Shane and Kae in Jamaica

What a long strange trip ...

2007-07-28T22:40:00.000-05:00

We are now back in the US and have officially completed our Peace Corps service. We are very proud of ourselves for making it through and getting our official Close of Service. But there are a few fun things left to talk about at the end of our Peace Corps journey.

At the Portmore Municipal Council they gave us a nice little sendoff party. It actually involved two parts. First, there was a lunch at Prendy's on Hellshire Beach with our closest coworkers in the building and planning departments. This is a restaurant we had been to a few times, and they have really good fish. The only issue is that it takes a long time to get the fish. So this time, we all pre-ordered so that the fish didn't take too long to get ready. The fish lunch was fun, and then the next day we had a little going away meeting in the conference room. I can't really call this a party, since it involved us sitting around the conference room table while speeches and testimonials were given about our service. Then we got some nice gifts: a wooden carving of the Portmore Causeway in a frame, two PMC tote bags, and a thank you card. It lasted about an hour, and then it was over. The main sentiment expressed was that they really appreciated the database we helped build, and they wish they could get more Peace Corps volunteers. Click here for more pictures.

The weekend after we stopped working, we went to a bush party. By that I mean a party in a rural part of St. Elizabeth hosted by our Jamaican friend Sania in honor of her work with our friend Caitlin. A few Volunteers attended, and a lot of Jamaicans. They had food made over a fire, using three stones to prop up the huge pots of mannish water (goat soup), fish tea, rice, curried goat, and oil for fried chicken. The fish tea was very tasty, and we tried a sip of the mannish water, which wasn't too bad. There was also big sound and a dance area. It started out with Jamaican oldies, and it didn't get busy until after midnight, when more people started showing up. Then a few people got crazy on the dance floor, grinding away, while most others watched or just danced a little bit. We left around 3:30 AM, when our taxi man returned to get us because he was too tired to stay up any later. A good experience to have before we left the island. More pictures can be found here.

We got home safe and sound on the 27th, only about 20 minutes behind our scheduled arrival. And only one bag was missing, but it should be delivered to us in a few days. We did only get 3 hours of sleep, because we had to get up at 3 AM in order to get ready and catch a taxi for our 6:40 AM flight. And we didn't finish packing until midnight. But we did get it done.

Our Peace Corps experience taught us a lot. We are glad that we stuck it out and know that it will have a profound affect on our lives in the US. Those things that we took for granted before, like washing machines and other luxuries, will be appreciated much more now. But more than that, the many friends we made amongst the Volunteers and the Jamaicans we got to know will stay with us. It was definitely a rich experience that we will think about for the rest of our lives.

-Shane and Kaelyn

Port Royal

2007-07-16T15:01:00.000-05:00

For the first time since we have been in Jamaica, we got to explore Port Royal. What we found there is an utterly pleasant and cute community. We took a walking tour of the historical sites before dark and then we went to the Cabin for a fish dinner. We got to sit on the dock and listen to the waves lap and watch the boats go by as we ate our conch soup, fish, festival and bammies. After we finished we walked over to the main dock and checked out all that was happening. It was a Friday night and the place was hoppin - oldies music was playing, people were eating fish and festival at tables in the streets, and there was even an oyster bar set up. Then we got an ice cream and enjoyed it at the Sitting Park while watching lots of kids run and play. In the morning we took a walk on the beach and collected smooth colorful rocks and beach glass.

All in all Port Royal is a great place to go and we wish we had visited sooner.

You can see more of our pictures of Port Royal here. And you can check out the pictures of how we spent the rest of our weekend -- cruising around Montego Bay on the Fiesta Queen.

- Shane and Kae

Inverness Primary and Infant School In the News!

2007-07-09T18:45:00.000-05:00

Our Peace Corps friend Malaika works at the Inverness Primary and Infant School in a small rural town in the southern part of St. Ann Parish. Her school is without a lot of basic resources and was damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and still needs repairs. But her kids are really deserving and are getting some help from students at a school in southern Florida. Their donations of school supplies were organized by one very helpful student at the school. Check out this news story and video, which have links that allow you to donate to the school as well.

-Shane

End of Service Celebration Season

2007-07-09T18:31:00.000-05:00

Since our Peace Corps Group is winding up its service, there has been no shortage of fond farewells. After getting to know such nice people, it is going to be hard for us all to go our separate ways and only be able to see each other rarely. Here are links to some pictures from our recent bouts of nostalgia and celebration, along with pithy descriptions.

Fun Day in Sligoville - A volunteer says goodbye to her site
Ambassador's Dinner - Partying, diplomat style
Group 78 Welcome and Director Visit - Newbies and Bigwigs
4th of July - Hot Dogs, Bonfire, and Flouring
Triple Sevens Party - All interesting dates are good excuses for get-togethers, no?

-Shane and Kaelyn

New Group Arrives!

2007-07-09T15:16:00.000-05:00

The new group arrived on island on July 3rd. Check out this article from the Gleaner and we have some pictures up on Flickr. Here's to a great two years on island!

At the same time, the international director of Peace Corps came down to visit Jamaica for a couple of days. He came to our office, along with the Regional Director for Inter-America and Pacific. We didn't have any electricity, so our office was hot and dark. But they got the generator hooked up and we were able to showcase our database and have a meeting with our counterparts at work.

-Shane

Load Shedding

2007-07-02T14:59:00.000-05:00

So we were asking our supervisor why the electricity keeps going off at our office. It has happening a lot lately, often for 3 or 4 hours at a time, after which we usually go home if it hasn't come back on for that amount of time. The answer he gave was load shedding. Specifically, the fact that our office is in Portmore, which is right next to Kingston, the town where the majority of people who live in Portmore work during the day. In these hot summer months, all those Kingston workers are using a lot of air conditioning and other electrical devices. So in order to accommodate this peak load, they cut off the power to Portmore, assuming that not very many people are in Portmore during the day. The truth is, they're right about the small number of people working in Portmore. But for those of us that do, no electricity really cuts down on the amount of work you can do.

-Shane

Drum Shop

2007-07-02T14:43:00.000-05:00

We recently spent the weekend in Negril because we had won a free trip at Merrill's, a hotel on the beach. The prize was for entering a raffle held by our friends Caitlin and Khaled. We entered the raffle sometime in October 2006, but the prize was still valid in June. Mostly, we just sat around the hotel, swam, and relaxed in the luxurious room that was about as big as our apartment. I did make one trip to into Negril in order to get a drum and some guinneps. I was successful on both counts, eventually.

First, I went to the drum shop, but Lloyd, the Rasta drum maker, was not there. So I asked after him at the cook shop next door. They suggested calling the number written on his sign. So I did. It turned out Lloyd was at lunch, but he told me he would be back soon. So I went down to small fruit vendor area in Negril, which was prety close to the drum shop. I talked to the fruit ladies there, and I was lucky enough to get the last bag of guinep.

After talking to the ladies for a while, I went back to the drum shop. But it was still closed. So I went to the cookshop and got some coconut water. They were out of their classic tuna water, but that was OK because I didn't really want to drink tuna water. Eventually, the drum maker returned and we were able to talk for a couple of hours and I chose a drum made of guango wood. Here is Lloyd and his shop. He makes really nice drums under the name Lion Claw out of various woods such as guango, saparilla, and coconut.

Make sure to check Lloyd near the round-a-bout in Negril if you are interested in drumming or want to buy a nice hand drum.

-Shane

Strawberry Hill

2007-06-26T10:38:00.000-05:00

After all the excitement and hard work of the Creative Thinking Contest, we decided we deserved a treat. We had heard lots of good reviews about Strawberry Hill, a resort and restaurant in Irish Town, St. Andrew. And although it is a bit pricey for the Peace Corps Volunteer budget we decided to splurge and venture up into the hills of the Blue Mountains for Sunday brunch. We were joined by our friends Caitlin, Khaled, and Brooke and we spent most of the day at Strawberry Hill enjoying good conversation, wonderful food, and spectacular views.

The Sunday brunch features dozens of salads, seafood, Jamaican cooked food, and fabulous desserts. Our favorite items on the spread were the smoked marlin and the cold garlic shrimp salad. Strawberry Hill's beautiful restaurant and villas are nestled in the Blue Mountains overlooking Kingston. The grounds are breathtaking, with paths and nooks circling through rich vegetation, flowers, and historic buildings. It was truly a delightful day!

- Kaelyn

You can view the rest of our pictures of Strawberry Hill here.

Creative Thinking Contest Fun Day

2007-06-25T10:22:00.000-05:00

On June 16th, the Creative Thinking Contest (CTC) Fun Day was held at the Peace Corps Office. The CTC is an event put on by the Gender and Development (GAD) Committee of the US Peace Corps in Jamaica, a group which tries to understand more about how gender and development intersect in Jamaica. The goal of this contest was to get Jamaican school children thinking about how gender is an important part of playing games, and see if they could think of a game that was interesting and fun for both boys and girls. Two of my fellow Volunteers, Brooke Dumain and Khaled Alquaddoomi, organized the event, and I helped them out.

The planning for this event started over a year ago, when GAD started fundraising and deciding on the theme for the event. We thought that making a game would be a fun way for kids to think about gender issues, as opposed to writing an essay or other creative work. Then, students were contacted in parishes across the island, often with the help of volunteers who worked at the schools. Teams from the schools were judged and ten finalists were chosen from 5 schools to participate in the final round of judging.

The Fun Day and final round of judging went off very well. The heart of the day was all of the finalists demonstrating their game for all of the judges (who were high school students) and allowing all those in attendance to play the games. There was also a DJ bus from Digicel, a popcorn and snowcone machine, dancing, and lots of food and gifts for the participants. Shane ran the popcorn machine for much of the day, and Kaelyn was in charge of the prize drawings. The winner was Tivoli Gardens High School, from Kingston. You can read more about the Fun Day from the Gleaner here and see more of our pictures here.

-Shane

Negril with the Fam

2007-06-14T11:15:00.000-05:00

Kaelyn's family came down to Jamaica to visit us from June 3 -7. We thought that Negril would be the best place to go, because it has the beach, the cliffs, many local and international style restaurants, and is easy to get to from the airport. It turned out to be a good choice.

During the trip, we ate many fabulous meals, hung out on the cliffs and the beach, and enjoyed the relaxed vibe in Negril. One of the best restaurants was Just Natural, it was right down the road from the hotel, Samsara, which is on the West End (cliff side as opposed to beach side) of Negril. Just Natural features tasty fresh fruit and breakfast as well as vegetarian and seafood entrees, and the tables are outdoors in a garden setting. The fruit juices and blended drinks are especially delicious. We also went to Rick's (the famous Negril spot for cliff jumping and sunset cocktails), Margaritaville, LTU, and Three Dives Jerk. Everyone (including Kaelyn's teenage sisters) was adventurous and tried new things like curry goat, curry conch, jerk chicken, ackee and saltfish, and Jamaican style patties (beef in a pastry shell).

