I am now 27 years old. Wow. I would like to think of myself as young still. I still have three years until I am thirty! We have started planning our high school reunion for next summer, 10 years. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was in high school. I enjoyed high school, but I have also enjoyed not being in high school, I feel the same about college. I have loved, I have won, I have lost but I am happy with where I am in my life. I wouldnt change anything, I have family and friends that I love.. I have had a lot of fun and adventures.. I cant wait for the rest of my life.

This year we planned a weekend of BBQ and river floating... The rain gods didnt feel too much like celebrating so we had rain every day last week. I worried the river would be blown out and we told everyone it might be off. The rains slowed and the river wasnt blown out, so everyone still came to Portland. Saturday night Jerry made some burgers, and black bean burgers (thanks to Raz) for the veggie heads.. I made some potato salad and we had mango salsa and chips and Rainbow funfetii cupcakes (thanks to JoAnn)! Everything was soooo good.. The next morning we floated the river, it took us about 5 hours. It was soooo much fun! We all got soaked and it only rained a little bit. You can see the river is a little dirty from all the rain, but it didn't alter our fun!

Thank you all my friends who came out and made my day a blast! I am glad we got to ride to the Rio Grande!

Yesterday was Mothersday. My real mother is many many miles away.. and my Jamaican Mother Kathy is leaving soon. It is sad to me that Jerry and Kathy will be leaving Jamaica. They have been part of my foundation here in Port Antionio. I am trying not to be too sad yet, I still have two more months of them being right down the road.

Lauren and I met up with Kathy and Jerry at the Marina for a "Americanized" brunch. As I walked to the pool side restaurant where I anticipated mimosas and smoked salmon, I passed many mothers and grandmothers hanging laundry, sweeping porches and doing many other acts of work in their yards. I thought, wow these moms dont get a break. There are many single moms and grandmothers who are raising children, these women literally dont get a break. Their husbands (many have never been married) dont bring them breakfast in bed and their grandchildren cant afford to send them flowers. I got a new appreciation for Jamaican women. They love children, it looks good to have pickney dem' (kids), and everyone is doing it, then they are left hand washing laundry, looking after their grandchildren and maybe have time to go to church on mothersday!

Jamaican MothersI was happy to see a group of women sitting under the trees at the marina. They were dressed up, sitting on their beach towels on the grass. There were trucks that had pre-cooked food and men, young and old, were serving the women cook shop food in Styrofoam containers. There was a car with the back hatch open blaring Jesus music. I thought to myself, this is definitely a Jamaicanized motherday celebration! Cook shop, Jesus music, men serving the women food, a Jamaican womans dream!!! It made me smile as I passed.

I did much prefer the quite brunch with a bottle of champagne, smoked salmon, cheese and baked goods that we dont see much of in our every day lives. It was nice to spend a small part of my day with Jerry and Kathy, I suppose I need to cherish the last few times like this that I have with them. It is funny though, the difference in culture, and how I so much enjoyed my brunch, but a Jamaican woman was having just as much enjoyment just a few hundred yards from me in a much different setting.

Brunch with KathyI hope all mothers felt loved and appreciated yesterday!!!

Louis and his Bon FireMy friend Louis sailed his boat from Juneau, Alaska to Panama. This took him hundreds of days, It took me exactly a hour and a half to fly to Panama from Jamaica! I invited my friend Andy, a fellow volunteer and friend to accompany me on my 2 week vacation to visit Panama and Louis. She had some difficulties, missing the plane, not having any money when she landed ect. She did finally make it, a few days late and a few hairs pulled out of her head.

Me Rock ClimbingI flew into Panama City where I met up with Jose and we had some AMAZING food and wine. The next day we took a 7 hour bus ride to David where we met up with Louis. Louis had been preparing for me and Andys arrival by building a HUGE bon fire. Louis couldnt wait any longer so that evening we lit it. It was crazy and huge and we had a good time drinking 33 cent beers (yes I said 33 cents) and going midnight swimming in the river behind the farm. We visited Boquete, my favorite place, in the mountains where they grow coffee and there is amazing rock formations, large trees and a beautiful river. We also sailed to Coiba, a national park of Panama. To sail to the islands it takes 24 hours, so we had a lack of sleep and were super sunburnt after the first day, but it was great! At night we were able to sail by navigating by the stars (when the clouds were not covering them) and there was awesome Bioluminescence (living organisms glowing in the ocean).

On the island we did a beach clean up, read books, went swimming and snorkeling and enjoyed the beauty! Back on land we spent a lot of time at the farm, rode drunk cowboys horses and drank lots of Abuelo (rum) and 33cent beers and ate tons of amazing food. I had a great time and love my friends very much. Here are some pictures!

My friend B came to visit me a couple of weeks ago and one of the activities we did was hike to the top of Jamaica, the Blue Mountains. Getting there was quite the adventure.. I had my bags for Panama and she had all of her luggage. We took the bus to St. Thomas and had Jah B's son take us up to the guest house. The guy was nice and we payed too much, but it was worth not having to struggle getting public up there. We arrived mid afternoon and checked out the place. The accommodation consisted of a shack and a newly constructed area where there are "private rooms". We hung around the shack and read our books and enjoyed the views. I wanted to walk around and see what was up the road, so we walked to the other two guest houses where we saw a party, bingo night- oh geez music all night, and then we walked to a beautiful grove of cedar where there was a older guest house. There was a nice old man who was carrying dishes to go wash them, we chatted with him for a few minutes and then continued back to dinner. We ate dinner with Jah B which was a over prices plate of rice and beans with no flavor- but we ate it all in preparation for the early morning hike. We hired a "guide" but then was told that we had to pay more for flashlights, I argued.. To bed early to avoid being up all night from the party down the road.

Awoken at 1:20 AM to drink a cup of coffee grab a couple bags of nuts and walk up the hill. We hiked in the dark with some poorly lit flashlights and a guide who just hiked ahead of us and didnt really even wait for us and definitely didn't talk to us. The stars were amazing and you could see the city lights of Kingston. At dusk I was soooo happy that I could actually see and didn't have to worry about falling in a hole. As we approached the top it was very cold. We waited for 30 minutes for the sun to come up. The sun broke and it was so beautiful. The clouds then started moving past us and then you could see mountains, and then you could see nothing. It was quite remarkable. I hear that on super clear mornings you can see Cuba.

The hike down was beautiful as well- probably one of my favorite parts. All of the vegetation was so different on this side of the mountain. I work on the other side where it is much more lush. At the top of the mountain there was short and wind blown trees with little ground cover. As I hiked to lower vegetation everything changed and I saw beautiful flowers, ferns, wild strawberries and trees I had never seen before. I saw a doctor bird, the national hummingbird, and heard the forest wake up. It was a magical experience.

One evening a couple weeks ago when Barb was visiting we were cleaning lionfish and hanging out on the verandah. I stood up to throw some trash away and I saw this and quickly told Barb to watch. The puppy was playing with the goat kid!

When you are young you hear "These are the best days of your life". So I figure might as well make them that way? I have been on island for a year March 18th.

Anyways I am having fun, and we had a nice celebration this weekend on the North Coast in Falmouth. Then on Saturday I spent the day in Montego Bay. It was fun to be a tourist for a couple days and hang out with the Peace Corps family for a couple days! Love you guys!

So as you read in my blog back last year I had the opportunity to witness baby turtles making their way to sea for the first time. This was something that I really enjoyed and is still one of the highlights of my Jamaica experience thus far.

Picture from Definitive Caribbean Blog PEPA, the organization that I am volunteering with, is assisting in a turtle monitoring project in Portland this year. The monitoring season will span from May-October/ Nov. This project is led by Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) and will be focusing on gathering nesting data and also educating the community we are working in about the laws and why they shouldn’t be poaching turtles.

We had our fist meeting the weekend before last and I was surprised at the reactions of the community members. Sea turtles have been protected in Jamaica for many years, yet people are either not informed of the laws, or they are ignorant to the fact that the laws apply to them. Some of the people realize that it is illegal, but admitted in eating turtle anyways.

In the question and answering portion of the presentation, the question “why should we not eat them?” came up. The answer is that they play a important role in their ecosystem, and often it is those species that we cannot see their full importance until they are gone. I thought that was a good point. Jamaica has a lot of problems with their reefs and their fisheries, so it was explained what the different sea turtles eat and how that affects the reef ecosystem. These animals are not only very beautiful animals in the water but they play a huge role.

I came to the conclusion that this project will be interesting and I look forward to spending some early morning looking for tracks and I am predicting I will have many sea turtle conversations in the year to come.

