Week #7 - New friends & Training Continues

It's been a good week for us Peace Corps trainees in Jamaica. Public schools have been closed for the Easter break, so we've had lots of practice with mock teaching sessions - tomorrow we go back to half-day practicums each day with the students we've been working with before the holiday.

Mock Teaching in our training

Irene and I met 2 great PC Volunteers, Kate and John, who have been here for a year. (It is their second PC post - they spent 3 years in China too.) We are looking forward to learning a lot from them as we begin our 'real' assignments in May.


John and Kate - PC Education Volunteers ... our new friends

Last Friday we visited the Jamaica Library System (which has a wonderful grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), the Junior Achievement program (PC has a strong relationship with JA), and the Mico University College Care Center which specializes in evaluation and training for youth with special education needs.

We began our training in combined sessions with the Environmental volunteer trainees, but for the last 4 weeks, we have been living in towns about 45 minutes away from each other. Last Friday evening, we had a chance to reconnect at a fun Karaoke party.

...and, Steve has decided that the way to go in Jamaica is the 'buzz cut', so here is the picture of taking it all off!



Jamaican Foodie Report!

We were off today for Good Friday – great to have some downtime. Mary, our host mom taught me to cook Ackee and Saltfish.

Ackee & Saltfish, boiled green banana, fried plantains and dumplings

Preparing the Saltfish and herbs

Steve - learning to cook Jamaican

Also, Banga – our neighbor – baked a traditional Easter Bun (a kind of fruit cake).

Banga - the baker of Easter Buns

Mary made Sorrel, a drink derived from the flowers of the Sorrel (type of Hybiscus) – it is a strong dark red drink typically included in Christmas meals.

Sorrel Flowers

Soursop

Ackee on the tree

 

She also made a Soursop drink from a large Soursop (a tropical fruit) harvested from her garden.  

Dinner at home with Mary and Banga

A good day with our Jamaican family!

 

Saturday Update -- we drove to Port Antonio in Portland Parish on the northeast coast of Jamaica. Stopped for lunch to have Stew Peas (always served with Pig's Tail) and then got some real Jerk Chicken and Jerk Pork from a cook shop on the way home.

 

Stew Peas with Pig's Tail

Jerk Chicken

 

...our trip to St. Elizabeth

We just returned from a 3 day trip to visit a wonderful Peace Corp volunteer who has been serving as a Literacy Advisor/Teacher in a Primary School in St. Elizabeth Parish 'way out west' in Jamaica. [As usual - we will not post the actual location or pictures identifying students.]



Steve and Irene with Julie and Brittany (PC Volunteers)

St. Elizabeth Parish coast

...a few words about travel. To get there we left our home in St. Thomas at 5:15 AM on a Coaster (mini-bus) - 1-hour all the way to Kingston. We've already written about 'smalling up' - squeezing in 5-across where there are only 3 seats - as Irene says, at least you don't have to hold on the sharp curves because there's no where to move. We then walked to the bus station for the long distance ride to St. Elizabeth - yes, 3 1/2 hours smalled-up again. Then, a 30 minute taxi ride from Santa Cruz to a small bush (rural) community only about 10km from Treasure Beach.

Typical Coaster bus

Our 'trainer' Julie was so great! we stayed with her at her home - she had a couch (Steve's bed) and a day bed (Irene's). We walked with to her school and shadowed her for the whole day - we even got a chance to do our own reading lesson with one of her students.

Steve with Literacy students (faces are blurred per Peace Corps privacy rules)

Julie in the classroom leading a priority setting session with teachers

Last night we chatted till late with her neighbors - laughing strongly while trying to translate jokes back and forth using our new Patwa language skills.

Our trip home was about the same, except that our coaster bus from the west was stopped at a checkpoint for 30 minutes while the government checked our driver and conductor's (the fare collector) credentials. Also, on our last local taxi ride (yes, small up again ... 4 in the back seat and 1 in front) a woman was nursing her 1-month old adorable baby girl.

Countryside in St. Elizabeth - on the walk to school

Julie and Irene at her host family's home

We are off for the 4-day Easter weekend - hopefully some time to catch up and maybe some beach time too. We look forward to hearing from you. Happy Easter - STEVE and IRENE.

The "halfway point" in our training ... 5 weeks: we've learned so much!

...we've completed 5 weeks of training for our Literacy assignments in Jamaica. We spent part of 4 days actually working with students in rural schools. (As we've mentioned, we choose not to say our specific location and we will not publish pictures of our actual schools or students without their parents' permission.)