Besides eating, we did a few other activities. There was snorkeling off the cliffs at Samsara. And although most of the coral reefs around Jamaica are dead we did spot some pockets of color and saw several schools of fish. We even spotted some dolphins, which we hadn't seen anywhere else in Jamaica. We spent an interesting and tiring day at the Negril craft market and found some nice pieces to buy. They got to experience exhilarating route taxi rides and smalling up going back and forth from the hotel. And most importantly the weather was sunny the whole trip, so there was plenty of time to lay in the sun, tan, read, and relax. All in all a fantastic family vacation!

You can see more pictures here.

- Kaelyn and Shane

Lizards

2007-06-02T12:21:00.000-05:00

We have been getting a lot of rain recently, and I think this has increased the population of lizards in the ackee tree behind the apartment. I saw four of them in the tree one day. There appeared to be some sort of mating/killing ritual going on between two of them. The big lizard that you see in the picture was doing something to the little lizard. But the cool thing you see in the picture is that the lizard was inflating its throat like a balloon. Neat. Just like Animal Planet.

-Shane

Labour Day

2007-05-28T13:49:00.000-05:00

Jamaican Labour Day was last Wednesday, May 23rd. This is a national holiday in Jamaica. On this day, many Jamaicans, given a day off from work, elect to use their free time on a community project. These projects usually take the form of cleaning up, bushing, or refurbishing a building, park, school, or church. The Portmore Municipal Council's official Labour Day project was to build a small park with a monument showing the historical importance of Passage Fort, a district in Portmore. If you would drive around Jamaica on Labour Day, you would see small groups of people hunched over, painting, picking up trash, or weeding in their straw hats.

That it the type of sight we saw as we traveled to our destination, a school in St. Andrew where our friend Brooke works. When we got there, we saw that Brooke and her students had been hard at work collecting rocks and starting to dig a terrace into the small hill in front of their school. Their goal was to spell out the name of the school using the rocks. Shane helped out by grabbing the pickaxe and extending the terrace over about 10 feet, with the help of the students. At that time, it began to rain and didn't let up for about three hours. Since we couldn't work outside, we went inside and talked with the students and staff at the school. They were very nice and kept us amused while we waited out the rain.

By the time it stopped raining, all we had time to do was clean up the work site a little bit. The rest of the project would have to wait for another day. Afterwards, we took a little tour of the town and got to see where Brooke lives and the view she has from her apartment.

-Shane

Jimblin

2007-05-24T09:37:00.000-05:00

That's the name for star fruit in Jamaica. It can be hard to find in the super market, but I found some for only J$20 per fruit up in Point Hill, St. Catherine. It was tart and sweet, so I think it would have been better mixed with another fruit. It's really pretty, though.

-Shane

Fun Citi Fun Day

2007-05-21T14:57:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday, we spent the day with orphans from group homes around Jamaica to celebrate a fun day at Fun Citi, a private beach and club in Portmore. The Fun Day is sponsored by Food for the Poor, a US based charity that supports 12 group homes in Jamaica, among their other activities. The kids got to go to Fun Citi as a reward for their good behavior. Shane also attended the Fun Day last year, and this year was even better.

Fun Citi has a lot of different things for the kids to do, including a beach, beach soccer, volleyball, basketball, skating rink, and a basketball court. Besides these, there was also tug of war, a dance and singing competition, arts and crafts, refreshments, popcorn machines, and snow cones. Our job was to help watch out for the kids and make sure they all played safe, and to keep things organized. Kaelyn helped out a lot in the refreshment area, and Shane was assigned to the Mt. Olivet home for boys to be a general helper.

The day was packed with activities. Shane was a life guard for the beach area. He also made sure all of the boys from Mt. Olivet didn't miss any of the scheduled events. Kaelyn was also involved in handing out the gifts that all the kids got as they left the club. You can see more pictures of our exciting and rewarding day here.

-Shane and Kaelyn

COS Conference and Other Goings On

2007-05-14T15:03:00.000-05:00

So it has been a while since our last post and quite a bit has been going on. We were judges for the National 4-H Achievement Day which was very similar to the St. Elizabeth Achievement Day which we judged in March except this time it was the top entry from each parish. We both judged the creative portion of the Environmental Challenge competition, Kaelyn for the younger kids and Shane for the older kids. It was either a song or skit (or sometimes both) about disaster management and some of them were very creative and included costumes and dances. The kids were very cute and this was a pretty fun entry to judge. We also got to walk around and check out the displays they were setting up in the parish booths - our favorite display was the 4-H shamrock made out of peppers. And while we were at the Denbigh 4-H grounds in Clarendon we got to check out our fellow PCV's biodisel project that he is working on there. He has been turning rotisserie chicken drippings into tractor fuel - a very interesting project for Jamaica considering all the fried chicken consumed on a daily basis.

Then Shane had to take an unexpected trip to the US for 9 days to attend the funeral of his grandmother in St. Paul, Minnesota which was very unfortunate. While he was gone I was in Negril at the Close of Service (COS) Conference for our group of volunteers. You can see most of the "surviving" members Group 76 in the picture above. Out of the 62 volunteers that flew to Jamaica with us in July 2005, only 38 have made it this far. We are definitely proud of ourselves for being among those who have stuck it out! It was really great to see all the other volunteers at the Conference, some people I hadn't seen since our last group conference in November 2005. And it started to put some closure on this whole experience; things are really starting to wind down now!

Shane returned last Tuesday with some very lovely surprises from the US - mini bottles of diet Coke, dark chocolate M&Ms and natural peanut butter! Since then we have been working on a Microsoft Access Workshop that we are going to be doing for our coworkers. We checked out the new (and only) Mexican restaurant in Kingston for dinner Friday night and we were pleasantly surprised with how fabulous it was. They had chips & salsa, guacamole, and Corona's with lime! I predict we shall be visiting often. Other than that our weekend was pretty typical - our apartment was unbearably hot and we had little to no water. All the more reason to spend as many weekends as possible traveling before we leave!

- Kaelyn

Cold Cinema, Rocking Restaurant, and a Van with A View

2007-04-25T11:06:00.000-05:00

A few interesting things happened over the past weekend when we traveled to Ocho Rios (aka Ochi) to visit our friend Darius.

If you had read our blog posts from the fall of 2005, you probably don't remember what they said. So I will refresh your memory, we used to go to the movie theatre in Portmore and see whatever was playing there on 2 for 1 Tuesdays. Sadly, that theatre was closed down at the end of 2005 because it was crappy. There are other cinemas in Jamaica, but they are harder to travel to than the one that used to be in Portmore. Because of the difficulty in getting to the cinema, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 was the last film we saw, on July 16, 2006. So when we noticed that Meet the Robinsons was playing as the matinee in Ochi, we had to go. The movie was very entertaining, if a tad manic and confusing. But the whole package -- popcorn, a/c, darkened theatre, loud speakers, and weird animated characters -- made it a diverting experience.

Later that night, we went to the newly opened Hard Rock Cafe. Did you know there are about 200 of these things around the world? It was fun there, though, because they have one of the only happy hours that I have seen in Jamaica. This means buy one drink get one free, and unlimited gratis chips and salsa. The deal used to cover all blended and premium drinks and all types of beer, until the Hard Rock Jamaica was informed by corporate that the special only pertains to rum drinks and Red Stripe. Still a good deal. They also show music videos and concert clips from a range of performers such as The Bangles, ABBA, and Panic! At the Disco. A weird mix of 80's, 90's, and current rock/pop bands.

The other interesting thing was on the trip home on the minibus. Since Mt. Rosser was blocked due to repairs, we had to take a detour onto a small road that parallels the Mt. Rosser route. But it had an awesome view of the hilly country in southern St. Ann that is similar to Cockpit Country. The road was about at the top of the hill, with a valley to the right that went straight down. From the road, the hills in the distance look like an infinite line of egg cartons, but each one is hundreds of feet high.

Thanks Darius for a really fun time.

-Shane

Jamaican Idol?

2007-04-23T10:46:00.000-05:00

Rising Stars is a Jamaican show that discovers new talent through a televised singing contest in which people can vote for their favorite singer by phone, similar to American Idol in the United States. It is very popular in Jamaica, and the island has a huge number of aspiring singers and musical artists. This past weekend, we happened to be in Ochi visiting a friend and the Rising Stars auditions were taking place there as well.

The auditions were held at Island Village, a shopping, dining, and entertainment complex located near the cruise ship dock in Ocho Rios. There were about 400 contestants lined up, but according to the Gleaner this was a lot less than last year. There was very little excitement in the air at Island Village. What we noticed most was the police, wooden barriers, and checkpoints that made it hard to move around the area.

The main problem with the auditions, though, is that they didn't broadcast the singers through a PA system. So there was people watching, people singing, a stage ... but no sound to be heard. Why hold the auditions in a very public outdoor venue if you are not going to let the public hear the auditions? If you don't want people to hear them, hold the tryouts indoors.

Let's hope this season of Rising Stars finds some talented singers. My personal favorite from last year was Brushy One String, who played all of his songs using a one string guitar and wore a cowboy hat for every episode. He made it to the top 10.

-Shane

Ants in the Shower

2007-04-17T12:57:00.000-05:00

For some strange reason a large number of ants have taken up residence in our shower. We believe that they are consolidating in the handles. They aren't usually seen until you turn on the water and are actually in the shower, then they come rushing out of the handles onto the wall and run around in circles for a while. I'm pretty sure they are trying not to get wet, but if that was the goal why would they take up residence in the shower in the first place? The really stupid ones are those that try to escape along the tub sides and seek protection among the soap and shampoo bottles, I find them to be too close for comfort so they all get drowned. I know that seems harsh but I'm afraid of them jumping off the shampoo bottle into my hair when I wash it and the thought of ants in my hair is just too much. But other than those we have pretty much decided to co-exist with the ants in the shower, mostly because we don't know how to get rid of them. So for now we just have to deal with the unpleasantness of hundreds of ants coming out to join you while bathing.

-Kaelyn

Putting Java to the Test

2007-04-16T14:25:00.000-05:00

In an earlier post, I had written about trying to brew the best cup of coffee I could, using my French press, grinder, and Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans. But it dawned on me over the weekend that I had never directly compared this coffee to other varieties grown on the island to determine if it was truly the best. So, on Sunday, I put the assumption of Blue Mountain superiority to the test.

I bought three types of coffee: Blue Mountain beans, High Mountain beans, and Mountain Choice grounds (these are listed in order of price, from highest to lowest). Since I only have one press, I brewed the coffee in mugs, using one scoop of ground coffee for each mug and filling them up with boiling water to the same level. The grounds were stirred and steeped for about 5 minutes, then filtered with the press. I cleaned the press out between each filtration. Then all of the cups were sampled with no additives (i.e. milk or sugar). I also varied the order of the sips to compare the different varieties against each other.

