I like to think I played it pretty cool today, all things considered. I breezed into the clinic and announced I was there for an HIV test as if I’d done it every day of my life. At time, I was fairly confident, and had left the house with the attitude that I’d just go [...]
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I work with 7th graders. Yes. Not as rotten as 8th grade, but certainly more terrifying than 6th. Seriously! I’m wracking my brain, trying to think of anyone I know who actually brightens at the thought of the dreaded “middle school” years. Kindergarten? Oh, such a fun age! 4th grade? What an exciting challenge! High [...]
I was in the office of the school I work at yesterday, trying to print something, when I got shanghied into figuring out how to adjust a microscope. I feel it’s a great metaphor for my entire service so far: I start out with the intention to one thing, and the next thing I know, [...]
I think every Peace Corps Volunteer has a moment (or many) where the only sane and prudent thing to do is to call your APCD and request your ticket home, like 10 minutes ago. Today was one of those days and quite honestly, for about an hour, the only thing (only!) preventing me from doing [...]
I thought I was safe this time, I really did. None of the usual warning signs were there. This once, just once, I would be able to have a bus ride in peace… Honestly, I should have known when he walked on, hawking gospel cd’s, that I had not escaped the long arm of the [...]
I really don’t mean to turn this blog into T’s Guide To Unproductive But Certainly Well-Integrated Service, but! Something happened. A small something, but it’s significance? Major. It’s Tuesday, and a hot one at that. I was walking the mile up hill from Claremont to Coultart, PMS-y and sort of feeling a way because a [...]
I have days here where I literally go through every conceivable emotion possible before lunch, as I did this morning. It is…exhausting, but sometimes vindicating as well. The upper-classmen (7th,8th and 9th grades) had ‘orientation’, where parents and students come in to meet with teachers, hand in pertinent paperwork, and generally get a heads up [...]
Patrick was laughing at me. “Look at you! And you!” (This to Val, one of the new trainees and fellow New England Foodie and Farm Enthusiast.) “You two are just glowing with happiness! Clearly, you could not be happier!” In my defense, it’s hard NOT to radiate bliss when munching on crisp, peppery arugula straight [...]
To Bart! Not only has Bart exceeded his goal of US $5,000 to fund his documentary project, but he’s now engaged to his Jamaican girlfriend! Thank you to everyone who’s helped make this film a reality. Congratulations, Mr Robinson, and I wish you the greatest luck with your film and many years of love and [...]
It’s a big weekend here in Claremont. Nine Night tonight, round the corner (if this rain ever stops) and tomorrow, a fashion show and dance that locally referred to as “Tivoli’s Show”. Tivoli is, apparently, the local Token Gay. When the downpour forced me to take a break from my walk home at the corner [...]
Ladies, this post’s for you. Respect…as a 25 year old white girl who is both small and very curvy, I have had to work double-time to ensure that my days are as harassment-free as possible. And remarkably, they ARE harassment free. Really, though, these days I very rarely experience the kinds of unwanted attention that [...]
Boy, I wish I could tell you all that my trip back was the most relaxing, invigorating 4 weeks of my life and that this week has been a painless re-integration into site. 10 minutes at the Claremont taxi park, and I was already experiencing a panic attack, which I found especially difficult to keep [...]
I’m interrupting your regularly scheduled blog post with an urgent appeal for everyone’s attention: Instead of writing about my experiences on leave in the States this past month, I’m going to take this time (and post) to send out a call for help. My friend Bart is attempting to create a documentary about a region [...]
Just before noon this coming Saturday, I will be airborne and en route to the Good Ol’ USA. Probably I should be really excited about this, but in fact, I am terrified. It’s not just that I only have JA$1,500 to get me from Claremont on Friday to Brownstown (where I’m spending the night in [...]
There is a GRE test-prep book sitting on my table. It’s been there for a while. Every now and then, I’ll get really motivated and try and relearn how to multiply fractions. Mostly though, it just…sits there. Reproachfully. We’re a year in,the end is much more tangible than it was 16 long months ago, and [...]
I’m drinking rum and redbull, an yuh see dat mi ‘eart full -Beanie Man, from his ubiquitous 2010 smash hit, creatively titled “Rum and Red Bull” If you had come looking for me at Bumper’s Reggae Lawn last night, this is what I would have told you: You can’t miss us. Trust me. You’ll just [...]
This is how to get your Jamaica guy friend’s Jamaican girlfriend to like you: 1) Show up to a party severely underdressed when she is dressed to the nines. 2) Make self-abasing comments about how ridiculous you look, and how fantastic her shoes are. 3) Watch the smiles and hugs roll in. I will never [...]