While the Peace Corps staff and ten lucky volunteers are partying the day away in Kingston for the 50th Anniversary of Peace Corps- the rest of us are at site working with the people, as we do everyday! I honestly forgot what today was. It is a Tuesday, and its the 1st of March. In my planner, which I am addicted to, I have written: "Fairy Hill to Read to Kids". I knew it was something today, It just feels like any other week, but I thought maybe it was world literary day or something.

We have so many days that are suppose to mean something, and the funny thing is, most of these days we dont even realize it. There is World Wetlands Day, I was excited about that, but then I figured out I would be out of town and couldn't participate. Like its the end of the world, I cant teach wetland importance if its not "World Wetland Day". Theres Earth day, theres AIDS day, theres Black History month, theres a ton of other "holidays" and days to promote this or that. I just penciled it in..

I got a email from our country director saying "for those of you unable to attend" aka not chosen (randomly out of ~60 volunteers?), please go to a school and read to a child for the 50th anniversary. I am not sure why that would be a good way to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of a program that we have dedicated two years of our lives, but I penciled it in.

I spent the afternoon in Fairy Hill, where a volunteer I work with and her counterpart started up a library (much needed). Kids started slowly coming in after class and I asked one small girl if she liked to read, she said "yes", and from there I let her pick out a book to read with me. Before we could sit in our chairs a few others came over to join us and we had ourselves a little reading circle. I spent a few hours with these girls, and one boy, taking turns reading. I needed a break from the heat, a one room cement community center with no air circulation, I was getting faint. I said I needed to go outside, they all followed. We "exercised" by stretching and doing jumping jacks and running in place. Lauren and the kids all brought our chairs out and we continued our reading circle outside. After 5pm and the kids were still loving it, but we had to close shop.

In the taxi on the way home I was chatting with Lauren about who is going into Kingston soon, she mentioned that Raz was in Kingston for the "celebration". OH YEAH! Is that why we are reading to kids today? Well- I still wasn't sure so I checked Facebook! Sure enough, there it is.. 50 Years! I guess all the Kingston folks were too busy planning and partying to send us a reminder "Happy 50th Anniversary", or maybe we shouldn't worry about it until were finished with Peace Corps? I am still confused.

Moral of the story, just pencil it it! It doesn't matter what day it is, you will probably have a good time doing it.. and why do you need a excuse to read to kids anyways?

Some of us Portland folk decided to go check out the Fi Wi Sinting Festival in Portland. This is a African Heritage festival that celebrates Black History Month every February (for the past 21 years!). I didnt know what to expect, traditional music and crafts and later heard good ital food (vegetarian). We showed up and it was definitely a Rasta event. I had a good time and checked out all of the booths and heard some music. It was cool, something different than my everyday Jamaica-thats for sure.

Last week I spent a lot of time trying to finalize a lot of the small details of my lionfish project. I still have some more things to do but am waiting on the go ahead. I was in the office on Thursday and my coworker Francine asked if I wanted to come and go spearfishing with her on Saturday. I went to her home which is in Drapers, met her mom and some other family members and walked down to the beach. A lovely walk and a even lovelier swim. Beautiful sunny day and dark blue water. Within a few minutes of swimming we found a couple lionfish which Francine shot. I spent most of the time snorkeling around and enjoying the coral and fish. I even saw a eel! I heard that a tigar shark hangs out around those reefs to feed, but we didn't see him.

Drapers, PortlandLionfish

Since I have been back from Christmas break I have been trying to develop a Lionfish program in Portland, the Parish I live. I have been working with DBML (Discovery Bay Marine Lab) in creating a program and developing a work plan and a budget for approval. Last week I went to DBML for the week to get trained in Lionfish handling in the water and the process for sampling the fish. Sampling the fish consists of measuring head to toe, weighing, counting spines, and looking at gut contents for what they eat. I also learned how to do transects underwater. I got to go diving a few times and killed a couple lionfish. The first day diving was brutal, got sea sick and puked my guts out, luckily all that was in my guts was gator-aid... The other day diving was much better. I even got to see a nice sea turtle swim by. Here are some pictures.

I will post more about the project as I get further along in the planning. Right now I am just trying to complete my budget and get it approved by DBML. There is a small budget, so I hope it works out- especially after all this work! Anyways I am enjoying it and it is definitely keeping me busy! We are planning for some workshops for the fishermen in March, I will be posting more and keeping you updated!!

Here are a couple links if you're interested in finding out more about the invasive species Lionfish in the Caribbean.

http://www.reef.org/programs/exotic/lionfish

http://lionhunter.info/Lion_Hunter_Home_Page.html

Climate change. cringe... Those two words can lead to a very heated debate within many crowds. Truth of the matter is I am serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the environment sector in the Caribbean- part of my job, well most of my job really, is trying to educate and prepare local people on this inevitable phenomenon. I am working on two projects, both of them directly related to the mitigation of climate change-not only promoting better hillside farming practices, but also educating these communities and farmers of what climate change is, how it is effecting them now and what they need to be prepared for.

According to the workshop that I went to on Monday, the Caribbean region will be one of the highest impacted regions in the world. Some of the ways that Jamaicans are being impacted now include drought (resulting in poorer farming conditions and lack of fresh water for human use), more extreme weather (when it rains-it pours). It is predicted that air temperatures will increase, ocean temperatures will increase, droughts will be more common, heavy rainfall and storms will be more common and the frequency of tropical storms and hurricanes will increase. All of these factors will make life on this island much different. Everything from infrastructure, roads, agriculture, fisheries and many other aspects of life will be impacted. Flooding will increase, roads will wash out, coastal erosion will increase as sea levels rise, farming will be impacted and coral reefs can be effected. Although everything cannot be prevented and some will not happen for many many years, there are some things that Jamaicans need to prepare for now- drought, storms, erosion, flooding.

There is a proposed project funded through the World Bank that would bring funding to this small island and many others in the region helping the island to prepare and to take weather data. This would include equipment, media, education and much more.

Many of these environment and infrastructure problems stem deep- beyond climate change and I think its a wonderful reason to fix some of the problems and to prepare for the future.

The weather has been quite amazing my first two weeks back on island. This week I have spent my days walking in the woods, one of my favorite things in the world. The air seems to be much crisper on the top of a mountain ridge, no matter where on earth you are (as long as its not raining). Walking back down from a hike up to a farmers plot to check on some trees I stopped and admired the view. I could hear a chainsaw somewhere in the drainage, it made me smile. I spend a lot of time in the woods in Jamaica, but rarely do I hear a chainsaw. I know it is silly, but it made me feel back in Oregon working in the woods.

Cedar SeedlingThe last two or three months we have been distributing timber and fruit trees to the farmers in Shirley Castle as part of a agroforestry project the organization I work with is heading. We started checking on the farmers this week to make sure that they are planting the trees, they are doing it properly and distributed some small funds to help with the cost of clearing land and planting trees. The farmers really do like us, we bring them trees and help them with drainage issues on their farms. In return they treat us pretty good-usually giving us some sort of fruit or vegetable to take back to the "city". Today I scored with some sweet potatoes, yesterday-some plantain, oranges and a lemon.

Meeting with a Farmer

Haylee and KC

This year I spent Christmas in Oregon visiting friends and family. It had been nine months since I had been in the US. I can tell you hands down I LOVED IT! Being away in a different culture and away from your norms can be exhausting and I definitely needed a break.

The first week in Oregon the weather was great, two of my besties picked me up at the airport and we went to a brewpub for a beer and some grub! I spent the first week with some great friends and my family (since it was Christmas). My niece has gotten so big, its quite amazing. She has the most amazing fun personality and I couldn’t love her more (just ask my sister and Joe)! It was fun going on walks in the woods, skiing and spending much needed quality time with those I love. I am sorry if I didn’t get to see you on my trip back, there are definitely a handful of people I wish I could have seen including two of my aunts, my cousin and a couple of girlfriends!! I also wish I would have had time to slay a couple steelhead!

I feel re-energized and glad to be back to a warmer climate.

The top ten things in Oregon-December 2010:

10. The outdoors, walking through the woods in the winter9. Driving!8. Radio stations- a good selection7. Coffee Shops – yum!6. Shopping at powells books and the mall!!5. Good Food: thai, bacon cheeseburgers, sushi, pizza, ect.4. Skiing- SNOW!!3. Beer and NW wine; winery, brewery, fun bars, good friends houses2. Fun times with friends 1. My family

Whats my favorite part of Jamaica? Winter!! Seasons have changed, and for the best! There is a breeze, the sun still shines and call me crazy but I love the chill factor. Maybe its my Pacific Northwest blood, but I love that shiver when the wind makes you cold. Don't get me wrong, there are still days of rain and days of sunshine but the humidity is down and the breeze is fabulous!