The results (ranked in order of taste preference):

Blue Mountain
High Mountain
Mountain Choice

This is what you would expect based on their respective prices, but comparing the coffees against each other revealed that the Blue Mountain is far superior to the other two. What distinguished the winner was that it had an earthy, rich taste that was pleasing to the palate. So pleasing that it could be enjoyed with nothing added to it. The other important factor was that there was no bitter or acidic aftertaste. The finish was clean.

The Winner

The High Mountain had some problems, including a woody smell and acidic taste, but seemed to get better after sitting for a while. The Mountain Choice was worse than Folgers, with a bad aftertaste and a flavor that evoked the mildew smell arising from a tent that has been left in a damp basement for many months. Both of them would need reinforcements of milk and sugar to be drunk on a regular basis.

The final verdict: the Blue Mountain is definitely worth the price of admission if you can afford it.

-Shane

Goats Beware

2007-04-14T18:14:00.001-05:00

I saw this sign last week and thought it was pretty funny. I'm pretty sure it was a joke considering it was outside a store in the New Kingston area, but you never know.

- Kaelyn

Trelawny Yam Fest

2007-04-14T17:33:00.000-05:00

I had been hearing about the Yam Fest, it seems, for as long as I had been in Jamaica. It is an event that Volunteers helped start, and current Volunteers help to set it up this year. This year it was held at a fairgrounds near Falmouth, the capital of the parish of Trelawny last Monday. The Monday after Easter is a national holiday in Jamaica, so there was no work.

I didn't have a very great time at the event. The biggest problem was that it rained for about 75% of the time I was there. This meant all of the attendees were squished together beneath the various tents located on the grounds. The rain also delayed some of the scheduled activities, such as the donkey dressing competition. Then all of the events had to be squeezed into a shorter time frame. The other problem was that there were very few craft vendors, while there seemed to be about 50 food vendors selling chicken and roast yam. I thought there would be some tasty free samples, but most of the experimental yam food cost money. The free sample I did try (yam fritters) wasn't very good.

The things I did like:

Rasta Marching band from "Selassie Gardens" with red, green, and yellow uniforms
Popcorn man selling freshly popped corn with melted butter
Roast Yam with butter and hot sauce was pretty good

Sorry to be such a downer, but the truth is that I don't really like yams that much, and that may have led me to not enjoy this event. And remember, there were many other parts to the Yam Festival spread out over weeks, so hopefully they all went off without a hitch.

-Shane

Rum and Water

2007-03-27T14:55:00.000-05:00

Rum and water, the quintessential rum bar drink in Jamaica. But the phrase also describes our recent experiences in St. Elizabeth over the past weekend. There was plenty of both as it rained every day and we visited the Appleton Rum Distillery.

On Thursday, the St. Elizabeth 4H put on their annual achievement day. This is a chance for all of the 4H students in the area to be recognized with awards in such areas as environmental challenge, agricultural production, public speaking, and trash to cash competition. A few of the events were held that day, but most of them had been judged earlier. The main part of the day was to hand out the awards and let the kids have a good time. So there was a carnival air, complete with a Michael Jackson impersonator, sound system, cotton candy, popcorn, and an emcee. The only bad thing was that it rained almost the whole day, so people had to stay underneath the tents in order to stay dry. Big Up to the St. Elizabeth 4H for all its hard work.

On Friday, we went on the Appleton Rum Tour in the very scenic Nassau Valley of St. Elizabeth. The bad parts of the tour were that it was raining and there was a large crowd of drunk Cubans. This meant that the tour guide rushed through the talk and didn't give us very much information. Luckily, we found another guy who later filled us in on all the stuff we missed. There is also a sampling portion to the tour where about 15 Appleton products are laid out and you get to drink whichever ones you want. The Sangster's Original rum cream, coconut rum cream, and the Rumona (a honey liqueur) were our favorites.

Caitlin and Khaled, our St. Bess hosts, also put out some really tasty food, including a Middle Eastern mezze platter with hummus, rice, and sauted beans. Interestingly for us, the beans they used were fresh gungo peas and fresh broad beans. In Portmore, it's very rare to see any fresh beans or peas being sold, so I didn't even know you could get fresh broad beans. There was also an Italian meal with pasta and garlic butter bammy. It was also Caitlin's birthday on Monday so Khaled made a tasty carrot cake decorated with special fast melting Jamaican candles and we sang Happy Birthday. Thanks guys.

-Shane and Kaelyn

World Cup Cricket Match

2007-03-20T12:19:00.000-05:00

On March 17th, we attended the World Cup Cricket match between Ireland and Pakistan. Since it was St. Patrick's Day, we expected that the luck of the Irish would prevail, despite the facts that this was the first time Ireland has ever competed in the World Cup, that cricket is the 29th most popular sport in Ireland, and that Pakistan is a traditional cricket powerhouse and was ranked 4th in the world coming into the match. Well, the Irish won, meaning Pakistan could not advance to the second round of the tournament.

There was much fun to be had at Sabina Park. First, we actually figured out how the sport of cricket was played. Having to sit through every bowl, over, wicket, maiden, and six, plus a few rain delays, gave us plenty of time to absorb the nuances of the sport. And there were smart cricket watchers nearby to help us if something was mysterious, like the DLPar (Basically a formula that determines how many runs a team would be awarded if day light ran out). Our seats were right on the field, too. There were drunk Irish fans, a Jamaican marching band sponsored by Pepsi, and a guy running on the field (that might have been a drunk Irish fan as well, on second thought). They bring Red Stripe right to your seat, and there was Guinness on tap, supposedly delivered straight from Ireland. We also planned ahead and brought in lots of snacks like trail mix, peanut butter and jelly, juice boxes, and cookies. That way we could spend all our money on beers and souvenirs (the hat Shane is wearing in the picture).

Cricket is kind of like baseball, in that there are long periods when nothing much is happening, and the games last a long time. However, baseball has more exciting things and is much shorter compared to a game of cricket. The games start around 9 AM and last until 5 PM. But this gives you plenty of time to talk, drink, and hang out, which are the most fun parts of a baseball game as well. Maybe it could have an audience in the US?

-Shane

Problems with Power

2007-03-12T13:31:00.000-05:00

The first problem with our power is that we didn't have any for about four hours yesterday. I know what you're thinking, "four hours, that's nothing, the ice is still frozen in the freezer after four hours. " Well, let me tell you something, that ice was only halfway frozen. The real issue, though, was that the four non-electrical (or old school) hours happened to encompass the two hours when KU was battling Texas. This was the game we had waited all weekend for, as it was the only game of the Big XII Championship we would be able to watch - since all the others were on some ESPN channel besides ESPN. But then a mere 10 minutes before tip-off and poof no ESPN, no lights, no nothing. So close, yet so far away. Thankfully, our Moms love us and called with the news of the nail biting overtime finish that saw the Jayhawks as the champions and their securing of a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

The other pressing issue when the electricity stops is that the fans stop running. Then it gets really hot and and you start sticking to the furniture. Not cool. OK. So finally the power comes back on, so we think that the fan will kick in and cool us off. No dice, the fan (one of two we have) would not come on. Upon smelling it, Shane diagnosed a burnt out motor. This is now the second fan that has died on us in less than two years. Such are the perils of having to run your fan so often.

-Shane & Kaelyn

Manual Labor

2007-03-08T10:47:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since we have done any physical labor outside of our own house cleaning activities such as sweeping, doing dishes, and scrubbing laundry. So it was a breath of fresh air (not literally, of course, due to the stink) to be able to go out to Hellshire beach yesterday and pick up trash. The impetus for this trash removal exercise (T.R.E.) was the upcoming Cricket World Cup, which is motivating many people down here to spruce up their part of the island. The Cup runs from March 13-April 28, and the opening ceremonies and many matches will be in Jamaica.

Hellshire beach is one of the closest beaches to Kingston, and it has tons of fish restaurants. But it is also the home of an informal settlement, so there is not a lot of regularly scheduled cleanups. We picked up trash from the entrance area and the beach, while other people repainted the roundabout and the trees. We picked up lots of plastic bags, food containers, and hundreds of little plastic forks. The beach side was mainly abandoned clothes. The best part was seeing the trash truck come and actually pick up the waste, so we could be assured it didn't get left behind. Plus, the people organizing the cleanup gave us a free fish lunch for helping out.

Big up to the Half Moon Bay Fisherman's Co-Op. You should check out Hellshire Beach if you come to the Kingston area.

-Shane and Kaelyn

Kites

2007-03-06T14:56:00.000-05:00

It has been really windy in Portmore and Kingston for the last month. On the one hand, this means that there is a nice cool breeze so that it doesn't get too hot and stuffy. On the other hand, the breeze blows enormous amounts of dust everywhere. The dust gets on your clothes and body, and into the house, so it makes everything a bit more messy.

But the most interesting thing about this windy weather is the large amount of kite fliers that have come out of the woodwork in Portmore. Who knew that almost every block had a little group of youths who were into kite flying? Some of these kites get so high that you can't even tell where the string is originating from; it could be hundreds of yards away. Plus the sound they make carries for miles. One day, I kept thinking that it was someone was weed whacking somewhere near by. But it went on for a long time and I finally realized it was the sound of the kite and string flapping in the wind. So I am thankful for the wind, because it brings the kites, and the kites manage to give me a nice feeling about life. Something to do with the fact that kite flying is one of those activities that seems to be done just because it is fun, not for some greater good.

Of course, there is some glory to be won by being an excellent kiter. That would be the honor of showing off your kite at the Kite Festival in Ocho Rios to be held Easter Monday.

-Shane

Celebrate Peace Corps Day

2007-03-01T11:07:00.000-05:00

In honor of Peace Corps Day we thought it would be appropriate to share some information and statistics about Peace Corps. If you want more information check out www.peacecorps.gov.

The Mission and Goals of the Peace Corps
1. To help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
3. To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

History
Peace Corps officially established: March 1, 1961
Total number of Volunteers and trainees to date: 187,000
Total number of countries served: 139

Current Volunteers
Volunteers and trainees: 7,749
Gender: 59% female, 41% male
Marital status: 93% single, 7% married
Minorities: 16% of Volunteers
Age: Average–27 years old
Median–25 years old
Volunteers over 50: 5% of Volunteers
(oldest Volunteer is 79)
Education: 93% have at least an undergraduate degree
12% have graduate studies or degrees

Countries and Sectors
Current number of countries served: 73
Current number of posts: 67

Budget
Fiscal year 2006: $318.8 million

A Dry Season

2007-02-24T16:00:00.000-05:00

Portmore is usually dry and dusty, and it rains very infrequently, since it is a semi-desert area. However, you can usually get by, as 100's of thousands of other people in the city do, because there is piped water. That is, until the pipe water stops coming for a couple of days, like 5. To top it all off, the tank on our roof is malfunctioning so all of the stored water runs out. And then when the water does come back, there is not enough pressure for it to reach upstairs. So then you fill up lots of bottles from the hose downstairs and carry them upstairs. It works OK, but we had gotten used to there being water in the tank. So we were caught a little off guard when it ran out.