After a post like last night’s, I’m sure alot of readers were like, sooooo why, exactly, does this girl stay? I’ll tell you why: My community. Today, Good Friday, was a big deal. We had a kite festival during the afternoon, with entertainment during the night. I made it out for the evening portion, emboldened [...]
Today was one of those days where the enormity of this whole frustrating year came crashing down around me. I’m not comfortable publishing all the details for the entire internet to see, but suffice it to say that when I tell you that I have little to no control here over anything, I mean little [...]
Doesn’t everyone get offered offal on the street? It’s certainly the highlight of my day, walking up the hill past the abattoir (which requires alot of concentration, I’ve lost toe nails and rolled ankles and fallen over. Many times.), and it’s always something. Today, it was calf’s brains. Personally, I think this is a major [...]
A few months ago, I was talking to another volunteer who told me that she wasn’t too worried about eating vegetables here, because everything grown in Jamaica is organic. There seem to be a lot of people laboring under the TERRIBLY misguided notion that because Jamaica is a developing nation, all of it’s agriculture is [...]
I came in after the sun had gone down, and Miss B looked me up and down- dirty water boots, dirty clothes sticking to me, dirty machete, dirty face, dirty, bloody, blistery hands, and asked the only logical question: “Taylors, where yuh gone?” Today was one of those days at the school where it seemed [...]
Miss B said to me, as I was cooking my dinner, “mi nah unnastan why di people dem a call yuh fat. yuh nuh fat.” * Thanks, Miss B. “Fi dem see whe yuh eat, dem know yuh kyaan fat” (My meals consist of vegetables, sometimes nuts and tofu, with eggs in the morning.) “So [...]
Nothing says “I’m a high-functioning adult living the life I want” like cornflakes and Coke Zero for dinner. Serious thing.
Yes, it is 2011, and no, I haven’t updated since December. Why? Quite simply, it’s been a very frustrating few months. Although I suppose it would be misleading to say that at any point, my service has been anything other than frustrating, but there are times, when I have seen the light at the end, [...]
The chickens are no longer even remotely cute, and the day came (today) to end their semi-squalid, senseless – and expensive-lives. Don’t judge me too harshly. I like chickens as a species just fine. But, as Raz says, gaze into the eyes of a chicken and you will not see one inkling of a recognizable [...]
The Peace Corps website is full of success stories. All volunteers are. It can be intimidating until you realize that not everyone succeeds all of the time, and that you need to be able to look past the failures and focus on what DID go right, or you’ll lose your mind. This is far, far [...]
This is really for the folks back home, who might not necessarily know just what it is that I do here in Jamaica. There are two ways to answer that, and they’d both be correct. “I do alot”. Also, “Not too much of anything, actually.” Peace Corps Jamaica is divided into two sections, The Green [...]
In a strange perversion of the natural order of things, the chicks are on the kitchen counter. Am I right? Isn’t that weird to say? “The chickens are on the counter.” Even if there are multiple dead, headless, featherless chicken carcasses, the remains of many chickens we would still say “The chicken is on the [...]
This songs’ dedicated to a young man who doesn’t think he’s [done] anything good today -Ferris Beuller’s Day Off While I have a friend specifically in mind, this song is sometimes what pulls me through the bad days and sums up the good ones, too. It’s called “Make You Feel That Way” off the incomparable [...]
First of all, Big Ups and Good Mornings to Matt and Julie E, who are reading this RIGHTNOW from Accompong (sp?), way over on the exact opposite side of this here island. Lots of love, guys! So lately I’ve felt as though I only post when something has gone wrong, and I’d like to take [...]
I think one of the most amazing things about this blog is the fact that you guys actually drop in and read whatever it is that I’m blathering on about. I expect my family. Some of my friends from home. Maybe a few close PC friends. But what astonishes and humbles is who I DON’T [...]
So this is really personal, but next Friday, I have an appointment at 1 30 with a psychiatrist. This isn’t a position that I want to be in, but it is unfortunately very necessary, and I’m incredible grateful to the Peace Corps for arranging it. I haven’t really slept in over a month. I’m not [...]
Another one of those Ubiquitous Peace Corps Questions: “What are you going to do when you’re done?” AGHGHAGHGHGHGHGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG. This question literally keeps me up until 4 AM, looking into grad school programs, and the requirements I have to fulfill before I can even think about applying (moral of the story: a Bachelor’s of Science > [...]