Today I was on a farm visit, the air was not as thick as usual and the breeze made your skin cool. I looked at the beautiful mountains and I felt like I have hundreds of times in many different mountains, I took a deep breath, and felt at home, enjoying the landscape, the sun and breeze on my skin.

Then I did arrived at home, dropped my bags and decided I needed to think about things, some major decisions I am facing in work and life (I will get into these later), so I made myself a rum drink and sat on my roof. No matter what is going on- I decided I am still pretty fortunate indeed! I got to spend a hour or so enjoying this view and again the island breeze with a little CoCo Mania rum from the freezer. Island life is good.

December 5th was International Volunteer Day. This year a boys home in Manchioneal was chosen. There were over a 100 volunteers, mostly young people, and mostly Jamaicans, helping the boys home to plant plantain, hot pepper (scotch bonnets), and to help build a pig pen. This will hopefully help to generate money for the home that takes care of 28 boys in Portland. It was a pretty neat experience and the main speaker made a good point, "It is young people helping young people, thats the future of Jamaica", well put! This country will only move forward if it learns (mostly the youth) that you must volunteer and help your fellow people.

The festivities also included, ofcourse, LOUD music and lots of dancing! The only thing missing from this party (not really) was the overproof!

I had quite the busy week! Between Laurens birthday weekend (dinner and beach time) and Thanksgiving festivities I had to work and host a German intern from the Discovery Bay Marine Lab.Laurens BirthdayAudience of basic school kids watching us sweat and digAnd Done!

I went up to rainy Shirley Castle and met with some farmers to setup some work days this next week for reforestation and grass planting. We also delivered some grass, and chatting with farmers. I also hooked Theresa (the German) up with some fishermen and showed her the fishing beaches in town so she could get some more information on local Lion fish. I also found time to head to Boston to assist Lauren in digging up a garden for their community center.

I got two Thanksgivings this year! On Thursday the Pitts hosted a family style Thanksgiving including TURKEY, and all of the fixings and pumpkin pie!! I also experimented with making Sorrel juice for the first time that was super easy- and GREAT!! Its also wonderful when mixed with red wine!! I then headed to Kingston for meetings and had the opportunity to see more volunteers and staff members for a holiday potluck. I still feel tired from soo much food and fun!

Turkey Day at the Pitts!

This last week was pretty uneventful. I have been down with a bug, again.. I caught whatever was going around and I think I ended up with a sinus infection over the weekend. I am feeling much better today, but still recovering. I was hoping to write about the Errol Flynn Gala that was this weekend, but I was too sick to attend, so I wont.

The weather here in Portland has been dark, rainy and at times cold! Hmm... Sounds like Portland OR in the winter? With Tropical Storm Tomas (which wasn't too bad, to those who were wondering) there was some pretty cold weather. There was a couple of days last week that I lived in a sweater and wool socks. It has been almost two weeks of rain. With the rain brings the usual things like sickness and the blues. I guess you cant get away from that even in the tropics!!!

Today I went into the office and on the way home I stopped to pick up some groceries. Once I was checked out and picked up my shoulder bag from the bag check-it started POURING!!! I stood in the door way with about 10 Jamaicans waiting for the rain to let up. I did have a umbrella, but I would have gotten my groceries wet on the walk to the taxi stand, and literally in just a few minutes of downpour the parking lot and street was partially flooded. Its amazing how rain slows everything down. I waited about 10 minutes, and then went for it. It was still raining and I (shoulder bag, two grocery bags and a umbrella) was leaping over "river ditches" to find paths to walk down the street. Most people huddled under covered areas of shops. I finally made it to the taxi stand and luckily didn't have to wait to get inside a cab, front seat (luxury!) and I didn't have to wait too long or even fill up before the guy drove me home. I was very thankful for him, he could have made me wait a half hour for the taxi to fill up before he drove me home. Much different than back home.. Being disappointed that its raining, run with the cart to my car, press the trunk pop button on my Jetta, put the groceries in, and hop in the car, and turn on the defrost to defog the windows and off home!!

I am excited about going home for Christmas in just about a month!!!! I cant wait to be back and see family and friends and mountains and trees and snow and good beer and good food!! Did I mention I am excited?

I will post some more pictures when the sun finally decides to come out.. Goodnight from Jamaica!

Meeting in Moore Town Cultural CenterLast week I did a few different things with PEPA. The first thing we did was travel up the mountain to meet with the local farmers group. We had written a grant to the UN to fund an agroforestry project. This project is similar to the one we are currently working on. This project focuses on climate change mitigation. Many of the farmers have a limited education and most of them have no concept of global warming or climate change. I have always found it difficult to discuss this very touchy topic. It is really surprisingly easy to describe what climate change is and how they can and should be preparing their land. It’s great when you can use tangible facts and data to show the farmers what can happen, what has happened and what is projected to happen in the future. Since this is an island, most of the change is driven by ocean temperature and currents resulting in drought or heavy rain and or hurricanes.

The UN was interested in funding this project but wanted to participate in community meetings to ensure that the communities in which this would effect would actually participate and are interested in the project. This project entails planting both timber and fruit trees and helping them to learn how to make diversion ditches and other methods to reduce soil erosion. The meeting went well; a lady from the UN talked with the farmers and tried to figure out what the current problems are with the farming practices and how they can change some of their practices. I have another one of these meetings today in a neighboring community up in the mountains that will also be part of this project. Outlook is good and hopefully we will be awarded the funding to help this community.Meeting at Bay View Villas

www.free-winnifred.comThe other activity that I helped with was a meeting with a local beach society, locals who have a vested interest in one of the local beaches. This beach has been purchased by the SDC and this group has taken them to court to gain management of this beach. This workshop discussed what is going on with the case and what the rights and limits are if this beach is being managed by the SDC. It was an interesting opportunity to learn about the legal side of coastal management in Jamaica. PEPA was there to help educate the society of the importance of sea life and to give any advice and support to the group as needed. I gave a hour long presentation on the different aspects of sea life and how they are important to the land, the ocean and our own well being.

I am always writing about all of different opportunities I have had while in Jamaica. The last couple weeks have been relatively slow. A friend Emma, a volunteer at the Discovery Bay Marine Lab from England, came to Porty last week for a Portland visit. We went to Great Huts and lounged in the Hammocks and we checked out the Marlin Tourney and met some people from Kingston and get fed wonderful food and drinks at their villa at Blue Lagoon. I would have never have rubbed elbows with some of these people if I were not in Peace Corps. Its amazing the experiences you can have.

I did put Emma to work, we helped to deliver trees to Shirley Castle, for my agroforestry project in the Blue Mountains.

The to add to what I have been up to, I slayed my first Lionfish (invasive species in Jamaica)! I shot it with a Hawaiian sling. I had the opportunity to go scuba diving and Lionfish hunting!

September 27th to October 1st was early service conference. The 81st Peace Corps Jamaica group has been on the island for 6 months and serving as volunteers for 4. Time has flown, it seems like just yesterday we were meeting and greeting in Miami. I remember being so nervous to meet the other volunteers and unsure of what Peace Corps or Jamaica will actually be.

After four months of being away from each other it was nice to regroup to share hugs, stories, laughs and encouragement. The first three days of conference was project development with someone from the communities that volunteers serve. This was a great time to share with project partners the roles of a PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer), to learn skills such as steps in developing a project plan and grant writing. After the community members left we separated into our sector groups (Youth and Environment) to go over our CASI (Community and Sector Inventory) reports. These reports help a volunteer to get to know crucial information about their communities that help to make them effective in their community. This was a great time for story and project plan telling within the sector groups.

One question asked at ESC was, “What keeps you going?” There were many answers from the Peace Corps Family (volunteers and staff) to the kids in the schools that volunteers are working. It is hard to know just how many people one Peace Corps Volunteer will touch in ones service, but as a group, we keep each other going another day. Each and every day we are here we touch more lives and hopefully make a positive impact in Jamaica. Impact is what Peace Corps in all about. ESC helped me realize why I am here and my PC family has kept me motivated to continue go another day. I thank Jerry & Kathy, all of the other volunteers who share their inspiration and kind words along with the support of the staff who help the process of integrating and feeling comfortable that much easier!

Recently was International Coastal Cleanup day. PEPA, the organization that I work for organized for two beached to be cleaned in Port Antonio. The day was a huge success. We had the local Lions Club, a couple Peace Corps Volunteers, Youth Volunteers, local fisherman’s group and the Tourism Club from the local agricultural college. We hauled so much trash from the beaches included dresses, shoes, food containers, tons of plastic bottles and a car windshield. It tool less than two hours to clean the entire thing. Here are some pictures. Getting ready for the event... Gloves Please!!

