Conference) was really nice. I got take a hot shower and drink some wine and swim in the pool and eat some really good food. And now i'm back to my peace corpsesque experience. Tonight we are having a thanksgiving party, we are going to have about 12 people over. It should be fun. This weekend I have plans to go see Harry Potter up in Mandeville and I am very excited about that. I havnt been to the theater since July.

Work is going ok, I started to do a training in GIS to a Jamaican who works at the social development commission, so at least now I feel like a can pass on some GIS knowledge to a Jamaican. I have about 50 kids in my environmental club. Every week before we start, I make them say an environmental pledge. I figure if nothing else maybe I can brainwash them into caring about the environment.

I have also informaaly started to tutor a kid from my neighborhood in reading. He is 15 years old and can't even recite the alphabet all the way through. Its a real challenge out here with teaching kids to read. There is no phonetics taught out here at all. Napallo was trying to get in contact with PBS to try and get some Sesame Street DVD's or something out here and just show Sesame Street to kids to learn phonics. We'll see how that works out.

It has gotten a little cooler here which is nice, but taking a cold shower in cool weather is not the most fun thing to do. So all in all things are progressing along smoothly. We are growing basil which has taken off great. Napallo made pesto the other night which was a nice little reminder of home, we are planning a mexican food night soon which will entail making home made tortillas which we have thus far mastered. We have also done home made bagels, and funnel cake and an excellent vegan chocolate cake. So in short, we are eating quite well and getting very creative with the local ingredients. Last night was papaya pizza and callalou pizza both very delicious. Okay, its thanksgiving and am going to get on home and make some vegitarian stuffing. Happy Thanksgiving.

Hello everyone. So Napallo is gone this week in the Pedro Cays to do some survey work for our agency with our roomate and I am all by my self. The Pedro Cays is this little fishing island about 40 south of Jamaica on the way to Columbia. No sewege or sanitary system of any kind there. No fresh water. There are hardly any females on the island. So all in all, it is a pretty crazy place to spend a week. They will be back on sunday. Next week we go up to Runaway Bay in the north coast for our Early Service Conference. The peace corps is putting us up in a hotel with hot water and cable t.v, a swimming pool, etc. It's basically a get together to talk about how our service going and all that good stuff.

I'm starting my environmental club this week and I have 3 GIS projects in the works and enough website maintence to last a year.

We are planning on having a big thanksgiving potluck party at our house, so we'll how that turns out. Talk to you all soon.

Hello everyone. So after we got good beating from Wilma and got some showers from Alpha we are now feeling the effects of what is to become hurricane Beta. We are just getting some though nothing major. Everything else is going fine I guess. We have had some frustrating moments dealing with our agency but we are trying to work around that by trying to get involved in our own kinds of projects. Since the GIS computer is down and we are working on getting it back up and running there is not much GIS stuff to do, so I have been in contact with one the primary schools environmental club to see about getting that going but everytime I make plans to go over there and have our first session, there seems to be another tropical storm preventing me from doing so, so hopefully next week I will be able to make it our there. In the mean time, me, Napallo and our roomate have been making plans to see about getting some small business stuff going here.

Our fist goal:

So right now all around us there are more papaya trees bearing fruit than we know what to do with, and they are the size of watermelons, I mean seriously we have made just about every dish I can think of with papayas, curry papaya, papaya pizza, papaya crisps, papaya smoothies, etc. And during mango season, you practically slip on them there are so many around. I mean they are dropping on your head left and right. So with all this fruit everywhere why am I having to have my family ship out dried mangoes for me when there are a ton in my back yard, but I have yet to see any dried fruit being sold anywhere. So, we have done a little research and found some diagrams to build a solar fruit dryer, made out of easy to find material. On the next free weekend we have we are going to experiment with building one and hopefully start drying some fruit, then our goal is going to be to see if we can get some memebers in our community to think that this is a brilliant idea, and wham bam, you have a small business project.

Our Second Goal:

So there are a million and one goats running around this island. I mean every turn you make there are about 20 goats crossing your path. So you would think that with all of these goats running around everywhere that goat cheese or gost milk would be fairly popular. This however is far from the case. The only things goats are used for around here are feeding the scraps to and for dish called manish water which made with a goats head and goat balls and is very popular at wedding and funerals (go figure). So, our master plan is to start a goat cheese enterprise. Again we have done some research, and found an easy goat stand to build, and now all we have to do is learn how to milk a goat and make some cheese, which I don't beleive is very difficult, then hopefully we can train some community memebers to do the same, and walla, goat cheese for everyone.

I will keep you all updated on these projects as they progress.

So, other than that I have been learning a lot about computers and how to fix them considering one breaks in our office about every other day, and I am going start doing some GIS stuff as soon as we fix the GIS computer.

Everything at home is going good, making lots of good food. Reading a lot. So far, the books I have read are:

Hawaii

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

and I am in the process of reading The Art of Happiness

Well thats all for now, I will keep you all updated.