Luckily, we live close enough to the Peace Corps Office that we can go there and take the occasional shower. Yet another reminder that water is really important, because sometimes we all take it for granted.

-Shane

Touring Eastern Jamaica

2007-02-16T12:01:00.000-05:00

Kaelyn’s dad recently came to Jamaica for the first time. So of course we had to show him some of the wonderful things that the island has to offer. We chose to spend our time in Eastern Jamaica, because this would give a sense of city life and the heart of Jamaican music in Kingston, while also allowing for the wonders of jerk and serene beaches in Portland. The trip also allowed for a tour of the concrete jungle that is Portmore.

We started out in Kingston, going to the Bob Marley museum, Knutsford Boulevard, and Devon House. The Marley museum really has a good tour, so you should check it out if you get a chance. There are tons of intimate details such as the bullet holes from where Bob and some of his entourage were shot in a politically motivated murder attempt. You can see where Bob played football, and his favorite shorts to play in. Then there is a short movie that highlights the music and lyrics of Bob Marley and the Wailers.

Knutsford Boulevard had some interesting places to visit. There was Juici Patty, one of the two most popular patty shops in Jamaica. The food is cheap and good, beef patties, vegetable patties, and other treats. Devon House has plenty of fine shops and restaurants. The Grog Shoppe was where we chose to eat dinner. It has a wonderful outdoor eating area set amidst the old stables of the first black millionaire in Jamaica. The food is tasty as well. We also went out to Two Sister’s Cave and Prendy’s on the Beach, both in Hellshire. Prendy’s has some of the best fried and steamed parrot fish on the island, along with lobster, bammy, and festival, as you can see in the picture.

Every beach in Portland seems to be perfect. But Boston Bay is especially interesting because of it has some of the biggest waves in Jamaica and is the site of the biggest jerk centre in the island. Great Huts, a natural paradise with tents and tree houses, was our base in Portland. Boston Bay has beautiful water and waves, some interesting snorkeling, and is surrounded by cliffs, giving you the impression that you are inside of a big bowl while you are swimming. The jerk centre offers jerk chicken, pork, fish, plus festival, breadfruit, and yam.

We also visited Port Antonio. There is a busy market with food vendors and craft vendors all in one location. Rock Bottom was the name of one craft vendor who makes really nice wood carvings, although they were ridiculously overpriced. The Port Antonio marina is the site of Norma’s on the Terrace, one of Jamaica’s best restaurants. The restaurant has a view of the marina, and while we were eating a small cruise ship was leaving the dock. There are also a number of impressive yachts to see. The food at Norma’s is really good, we had smoked marlin, butterfish, shrimp salad, and stuffed crab back. As you can see, seafood was the order of the day.

We ended the trip in Ocho Rios. The craft market was fun, but tiring. There are only so many times you can hear a vendor tell you that their wares are the best in the market, better than everyone else, even though most are selling the same items. Then we went down to Island Village, browsed the shops and ate at Margaritaville. The Margaritaville people tried to get us to stay for a party with tourists from all the hotels attending, but at 8:30 there was nobody there yet so we left. The next day we stopped at Walkerswood to take a tour of their facility. It’s really fun. The tour guide shows you how to make jerk paste, and then you get to see their clean, modern factory and sample all of the sauces. They were making jerk sauce the day we went, and the smell of pimento and scotch bonnet pepper suffused the whole compound. It is a very nice tour. We made one last stop for jerk at Faith’s Pen before enduring the backed-up traffic on Mt. Rosser and heading home.

Sadly, the journey had to come to an end. As Bob would say, “Jah live i-tinually.”

-Shane and Kaelyn

Birthday Weekend

2007-02-05T14:26:00.000-05:00

The past weekend I celebrated my 26th birthday with many of my Peace Corps friends. I got to celebrate my birthday for three whole days. It was tiring, but well worth it.

On Friday night, some friends came over and we had potato and pumpkin ragout, salad, and frozen rum lemonade. Frozen rum lemonade would turn out to be a theme for the weekend, as we had it on all three days. On Saturday morning, I set out to Lime Cay with a group of about 12 friends. We made it there in the early afternoon, after taking a ferry from Port Royal. The island is very small, and takes about 5 minutes to walk from one end to the other. It is not affected by pollution from Kingston, as there is a strip of land called the Palisadoes that lies in between Kingston and Lime Cay. This means that the water is very clear and there is less debris washed up on the sand. We had a fun time swimming, lounging, and eating some fried fish and festival. I got a really awesome belt from Khaled and Caitlin. It has the really big silver buckle that is popular in Jamaica, but the image on the buckle is a lizard. Kind of reminds me of the famous Jamaican iguana, which is only found in the Hellshire Hills near where we live. Anyway, then we went back to our apartment and had coconut pasta while we watched the KU game. Unfortunately, they lost.

Sunday was spent cooking, eating, and watching the Super Bowl. There was chili, beer bread, twice baked potatoes, seven layer dip, tortillas, tortilla chips, rice krispy treats, chocolate cheesecake, and carrot cake with ice cream (the last being my traditional birthday treat). After all that eating, it was hard to stay awake for the football game. But the team I was nominally rooting for did win. This did not make up for KU losing, but it helped me to move on. All in all, it was a really jam-packed, exciting birthday weekend.

-Shane

Kindness

2007-02-01T10:43:00.000-05:00

The other day on while on the bus on the way home from Kingston I witnessed 2 random acts of kindness. The first was bestowed on a man who stood up in the center aisle of the bus and started preaching. Now this is a fairly common occurrence because bus riders are a pretty captive audience, since they don't really have anything else to listen to and are rarely going to leave until they reach their stop. But the man soon revealed that he wasn't really a preacher, in fact he wasn't exactly even a Christian. This was a bit amusing and it seemed that his conscience had gotten the better of him. He started out with the typical preaching beginnings "Good evening in the name of Jesus Christ ..." and then stopped and decided to fess up. But eventually he got to the point, what he really wanted was some money for food. Now I didn't have any smalls (small change) handy or I might have given it to him because at least he was being honest, and fessing up about not being a devout Christian in Jamaica is a pretty big deal. But I did notice that a few other of the passengers gave him some coins and then the women sitting across the aisle from me did a very impressive thing. She opened up her bag and removed a box lunch (a styrofoam container of cooked food) and gave it to the man. Now this was probably her dinner that she was carrying home and I couldn't help but be touched by this kindness. And I also couldn't agree more that giving the man actual food was probably much better than giving him money because then you knew he would be eating a proper meal that night.

Well it wasn't a few minutes later that this woman's kindness was repaid to her. As we were turning onto the causeway the woman made a loud exclamation. She realized that she had missed her stop because she certainly wasn't expecting to be on the bridge heading towards Portmore. Well there must have been 10 people trying to help this lady out, they were yelling at the driver asking him to stop so she could walk back and they were inquiring as to this lady's destination and trying to come up with alternate routes for her to take. Pretty much everyone sitting around her jumped into action and came to her assistance, truly concerned that she get where she need to go. In fact when we finally reached the next stop at the Portmore Mall I even saw persons stand up and look out the window to make sure that she headed in the right direction to get the next bus back to Kingston. And this is something I have often seen in Jamaica, whenever you ask someone for directions or assistance whether you know them or not they will often go out of their way to help you.

There is something refreshing about seeing persons come to the aid of others and even though I had not been personally involved in either act I felt very satisfied that the beggar had gotten a good supper and the women had gotten back to where she needed to go.

-Kaelyn

Caught in the Rain

2007-01-30T10:22:00.000-05:00

Yesterday something happened to us that hasn't happened in a long time, we got drenched by the rain. True it has been the dry season but I have to think back much further to remember the last time I ended up looking like a drowned rat as I ran for cover. In fact the times that come to mind were all during training way back in July and August 2005 when we first arrived in Jamaica. And I really don't think it has been pure luck that has kept us dry for so long. I think it is more the adoption of the Jamaican attitude that getting wet by the rain is really, really bad (cause it will make you sick and crush up your clothes) and you should avoid it at all costs. To do this you either don't go outside when its raining or you think it might rain and you carry an umbrella with you everywhere you go.

Now I'm not sure what happened yesterday that caused me to drop the ball and end up soaking wet. I think it was the fact that we left work about an hour later than we normally do because we were trying to finish up a project with an upcoming deadline. So while we are usually home in advance of the occassional eveling (evening) shower that hits Portmore, yesterday we were not. Now of course we should have been carrying an umbrella but in our normal workday routine we don't often need one, shame on us. And in fact we thought we were mostly in the clear becuase as we were walking to get a taxi home it was only spitting and we were pretty sure that it wouldn't really start raining until we had made it home. But as we got closer and closer to our house the raindrops seemed to get bigger and harder on the taxi windshield. And when we finally reached our stop it was a full on downpour. There was really nothing else to do but laugh as we walked to our house getting drenched to the bone. And of course we didn't see another soul outside becuase what sensible Jamaican would dare get caught in the rain like that.

-Kaelyn

Peanut Butter

2007-01-25T09:06:00.000-05:00

For those who don't know, I am a very big consumer of peanut butter. My favorite kind is crunchy natural peanut butter, with no added oil or sugar, just salt. I first tried the stuff at a friend's house in Portland, OR over 6 years ago, and I have been hooked ever since. Although it has its detractors, who will tell you that natural peanut butter separates, or gets hard in the fridge, I believe it is the best kind. For one, you don't have to worry about sugar content or hydrogenated vegetable oil, because it doesn't have any. The best thing about natural peanut butter, though, is the way it melts into a liquid when you put it on a hot piece of toast or bagel. When I went back to the US over Christmas, I made sure to bring back a jar of the good PB. Sadly, it is now gone. Back to the regular stuff for me.

-Shane

New Passport Rules

2007-01-23T16:34:00.000-05:00

For all of you people itching to come visit us:

The new passport rules governing air passengers into Jamaica and other Caribbean and Latin American nations went into effect today. Basically, you have to have a passport if you want to come to Jamaica by air. If you come on a cruise line, you don't need a passport until next January. This may influence some potential visitors not to come, but it shouldn't discourage you. Just start applying for your passport early (like today).