Busy collecting and recording

Fishing some trash from the gully

Hi all. I am posting some bat pictures as promised. I went out twice this week to complete surveys with the NEPA crew. I actually have fun with it, they are a really great group. There are 21 species of bats in Jamaica and here is one of the scariest, yep luckily (not) it was in the cave we were surveying on Thursday.Harp for catching the bats

IPA in a can!Yes, and I am feeling a little homesick. I think my mind knows the seasons are suppose to be turning and fall soon come. I am ready to wear my cowboy boots and my lovely green rubber boots!! I also miss all of the fishing, fish and good beer of the NW. My friend Raz just got back from AK and he was kind enough to bring me some vitamins (beer)

The beer is from 21st Amendment Brewery in Cali. Great stuff, best canned beer I have ever had. I definitely recommend trying some if you can get your hands on it! Ashland Brewery also does a IPA in a can and is also very good (Thanks again Derek for sending me some via mail).

I haven’t posted anything because I don’t have much to write home about. Life is settling down to the usual. My toe has been infected and I spent 4 hours on Friday in the doctor’s office just to for him to say “yep, looks infected, here is your prescription”. I'm not going to complain too much because afterward I met Lauren at the marina for Devon house IScream (yum for coffee ice cream).

Jerry and Kathy told me a story of a recent trip to a supermarket and getting a ride home in a cab that had a loudspeaker megaphone attached to the top with wires all across the back. Jerry was riding in the “kitchen” (back/trunk area) with all the groceries, wires strung in front of his face. They were driving very SLOW and Kathy was wondering why because most drivers here are CRAZY. Jerry later reminded her that they were driving so slowly so everyone on the streets can hear the message (advertising a night club). Kathy laughed and said I guess we are just getting use to these “Jamaica moments”. Its funny to me because Jerry and Kathy are a older couple from Spokane Washington, I wish I was there to see this!

This weekend Greg came to Porty to hang out. We went to Laurens in Ferry Hill for dinner on Saturday afternoon with Kathy and Jerry. Lauren has a beautiful place on the top of a hill overlooking the ocean. We had wine and for dessert I bought OREO’s. Back home I am not a huge Oreo fan, more times than not I will pass on the temptation to eat them. We ate the entire package, loving every bite. It was one of those Peace Corps moments when you are eating something so American with fellow volunteers who can appreciate it just as much as you! We all went swimming after dinner at the beach near her house. By the time we walked to the beach it was getting dark. The moon was just bright enough and the stars just fantastic! Not very often do I get to go out at night (living by myself, safety, etc) and I really never get to go swimming in the ocean at night so this was a special occasion! We even saw some lightning in the distance.

Monday morning it is and Mother Nature wants us all to know. I was up at 4am to LOUD thunder and BRIGHT lightning that shook the earth. It has been pouring all morning long. There is a weather system over the island today and luckily it isn’t worse than it is. Hurricane season is only halfway over and I am going to keep my fingers crossed. I won’t complain about a little rain, I embrace the smell and the cool air.

naturesgraffiti.com

Peace Corps has allowed me to get involved in things that I would otherwise have no interest and or opportunity. One of these fine activities happened last night. I assisted with bat surveys. To say the least I was scared, my stomach knotted up waiting for the first bat last night.

I have been looking for anything and everything to keep my time occupied here. I was chatting with Greg when he told me about bat surveys that NEPA (National Environmental & Planning Agency) were doing in Portland and how they were looking for volunteers. PERFECT, oh wait, I have never done anything with bats, in fact I am not sure I even want to. Luckily I signed up before I thought myself out of it.

As the days approached before doing this first survey I had a few conversations with friends back home who warned me of biting (oh yeah), and how most bats carry rabies (be careful!), and how I should wear rubber boots because there might be so much guano in the caves that you will get swallowed (WHAT?). Oh my, I don’t know if I am up for this, but I had already signed up, so I was going to go at least once.

I got picked up in Buff Bay by the crew from Kingston and we were off to find the first cave. It happened that it was right on the side of the road (no hiking this time). I was prepared for anything- pants, long sleeves, bandana on my head, hiking boots. They were in jeans and tee shirts and flip flops (they did change into tennis shoes). This cave was small and right on the main road, everyone stopped to see what we were doing, putting together PVC pipes and draping tarps and cloth to make a “bat trap”. The process of these surveys are to CATCH the bats and determine species, weight, sex, are they lactating or pregnant, wing span and anything else unusual. As we were setting up I started asking questions like “do you get bit a lot?” –“Oh yeah when I first started I got bit A LOT” (oh comforting), and then she said “I hope those big ones aren’t in there that bite everything they see with those big teeth”.. I was starting to get second thoughts about this whole bat survey idea. Then they were talking about fish eating bats, “well look were right next to a river”. I don’t know what a fish eating bat is, but my imagination was running wild. One guy walked in the cave as said “there is only about 20 bats- should get done early tonight”.

We then waited… and waited for the sun to go down.. A local guy came by on his bike and kept us entertained for a while chatting jokes in patwa (I wasn’t laughing half as much as everyone else-the humor here is a little different). We also had a guy pass by in a taxi van as asked if we wanted to buy any juice that was good for your nature (very popular here), I passed.

The first bat came, then the second. We rushed across the street to get started. Monique caught one and had it halfway inside a cloth sack and walked at me with the bats little head poking out all teeth! Ahhhh, I turned away.. She laughed-“youre suppost to be learning”. I was lucky enough to not have to be on the catching crew. I was ordered to go up with the boss lady Andrea and assist in the measurements. My job was to weigh them. I tied them on this string as they were handed to me in the sacks. They all wanted out, their creepy little hands poking out of the bags with their little fingernails. It was really creepy at first, but I got use to it. The bats came in waves-LOTS of them, hundreds of bats. At times we had to stop and cut some of the fishing line because they were getting tangled.

It was a good experience and I look forward to doing it again.

Hawksbill TurtlesOn Friday I was lucky enough to see some baby Hawksbill Turtles make their way to the ocean for the first time. It was quite an adventure just getting to the beach-but we finally reached just as they were scampering on the the beach toward the water.

The Turtles were born in Oracabessa, it was one of the cutest-most awesome things I have ever witnessed!

I just wanted to post a picture of all the folks in my Parish..

But really... We had a wardens meeting today at Great Huts, Jerk Chicken, Tofu, Cake, Cookies, Pasta, and Potatoes.. Very Jamerican.. and very Portland.. (Portland is where Jerk was invented). Good times, Thunderstorms, games, chatting and eating... Oh yeah and the meeting! It really was business- I didn't even put on my swim suit!

View from one of the farms

The current project that I am working on involves working with farmers in the Blue Mountains of Eastern Jamaica. I live in a "Urban" area with the hussle and bustle of "ubran" life so I enjoy my days up in the hills. These days consist of driving with my counterpart up windy, pot holed, one lane roads littered with people, goats, dogs, horses or mules, sometimes cows, stalled vehicles and what not. The drive from Port Antonio usually takes about 45 minutes to a hour. If I am lucky I get to sit in the front and can reach the destination without getting too car sick.

Also these farms are not what you would typically think of. These farms are more like jungles. Steep hills with a lot of vegetation. It also rains a lot (usually when we do farm visits). The rain gods have been good to Jamaica this summer- some farmers say this is the most rain they have ever seen in a summer.

I have been learning a lot about farming in exchange for teaching a little about soil erosion and the importance of trees! Here are some pictures from the area that I have been spending a lot of my time.

A farm on the top of a ridge- note the current pineapple (a good soil stabilizer)

The first few months of service are the hardest. I have certainly had my ups and downs, you can see that just by scrolling through my blogs. Everyone deals with these ups and downs differently and we all have our own breaking point, the point where it no longer makes sense to continue on. My training group, Jamaica 81, started with 38 people divided into three groups: Environment, Health, and Youth. We lost one person during training and just within the last two weeks we have lost three more! It is a weird feeling when you hear that one of your fellow PCV’s have ET’d (wow I have been in PC long enough to start using their acronyms). PCV is Peace Corps Volunteer and ET is early termination. All four of these people are from the Environment sector (my sector). I believe we started with 16 volunteers and we were all very close. We spent our first two months on this island seeing each other for better or worse just about every day. These were the people who we complained to, sympathized with, shared stories and pictures of our families, practices patwa with, do stupid skits with, we were it. I understand and can relate to many of the reasons why each of these people left. They are missed already and I will continue to keep in contact with these people as they are living back in the “real world”.

Currently I am in a really good place with my service. I got that first “home” feeling the other day as I was riding in a mini bus back to Portland from another part of the island. I had been away for a couple of days. As we reached Portland and the smell of salt, rain and humidity made me calm. The familiar site of the ocean and the lush green mountains made me smile. I had that happy feeling that I was back home. I honestly have been in a really good/high point in my service, I am finally feeling comfortable with my community and my home, I am enjoying working with the farmers and am excited thinking about the school year starting up and doing some different projects in Port Antonio.

