March of Time – Jamaican Chronicles

Dad at March of Time

Time Inc's newsreel series, "The March of Time®" chronicled the events of our lives. These award-winning motion pictures recorded global events and brought them to big screens around the world and then later, television. After WWII my dad left the Army’s Signal Corps Pictorial Centre; he became the editor at MoT’s television series. I thought it appropriate to use the title for March’s Jamaica chronicles. We have many school events to report, the arrival of a new group of Peace Corps Trainees, and of course, food and cooking.

A highlight has been meeting the new US Ambassador to Jamaica, Luis Moreno who held a town meeting for US Citizens in western Jamaica. We met him and his senior staff – all very down to earth and interesting people. Ambassador Moreno is a BIG supporter of Peace Corps;

Ambassador Luis Moreno with Irene and Steve

I had the chance to stand up and present an idea related to PC’s “3^rd Goal” (To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans). Over 1 million Americans visit Jamaica every year, but very few IMHO ever see ‘real’ Jamaica. I am working on trying to set up ‘tours’ for cruise ship guests to come to our poor rural schools, maybe read a lesson for our kids, sit down and have traditional rice & peas and chicken for lunch, and begin to know more of Jamaica than the beautiful gated resorts. If there are only 20 interested people on a cruise ship carrying 5000 people, it would be an interesting project.

Marching with Sergeant Brown

Boys’ Day – All Jamaican schools have a special day to make boys feel special … this is important because the rigid education system often can’t reach the young males who have too much energy and would rather “lick each other” (fight) than sit in their seats. Strong male role models (high school teachers and even the local police sergeant) came to lead activities. Sergeant Brown led them in formal British style marching events to practice pride and discipline.



Marcus Garvey

Connecting US and Jamaican history – Using our Digicel/ USAID grant donated technology…on Martin Luther King’s birthday holiday, my students had a chance to hear a recording of the “I have a Dream” speech and hear Marcus Garvey, one of Jamaica’s National Heroes who was also a leader of the Black Nationalism movement. Then on US Presidents’ Day we saw pictures of Abe Lincoln and Sam Sharpe, a Jamaican Hero and leader of the slave rebellion of 1831. BTW, slavery ended in Jamaica more than 35 years before abolition in the USA. Each student received a US 1-cent Lincoln Penny too.

Jamaica Day – the Ministry of Education’s theme this year focused on regional Caribbean history; Jamaica shares a colonial heritage with nations in northern South America as well as neighbouring island nations including Cuba. Each grade presented songs (including a Grade 6 boys’ rap about school subjects). I was honoured to be asked to raise the flag during the national anthem. The students wore Jamaican colours and formed the Jamaican flag for this picture.

The Jamaican Flag - students with colours in the flag design

Irene’s school is applying for a Peace Corps grant to rebuild a playground for the little kids. Using her Interior Design professional training and her cool 3-D graphics software, she created a great concept presentation for the grant submittal.

My Peace Corps focus is on reading literacy, however, we also incorporate some maths (yes, Jamaicans say it as a plural), so my daily Reading Club (30 minutes of free reading) now has a group who challenge each other with maths problems too.

Lunchtime Reading Club

The new PCTs arriving on Jamrock

38 new PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) arrived on Jamrock this month. They will spend 10 weeks in training before getting their 2-year site assignments. Irene and I were asked to speak to them about our experiences integrating into work and community life. This will give us the chance to go to Hellshire and briefly visit with our first ‘host mom’ Miss Mabel, with whom we lived last March. I also ‘inherited’ the role of T4D (Technology for Development) committee chair when a 2-year volunteer left last month, so in April I will be going to Guys Hill for 4 days to teach PCTs about some of the technology tools available to Peace Corps Literacy volunteers.



Sea Trout

Ackee and Saltfish

  Food, food, food! – We have planted a new crop for our garden. Our last tomato planting wasn’t too successful, we only had 2 small fruits...but with our host Shawn, we had a ‘tomato festival’ – cut them in small bites and toasted with a glass of wine. The house has lots of fruit bearing trees; Ackee (the Jamaican national fruit) from our own trees became homemade Ackee and Saltfish. We made a stuffed chicken which we named “Chicken Jamaican cordon bleu”, and also used local “Sea Trout” and fresh local veges from our favourite Rasta man seller for a nice dinner.

Irene's birthday cards

Irene’s Birthday – Jamaicans celebrate their birth MONTH – not just a birth-DAY. Some of my students made cards for Irene – she loved them and she has them hanging up at home. In honour of our year of service, our new Country Director gave us lapel pins with flags of both countries and the PC logo.