-Shane and Kaelyn

From One Extreme to the Other

2007-01-18T10:16:00.000-05:00

So I think it is worth mentioning some of the details of our journey from the US to Jamaica. On the day we left Kansas City we had to wake up at 3am so that we could be at the airport by 4:15 when the ticket counter opened so that we could fulfill the requirement of checking in 2 hours early for an international flight. This meant that we were leaving our hotel before the airport shuttle began running. Side note: the whole reason we chose to stay in a hotel by the airport was so we could take the shuttle, that didn't really work out now did it. So we asked the person at the front desk to call us a cab. We ended up getting a fancy, schmancy Lincoln Town Car. It had warmed seats and everything, which was a really good thing since it was 27 degrees outside and we had shed all our sweatshirts and coats the day before so we wouldn't have to carry them back to Jamaica where they would just get moldy. So our last impression of the US was luxury and the bitter cold. Many hours and airports later we landed in Jamaica. Another side note: The pizza place in Concourse D near gate 50 of the Miami Airport is most fabulous. El lugar de la pizza en el Concourse D cerca de la puerta 50 del aeropuerto de Miami es lo fabuloso. As always we had encountered a few delays but luckily all our bags made it and we sailed through customs with ease. Then we had to do a little bit of convincing to get an airport taxi driver to take us all the way to our house without charging us an exorbitant fee in American dollars. Luckily we found a nice guy who only charged us J$300 (US$5) over the regular price. He did try to get us to pay the toll too but we weren't falling for that nonsense. As we were driving through Kingston in his beat-up "deportee" station wagon with the windows rolled down I breathed in the familiar scent of burning trash. We finally reached our final destination at 9pm and of course in true Portmore fashion our apartment felt like a sauna, even though it was only 82 degrees outside. After 17 hours (we lost an hour due to time change) and a temperature difference of 55 degrees we were definitely feeling the changes of being back in Jamaica.

- Kaelyn

Rebel Salute 2K7

2007-01-16T10:55:00.000-05:00

After returning to Jamaica from a four week vacation in the US, our only option was to go back to work and then have some relaxation at the end of the week to ease our way back in to the Jamaican lifestyle. So last weekend, we went to our first stage show in Jamaica, called Rebel Salute. Rebel Salute is a big Rastafarian reggae and dancehall concert that is attended by Jamaicans and people even come in from other countries. We had been to other concerts in Jamaica, but none of them had any famous artists or live music, just a big soundsystem with selectors (DJ's) talking over the music. The picture above shows the view of the stage. We got to the show around midnight and stayed until 8 AM, but the music was still going then and we missed an appearance by Beanie Man, one of the top artists in Jamaica today.

Here we are as the sun comes up at Rebel Salute. It got cold enough during the night that we needed long sleeve shirts. It's disorienting to go to a concert all night, because then you have to sleep all the next day. But that is how most concerts work in Jamaica. The big artists, which in the case of Rebel Salute was Buju Banton, don't come on until 3 AM.

There was a good turnout of Peace Corps volunteers at Rebel Salute. Here is Kaelyn with Reina, Sarah, and Lauren.

To read more, there are some newspaper reviews of the event below:

Conscious Lyrics - Jamaica Gleaner (Tuesday, January 16th)

Thumbs Up for Rebel Salute - Jamaica Observer (Tuesday, January 16th)

Buju a class act at Rebel Salute - Jamaica Gleaner (Monday, January 15th)

-Shane and Kaelyn

Sinkle Bible and Joseph Coat

2006-12-11T12:07:00.000-05:00

I have started a small garden at my apartment. Since it is on the second story, everything has to be in pots, but that still leaves a lot of options for smaller plants. I have one pot with aloe, called Sinkle Bible, that I originally bought at the Denbigh Agricultural Fair back in August. It started out slowly because I wasn't giving it enough water. It looks sort of like a cactus, but it needs more water than cacti do.

The other plant is Joseph Coat because the leaves can be any number of hues, from purple to green to yellow. It came from Ocho Rios, near the small craft market, where a man was selling different sorts of plants on the ground outside of the craft stalls. I was giving the Joseph Coat too much water at first, so one of the four plants died. But now it is under control, and appears to be thriving.

-Shane

Fun in Negril

2006-12-11T10:47:00.000-05:00

We went back to Negril with Caitlin and Khaled and our Jamaican friends a couple weekends ago and had a great time. Once again, we stayed at the Hearbeat Hotel, a reasonably priced place set right on the cliffs of the West End of Negril with great sunsets, snorkeling, and lounging opportunities. It was Khaled's birthday (the low sum of 30 years), and it was a compelling reason to enjoy Negril.

There were a lot of Peace Corps and other visitors in the area because of the Reggae Marathon. Four PCV's participated and did quite well. Of course, we weren't there for the running, but it was fun to see everyone and hang out together. Saturday was spent swimming with the Merpickney (our Jamaican friends' kids) and then eating dinner at LTU, a nice and friendly place to eat. It overlooks the sea and has a great view. To celebrate Khaled's birthday, there was two birthday cakes, carrot and vegan chocolate.

On Sunday, we made the obligatory trip to Margaritaville. This time, we sampled the margaritas, and they are indeed scrumptious. Then, there was more time for sunning and swimming. Shane even took a bike ride all the way to the lighthouse at the other end of Negril. What a great time.

-Shane and Kaelyn

Thanksgiving Away from Home

2006-11-27T15:36:00.000-05:00

What to do when you are a Peace Corps Volunteer serving in a country that doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving and you need some stuffing/pumpkin pie/turkey love? Answer -- have your own Thanksgiving! This is what thousands of volunteers were doing all around the world last weekend, because Thanksgiving isn't celebrated in any Peace Corps countries (No, our neighbor to the north is not a Peace Corps country).

There was a small Thanksgiving dinner at our house on Wednesday, with three of our fellow Volunteers. On Thursday at the Peace Corps Office, we cooked 6 pumpkin pies, 1 large apple crisp, and prepared a huge pan of stuffing. Thanksgiving was held for all the volunteers on Friday. It rained all afternoon, but finally let up so we could have the feast. There was a huge amount of food, but every bit of dessert was eaten. The only leftovers were savory items. Sneakily, I had saved some pumpkin pie at our apartment so I was able to have some sweet leftovers.

After the feast, there was the traditional happy hour at the Four Seasons Hotel. Luckily, they haven't run out of German or Czech (Budweiser) beer. It was such a tiring weekend, and a rainy one, that we stayed home for the rest of it and recuperated.

-Shane

Hot New Dance

2006-11-21T09:21:00.000-05:00

We were riding in the taxi on the way to work today, when I noticed the driver had a bobble head dog sitting on his dashboard. After a second of inspection, I complimented him on having a nice dog. This, for some reason, led to a fairly long conversation, at least compared to my usual taxi cab rides. The taxi driver said the doll was doing the dutty wine, a hugely popular dance for females. It has been criticized because it comes from the devil, and it can lead to horrendous neck injuries and even death. So I said I thought it was time for a new dance, because the dutty wine has been going on for months.

Lo and behold, the driver busted out the new dance, the Hot Wuk. He pantomimed shaking your fingers as if they had just been burnt in a fire. Then he even played the track for me. He promised me it would take over the dutty wine in no time. Once again, this dance is only for the ladies, though.

-Shane

PS - Apparently, I am behind the times because this has been going since at least September, as YardFlex will tell you, but it is still the biggest dance now. If you want the know the more controversial real meaning of the song, click here.

"Hold me, like you did by the lake on Naboo"

2006-11-15T09:36:00.000-05:00

Do you recognize the line above? If so, you are one of the many people who have seen the new trilogy of Star Wars movies. It is one of the worst and most annoying lines from those movies, but the movies on a whole are quite good, even in comparison to the classic trilogy. The two trilogies are especially good if you watch them back to back. The new ones aren’t all bad dialogue, and the old ones’ special effects still hold up.

We were able to watch the Jedi and Sith over the past weekend because Cinemax showed all six Star Wars movies in a loop from Friday to Monday. We watched three of them on Saturday, and three of them on Sunday. Any more would have been overdoing it. For those of you haven’t read an earlier post about Jamaican cable, it is one of the perks of living in a developing country. Since piracy laws are either nonexistent or not enforced, Jamaican cable is outrageously cheap compared to the US (J$800 a month, or US$12). Plus, you get all of the premium cable channels such as HBO, Cinemax, Showtime etc. They are pirated signals from satellite feeds coming from the US. So you may get channels from all over the US, ranging from Denver to NYC, and the reception comes in and out frequently as channels are blocked and unblocked.

I never would have thought of low price cable as being something I would get in the Peace Corps, but it’s here and I might as well take advantage of it.

-Shane

If You Don't Like Cats, Stop Reading

2006-11-13T08:59:00.000-05:00

One of my PCV friends who lives nearby has a real passion for animals. So at least once a week, sometimes more, she volunteers at the Kingston SPCA. The facility there has about 20 cages for cats, 20 cages for dogs, a clinic, and space to let the dogs get some exercise. It is in a small renovated house, so it's really pretty cramped. Cats and dogs are not treated very well in many parts of Jamaica, although there are exceptions. Large guard dogs are usually fed very well, and many cats have good homes. But the large amount of stray, hungry, and dirty dogs shows that there is a great need for something like the SPCA in Jamaica.

Since the SPCA has so much work to do, and there is only one office in Kingston, it needs a lot of help. So me and a couple of other volunteers went to the SPCA last Saturday to clean up the cattery. My job was thoroughly cleaning out the cages, while others cleaned the walls behind the cages. Aside from a dirty cage looking bad for prospective adopters, cat waste can carry diseases that make others cats sick. So, with a bleach solution, I cleaned out every possible surface on the cages as best I could. In order to do that, though, the cats had to be transferred out of their current cage into a holding cage, in an exercise that closely resembled one of those puzzles with the little colored squares that must be pushed around to form a specific pattern. It was bad because we misplaced a few cats and they got put back in the wrong cages. But luckily one of the staff there was able to put them back in the right place.

So, if you don't like cats, or are allergic to them, this would not have been a fun experience. But seeing so many little kittens all at the same time was kind of fun, even if some of them did have severe diarrhea. I think I had my fill of cats over the weekend, so I don't need to adopt one to replace old Duodinho, wherever he is.

-Shane

Happy Halloween!

2006-10-30T13:28:00.001-05:00

We recently spent the weekend at our friends Caitlin and Khaled's house. It was the site for a spooky and fun Halloween party. Most people don't celebrate Halloween in Jamaica, but I have noticed it advertised on a few party fliers because the promoters always have to come up with some new reason to throw a party. Last year we didn't get to go to a Halloween party because our roof was leaking after so much rain from Hurricane Wilma. But this year there were no hurricanes to stop us.

In a perfect prelude to Halloween, the power went out the night before the Halloween party. We were staying at Caitlin and Khaled's in order to help them get ready for the party. Since the power didn't come on until about 10 PM, we weren't able to do much preparation. But we did spend a spooky time eating dinner and talking with only candlelight to see by.