I don’t have too much to say, but here is a picture from Blue Fields, a friend of mine lives here with the most amazing host mom and yard. I had a really good visit there, felt like I was visiting a family member and had some real good home cooked Jamaican food.

Life is Good! Bumpy's Yard-Blue Fields

Today I said goodbye to Andy and Aimon. They were visiting Jamaica from Alaska. I think that they enjoyed Jamaica and I tried to share my favorite things about Jamaica with them.

They stayed at Boston Beach and Long Bay for a couple nights. I met them in Long Bay one day, my new favorite place, for some body surfing and sun worshiping. They also took me on a date at Dickie's Best Kept Secret, what a wonderful place and once in a lifetime experience (although I may go again)! Thank you guys for everything. I love you and cant wait to see you again!

Here are some pictures from their visit.

Andy surfing in Boston

Long Bay, Portland

Date Night at Dickie's

My friends and family know me. I move around a lot and have had many jobs in different places doing different things. Most of these jobs I have loved, some of them I enjoyed for the most part but would never do again. Through these experiences I have learned much in the last 8 years as an adult. Each place I have lived there has been a different culture, people, social scene, activities, sights, ect. I have learned a lot about forests, people, whales, glaciers, how to identify plant associations, what fish like streams to look like, how to read maps and not get lost, I have learned how to deal with people and human resources paperwork BS, I have also learned much about children and teaching.

I have lived in Jamaica for four months, I know very little about anything! I know very little patwa, I know very little about how just about anything works in this country. This makes me realize I know very little about life and the many-many things to learn on this earth. Each culture, even person has something to teach you. One of the projects that I have been working on is a agroforestry project working with coffee farmers in the Blue Mountains. My title, a forester, impresses most men that live in the bush. They look at me as a technical advisor in all that has to do with trees and forests in Jamaica. Whoa, the forests that I know are VERY different than those here. The ecosystems are different, everything is different. I think I am learning more from them than they are from me. I do love being out in the bush and seeing the farms and where all of the veggies come from that I eat in Port Antonio. I also am very interested in coffee… I love coffee, I drink coffee, I buy coffee, but I know very little about coffee. This is where the farmers come in. They want to teach you everything!

They tell me when to pick the beans, what beans not to pick, the borers that kill the beans, where the beans go, who picks them, how to pick them. They share stories of how coffee came about. Did I mention that I love these farmers? They shared with me the soap tree (mash up di leaves and soapy), the flannel plant (feel it!! It feels like flannel), and how to make Jamaican lemon-aid (lime-aid) from fresh picked limes. They also tell me important things like using banana leaves for protection from the rain. I enjoy my farm visits very much.

I was up in Shirley Castle doing some farm visits. We visited four farms and I left with a bunch of bananas, a pineapple, and a dozen limes. We also did a community workshop on soil stabilization and reducing erosion.

Coffee Plant (Red Beans are Ripe)Hillside Farming in Shirley Castle, Portland

This week has been fun packed. I have been assisting at a summer camp in the neighboring community of Fairy Hill. The camp had students ages 5 to 12. On Monday I taught the students about trees and forests. They learned the importance of trees in Jamaica and I learned how to be adaptive in such a large age range of students. They were great and really enjoyed making leaf prints with crayons and leaves off the trees outside. We also watched some videos on rain forests. Monday evening Patrick and Sammi arrived and stayed with me in Port Antonio, I loved seeing them! On Tuesday the topics of camp were composting and gardening. The kids also played some wonderful games and it was just fun watching and playing with them. Jamaican kids LOVE dancing and playing any games with song and dance. I had never seen "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar" played with so much animation and attitude! It is so refreshing to work with kids.

On my way to the office on Wednesday I took a nasty fall into a pot hole and ended up spraining my ankle. I visited the doctor and spent most of the day resting. Along with having a sprained ankle I also happened to get a bug from the campers, so today has been pretty miserable. I hope to feel better this weekend and hope that my ankle heals soon. I guess that it will slow me down, but as my doctor says, thats not always a bad thing.

I look forward to working with some farmers next week for my agroforestry project and also working at the camp again for a couple of days. I also look forward to Andy and Aimons visit (NEXT WEEKEND)! I hope that my ankle is well enough to do all of the running around that I had planned. As for now, I am grounded by the nurses to not leave my apartment for a couple days. I hope to get over the bug so I can relax more and not have crazy stomach pains so I can enjoy my bed rest! I will soon post some pictures from camp just as soon as I can get some from fellow volunteers. The children here are so lively and beautiful!

I am happy to say that I am having a much better week already than last. You can tell from my last entry that I had a bad week, and theres more than just that-but most of it doesnt really matter and will pass with time.

There is a gentleman who Jerry and Kathy have befriended and through them I have met. He and his friends wanted our opinion on what they could do to make a buck. Many Jamaicans are looking for that same thing. The economy is bad and with natural disasters, world wide recession, and being a third world country things here rough. So Kathy and Jerry have been talking to these guys about tourism. They asked me if I would go along with them on a personalized lunch tour of Navy Island. I payed 1500J which is over a days wage to go on this test excursion (I was hoping the food would be really good).

I was already in a bad mood from the following week, so my patience was thin. I feel a little bad because I usually put up with Jamaican men pretty well, but not on Saturday, after all I payed a day and half wage. It went pretty well, I showed up late and still waited.. Then we had to stop at the gas station to fill up before we headed to the island. We went on a tour of Navy Island, a small island off shore of Port Antonio. This island was once owned and operated by the British Navy. Then it was owned by movie star Errol Flynn who won it in a poker match with some rich guy in Port Antonio. It then turned into a resort that hosted rich tourists and weekly pool parties and football matches. With what is left now you can imagine the hay day of Port Antonio. After the island I snorkeled a bit near the small reef and then went back to the island for some food (fried chicken= a little disappointing). All in all it was a nice trip and now I can say I have been. I wouldnt pay that much, but it was a nice time and good company. I love Jerry and Kathy and the gents behaved themselves.

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing. I watched the world cup game at the marina with some friends. I did a lot of reading and spoke with some friends and family back home which was well needed. Thank you everyone for helping me get through a tough weekend.

The other night I was sitting in a classroom in Shirley Castle, Portland. I was sitting there with three Jamaicans who live in that community waiting for more to show up. I had schedules a community meeting, with the help of the farmer’s group leader, for 5pm. At this point I read 6:15 on my cell phone. The two older gentlemen were chatting me up about where I was from and about the project that I was going to be speaking about at the meeting. I was asking them about coffee farming, bee keeping, and the community as a whole. They then asked me the ever popular question, how do you like Jamaica? I told them that I am enjoying my time here and we laughed about how the farmers hadn’t shown yet. I told them that one of the biggest things that I have gained in my almost 4 months on island is PATIENCE! They laughed at that and told me that yes, especially in the rural areas you never know what comes up in the fields and you might be waiting on someone for hours. After a few more phone calls we did get enough farmers for the meeting. It finally started around 7pm. I didn’t get home until 9:30, its amazing how tired one can get by simply waiting and stressing.

The stress of the day started much earlier than simply waiting on farmers. It started in the city of course. I live in a “city” and have to live with the every day stresses that come along with that. There are many advantages to living in the city, I can walk to a decent grocery store and to a produce market in 15 minutes from my home. I have the option to eat at a cook shop or even a café (most volunteers would do most anything to visit a café and have a sandwich and a cup of coffee). These “temptations” do have their drawbacks. I make the equivalent to about $9 US a day to spend on food, transportation, and anything I may need to live my life. If I were to go to the café every day I would be broke. There are also street folks, “me beg ya fifti dolla?”, no sorry mi a have no money, “mi beg ya ten dolla?”, No I am sorry I tell you every day mi a broke pocket, just like ya, mi a volunteer! They then usually leave me alone until the next time they see a white person walking down the road. Somedays I have no one beg me for money, somedays I have so many I want to pull my hair out!

The stress from the other day was not really the street people, although all of the glares from Jamaican women were starting to get to me. We were taught to be overly polite on the street, so smile and say good morning to everyone. I find that more often than not the men are more likely to be polite back. The older women are also usually nice once you say goodmorning, afternoon, or goodnight to them. The frustrating part is that most middle aged and younger women have this permanent chip on their shoulder toward me, or towards white women, or towards the world in general?