…what else is going on? Irene’s older son Jason and his wife Etchie will be having Irene’s first grandchild in August – we hope to travel to California when the baby arrives. Serena, our puppy dog is now 5 months and 29 lbs; we both recently applied for TRNs (like Jamaican social security numbers) so that we can qualify for export permits to bring Serena home to the US in 2016 or 2017. Since I have a TRN, I am going to get a Jamaican Driver’s License (right hand drive – left side of the road) – I will have to take a road test too, but this will allow us to drive a rental car during our vacation.

Jamaica day - T-shirts...no uniforms!

We continue to enjoy your comments and questions. Walk Good! And Respect!

Serena

We got a puppy dog!

 

In December we visited another PC volunteer in Trelawny (the next parish east of us). Her host family's dogs had some new babies, and we went there to see them ... and one very cute puppy chose us. She was so friendly and serene (well, maybe that was premature) that we named her Serena. We brought her home in early January.

Serena - 4 months old

 

She has a very good vet in Mobay, and although it is not the usual thing in Jamaica, she will be spayed. Also, there is no rabies in Jamaica, so before we go home, she will be vaccinated. Although it is at least a year and half away, we are already learning about the process for her immigration to the US. We will soon apply for Jamaican TRNs (like Social Security Numbers) so that we can later have IDs to apply for her health papers and travel documents.

 

We are working on fixing the gate to our yard so that she can roam freely after all her vaccinations are completed. However, she has already faced off with the local goats and as of now neither goats nor chickens are foraging in our garden - thank you Serena!

 

It’s Been Almost a Year!

Some of our friends, and friends of friends, have asked us if Peace Corps might be ‘right’ for them. We’ve been here almost a year, so we thought it was time to talk about being Peace Corps Baby Boomers.

 

Why did we consider PC? We have enjoyed international travel for a long time – Steve has been in 39 countries on 5 continents. About 8 years ago we were traveling in Peru and stopped in a small rural town where we shared a simple meal with a local family. We were drawn to the people, and especially the kids who were so interested in learning. On our tour bus ride back to the city, we chatted with another ‘older’ couple and we said how great it could be to come back and help – and they said, “It’s not too late.” They had been PC volunteers themselves. So, when we returned home to Denver, we signed up for a PC orientation.

Irene was actually better qualified because of her Dental experience, but I needed to complete at least my college degree. We both went back to college, and Irene earned a BA in Interior Design, and Steve did complete his BA International Studies and added his MPA in local government.

So, in August 2012 we completed our preliminary applications. The rigorous process felt like a combination of a job application and a graduate school application. Today, the PC application process is more streamlined, and you can also indicate your preferences for location and type of work.

During that year we also sold our house and most of our belongings, and we moved to a small apartment on the Medical Centre campus in Aurora. This was also a ‘test’ of how we might ‘get along’ in a small place without getting in each other’s way. (By the way – we loved living the simple life and our tiny apartment too!)

We also organized our ‘affairs’ – simplifying our bank, investment and credit accounts; and creating Power of Attorney for 2 of our sons. Also, we directed all mail to a PO Box, set up online payment/billing for any ongoing expenses, changed our insurances, and eventually rented a storage facility (about a 1-car garage size) to keep what we had saved. We had already offered our kids the chance to come get any furniture they wanted, and we gave one of our cars to a son too. We also updated our wills. And, since so much of our ‘stuff’ including photos is now digital, we spent some time organizing our own ‘cloud’ storage – one copy with us on a 2TB disk, and one copy stored with our son.

Round the World - Colosseum in Rome

Once we had a firm invitation to become PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees), we moved out of our apartment and planned our own ‘bucket list’ trip. The idea was to visit family and friends and do a little sightseeing. Well, it grew a bit, so we ended up actually flying all the way around the world – visiting family and interesting places in the USA, UK, Europe and Asia over almost 2 months’ time.

We arrived in Miami in March, 2014 for our first meeting with the other ‘government issued friends’ in our cohort – 30 people (mostly in their 20s) from all over the USA.  After 2 nights, we all flew to Kingston, Jamaica. We lived with host families and attended training in culture, Patwa language, and PC processes for 10 weeks – all day, 5 days a week. We did have 4 PCTs resign during that time (not an unusual number), but all of us became close and mutually supportive. Irene and I were the oldest of the group, but we found it easy to be accepted. As a couple, we decided to be sure that we sat apart in the classroom and didn’t try to always be each other’s helper – we were individuals, each going through our own training just like the other ‘single’ volunteers. With both of our host families, we had a private room and bath in their house. We ate meals with the family, did our own hand laundry, and walked through town to our training site at a local church.