The first thing we did to start off the Halloween fesitivities on Saturday was to eat ghostly pancakes. Then we formed candy out of a mixture that Khaled cooked up, mainly consisting of sugar, butter, and food coloring. It felt like silly putty. As you can see in the picture above, we rolled the shapes with our fingers and then put little designs on them with a knife. I also bushed a portion of the yard to make way for a fire circle for the bonfire later in the day.

After all the buildup, it was time to start the festivities. As you can see in the picture, there was a bonfire outside, complete with s'mores, burnt tongues from the roasted marshmallows, and acoustic guitar. Inside, there was a dance party and a card table. The card game of the night was golf. It's a great game and gets better as the party progresses and the players' memory gets a little slower. Everyone brought a little something to snack on: hummus, guacamole, trail mix, deviled eggs, popcorn. The homemade tortilla chips and margaritas really went well together. Plus there was pumpkin soup for everyone.

Kaelyn and I both had a costume. She was a kitty, with the ears and tail left over from another volunteer from last year's Halloween festivities. I was a crab in a hat loaned by our friend Lauren, who brought bits of costumes for other people to wear. The other costumes that made an impression at the party were a nerd, a housewife, a freak of nature, and a radiohead. I think we did a good job of bringing Halloween to Jamaica.

-Shane

Canasta Craziness

2006-10-23T15:20:00.000-05:00

On Saturday night we had an evening of cool air, good music, and nuff card playing! Our friend Brian bravely hosted the first annual Peace Corps Jamaica Canasta Tournament at his house in Christiana, Manchester. Twelve of us battled it out all night long for the grand prize of $1,200 - Jamaican $ of course! Most exciting of all was the fact that Kaelyn won!

Canasta became a Peace Corps craze with our training group and we were happy to have 4 of the new volunteers join us so we could spread the love. In addition to canasta the evening also featured lots of snacking, eating out of cups, hair stylings by the neighbor girls, and a slumber party on the floor. There was even a hammock and cable TV!

It was pretty fabulous and now we can spend all the winnings on supplies for next weekends Halloween Party!

- Shane and Kae

Phrase of the Day: "Blouse and Skirt"

2006-10-18T15:43:00.000-05:00

This is a mild cuss word to be used when you don't want to say anything too offensive, but still want to show that you are upset. Often used by pickney and Christians. A lesser used alternative is "pants and shirt."

-Shane

Word of the Day: Bandulu

2006-10-18T15:30:00.000-05:00

Bandulu (noun): Fraud or corruption.

"Keep dat bandulu business out of government"

This is a word we learned from our coworker.

-Shane

Volleyball and the Beach

2006-10-11T11:42:00.000-05:00

Kaelyn and I went to Trelawney and Montego Bay over the past weekend. On Saturday, we went to the parish of Trelawney for the third annual Burwood Beach Volleyball Tournament. It is a fundraiser for STEA (Southern Trelawney Environmental Association), an organization for which many Peace Corps Volunteers have worked. There were ample beverages, but the only food we ate was tortilla chips and yam salsa. The yam salsa was so good we bought some to eat at home. The yam pizza, on the other hand, was a dissapointment. It sounded like a good idea in theory, but when I went up to look at the result, there was a liberal sprinkling of sliced hot dog as a topping. These are the "Jamaican Reds", those red hot dogs with the artifical red dye number 5. Not too appetizing.

Burwood Beach, where the tourney was held, has warm, crystal clear water. Unfortunately it is only about two feet deep, so you have to squat on the sand in order to actually be in the water. The other problem with the site is that it had the most disgusting bathrooms. There were flush toilets, but none of them flushed, they just filled up and then overflowed. It would have been better had there been latrines. And the nearby trees weren't very good for bathrooms because they were mangroves and quite swampy (mosquitoes and toilets do not mix). There was an abundance of Red Face Rum, a cheap Trelawney white rum that was sponsoring the tournament. It is no Appleton's Special, let me tell you.

After the volleyball tournament we spent the night in Montego Bay, which is near to the beach where the volleyball tournament was held. I had never been to Montego Bay before because it is a fairly long bus ride from Portmore. On Sunday, we ate lunch at Margaritaville, marking our third trip to the restaurant that we have now visited in all three locations in Jamaica: Ochi, MoBay, Negril in order of preference. This is called the Margaritaville Triumvirate and we can facilitate guests who would like to complete this taxing journey (especially if they pay).

We then went swimming at Doctor's Cave Beach. It is a famous beach in the area and Peace Corps get in free. We got to do some snorkeling and saw sea cucumbers, sting rays, snappers, and many small fish -- much more than in Negril. Sea cucumbers kind of look like turds that lie on the bottom of the ocean and eat sand. Two cool things, though, they can spit out their insides when agitated, and they conform to the shape of your hand as you hold them.

Sunday night was devoted to NFL football. Sometimes it's nice to just sit around and watch it. Not much thought is required. We left on Monday morning, and the bus ride took about 4 hours to get home. It's not bad as long as it is a three day weekend. We definitely want to go back and spend some more time in Jamaica's Second City.

-Shane

Bucket O' Fish

2006-10-05T14:36:00.000-05:00

Monday evening we were on our way from Portmore to Kingston to have dinner with a friend and since we didn't feel like waiting we decided to take the first bus that came along. It was an executive class bus which is a $30 premium over the regular city buses. These exec buses are nice coaster buses with AC and tend to be faster than the other buses because they can weave in and out of traffic easily. To me these are a step above the rest and usually the rides are pretty uneventful without the colorful characters you might find on other types of buses. That all changed when I had to sit next to a bucket of fish.

The man with the fish got on 2 stops after we did and promptly sat next to Shane in the back row of the bus. I was sitting in front of Shane which meant that when the man put his bucket in the aisle the fish were sitting right next to me. Usually someone would have to sit in the aisle on the jump seat but not a soul would dare because that would mean their seat would have to rest upon the bucket. So I alone got the lovely pleasure of enjoying the bucket and it's fabulous aroma. But the joy of the bus ride did not end there because the fish man also felt it necessary to sing the entire way.

It was unforgettable - nuff said.

- Kaelyn

Moldy Shoes and Bees

2006-09-25T13:21:00.000-05:00

Two slightly strange things happened over the weekend. The first was the discovery of mold growing in the soles of my absolute favorite shoes in the whole wide world - my Jerry Garcia Birkenstocks. Boo! Thankfully these aren't my original limited edition pair but only a substitute. The originals are badly in need of resoleing and the new pair might be too if I'm not careful. I guess I need to be better about wearing them more often - now that I've bleached and sunned them that is. I find it slightly strange that a pair of sandals would be suffering from lack of use in Jamaica of all places. But that's what happens when business casual dress is required at all times!

The second strange event was the visit some bees paid us inside our apartment yesterday afternoon. At first there was one and that was a bit strange but not too alarming. We tried to usher it back outside the window but it seemed a bit confused. Then there were three flying around and coming a bit too close for comfort so we decided we had better take action and Shane went after them with our oldest Newsweek (good thing we got two new ones on Friday). But unfortunately it didn't end there and at least 10 perished throughout the afternoon and evening. We ended up having to close all the windows and doors when we realized there were lots more of them flying around our veranda and balcony. That of course made things very hot and uncomfortable. Thankfully by the end of the night they had moved on and it was safe to once again venture outside.

-Kaelyn

Everything Irie

2006-09-19T14:50:00.000-05:00

Including the toilet paper!!! This was just too good to resist - both buying and posting about. How cliche! Love it!

Mario Mastered

2006-09-18T13:52:00.000-05:00

Yes, both Kaelyn and I finally saved the Princess from Bowser, an occasion we deemed momentous enough to garner a blog post.

We got a Nintendo DS Lite from our friend Willy for Kaelyn's birthday, and he also sent the "New Super Mario Bros." game. It took about two months to beat the last castle, but now we can go back and explore all the levels we rushed through to beat the game.

-Shane

Church on the Bus

2006-09-18T13:22:00.000-05:00

Jamaica has the most churches per capita of any country in the world. Pretty much on every street you will find a church (and interestingly enough a rum bar). And it is very important in Jamaica to be a Christian, although much less important to act like a Christian (as evidencied by the commonality of sex outside of marriage, corporal punishment, etc). And since so many Jamaicans associate themselves with Christianity it is also important to infuse daily activities with spiritual elements. For instance all schools start the morning with devotions, every meeting begins with a prayer, and every advisory board of the government has a member of clergy appointed to it. At first I found these things to be very striking because in the US seperation of church and state is so important and these types of activities would never fly there. And even though I went to Catholic school for 13 years and was used to prayer in schools I was not prepared for it in the office. I also wasn't ready to be walking down the street and be yelled at from the person preaching on the corner. Not to mention all the persons offering to save me.

One of the more interesting elements of spirituality in everyday life is church on the bus. This isn't any sort of formal event but it just so happens that 50% of the time you are on the bus there is someone preaching in the aisle. Mostly this occurs on the big city buses but it has been known to happen on country buses too. It usually begins with a song or two, followed by some scripture and then a sermon that usually lasts until the person preaching reaches their stop. Most of the time it is pretty low key and usually the other persons on the bus sing along or offer Amens and Yeses when they hear something they like. Sometimes it gets a bit fiery and the person preaching goes a bit overboard but thankfully that doesn't happen too often. While I still find it a bit awkward to be sitting on the bus and being preached to I have to say that it does make the bus ride much less boring. I'm even starting to learn some of the more popular hymns. Plus it makes me feel less guilty for not going to Church on Sunday.

- Kaelyn

Baby Names

2006-09-07T09:06:00.000-05:00

Several Jamaicans have approached us with the fantastic idea that Shane and I should name our child Shaelyn. Now don't get the wrong idea we aren't expecting a baby nor do we plan to be anytime soon. But we are still asked to promise that when we do have a baby we will name it Shaelyn. Because of course Shaelyn is what you get when you combine Shane and Kaelyn. Now personally I think it is a bit ridiculous and would probably be incredibly embarrassing and dorky for the child. And I really hadn't considered that the people recommending this were serious, I thought they were just being funny. That was until I realized that this is a common practice in Jamaica, just like having 2 or 3 different names and the strange ways of spelling names. What clued us in was when our friend's baby was born earlier this week and it was named T'Andre. Of course it was because the parents names are T'sha and Andre. I guess now I'll have to stop laughing when people talk about Shaelyn. But it's still pretty unlikely we'll make use of that name, and the same goes for Kane.

-Kaelyn

Drums and Space

2006-09-04T15:25:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend, we went on a trip to visit our friend Frances in the St. Catherine hills and traveled to Ochi to visit the craft markets. We left early Saturday morning to meet up with Frances around 9 AM, because she had chartered a local taxi man for the day. We didn't take public transportation because then it is not possible to stop and linger at the different craft areas, since some of them are not located by the bus stops.