Anyways, going postal, I was there. I had a package that I had to send to my father, a power cord, in a small brown box, weighed a pound. I made three trips to the post office and burned up about three hours of my life trying to send it. My frustration with the postal office didn’t start that day, it started months ago when I made two trips (unsuccessful) to send my mom her birthday gift. They were so unhelpful and I finally gave up, the envelope (with postage on it) sits in my room and makes me angry still every time I look at it. So when I started getting the run around again, I was instantly emotional and ANGRY! I didn’t cuss at them as I did the last time I was there, because this package I had to get mailed, and that day. So I jumped through their hoops and spent three hours talking to rude women, buying materials so I could wrap a brown box in brown paper, and then finally got it sent. I now know why they have glass up between customers and the employees.

Great Huts, Boston Bay, PortlandLast week I visited Bellevue again, this time on business. I had a community meeting to discuss a grant proposal that involves planting trees and stabilizing soil for hillside farming. There had been a lot of rain prior to this visit therefore resulting in a bad roads and even landslides. These landslides are exactly why we are trying to promote tree planning in this area. Here a couple of pictures of Bellevue.

Landslide in BellevueThis weekend I had a house full- Taylor and Greg came to visit for a Portland style 4th of July/Jerk Fest. It was full of swimming, sunshine, downpours, walking, laughing and rum drinking. It was a LONG weekend, there are so many stories from it. The weekend kicked off with a pre-4th BBQ on Saturday at the Pitts. I think it was some of the best combination of food and company I have had here. Nothing like some good potato salad, jerk chicken and cheesecake! I am so glad that Jerry and Kathy hosted us, and am blessed to have them here with me in Port Antonio.

BBQ at the Pitts EstateOne place that we did visit that I had not gone before was Great Huts. It is a eco friendly resort located in Boston Bay. It is a really unique and amazing place. We enjoyed the hammocks, beach loungers, cliff jumping, and just RELAXING!! I am looking forward to spending many lazy afternoons reading a good book there. Taylor would probably say otherwise-she somehow attracts the best of the best (even more than me)! She was so mad that I thought that she was going to hurt someone; one of the vendors at the beach had been harassing her and asking her a million and one questions.

Great Huts in Boston BayI think I am too tired to really write much more. I would like to share some more funny stories, but I don’t want to embarrass anyone and I really can’t think of any right now. I hope everyone had a HAPPY 4th of July back home or in Jamaica!

Thank you Lauren and Taylor for letting me steal pictures!

This weekend was one of the best I have had in Jamaica. It was full of new friends, good food, swimming, and beautiful places-all things that I love dearly! On Friday night I had some of the fellow Porty volunteers over for pizza. It is near impossible to get decent pizza in Jamaica, so why not make it yourself? I made the trusty veggie (black bean, corn, peppers and cheese-Rheas recipe) and also Canadian bacon and fresh pineapple. It turned out good and it was nice to spend time with Jerry and Kathy and Lauren and Greg. I had also made some cookies with the M&M’s that my mom sent me (thanks mom-now I can make more friends). On a side note when I received your package (mom) last week my friend Taylor was over and wanted in on that M&M bag ASAP..

On Saturday Greg and I waited for a break in the rain and grabbed a taxi to Blue Lagoon. Lauren and Raz were thinking of joining us, but decided against it. It did rain a lot, but our clothes and what not was covered by my trusty umbrella. It was a lot of fun, and a beautiful place, even if it wasn’t the most beautiful day. We swam out to this buoy that was placed there for the free diving world record (http://www.apneablue.com/html/david_lee_bio.htm). As we got on the platform we saw this really beautiful large almond tree and I decided to swim to it. About half way there I turned around and asked Greg if he thought there were crocs in the water.. Being a scardy cat I let Greg catch up and swim with me. That tree was the most beautiful tree I have ever seen. There were natural curves that allowed you to sit and pull yourself up on it from the water. We played on the tree for over a hour!

Saturday was also World Cup, USA vs Ghana. By the time I got home and showered and motivated to make it back to town most of the game was over. I met up with another PCV Jess at Ms. Will’s. As soon as I reached the top of her drive way I was in awe. The business of Port Antonio and taxi rides and people trying to get money from me seemed to be miles and miles away. I had only walked up a hill and I entered a different world. Her home was built at the same time as the famous Folly Estate as a home for the caretakers. This home has panoramic views of the ocean, grounds that are manicured and immaculate. The home itself was beautiful, large and old. There was a covered porch with rows of white wooden chairs, wrapped around the entire home. We met Ms. Will who is a 94 year old woman who has been living in this home for 50 years and has stories about old Jamaica and Portland. We also met a man named John who is a Jamerican, an American who has lived in Jamaica for 20+years. He has been living in Negril running a restaurant until recently. We hung out on the porches of his small apartment in the back and on the front porch of Ms. Wills home. John made us Coconut Curry Shrimp-the best meal I have had in a LONG time. It was a lot of fun and very relaxing. Later that evening we met a couple more Jamaicans and hung out at one of their homes that was on the ocean near Blue Lagoon. It was the most beautiful evening to sit next to the ocean under the moon and stars with great company. I am really starting to feel at home here in Port Antonio. Thank you everyone!

The bad news from this weekend, my camera has died. RIP pinky! I will miss you greatly, you have been many places and on many adventures. So.. probably no pictures for a while, unless I steal some from other PCV.

I came to Jamaica with little expectations. I knew that no vision that I could paint in my imagination would come close to what Peace Corps Jamaica would be. What Jamaica would be, or what Peace Corps would. I had talked to a few past volunteers and found it to be a exciting experience to gain personal growth, serve our country by helping another.

Now that I am here and have experienced training, and met many volunteers that have served from one to 4 years, I can say that each and every one of their stories is different. Obviously we all have extremely different backgrounds, beliefs, passions and reasons to volunteer two years of our lives (most of us our youth) to serve our country and to provide skills and services to a Jamaican community. As I said every story is different, extremely different. Jamaica volunteers are placed in very different communities and organizations, some are in the mountains in small villages, some work with highly established government organizations or marine parks and live in larger cities. The daily tasks are different, the hours worked, the amount of interaction you have with kids or community members all vary. All I am saying here is that no two Peace Corps Volunteers will ever have the same experience.

Little things happen that make or breaks your day here. It is a culture that is just different enough to make you extremely emotionally fragile. Each of the new volunteers share with each other stories of the littlest things that happen to them. Some of these stories are water issues, bugs, host parents using blenders at 6am to make dinner, but I would say that most of the stories are about people. Interactions are what make or break your day. That is the most important part of early service. You cannot get acquainted with ones new culture and surroundings cooped up in a office or staying in your house. Yes there will be bad days and you will have interactions that you would rather not, harassment you can do without, but you must see the good parts about going out and meeting people. Even if you don’t remember peoples names, and all you ever do is pass them on the street and say hello.

It is this reason that I do not believe I joined Peace Corps to sit in a office. Since day one at my assignment, my supervisor has really encouraged me to be a warm body in the office. If you know me very well at all, you know that I HATE offices more than anything. I cannot sit at a desk for more than a couple of hours without wanting to hit my head against the wall. I am more than willing to do the work and do it well, but I do not want to be expected to sit in a office simply to ensure someone is there. That is in no way why I volunteered for a Environmental Forestry Council Advisory position. I am not a office manager or secretary. This is my current dilemma that I wish to fix soon. I would rather be out helping other volunteers or meeting community members. If I wanted to sit in a office I would probably still be living in Juneau!

Sorry no pictures this week. Just look at the rain picture from the last entry. That’s what it looks like every day.. all week, hasn’t let up for more than 20 minutes. Excited for Gregs visit from Discovery Bay, hopefully it will clear up long enough for some snorkeling at Blue Lagoon or Winifred Beach. And one month until Aimon and Andy fly in to Montego Bay for a visit!

Sunset at the Marina, Enjoying I-scream (ice cream)

Reflecting on last week, I can say that there was so much that happened and not really anything at all. I was extremely frustrated sometimes, getting over a cold in the tropics, extremely happy at times, and other times perfectly content with little or no emotion. One thing that I have noticed in my short time in Peace Corps (three months already??) is that you will have a great day and a horrible day and a totally whatever day all in the same day, week or even month! Adapting to another culture can be difficult but I can see that I am gaining so many skills already.

Lights went out when I had Lauren and Raz over My friend Raz has pointed out that you will learn in PC how to completely zone out. It could potentially be the most frustrating situation you can thing of, and yet you have to just learn to not get anxious or upset or angry. You just sit or stand there and you are calm, almost numb. You can be waiting a hour on a mini bus to fill up so you can get home after a really long weekend and not even get upset. You can have 20 guys be totally inappropriate and not let it make you want to lock yourself in your apartment. You can be at work and wanting things to be more efficient, or your water could be off once again wondering when the heck you are going to be able to take a shower or wash your clothes.. The lights could go out again and be so hot and sweaty with no FAN be angry.. but then you realize you are going to change nothing by getting your panties in a knot, so you might as well be happy with yourself and your current situation-no matter what it is.