We were sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) on May 22^nd, 2014 by the Chargé d’Affairs of the U.S. Embassy in a beautiful formal ceremony attended by all our new supervisors and project partners from around Jamaica.

Swearing In - with our school principals

We arrived in Adelphi, a small rural (Jamaican’s say ‘bush’) village in the very western province of St. James. We are 10 miles from Montego Bay (40 minutes on bad roads) where there is a very large open market and even western style grocery stores, banks, and yes – computer stores too.

We live in an apartment - 1 of 3 apartments on the lower level of a large house. Our landlord ‘host mom’ is wonderful. We have a kitchen/living room and a bedroom and a bathroom with shower. Some articles have been written about “Posh Corps” – and I know that living arrangements can be very different for PCVS; we have running water (cold only), electricity (most of the time), a 4-burner propane stove, and even a microwave. We also have internet access and a TV at home. We enjoy our small veranda (where we usually eat our meals and watch the view, and we’ve even started a good sized vegetable garden and we compost all of our kitchen scraps as fertilizer. And, we just got a new puppy dog – right now she is still learning to behave, but she will be a good watch dog later.

Peace Corps gives us money for rent, utilities and food. PC also provides all our medical and dental care. Our budget is based on living at the level of the local community – about the same as a newly graduated Jamaican teacher, so we are good at re-use and even creatively using food containers for all sorts of storage. The large open market has 100s of sellers, but we have found a great “Rasta Man” named Mark who has the best fruits and vegetables…each week we go to town to buy food for the coming week…and as regular customers he’ll add a ‘brawta’ or freebie; we got the best breadfruit from him a few weeks ago.

Primary School students

We both teach in local schools – our PC training helped us understand the needs of students in Jamaica; we did get to design our programmes (notice the Jamaican spelling like the British) with our principals and counterparts. Education is ‘free’ but parents must pay for transportation, books, supplies, and so many other things that some kids can only afford to come to school occasionally. And, some students are far behind their grade level in reading – so our teaching is focused on those ‘pickney’ (Patwa for kids). Family life for our students can be challenging – often unstable with different ‘baby daddies’ or aunties/grandmothers bringing up kids whose mommies were teens. Yet, each day we come home with at least one small success – that’s the time when it is wonderful to be a PC couple…we have each other for support and encouragement.

Vegetable seller in the market

“The hardest job you’ll ever love” is what Peace Corps calls volunteer service. Coming from middle-class America, we have given up some “luxuries” like driving a car (PC does not allow us to drive a vehicle as a volunteer), so we take public transportation everywhere – this is mostly ‘route taxis’ and vans which squeeze in as many people as possible along fixed routes. To go shopping for groceries we travel about 45 minutes each way and then each of us carries 2 canvas grocery bags up the hill to our house. We have ‘piped’ water – but only cold. We take cold showers and do all our laundry by hand in a tub outside and hang it on the line. We also have started a home garden and are able to reap (harvest) some great vegetables.

Working in Jamaican schools is often a challenge. Budgets are very tight, most education materials are old and the curriculum is designed for learning by rote memorization – sadly Jamaican primary students have a difficult time applying learning to problem solving. Discipline is a huge problem – corporal punishment used be the norm in schools (it still is in most homes), but even though the Ministry of Education prohibits physical punishment, using the belt or the ruler for discipline still happens almost daily.

Being a Peace Corps Volunteer means we are employees of the U.S. Federal Government (even though we do not receive a salary, we have Jamaican ‘work’ visas in our passports). The bureaucratic process is similar to being in the military or a government job in the U.S. There are forms to be filled out for many things and strict safety and security rules for keeping PC Jamaica informed about our daily whereabouts.

The rewards do outweigh the challenges. We are making a difference – if just a couple of our kids are able to pass their high school entrance exams because of our teaching, then maybe they will go on to good jobs or even, as we often say, “become Prime Minister!”

We are living a very healthy lifestyle. Since we walk most places and eat fresher home cooked meals than at home in the U.S., we have lost excess weight and have more energy. We still have excellent medical and dental care provided by PC including all regular meds (for us boomers, that’s important).  

