…and also
Jamaican time does run a bit more slowly. This is a long post – after all,
we’ve been away from our blog for a couple of months…so, take your time, and
come back later to finish what you don’t read now.
[All pictures are 'clickable' for a larger view]
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| Irene at James Bond Beach |
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| Steve at James Bond Beach near Ocho Rios |
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| American Burger in Ochi |
We have
completed 2 full months of the autumn school term; Irene and Steve are both
teaching full “pull-out” schedules (‘shedj-yools’ in Jamaican English) 4-days a
week. Irene is having great success with her modified “Each One Teach One” (or
EOTO) curriculum format – she got the interest of the Jamaican Minister of
Education, Hon. Rev. Ronald Thwaites who visited our schools in September (he
likes to be called “Ronnie”); he has asked Irene for data on the EOTO
effectiveness.
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| Honour Roll students for September at Adelphi Primary |
Steve is working with 22 students in Grades 3, 4, 5 & 6 –
all of them are 2 to 5 years behind in literacy. Through a Peace Corps program
called “World Wise Schools” Steve’s students at Adelphi Primary will soon meet
(via SKYPE) students at a school in rural eastern Pennsylvania. They have been
writing letters (and making videos) about “what I want to tell about Jamaica”
and “what I want to ask about the USA.” Since writing a “Friendly Letter” is
included in the national Grade 4 Literacy Exams, this works well into the
Jamaican curriculum.
Video Clips of 'practice' letters - classroom noise is NORMAL
Chikungunya or “Chik-V” is a mosquito transmitted virus that is spreading all across
Jamaica. Last week we travelled east to Ocho Rios (Jamaicans call it “Ochi”) to
visit friends in St. Anne and St. Mary; the Chick-V is more prevalent there.
About 20% of our Peace Corps colleagues have already contracted it ---
including Irene. Its name comes from Africa – meaning “walking crooked”; it
causes severe joint pain…so much that Irene was using hiking poles to walk
across the room for the first 2 days. It comes with high fever and then a skin
rash; amazingly it does subside in about 5-10 days, and Irene is recovering now.
Our ‘host mom’ Shawn brought Kola Nut teas and a muscle salve made from guinea
hen herbs and rum (it’s to be rubbed on the skin – but maybe it works as well
sipped from a cup?).
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| Heroes Week Competition |
National
Heroes Day: Jamaica celebrates Heritage Week and Heroes Day in October. In
schools, some students show their historical knowledge in a quiz-show
competition format. It’s easy to study
because the Jamaican currency has images of all the national heroes.
Blackberry
(“Crackberry”) and other cell phones: Peace Corps gives each volunteer a
rudimentary cell phone (on the Jamaican Digicel network) for communications –
they include unlimited minutes to other Peace Corps phones which is important.
We have found it very useful to still have our US T-Mobile phones here too. We
use them for email, and when we have an internet connection, we can call the
USA without incurring international charges (yeah!). But…in the span of 1-week
both of them broke. Steve had his in his pants front pocket in the bus (van)
from Ocho Rios; it’s normal to ‘small up’ or squeeze 5 across a bench seat
meant for 3, so the Blackberry screen got small-up-cracked. Irene’s got soaked
with cooking oil (don’t even ask how that happens). Anyway, we’ve ordered
replacements which may arrive from the US in a couple of weeks – as we
said…Jamaican time moves more slowly.
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| Our "farm" in the rain storm |
Our home
farm: We’re lucky that we have a small garden – the neighbours are amazed that
teachers know something about ‘farming’ too. We’ve had a couple of harvests
(Jamaicans say ‘reaping’) of Bok Choy, Callalou (like spinach) and okra, along
with some herbs … cilantro, dill and Chinese large-leaf lemon thyme. Tomato
vines are growing (no fruit yet), and we have one ‘punkin’ – an orange squash.
We may even have some pineapple next year because we planted the leaf tops off
pineapples we bought in the market – and they have rooted and started to grow
new leaves. And, of course, our compost pile is amazing – what used to be
kitchen vegetable scraps, banana peels, and dry leaves (along with cardboard
and old newspaper) is quickly turning into a rich black humus.