So last week was all of those. It has been raining here a lot, almost every day. We have had a couple pretty scary thunder storms. You would think with all the rain I would have unlimited water- not the case, this last week has been trying, one day the water came on so I rushed out to the machine to start my wash, the water turned off before it filled the machine. I did not have enough water to fill the machine and then fill it again for the next cycle, so I waited.. and I waited… and 12 hours later the water was finally back on.. but not enough pressure for the machine to fill itself, so I was out there at 10pm filling buckets slowly with water and filling the machine so my partially wet clothes and sheets could get washed. I was hanging my clothes at 11pm.. I guess atleast it wasn’t raining. We also had two power outages last week, which is also fun.. Another Rainy Day in Porty..

But good news is that my grant came through!! PEPA had applied for a reforestation agroforestry grant to do some soil stabilization and income generation for a area on the Portland side of the Blue Mountains in coffee country. This will hopefully help with some of the erosion and land slide problems in that watershed. We are starting the grant next month so I have been scheduling meetings and doing some research. It is a large project. There are 40 farmers and 100 acres of reforestation of fruit and timber trees along with some pineapple and soil stabilizing pants. I am also working on another grant, of the same basic idea but in a different watershed. It will be cool to see how many trees I get planted in Jamaica while I am here!

This weekend I trekked up to Bellevue (in the bush) for some birthday festivities. A fellow Portland volunteer was celebrating his 28. Packed like sardines we headed up. The taxi ride itself was quite a experience (as usual), it started with 10 people packed in the car and we ended up with 12. The back seat, where I along with 5 others sat, continued to break more and more with every bump in the road, pretty soon we were leaning way back with no support. There was a kid in the very back playing a whistle flute and a guy in the front seat talking about pum-pum (a woman’s vagina). To say the least it was so uncomfortable all me and Lauren could do was laugh, or cry, so we laughed a lot. We picked up a spare tire just out of town, and it’s a good thing too because we got a flat tire about half way up. The driver waited until we were rolling on the rim before we finally stopped, unloaded and watched him replace the bald tire with another one. We re-packed and headed further up the hill. When it seemed like we would never get there we finally drove through a school ground and down a hill where Rob lives. I was quite confused, but happy to have arrived. Needless to say rum started pouring soon after.

His family was more than generous and were fabulous hosts. They had food ready, and a lot of it! We had numerous bottles of over proof rum for the festivities and ended up chatting, dancing and having fun most of the night. The next morning we had craw fish for breakfast which was something I had not had here yet. It was wonderful! We hiked to the river which was a difficult hike down some steep bush country. About 30-40 minutes it took to arrive at the refreshing river, which once we got in did not want to leave (partially because we knew we would have to bushwhack up a steep hill). The hike up was easier than I had thought. I was so happy to have gone to the river (despite the rum hang over). We made cake for rob and watched part of the football game (soccer) until we decided we better try and catch a ride back to town. I reached home Saturday evening and was exhausted. I had a blast! Here are some pictures that Josh Hunter took up in Bellevue. I forgot my camera. I will try and post some of the river later if I can get some from Josh and Jesse!Rob A Paloza- Tallest and Jesse (some more of us in the back)Seamans Valley (on the way to Bellevue)

View from Robs roof, the family farm

Hiking down to the river

More pictures by Josh Hunter: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshunter/

Two weeks ago we had our wardens meeting up in Comfort Castle at Josh and Jessi’s. They live up in the mountains above Port Antonio. It was the worst cab ride I have ever had. I sat on the lap of another volunteer and a random Jamaican. I was clenching my abs so much to try and keep myself from flailing around the cab, and getting car sick from going too fast up a windy, pot holed, mountain road. I was just high enough to not be able to see out the windows. Once we reached Comfort Castle, you have to walk about a quarter mile to their house because a storm decided to take a part of the road last year. There is a walk bridge. Its crazy to be in a community that is literally cut off from society. They have cars and cabs, but they must stop at the road slide, walk across and catch another. It was beautiful up there, the Rio Grande was literally across the street (and down a canyon). It rained most of the time so we spent a lot of time out on the porch and in the house. Great hosts and wonderful people. Everyone from the Portland parish met up to discuss rules, procedures and get to know eachother. After a night of tacos, rum, the last episode of LOST, some funny stories and listening and watching a storm (AWESOME), the electricity went out and I slept in a hammock on the porch, it was great. The next day we had a chili cook off and our “official meeting”. It was nice to visit this community and meet everyone in the parish.

This Last week I went to a Science Fair at a high school in Buff Bay. We were there along with RADA, a federal agriculture organization, the Forestry Department, Portland Bee Keeping organization and a few other organizations and schools. It was like a zoo, so many kids grabbing pamphlets and going from booth to booth. It was nice to talk to some of the students and network with some other organizations. I am still waiting for my grant to be approved so work in the office is slow.

On Wednesday, along with some other PC Volunteers, I visited the local agriculture college, CASE. All of the volunteers that will be staying in Portland after this summer will be environment, so we spoke with the science department and the agriculture department to try and find some potential projects. One of the new PCV to Portland wants to teach wine making at the college, maybe I will be able to help with that and learn how to make wine too! After the visit to the college I traveled to Discovery Bay, where another volunteer, Greg is placed. He is working at the Marine Lab. We went snorkeling that evening and collected specimens for a touch tank that we used at a eco fair in Montego Bay the next day.

Thursday morning we traveled to Montego Bay and spent the day at Half Moon resort speaking with school aged kids about marine life. The touch tank was a hit. They also caught a baby lion fish that was on display. After a day on my feet talking to kids we got a tour of the resort! WOW, it was sooo nice!! Golf cart tour of a HUGE resort!

The next morning it was back to Portland, I made a pit stop to James Bond beach where another Peace Corps friend is placed to see his site. Talk about a rough site, this beach is beautiful. He took me on a snorkel tour of the reef and we had lunch with another volunteer and then I was back on the packed mini-bus for the last leg of my trip. I got home sun burnt and exhausted. This weekend I look forward to some rest! I am glad to have made the trip and work with the Discovery Bay Marine Lab and to get some contacts for some future projects!

James Bond Beach

Last week was agriculture practicum. We visited the local 4H in Linstead where we learned how to graph and bud plants. We also had a tour of their small farm. The next day we went to Walkerswood, where there is a farmers association and it’s where they make the famous jerk seasoning. We toured the farm and watched the other group build a green house (we helped a little). That same day we went to another farm, which was primarily a lettuce farm where they had both green house and open farming. Some of the green house farming was hydroponic, so that was interesting to see. The manager of the farm invited us to his house to see some of his wife’s art work, she is a famous sculpture artist and sculpted the statue in emancipation park in Kingston (pretty big deal). They then took us down to the white river to cool down and go for a swim. What a beautiful river, a fantastic experience.

Friday we went to Ochi to hear a lecture on sea turtle monitoring on the north coast and invasive aquatic species in Jamaica (including Lion Fish). These fish are native to the south pacific and were introduced into the Caribbean in the 90’s. This fish is very aesthetically pleasing to divers and swimmers but has no natural predators here so is depleting the native fish population. It has poisonous venom in its spines. We learned to properly remove the spines, de-scale, and clean them. After that we went to a fish fry where we ate Lion Fish provided by the local fisherman’s coop. After that we went to a local swim spot on the White River near Ochi where we enjoyed a couple hours of swimming. A group of us went back on Saturday to enjoy the swimming hole even more. There were swimming holes, waterfalls, and rope swings.

This is the last week in this community. Then we are off to Kingston again where we will find out our site assignments on Monday! I will be at my site by this time next week!

Enjoy the Pictures!! Sugar Cane Budding

Walkerswood farm building a green house, and the enviornment crew after swimming in the white riverHanging out at Couples Resort in Ochi Lionfish mmmm... lionfish... The Blue Hole, swimming and having fun..

Last week we did our environmental education practicum. Part of this involved spending two days in some of the schools around our community. I taught a lesson on erosion and landslides to a 8th grade class at the high school and the second day I did a lesson in a 4th grade all girls class about what pollution is and how to reduce it. We also did tree planting at the primary school with a bunch of students and staff. It was a lot of fun.

Training is going well, only two more weeks here in this community. I am getting excited to live and cook on my own again. I am getting a little sick of salt fish and boiled starches(yams, potatoes, dumplings).

I went to the beach in Run Away Bay on Saturday (yesterday), it was beautiful and a lot of fun. Enjoy the picts!

Above is a picture of Sammi and Austin teaching the kids to make rockets out of garbage (resuse), and then some kids gathered around ready to plant some trees..