"Typical" school building in Jamaica

Irene has been working with 1st and 2nd graders, and Steve with 3rd and 5th graders - we're at different schools in St. Thomas Parish. The goal is to help students, many of whom speak Patwa at home, to become competent SJE (Standard Jamaican English) speakers, readers and writers. After so many weeks of 'classroom learning', we have loved working with students - and also with the dedicated teachers and administrators in the schools.

On the weekend, we travelled to Morant Bay - a major town in St. Thomas Parish to do some shopping (...needed an internet cable because we don't have wireless right now), and also bought some clothes. We hope you enjoy the pictures.



 

Market day St. Thomas, Jamaica - delivery cart is common everywhere

Streets of the town



We have Patwa language and culture lessons every day. We took a "route taxi" (taxis that travel a particular route and pick up/drop off passengers along the way). The object is to 'small up' (squeeze in) so that a car might carry 5 (or more?) for parts of the trip. The Jamaicans we picked up laughed when I was able to tell the driver, "ya so" in Patwa - meaning "right here - or stop here"!

Beach in St. Thomas - goats are everywhere...including in dinner.

Fishing boats on the beach

We stopped into the local library - really quite complete...and they told us that they just got a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to begin a new computer lab/internet center for the community!

St. Thomas Parish Library

We are eating well (and learning to cook Jamaican too). After we Swear-in, we will be assigned to rural communities all over the island (yes, Irene and I will live together...but we'll work in different schools). Here's a Jamaican favorite - roasted breadfruit with parrot fish!

Roasted Breadfruit and Parrot Fish

 ...and here's a shot Irene took (actually she took all of these great pix today) - Steve at the burned out courthouse where the Paul Bogel memorial once stood. He is a National Hero of Jamaica. He was a leader of the 1865 Morant Bay Protests, which agitated for justice and fair treatment for all in Jamaica and led to the Morant Bay Rebellion.

Peace Corps VIDEO LETTER to "MOM"

Today in our Peace corps training class in Jamaica we learned to use a tool that allows our students to create really cool videos. Our assignment was to all collaborate on a 'quickie' project - we chose to do this video letter to all the "moms" and other family/friends  we have at home.

Video Letter to "mom"

Click on the picture or link below to see video....

Peace Corps VIDEO LETTER to "MOM"

St. Thomas – A Day Off…Reggae Falls & Laundry

We’re ready to begin week 5 of our 9-week training. We made our first rural school visits on Friday – what a great day! Irene engaged some of the kids in a song about self-esteem – singing and clapping to Jamaican rhythms, and Steve stepped into a lesson about the solar system – he had kids revolving and rotating around each other to figure out how day and night happen.

Reggae Falls - St. Thomas, Jamaica

Some of us PC trainees took a ‘well deserved’ break to nearby Reggae Falls. We swam in the river, and Irene and I stood under the falls with the spray coming down all around us – a really exhilarating celebration of our experiences in Jamaica so far. Our trainers are always working hard – note the picture of an ‘impromptu’ class along the river bank.

Impromptu Class along the river bank

We’re very happy in our new host family home – here are some pix…laundry day and views from our ‘back yard’.

Our host mom invited us to meet a group from Central Virginia Medical Missionary Team who were working in St. Thomas Parish. They brought 41 doctors, dentists, nurses, optical specialists, and support staff and treated between 400 and 500 patients during their health fair and clinic sessions. [Picture posted with permission]

Dental Team from Central Virginia Medial Missionary group

This week we spend 3 days in local schools learning about and helping to administer student tests of literacy mastery.

Thank you all for your support – as always we appreciate your posted comments and ideas.

Light It Up Blue for Autism Speaks!

Each April 2, Autism Speaks celebrates Light It Up Blue along with the international autism community, in commemoration of the United Nations-sanctioned World Autism Awareness Day.

Our PC Education Sector Training group in Jamaica all wore blue today to support this effort.

Light It Up Blue is a unique global initiative that kicks-off Autism Awareness Month and helps raise awareness about autism. In honor of this historic day, many iconic landmarks, hotels, sporting venues, concert halls, museums, bridges and retail stores are among the hundreds of thousands of homes and communities that take part to Light It Up Blue.

Peace Corps Pix of our arrival

...just found these pictures of our arrival at Kingston Airport and our group orientation on our first day at Peace Corps HQ in Jamaica.


At Peace Corps Jamaica with  Jamaican officials,
PC Leadership and U.S. Embassy Charge d'Affaires



PC Group 85 Arrives in Kingston, Jamaica