We are well respected in our community. We are the only white people in Adelphi (even though Irene is Hispanic and we’ve both been asked if we’re Chinese). So many Jamaicans find it difficult to believe that we would volunteer to be here for 2 ½ years since they are too familiar with ‘volunteers’ who come for a few weeks ‘holiday’ and bring a few donated books or even run a medical clinic while here. Being older adults is an advantage – age brings respect, and our experience ‘getting things done’ in our past business lives is useful when dealing with local rules and regulations. Integration into the community is important – we participate in local meetings: PTA, Community Development, and attend funerals. With our host family, we even cooked an American Thanksgiving dinner for neighbours age 10 to 84.  

Dunn's River Falls - Ocho Rios

Can we live on the PC allowances? Well, yes and no! We’ve used public transportation to travel for a couple of weekend getaways – to Ocho Rios (“Ochi”) and Negril. Both times we stayed in local upscale hotels and had some meals in tourist style restaurants. Occasionally we will splurge on a meal in Montego Bay in one of the fancy restaurants catering to Cruise Ship visitors (menu prices are in US$ or Euros and similar to US beach resort prices).  We pay for these out of our US bank account when the Visa bill comes. And, for Steve’s birthday, Irene took us out for dinner to a very fancy hotel/resort where international movie stars hang out – beautiful evening, good food, and worth the cost. And, even though we still have US expenses – property insurance, cell phones (we brought them with us), storage rental, and investment management fees – Steve’s monthly social security benefit goes right into our bank account, and our SEP/IRA continues to grow.

We do accrue 24 vacation days per year. We did travel home over the Christmas break for almost 2 weeks. We also had been home in September on emergency leave when Irene’s dad passed away. We had started planning an international vacation for summer of 2015, however, we have a new grandchild due in August, and so we may decide to coordinate travel home for the new baby instead. There are some extra steps in planning international travel – including a requirement that we check in with the local Peace Corps office in any country we visit so that they can track our whereabouts and include us in safety plans while we are there.

Did we ever come close to quitting? Sure…there have been frustrating times, and yes some had to do with our being adults and not ‘kids’. Peace Corps regulations apply universally to 8000 volunteers serving worldwide, and we have had conflicts over living allowances which we even escalated to PC in Washington. The younger single female volunteers all have to deal with ‘unwanted attention’ – anything from catcalls to persistent sexual harassment on the street or even at work. Jamaica is a Christian country – and since we do not see ourselves as ‘religious’ we are happy to attend churches occasionally with our Jamaican friends, but we choose not to go often. Jamaica also is very homophobic – there are still laws against homosexual behaviours. Political elections are highly competitive – sometimes even leading to violence and murders; we are instructed by PC not to engage in politically pointed discussions. Things here run on “Jamaican Time” – the answer to many requests is ‘soon come’ which can mean today or next week, or maybe not. Right now (Sunday) Irene is baking and the eggs we were expecting on Friday didn’t come, so I just walked ½ mile to the “Chinese Shop” in Adelphi to buy a dozen. Also, garbage (rubbish) is everywhere. Throwing trash out of car windows is normal – we are beginning recycling programs for plastic bottles in our schools, but things like millions of Styrofoam boxes for school lunches still litter the roads all over this country.

Do we communicate with friends at home? Yes, mostly by social media, email, SKYPE, and even telephone calls (our cell phones allow us free US calls when we are connected by internet Wi-Fi). We also get to see other PC volunteers at meetings – typically at least each quarter. Mail is difficult to use – we get about one package every 6 months with stuff we’ve ordered on Amazon…we are ‘duty free’ as PCVs, but it still costs over $80.00 US Postage to send a ten pound package to Jamaica. Also, the “Third Goal” of Peace Corps is to help Americans at home learn about people in other nations – hence our continued posting on FB and this blog – as well has more direct connections like SKYPE-ing with students in U.S. schools through the World Wise Schools programme.

Do we have time for recreation? Yes. Obviously we’re busy with a full-time job Monday through Friday, and Saturdays are often reserved for shopping and laundry. Yet, we make time to go to the beach, and we have fun hobbies: for Irene this includes a lot of scratch cooking – she’s even making wonderful Jamaican rum raisin chocolate chip cookies and also Mexican style homemade tortillas. She’s also continued crafting and has come up with lots of great projects which she is now teaching in her parenting class. Steve loves his garden; we had some good harvests last year, and we did buy some seeds in America to plant for our next crops. We did buy a small TV and we have cable access to US and Canadian networks – even CNN and some NFL football games.