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| Irene teaching professional development for teachers |
Sustainable
Projects: Peace Corps is aware that knowledge transfer is an important part of
our assignments – it does not help if our local counterparts cannot carry on
after our relatively short 27 months in country. Irene is an ‘expert’ in
building interactive PowerPoint presentations for use by students in the
classroom. She taught a professional development workshop to the teachers from
both of our schools to demonstrate some really cool ways to engage kids in
learning. Earlier, Steve taught his teachers how to use the laptop (we now have
Wi-Fi in school!) in their classrooms with a projector and to use YouTube
videos to supplement classroom teaching.
Rainy Season - Electrical storm at our place
Rainy Season
– but no Hurricanes: We’re half-way through rainy season…and yes, almost every
day around 3 o’clock it will probably rain hard for ½ an hour. Sometimes the
main road gets flooded – I’ve seen kids take off shoes and hike up their clothes
to wade home through knee deep water. Last week we had a thriller of a
lightning storm – took out our electricity, phones, TV, internet, and water
(cuz of electric pumps) as well as a big tree at school. Our house has 3
separate lightning arrestor wires – we heard the lightning hit, but there
didn’t seem to be any damage (we did ‘plug out’ all the electronics – even
though we have a bunch of surge protectors). Irene shot some video to show the
excitement. Although there have been a couple of hurricanes in the northern
Caribbean, so far no major storms have travelled near our little island home.
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| Irene with her arm around one of our students at the funeral |
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| Mixing concrete to seal the grave |
Funerals in
Jamaica: We’ve written once already about the rituals surrounding funerals and
we’ve been invited to participate in a Nine-Night and a Set-up while we were in
training in Hellshire and Port Morant. Both are late night (into the morning)
gatherings of food, drink and often multiple live bands playing more and more frenetic
music which dancers accompany to chase away the evil spirits and allow the soul
to transit. The whole community comes – you don’t have to have known the
diseased or even the family – it’s simply that you are part of the community. A
few weeks ago the recently retired principal of Steve’s school died in her 60s
after a short illness. 300 or more people (family, friends, and teachers from
around the island, Ministry of Education officials, teachers’ union
representatives, and many, many students...young and older…came to the big
Anglican Church. Although there is a pervasive fear of “duppies” (ghosts) in
our Jamaican culture, it is very common to take pictures (selfies) with the
diseased in her casket (we will not post those). The burial was nearby the
church – the casket was carried down a dirt path and lowered into a concrete
block grave; then as we have seen before, workers come and placed plywood and
rebar (metal mesh) over the vault, and mixed fresh concrete right there next to
the grave site – while all are watching, they seal the vault with fresh
concrete.
Denver
Broncos Football: NFL games are not carried on Jamaican TV, but the last 2
Bronco games were available on our host family’s cable on some Florida
stations. With some cold Red Stripes (Jamaican beer), Steve was planning on
watching them --- but because of weather, our cable was out for both games * *
* as we said, Jamaican time runs differently.
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| With PC friends at Falmouth |
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| Fishing Beach at Falmouth |
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| Market at Falmouth |
Falmouth is
the mega-ship port nearby: Although closer to our home in Adelphi than Montego
Bay, to get to Falmouth requires a circuitous route and a connection from one
route taxi to another in Wakefield. The Oasis of the Seas makes regular stops with up to 8000 passengers. Sadly, most tourists
never get to see the real Jamaica – tour buses leave right from the pier to
private beaches and crowded waterfalls, and there are a 100+ tourist shops and
American-brand restaurants right on the pier too. But, Falmouth itself is a
small community right on the north coast. A few weeks ago we joined up with
some Peace Corps friends for breakfast and spent the day like local Jamaicans –
walking to the fishing beach, stopping in the library, shopping for some
groceries, and opening a cold Red Stripe beer in the town square.
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Sunrise at our home in Adelphi
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We hope you
enjoy our updates and we appreciate your comments. There are more pictures on
our Facebook pages. Walk gud, and respec mi bredren and sistren.
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Chikungunya Virus is a mosquito-borne disease spreading
across Jamaica now. Similar to Dengue Fever, it comes with high fever, severe
(very!) joint pain, a rash and more. After about a week, most people return to
activity, but the joint pain and sometimes the fever last for as much as a
year. Irene got it ‘bad’ – luckily we have excellent medical care as Peace
Corps volunteers…she still missed most of 3 weeks of work, but with some new
meds, she is back at it. Hopefully it is true that it comes with acquired
immunity. I am hoping that I am one of the lucky ones…so far it hasn’t bit me.