Back to the “Guys Have It Easier” theme today: If you’ve ever been to Jamaica, or met a woman who has, they will tell you that, if you are female, and between the ages of 13 and 113, you will attract a lot of attention. Especially if you are white. Especially. Why is this? Obviously [...]
I stare death in the face several times a week. A true! No, I’m not getting jumped on my way home, no garrisons are battling out a turf war in Claremont, it’s simply this: I ride in taxis. Back home, taking a taxi is usually a sedate, mundane experience reserved for those nights when no [...]
Met a man on the roadside cryin without a friend there’s no denyin’ you’re incomplete, there will be no findin’, lookin’ for what you knew… -”Friends”, Led Zeppelin Miss B, I said this evening, I might be at the football field tomorrow afternoon so if you come home between services, that’s where I’ll be. Sister [...]
(So I’m going to start updating with smaller posts. Blurbs, if you will, quick snapshots of the wonderful and utterly absurd things I encounter on a daily basis. Things that might not merit more then a hundred words or so, and then, of course, the longer posts pretty much as they have been, every week-ish. [...]
DO NOT BUY A SCALE says Angie (Wagaun, Baby Love?). You’ll just be miserable, she pointed out. You’ll just obsess over it and you’ll never be happy. Just DONT DO IT. In pre-service literature, the Peace Corps will tell you that men will lose 15 pounds. Women will gain that amount. Something to do with [...]
After the kitchen, the verandah is the most important part of any Jamaican household. Its where hair is braided in a million different intricate patterns. Meals are eaten, beer and tea is drunk, the crime in Kingston is examined and discussed with increasing incredulity and indignation. Passers-by are called to and later mercilessly dissected. Dominoes [...]
Today was the “gravedigging”, which in Jamaica is both a verb and noun. It is where they dig the grave, and apparently its quite the social event. I didn’t go. Some of you are probably appalled. What a marvelous opportunity for integration, you think, how could you pass this up? Well, I’ve been in the [...]
It’s been pouring rain since 7 30 this morning. I do mean POURING. Never in my life have I seen rain like this. Rain coming down so hard that I can’t see past the banana trees in the yard to the mountains at the other end of the valley. This isn’t unusual weather for the [...]
11 45 Sunday Morning. Around 6 this morning, well after the roosters have started reveille I finally fell asleep. When I woke at 9 30, I felt empty and hollow and my eyes were the hot and dry that comes with exhaustion. Every one was quiet, even in the kitchen which is usually the loudest [...]
“Yuh fraid?” Apparently, I have set up residence in a dead woman’s room. Mr Freddie has gleefully informed me that his, and Sister Betty’s, and the ailing Cotton’s mother passed on within the very four walls in which I spend my nights. “No man, me nevah fraid fi nuttin.” Which isn’t quite true, I’m afraid [...]
There is a man dying in the next room. Very quietly, with the minimum of fuss, but very decidedly dying. In March, Mr Cotton was diagnosed with liver cancer. He refused chemo. I moved to the grey house at the top Coultart Grove in May, and most days Cotton never moved from his bench on [...]
I live at the top of a very long, very steep, and very terrible piece of road. I affectionately like to think of it as “the worst road in St Ann”. At points almost completely vertical, riddled with enormous potholes deep enough to lose a toddler, or at the very least, a goat kid or [...]
I’ve been talking about the Peace Corps since I was 14. That’s a solid 10 years, and here I am, over a month into my service as a volunteer in…Jamaica. Do you love Jamaica? I get asked if I like Jamaica all the time. It’s understandable, my community, my neighbors, my students, all want to [...]
This is the wish list post. Many of you- wonderful, kind, generous souls that you are- have expressed a desire to know what, if anything, I would like shipped down to the “rock”. Many things are available here in Jamaica. However, items that I wouldn’t think twice about purchasing, say, mascara, or face scrub, aren’t [...]
Text Message received from Raz on July 5th at 6 24PM: Random Monday Poll! Which is the better transportation anachronism: dirigibles or steamboats? Text Message sent from me, to Raz: Dirigibles, for sure. Because it sounds like a Russian breakfast cereal with small, furry, cute rodents as mascots. Follow their adventures on the back of [...]
“Mi can have one bucket a watah?” She’s at the bottom of the steps, bucket placed by the spigot, ragged little kids in tow. The kids were a calculated move. Water is on everyone’s mind in Jamaica, which seems odd. Everywhere you turn, lush green meets the eye. It rains here in St Ann if [...]
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