We had visited the craft markets last summer, but didn't really have enough time to look around. This time, we were interested in finding some crafts to give as presents. The first part of the trip was the almost obligatory delay on Mt. Rosser. One trailer had stopped working, and it took about an hour to get it cleared off the road. Tons of tractor-trailers travel on this very narrow, windy, and busy road, because it is the main link between the north and south of Jamiaca. This is also a good road to travel on if you are into the whole motion sickness thing.

The first stop was Fern Gully, which has a number of craft shops. It is a paved over river basin that used to have an arch of vegetation over it blocking out the light, but air pollution has killed off some of the plants and now more sunlight get in. There are a number of craft shops with mostly wood items, but it seems like every shop has the same things. Carved fish, turtles, coasters, etc. Plus there are the carved men with the very large penises. I am not sure who buys them, but maybe they could be used in place of yard gnomes.

The main craft market in Ochi was the next stop, and it had good prices as compared to the shops outside the main market. There was no cruise ship in town, so the vendors were willing to go pretty low on their prices because there were so few buyers. Our big purchase was a conga drum that one of the vendors makes. It sounds really good and is carved from coconut tree. We also bought some assorted percussion instruments in order to complete the drum circle.

The views from France's area are incredible. You can see Kingston, Portmore, Spanish Town, and the surrounding plains. The night pictures did not turn out because I do not have a good enough camera or I don't know how to use it, but the daytime ones look pretty nice.

Frances also lives in a place with a very large and well-manicured yard. It is like being at a botanical garden, but with more dogs running around. There are two puppies named Napoleon and Josephine, plus another dog who frequently comes by, one cat, and a donkey on the premises.

We took a walk to see the local Great House where the British lord of the manor had lived. There is a large construction project going on up there. The Chinese have elected to build a large sporting complex. It is to be used by football teams to train in a cooler climate. It is taking up a huge chunk of land. After the enjoyable hike, we returned to sea level and the Jamaican coastal heat.

-Shane and Kaelyn

Rodents and Bugs

2006-08-31T12:52:00.000-05:00

So 14 months in I've started to notice that things that in my former life would have made me freak out really don't phase me too much any more. For instance, over the weekend while at our friends' house we encountered a mouse and a cockroach in the same evening. Granted I wasn't the one with the broom batting the mouse out the door like a hockey puck (that was all Shane) but I also wasn't standing on a chair screeching. And I didn't even look up when the cockroach was being chased around with a shoe. The next day another mouse visited and this time it was trapped in the bathroom and knocked unconscious with a broom (once again all Shane). Not that I enjoy mice or cockroaches but I guess I've just learned you can't do too much to keep them away. It has lots more to do with poorly constructed houses where the doors meet the floor at an angle than with cleanliness. Not that cleanliness doesn't matter, but where we live in Portmore the houses are so close together that if your neighbors are messy and bringing pests around chances are they are going to visit you too. Plus there are always the pests that come in along with other items. Food for instance. On Tuesday night we cooked up a yummy pot of spaghetti sauce and when I was adding the noodles I found tons of tiny bugs at the bottom of the colander. Sure enough our other bag of newly purchased pastas was crawling with little bugs. The whole dinner was promptly tossed in the trash and while it was annoying to have to fix something else, there wasn't really much else that could have been done. Well we could have eaten the spaghetti bugs and all, but the transformation hasn't gone that far, yet. For now I'm just content with the fact that I can live with these annoyances and they don't cause me to go into a home sick panic. But I do think I'll enjoy the fact that in 10 months time I won't have to keep every single item of food in the fridge (packaged food included) to keep the ants away. For now I'll keep my crackers chilled, inspect my groceries closely, and make sure Shane is always around with the broom.

- Kaelyn

How We Weathered The Storm

2006-08-30T14:22:00.000-05:00

Well, thankfully Ernesto didn't turn out to be the threat we thought it was going to be. It headed to Cuba instead so we got off with just some rain on Sunday and Monday. We were stuck at our friends' house in St. Elizabeth until Tuesday but that had more to do with the fact we all came down with the flu. Well I don't really know if it was the flu but in Jamaica whenever you are sick it's either the flu or runny belly. Since we all had sore throats and runny noses we must have had the flu, right? At least that's what all the Jamaicans told us and then they recommended lime and honey to make us better. We just drank hot tea and relaxed, seemed to do the trick. And even though we spent the whole weekend watching the storm and blowing our noses it was still a really good time. I guess that is because the country is just so much more peaceful than our city life (how can such beautiful fog not put you at peace), plus we have such great friends to hang out with. We cooked up yummy meals including coconut shrimp pasta (the shrimp were a rare find at the Mandaville market), pumpkin curry, and banana crepes. The girls did crafts and the boys read and played computer games. And of course we played canasta, too bad the boys once again triumphed over the girls. But I'm sure there will be a rematch, we still have 3 more months of hurricane season to weather!

- Kaelyn

"There are some banding features over the eastern semicircle"

2006-08-27T10:11:00.000-05:00

Ernesto, you have our attention. It appears to be veering away from a direct hit on Jamaica, but will still affect us with strong rains and moderate winds. Spanish Town had some heavy rains on Saturday, but St. Elizabeth has not been affected by any hurricane bands yet. The trajectory has slowed down considerably, so it is hard to say whe it will hit.

We are staying in St. Elizabeth at our friends' house. Our hurricane preparation has been adequate, so there are enough supplies for us to stay inside for a few days and check the hurricane updates, eat yam, and play canasta.

-Shane and Kaelyn

Missing Kitty

2006-08-14T14:51:00.000-05:00

So, it's been a week since we have seen our sweet likkle kitty, Duo. We've talked to many neighbors and looked all around but there has been no sign of him. Everyone is pretty sad and misses him a lot, which is sweet. Our neighbors suggested that maybe he was cat-napped since he is so darn cute and friendly to humans. We like to think that rather than that something bad happened to him. Mr. Kitty, his bestest cat friend, comes over to our house and mopes around. We understand how he feels. But what to do? We just have to accept it and move on. It's doubtful we will get another cat, as we're sure we won't find any others like Duo and we weren't really looking to get a pet before he came along. But here's to Duodinho for being the the best little kitty cat we've ever had!

Love,
Kae & Shane

Independence Day Celebrations

2006-08-08T15:23:00.000-05:00

Jamaican Independence Day was Monday, August 7th. We attended two events to celebrate the 44th anniversary of Jamaica's independence from the British.

First, there was the Portmore Municipality's recognition and flag raising ceremony. It was a formal affair, with most people wearing suits and dresses. We were a little underdressed, but I guess we were thinking of a U.S. Independence Day event like a parade or fireworks, where most people wear shorts or jeans. There was cultural presentations from two high schools; statements from the Prime Minister, Governor General, and Leader of the Opposition; and much thanking of all the important people who attended.

After that, we went to Denbigh Agricultural Show, a long running annual event that traditionally coincides with Independence Day. Each parish has a small room in which they display the produce, agricultural products, and crafts that are representative of the parish. Many of them have the same things because the climate is similar throughout Jamaica, but each parish usually tries to do something a little different. For instance, the St. Elizabeth theme was Breadfruit, and they had dozens of breadfruit products such as wine, preserves, cake, pickles and more. We also found out that the parish staff, usually connected to the 4H, has to sleep on the concrete floor each night of the Show - not cool. We ended up buying a Jamaican color themed messenger bag for Kaelyn, coffee jelly, mango wine, and an aloe plant (also called sinkle bible in Jamaica) with a clay pot.

The highlight of Denbigh was seeing the Prime Minister, who was touring the parish booths with her entourage prior to giving a speech at the Show. We happened to be in the same booths as her multiple times, and then a rush of people would come before and after her, pushing the normal fair participants to the side until she passed. It was cool because it was the closest we had ever been to a head of state (That's her in the hat with a green ribbon).

-Shane and Kaelyn

Flours and Phones, It's a Happy Birthday

2006-08-04T15:59:00.000-05:00

What do flour and phones have to do with one another, you ask? Well, throwing flour in your face is a Jamaican birthday custom. I though about doing this to Kaelyn, but instead I will just wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! to the one person I would choose to be with if I were stuck on a tropical island for two years. Anyway, if I had thrown flour in her face today, the immense torrents of rain would have quickly turned it into glue. So it's better I didn't.

What about phones? I got her this phone, the Nokia 1110, for her birthday. It's a cool phone, which is very important, and it will help her stay in touch with other PCV's and everyone else. She got me a drum for my birthday.

Interestingly, both of these gifts are used for communication. I guess that is the theme for birthdays in 2006, FYI.

-Shane

Emancipation Update

2006-08-01T09:22:00.000-05:00

August 1st is Emancipation Day in Jamaica. It celebrates the day in 1838 when all Jamaicans were "finally free of the oppressive social and economic system in which they were treated as less than human," as the Jamaican Information Service notes. It only became an official holiday in 1997, while before that it was overshadowed by Independence celebrations. Emancipation Day is marked by vigils, speeches, and public celebrations. The city where we live is having a Food Fair with plenty of traditional Jamaican foods and music.

The parish of St. Elizabeth (affectionately known as St. Bess) and our friends Caitlin and Khaled have been our loyal hosts for the past weekend. We have been working on a Peace Corps Jamaica cookbook. It will be sold to Volunteers and others and help raise money for Volunteer projects. There was also time for tasty treats and relaxation in the cool mountain air.

Last Friday night, we hosted a party at our house for Group 77 volunteers who live in the same neighborhood as us. The power was out from 1 PM to 9 PM, so we got out the headlamp, lanterns, and candles. We use the jack-o-lantern battery lamp whenever the power goes out. So we hung it from our clothes line to lend its glow over the festivities. It definitely contributed to the vibes.

-Shane

Disaster Training, Current Gone, and Pirates

2006-07-17T15:55:00.000-05:00

Those three topics pretty much encompass our weekend.

First Shane worked really hard on the Disaster Shelter Managers Training that the Council hosted on Saturday. It was great to see people in the communities who were willing to sacrifice their time and comfort during a disaster in order to serve as shelter managers. Many of them also related interesting stories about past hurricanes in Jamaica. One such story was from a man who moved all of his belongings to the second story of his house because it was about to be inundated with water. Unfortunately, the roof blew off, so it all got wet anyway. The representatives from the national disaster agency and Red Cross were knowledgable and well spoken. Key points: 1) treat all people equally well , 2) don't bring your pets to a Jamaican shelter. It was a very fulfilling training as he not only helped prepare Portmore for a disaster, he also met a lot of persons who are movers and shakers within their communities in Portmore.

Speaking of meeting people, we have been doing that a lot more lately. I'm not sure if it has something to do with the fact that right now 20 of the Group 77 Trainees are living in our neighborhood and so everyone is being super friendly to all the white people they see. Or maybe after seeing us walk around for almost a year people have decided we aren't just passing through and they might as well get to know us. Whatever the reason, we just now found out about our neighborhood's citizen's association that meets monthly and we attended their meeting last Thursday. And on Saturday we hung out with some kids and young adults who live on our street. We learned the basics of cricket and played some card games with them.

