Spring in the Smoky Mountains

We are happily settled in our new Appalachian home. 

We’ve had so many adventures; it’s hard to decide which the best were. 

Spring Crocuses in our TN Garden

Certainly our career transitions have been exciting – Irene is teaching pre-school full time in the Head Start program and Steve is in his third semester teaching American Government at Walters State College. We went to Peace Corps with very different backgrounds – Irene as an Interior Designer and Steve in business, but Peace Corps service as volunteer teachers does change lives – not only of our wonderful Jamaican kids, but clearly our own calling too.

"Plein Air Poppies"

Irene's Art Show

Irene's Art Show

"Tennessee Dawn"

Irene has been very successful in pursuing her artistic life. She’s had her paintings and photography in 3 local shows (including a solo one-woman show of 28 pieces) and won a 2^nd place ribbon in a juried photography show in Morristown. She will also have 3 pieces in a Knoxville show in May.

Testimony - County Commission

"Side by Side" in the Christmas Parade

Steve has applied his civic interests with a focus on social diversity. He testified at the County Commission  about a restrictive marriage resolution and he organized a citizens' march in the town Christmas parade promoting the strength of cultural diversity by walking “Side by Side”.

Here’s a potpourri of pictures – a bit of travel, concerts and festivals, birthdays, and more:

Chattanooga - summer weekend

Dinner in Chattanooga with Steve's High School pal Chris Asmussen

"Murder at Mama Mia's"

         

   

Fund Raiser for Humane Society

Concert - Oak Ridge Boys in Greeneville, TN

Judege Dennis Inman lecturing Steve's Government Class at Walters State College

Shamrock Shuffle 5K - Irene crossing the finish line

Wearing of the Green for the St. Patrick's Day Race

Steve finally built his shop in the garage - he's a happy little carpenter

Solar Eclipse - it was 98% in TN

Solar Eclipse - or just weird old man

and...what's a year without birthday celebrations? Here's Irene with her 60th Princess Tiara.

...Steve's sister Nancy and her husband Cliff just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. We send them our love and congratulations!!

Time flies when you are having fun!

One year ago today we moved to Morristown, Tennessee. So many good happenings have been part of our lives – here are some of the highlights. However, we have so many readers around the world in many countries, and I must say that we strongly oppose the unraveling of our moral national fabric. I love our system of democracy which has a long history of respect among people of different opinions, but our president has lost the trust of many Americans – we hope that as more citizens and elected officials find the courage to speak out, we will see changes and begin to rebuild our partnership with people of good will around the world.

So – what are we doing these days?

Irene has been busy. We’ve been married since 2009, but Irene kept her last name (in order to get her Peace Corps security clearance, she had to apply using the name she had ‘used for at least 2 years’), so in May we petitioned the County Court , and she is now officially Mrs. Irene Ledesma Lawrence!

...at the courthouse: Meet Mrs. Lawrence

She is thrilled to have started work with the local Head Start agency as a Teacher’s Assistant. After our experience in Jamaica, Irene decided that her passion was to continue giving by teaching little kids – I am so proud of her. Also, she is continuing her education in a college program to earn her ECE (Early Childhood Education) Certificate.

And, she has grown as an artist – doing amazing work…both painting and photography. She will have a booth at the big “Arts in the Park” fair in September, and she had a piece accepted for a juried show too. Check out her website www.DiGrayLady.com.

Colorado Columbine

Universe Applauds

California Poppies

 Serena, our “Jamerican” dog who travelled home with us from Jamaica, got a new baby sister in May. Hannah, a 1-year old Coonhound Walker, adopted us at the local animal rescue shelter.

Steve started two new projects recently. He will be teaching 2 freshman classes in American Government at Walters State Community College, and he is continuing his work in international education as a teacher for www.Global-LT.com providing customized ESL and integration support for large local corporations’ new managers and engineers relocating to Morristown from other countries.