Round Hill Resort - Steve's Birthday

Would we do it again? Probably YES! Our commitment is up in May 2016 – our choices might be to extend in Jamaica for an extra year if our projects warrant that, or we could go home and apply for either another 27 month assignment in another country, or qualify for a “Peace Corps Response” assignment which requires specific skills and is typically about 6-9 months. We really do love our lives here, we are very fulfilled in our work, and we amazingly don’t feel that we have ‘hardships’ to endure.

So, that’s a bit about our first year as Peace Corps Baby Boomers. We always welcome your comments or questions. As Jamaicans say, “Walk Good and Respect!” Steve and Irene

"Building Better Readers for a Brighter Tomorrow"

"Building Better Readers for a Brighter Tomorrow" was the theme of the Literacy Competition and Fair. Students from five St. James Primary Schools participated. Thanks to all the parents and sponsors who helped make it a great success!
(4 min 20 sec)

Irene and I have been working with the Adelphi Community Development Committee, the Social Development Commission of Jamaica, the Ministry of Education, parents, principals and teachers, and many other local sponsors to help create a successful reading event for our students.

This video only shows some highlights - there were many, many excited winners - everyone received a medal or certificate for participating.

And...here are some snapshots of the many winners:

 

 

Christmas Carol Service

Christmas Carol Service -- the true meaning of Christmas was seen as students (Adelphi Primary School - St. James, Jamaica ) gathered to tell the story of Jesus' birth in song and readings. It was a day of heavy rains and flooding, but the spirit was strong. Mr. Thorpe celebrated his last Christmas as a teacher before his retirement. Enjoy these short segments - only about 6 minutes...

 



We wish all our friends a Joyful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Second Goal, Thanksgiving, Chik-V, more food

November in Jamaica – hurricane season is almost finished…there were some Caribbean storms, but nothing serious effecting our island (so far…although today it rained so much, and the main road was flooded, so only 20 kids made it to school – we closed at noon). I have a pair of great locally made rubber ‘farmer’s boots’ which I use to wade through the shin-deep water to get to school.

 

American Thanksgiving is not well known here. My kids made hand-tracing turkeys and wrote all the things that they were thankful for: brothers and sisters, food, friends, mother/father, but…also video games and KFC (by the way, there is NO Mickey D’s in Jamaica!)
 

Peace Corps was established on 3 simple goals: 

 

 

Adelphi Primary students had a chance to contribute to goals 2 and 3 by ‘meeting’ school kids in rural western Pennsylvania via SKYPE video chat. Sponsored by World Wise Schools, we were paired up with a home school in PA; we prepared by writing letters with topics like “what I want to tell you about Jamaica” and “what I want to ask you.” We sent pictures by email, and finally had a great chat over the internet. In their thank you letters, my kids listed the things they learned about the USA: snow, turkeys, and local animals. 

 

We also planned a “Jamerican” Thanksgiving dinner for neighbours from age 10 to 84. We actually did find a frozen Butterball Turkey (imported from the USA - but it cost more than $130) so we opted for chickens (raised at our house) with stuffing and trimmings, along with traditional Escabeche fish and goat curry. Also homemade tortillas and salsa, and Irene's famous empanadas (stuffed with homegrown punkin).We began with a prayer from our host mom, and then told the story of the Pilgrims and Native Americans celebrating their harvest together. We all had a turn at telling what we are thankful for. 10-year old Corey moved us all by saying that when he is sad, he is thankful that he can talk with God.  

 

 

 
 

 
Rally of the Grades! This is an annual event where each grade class presented entertainment items to raise money for school projects. Many parents also 'voted' with donations. The singing was wonderful! Congratulations to Grade 2 -- the winner based on the most money raised.

 

And, Irene and I have been scheduled to chat with a college senior (as in ‘retired’) enrichment class near Phoenix, AZ in a few months via SKYPE – the topic is Peace Corps Baby Boomers.

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.

Christmas is a big holiday in Jamaica – decorated trees, shopping sales, and plans for big family dinners. But, of course, we still hope to find at least a couple days to go to the beach (yah mon!).

 

We continue to love our work and our life here in Jamaica – it’s already been 10 months…less than a year and half left on our first assignments (although it is possible to extend). We appreciate your continued comments and interest – Happy Holidays from Irene and Steve!

P.S. Follow Adelphi Primary at www.FaceBook.com/AdelphiPrimary

and Steve’s www.FaceBook.com/SteveLawrence.Denver.

...Steve's Birthday dinner at Round Hill