The picts above are of Run Away Bay.. Taylor, Mark, Brian, Me and Greg

I know, two posts in one day, but I am making up for last week!

As part of our training we were to visit a current serving volunteer. I visited a volunteer names Angela who is living in Negril. The trip was a great experience. It started off in Ewarton where we were to catch a chartered cab/bus to take us to Ocho Rios. The bus was an hour and a half late, when it arrived, another bus showed up at the same time, so six of us piled in the second van that was cheaper and less crowded. A cab tried to block us in and make us get in the other van. We refused and drove off. The chartered bus then refused to drive the rest of the group to Ochi. They chartered two cabs to meet us at the bus park in Ocho Rios. We waited for a hour for them. One of the taxi cars had a radiator leak. The driver temporarily fixed the leak by cracking an egg in the radiator and adding black pepper. Apparently that helped for a while, then the taxi had to fill up on gas. The egg wasn’t holding up so they had to go to a repair shop. We got a mini bus to take our group to Montego Bay and he was willing to go up Fern Gully to pick up the rest of our group. From there we took that bus to MoBay and then caught another bus to Lucia where we caught a taxi to Negril. About 7 or 8 hours later we were in Negril where I met Angela. We drove around the Negril area dropping off Earth Day poster materials to the local schools for a competition. It was great to see some of the area and the schools.

The next day we did much of the same, driving around to schools and talking to principals. We were able to take a mid day break to swim in Blue Hole a fresh water/saltwater cave. It was a great experience to talk to a current volunteer and see the organization that she works for. It gave me a better idea of what I would like to be doing while I am here serving in Jamaica.

I moved from Hellshire (the beach) and am at my new training site (a farming/bauxite processing community). I have been here for about a week and a half. This mid sized rural farming community is much different that Hellshire.

I live up on a hill and there are farms of callaloo and fruit trees all around me. The country has had a terrible drought the last year so there are water shortages both for the resident homes and for farming. This last week prayers were answered and rain has been falling. When it rains, it pours. Its pretty funny, most everything stops when it rains, but the plants are happy and the people on the hill with the water catchment tanks are very happy.

My host family consists of a older couple (late 50s), their daughter and her two young kids. My host mom is a wonderful cook and if I weren’t walking so much I would be gaining some weight! They own a store which is the downstairs of our house and the daughter goes to college. I spend a lot of nights playing go fish and hanging out with the kids. They are pretty funny little kids curious about everything.

Here are some pictures of where I will be staying for about a month longer.

As requested I am posting my mailing address for packages. Feel free to send me something :)

Angela Hoffard

C/O Country Director

Leila Webster

US Peace Corps

8 Worthington Ave

Kingston 5

Jamaica, West Indies

*You must include the whole address or it will be held in customs, also include a declaration form.

Things are going great here. We had a four day weekend due to Easter celebrations. I thought that I would post some more pictures. One of my fellow trainees, Connor, had a bbq at his house on Saturday night. Here are some pictures of some of the people that I work with. I am also posting some pictures from the community trash clean up. We had planned to do a beach clean, but noticed there was so much garbage in the direct neighborhoods that we live, so we just stayed up in the community.

On Saturday we did some tourist activities in Kingston, I am not able to post the pictures right now because I cant get them off my cameras memory, but will post them soon. We went to a fort in Port Royal, the Devin house and the institute of Jamaica.

Here are some pictures from a cave tour that I took one of the first days that I arrived in Jamaica. These are some of my favorite Jamaicans, my sister and some of my neighbors.

We leave here Wednesday to break into our sector training. Off to a new community and a new host family. I am excited for the change but will definitely miss the beach!

Jamaica is a more difficult post than I thought. As I am learning, it is harder to integrate into a culture that is similar in many ways but different in others. A similar language, yet totally different.. Similar culture, but totally different. We have been busy with training, and when were not training trying to integrate with the community we live in. I still have a lot to learn about the culture, history and language, but it is a amazing experience and I can see this first couple of months to be useful for the rest of my life. It has forced me to be more adaptable than I could have ever imagined. I am also getting to know my co volunteer trainees. A very diverse group, but I am enjoying getting to know everyone.

The food is wonderful here. I went to the big market on Sunday with my host mom. It was crazy! People everywhere selling everything from fruits and veggies, to underwear and clothes, to ganga, to beer, to laundry stuff, to household appliances, anything can be bought here. We bought a bunch of fruits and veggies. I think my favorite thing is fried plantains for breakfast with eggs or whatever.. They eat huge breakfasts, and some even include salt fish, which is different all in itself! I also like jerk chicken, and rice and peas. The most bizarre breakfast I have been served is a tuna fish sandwich (it was one of the best I have ever had, double stacked).

Here are some photos of the beach that is just a run or walk away from where I have been living. It has been wonderful to run to the beach and swim in the morning or hang out on the weekend.

I also had the opportunity to go to CHAMPS, which is their country wide track and field meet for high schools. It is extremely popular and people are crazy fans, watch it all week with their families on TV. My sister Tanisha brought me, there is a picture of her cheering. She was pretty funny with her friends, they really got into it. People come from all over the country to cheer for their current/old high schools.

I landed in Kingston! After a day training in Miami and a early morning at the airport. It was crazy getting 38 people to the airport and then through check in (with two years worth of baggage), and then through security. A couple of hours later we were on the plane for a short hour and twenty minute flight. We arrived in Kingston to a warm welcome from the Jamaica staff. They were all excited and helpful ready with water and shade, it was 85 degrees outside. They brought us to the Jamaica PC office and they fed us our first (AMAZING) Jamaican meal. They then had the Nexus Performing Arts Company perform for us. We had some basic introductions and paperwork and then to our hotel for more food, Jamaica beer and time by the pool, we have to enjoy this time with real amenities before we are sent off to our posts!

Today we had training again in Kingston, a introduction to the native language of Jamaican patois/patwa. I am nervous and excited to learn more about the language and culture. Tomorrow we have more training and get introduced to our host families.

I am mostly tired and the reality of this whole thing is starting to set in. They take safety very serious here and we are getting a lot of training/information. The scariest thing so far is the driving!!! They drive on the left side of the road and there are pot holes everywhere.. People are swerving on narrow roads and dodging cars. Tomorrow I leave Kingston to Hellshire, I can’t wait to see another part of Jamaica. We are with host families for three weeks there before we move again for another section of training.

So its actually happening. I have packed two years worth of clothes into two bags, I have sold my car, I have taken care of all of the paperwork and BS that we deal with everyday. I have said goodbye to many people that I love, old friends, reconnected friends, and family members.

I am now in Miami after a day of traveling across the country and another day of meeting new friends/family members/co-workers (fellow volunteers). I was surprised to find people of different likes and backgrounds. Some are older with a full life of experiences, some are married, and some are right out of college looking for something meaningful to start their lives off.

We all reflected on why we are here and what we expect to get out of this experience. It was probably the first time that I was 100 % honest with myself and realized just why I was sitting in a room in Miami, FL full of strangers. It excited me and made me nervous all at the same time. I know that this experience will be hard. It will be the hardest thing that I have ever done. I think that is what I look forward to most. I want to do something meaningful with my life. I know that this will make a difference in many people’s lives, mostly mine. I am still full of uncertainty and anxiety, but I am happier than ever with the decision that I made. I was meant to join, and I was meant to be sitting in that room with 38 other people who are so different than I but at the same time just the same.

I am off to Kingston tomorrow morning bright and early and will be there for two days before I move off to another training site. I am excited to land in my new home and learn all about my new culture.

I have set up this blog in preparation for my trip to Jamaica. For those of you who don't know what I will be doing in Jamaica, I joined the Peace Corps. I will be somewhere in Jamaica for the next two years volunteering under the environmental department. I am not 100% sure what my assignment will be or even where I will be in Jamaica. My project will most likely be involving watershed and forestry management along with erosion control.

It has been a long journey so far and it hasn't even begun. I applied for the Peace Corps in September of 2008, had my interview in December 08', and became a nominee in February of 2009. I then had to complete multiple doctor and dental visits in order to pass the physical requirement of Peace Corps. I finally got my letter telling me that I was invited to serve and was placed in Jamaica in November of 2009. It was quite the wait and has already tested my patience. I am more excited than ever and look forward to meeting my fellow volunteers.

I leave for Miami, FL on the 16th of March for a staging event where I will meet other volunteers and get some basic information. My training will begin once I arrive in Kingston on the 18th. I will spend the next couple of months getting trained and getting to know my new community, culture and life. I am excited and nervous about what is to come.

I will post again once I get to Jamaica. I wanted you all to know that I will be keeping a blog and plan to post pictures, stories and let you know how I am doing.

I love and appreciate all of my family and friends and will miss you all very much.