Who would have thought that a girl from Southern California and a guy from New York City would love living in rural Tennessee so much? We are a mile away from one of many large lakes and we can even see a bit of the Great Smokey Mountains from our house. Morristown has great theatre, a good college, some fun restaurants, very good medical care, and of course very welcoming neighbors. No state income tax and low cost utilities contribute to a very affordable cost of living; we wish the nearest ocean beach was closer than a 5-hour drive, but…our life is good!

Lunch at Brumley's in nearby Greenville, TN

We always welcome your comments. We wish you peace, good health, and fun times!

What have we been up to these last 3 years?

          *** CLICK on any picture for a larger view ***

Over the last 6 months, since we’ve been home in the USA, we have mentioned this blog to many new friends. So, here is a ‘short’ summary of our service in Jamaica. If you find some of this interesting, then please surf through some of the more detailed posts since March 2014.

Students at work

Students Learning

And, if that isn’t enough, take a look at some of our earlier travels and a bit of our experiences after we returned to the USA and then settled in rural Tennessee.

Steve's School

Irene and I were Peace Corps volunteer teachers in 2 rural primary schools in Jamaica for 2 ½ years. We worked with students from “infant” which is like pre-K through grade 6 to help them ‘catch up’ in English reading and writing.

Adelphi Town Square and shops

Steve's School

Post Office

We lived in the small town of Adelphi in St. James Parish – 22 kilometers from Montego Bay. The town had less than 1000 people, 2 very small shops, a police station and a post office. We had a small apartment which we reached by walking up a steep hill. We did have electricity, cold pipe water (sometimes), and we bought bottled gas for our cook stove. Jamaica does have good telephone coverage, so we had cell phones and internet access too.

The path up the hill to our apartment

Our home

Our View

The market

Our favorite Rasta Vegetable seller

the open market

Peace Corps gave us a monthly stipend for food, rent and transportation. We shopped in the open local markets and cooked our own meals – we also had our own organic garden where we grew some local vegetables. We were not allowed to drive a car, so we relied on local transportation. We were about 6-8 hours away from the capitol of Kingston which we reached by taking the “country bus” over very bumpy windy roads.

The road to Kingston

The Bus

Dinner with our neighbors

We loved our work and our many new friends in our community. Jamaicans are genuinely warm and friendly people. We arrived as foreigners and left as family – and if we helped a few young students read and write, then maybe we really did change the world!

Our wonderful first host family and neighbors

Friends

Our Peace Corps volunteer group

Obama came to visit

We loved our Peace Corps Service and will always miss Jamaica!

Hello USA! (…and Good Bye to Jamaica)

“The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley.” (“To a Mouse,” by Robert Burns).... Well, after planning on spending a 3rd year working in Jamaica, Peace Corps pulled-the-plug on that plan. Sadly, and we do feel very unfairly, Irene's Medical Clearance was denied. She was sent home to California in April. I stayed on until mid-May to wrap things up including shipping Serena home by ‘air freight’, and then I joined them to begin the next chapter in our lives. Wish us luck and stay tuned for our next great adventures.............. 

Here are some highlights of those months –

March – Irene and I flew to Washington DC for her medical evaluation. She stayed for 3 more weeks after our first 5 days together. Although the outcome was sad, we did have some good times ‘on expenses’ including St. Patrick’s Day at a real Irish Pub.

April - The whole student body and staff at Adelphi primary School gave me a wonderful and emotional send-off. Someday one of these students might become Prime Minister of Jamaica – so we do feel that we really did ‘change the world’.

May - Irene and I spent a month in California with her mom – a chance to connect with sons and families – including good times with 9-month old grandson Levi. We also connected with Irene’s high school friend and many aunts, cousins, etc.

June - We are now officially residents of Tennessee! We drove 4000 Km across the USA (with a few fun stops at Route 66 ‘must see’ landmarks) to the Tazewell/Morristown area of eastern TN. We are living with Irene’s very gracious sister while we look for a home to buy and settle down.

 

 

What’s next? …well, in typical Irene-and-Steve style, we will wait and see what paths open up. The people of Tennessee have been very warm and welcoming – so, although we will always have a love for Jamaica and our dear friends, we now welcome ‘yuh-all’ to stop by for BBQ and sweet tea sometime.