Some of the friendliness extended by the persons on our street may have also been linked to the island-wide power outage that happened over the weekend. (In fact most of the weekend we were without water, current, or both - which did make us feel pretty sorry for all those new trainees in the neighborhood who aren't used to it yet.) Since it was of course very hot and getting dim, everyone was gathered outside thier houses to wait out the blackout. Once it got totally dark and we couldn't play cards any more we sat under the stars and talked until we felt we could take on the battle of the mosquitos and heat that would meet us when we went to bed.

Then on Sunday we went to see the new Pirates of the Carribbean movie. Note: we saw Pirates of the Carribbean in the Carribbean at a theatre called Carib 5 and located a few kilometeres away from Port Royal. How cool is that? We went with our co-worker Randy, which was awesome because he drove us and we didn't have to worry about the bus or chartering a taxi or anything. Plus we could go to the better theatre that is located in a worse part of Town. It had surround sound - which of course made the movie even better. We loved the movie and we loved the ac, popcorn, soda, candy, setting, everything. It was a great time!

- Kaelyn and Shane

Welcome Group 77

2006-07-11T11:25:00.000-05:00

The new group of Peace Corps Jamaica trainees (future volunteers) arrived on the island Saturday. We had a fun weekend greeting them at the airport, attending the welcome dinner, and participating in panels. We also just hung out and answered questions, which us seasoned volunteers now know all the answers to (well at least we pretend to).

This means we are no longer the newbies on the island and we have officially been in Jamaica one whole year! Yeah!

- Kaelyn

Deserted

2006-07-09T12:06:00.000-05:00

I step off the bus onto Knutsford Boulevard, the heart of Uptown Kingston. Sunday mornings are usually a little slow, but this is unreal. I feel like Jim in 28 Days Later, waking up after a coma (somewhat similar to the hot and sleepy bus environment) to find that no one is around.

A man follows me, shouting something. Why is he coming after me? Oh, he wants to tell me that the grocery is up this side, and I am going the wrong way. "Thanks," I say, "But I don't need anything." He turns away, his job completed.

Is there something going on today? Did I miss the news?

Finally, it dawns on me . . . World Cup Fever. I need to find a TV, and quick.

-Shane

As American As ...

2006-07-05T15:23:00.000-05:00

So, I wanted to bring something to work to celebrate U.S. Independence Day, which by the way celebrates independence from the same country as Jamaican Independence Day (August 6th). I settled on making that most wonderful of pie varieties - apple. Apples do cost $32 a piece down here, but I figured this was a small price to pay to represent my country. I slyly built up the excitement for July 4th, revealing to influential first adopters in the office that I would be bringing pie to work. This seemed to work.

Then, on Monday night, I began the process of baking the pie. I had never actually made one, but my experiences gained during the production of such dishes as apple crisp, apple crumble, and baked apples would serve me well. Lacking a pie pan, I used a large rectangular tin pan, like those used for sheet cakes or lasagna. I sliced eight Granny Smith apples, peeling them with the large chef's knife because I had neither a peeler nor a paring knife (Stocking Stuffer Alert). The apples were mixed with a sugar syrup and placed into a simple pastry crust. For the top, I tried my hand at a lattice crust, with delicious results!

It was finished at 2 AM. I carried the pie, shielded with foil and wrapped in a scandal bag, onto the taxi to go to work, where I kept it in the fridge until the end of the day, to keep up the suspense. Then, the unveiling. It was a big hit. 16 out of 20 pieces were eaten (80 %, for those scoring at home), and I had to cut off the disbursement in order to save some to eat at home.

Not only did I represent my country tastefully, but I learned a little something about myself in the process. I can make pie.

-Shane

A Jamaican Day at the Beach

2006-06-26T12:59:00.000-05:00

On Saturday we went to the beach with our co-workers for the launching of the Portmore Municipal Council Social Welfare Club. We were scheduled to depart at 7:00am from the PMC office, however in typical Jamaican fashion we left at 8:37. While we were waiting the girls went on one of their many food runs of the day to Tastee Patties for some breakfast (liver and onions or saltfish with food). Since there is only a little bar and restaurant at the beach we were instructed to bring along snacks and even though the girls brought coolers and bags onto the bus there was still an insistence for many food stops. Finally, we were off picking up the one last person on our way out of town instead of waiting on her to reach. Since there were so many of us, around 20 persons, we were riding in style in an air conditioned coaster bus with plush seats - the kind you see tourists traveling around Jamaica in, it was pretty sweet! And the cost of the bus ride (J$500 each/ US$ 7.70)was actually less then we would have paid traveling by public transportation which would have been way more cramped and sweaty.

We made it all the way to Spanish Town before our next pit stop. This time it was for ice, bathrooms, and KFC. Spanish Town is approximately 10km from Portmore so at this rate I figured we would be getting to the beach around noon. Once we were off again we journeyed over the imfamous Flat Bridge - a single lane bridge that washes out almost everytime it rains. And we of course all lifted our feet to prevent the duppies (ghosts) from grabbing hold of us and pulling the bus into the Rio Cobre. Then it was through the Gorge and up over the wicked Mt. Rosser where you can get stuck for hours when the big trucks break down. Luckily no trucks! Our next stop was off the side of the road to buy some juicy pine (pineapple). It was already peeled (the hardest part) and cut up in the baggies so it was ready for eating. Very tasty and only J$100 (US$1.50)!

The bus ride was pretty eventful with lots of dancing in the aisles and screaming, laughing, and drinking. I was surprised to see the "dutty wine" (a current popular, quite risque dance) being busted out at 9:00 in the morning but I suppose anything goes. The girls not only had mixed CDs for the driver to play but had a boom box of thier own in the back as well. Shane almost lost an eye due to some fast hair whipping action in the aisle next to his seat. But some would consider him a lucky man being so close to such movements.

Then we pulled into Ocho Rios, a cruise ship town on the St. Ann coast, and of course stopped for lunch even though it was only 10:30am. We pulled up to the main street and luckily it wasn't a cruise ship day so there weren't massive amounts of white people mulling around which made things much calmer than normal. We headed for Juici Beef Patties for vegetable patties and then stopped into Baskin Robbins for a rare treat. Others hit up Island Grill, Burger King, and of course KFC. Then it was off to the beach which was down the road aways and over the border into St. Mary.

Reggae Beach was a really nice, clean, low-key white sand beach. Since it is outside of Ochi it doesn't get so much tourist traffic and caters more to Jamaicans. We heard some music videos have even been filmed there. It was J$200 (US$3.00) each to enter but worth it for the cleanliness, bathrooms, and lack of harrassment. There were lots of shade trees and picnic tables and even a volleyball net. We had a tree swing near our spot and further down there were hammocks. Of course the Jamaicans mostly hung out in the shade (sun hot!) , snacking and napping. We chose to soak up the sun and do some swimming. Some of our friends did get in the water and there were a few attempts at swimming lessons. Dominoes and bingo were played and of course there was lots of eating. At some point in the day another KFC run was made too. After the girls were successful in building a pyramid in the water it was time to head home.

Of course the return trip warranted pit stops too. First it was to buy a big whole pine - but not for the tourist price of J$500 (they didn't even weigh it, the nerve!) but for the more reasonable price of J$200 that we got 2 stops later. Then we stopped at Faith's Pen for some jerk - it is a large string of roadside stalls who all sell jerk meats and roast vegetables. We got some roast corn, yam and breadfruit plus some festivals (fried dough). It was really, really tasty! We finally rolled back into Portmore around 7:30pm, tired with our bellies full!

- Kaelyn

My Tale

2006-06-19T13:22:00.000-05:00

My journey began when I was unsuspectingly snatched away from my mother in the nice cool hills of St. Elizabeth and dropped into a shoe box that someone tied up with string and carried around as if a cake was inside. There were plenty of air holes which also provided me a view of my surroundings and allowed in the many smells of my trip. My first stop was Santa Cruz which I didn't like too much because big wet rain drops started to disintegrate my little house. Luckily my carrier had some tape handy and was able to patch it up. Then there were many bus and taxi rides. I tried to meow every so often so people would be certain that I was a cat and not a cake but there was so much loud music I'm not sure if anyone even heard me. I peeked out of my air holes but some of the other people on the bus were pretty stinky so I had to be careful which holes I used.

Then all of a sudden the car rides were over and I was being let out of my box. Everywhere I turned there was concrete, I was definitely not in St. Bess anymore. What had happened to the beautiful mountains, the crisp clean air, the grass and the trees? Most importantly what had happened to my mother? There were those pesky humans who I recognized from my mother's house, two of them who had always been there and the other two who had come to visit. I later learned that this new house belonged to the two visitors, not nearly as enjoyable as my former home but at least they had a litter box for me to use because after that long journey I had to go! I looked around for something to eat, no milk just hard food - boy was this going to take some getting used to.

The first night they made me sleep outside on the veranda, but soon they learned that those silly iron bars weren't going to stop me from adventuring. When they all left on Saturday I decided I wasn't going to spend my day all alone on the porch. I climbed around the roof tops and found lots of other humans to take pity on me and give me milk. Unfortunately, only having been at this new home for 1 day I didn't quite know my way back home. Luckily, my new owners searched high and low until they found me. But should they really be that worried, nobody would believe a fat, fluffy kitten like me could be a stray - of course they would take care of me until I was returned to my home.

But after that it was inside for me. Apparently, there are scary things out there I don't know about and I'm not big enough to defend myself yet. So now I just have to dart out whenever the door is opened, but that's okay because inside is fun too. There are lots of electrical cords to swat at and I have a nice little ball made out of newspaper and duct tape. I even got to watch my favorite football team Brazil play yesterday. Mostly I was mesmerized and sat staring at the TV but every once in a while I got inspired and showed off how I too could carry my ball across the floor like a ballet dancer. That's how I earned my full name - Duodinho. I'm pretty thankful they named me after Ronaldinho and not Ronaldo because I'd much rather be hip and cool than looking a bit fat and sloppy. Then of course there were plenty of naps to take and the heat here was really getting to me, sometimes I just have to lie on the floor and cool off. Those fans are nice too but they make all my fur stick up like a mohawk.

The humans are pretty fun too, they have nice laps to curl up in and I really crave the attention they give me. I couldn't believe it this morning when it was 6:00am and those silly owners of mine weren't up yet. I had to sneak into their room and convince them to come out and play with me. I mean really if they were planning on leaving me in the house all alone while they went to work today the least they should do is give me lots of attention in the morning! All in all I think I'll manage just fine in my new home, especially once they decide I'm big enough to venture outside on my own and if they keep giving me little treats like milk and tuna.

Meow!
- Duo

Picture Update

2006-06-12T14:30:00.000-05:00

Since we have been a bit behind in updating there is a hodgepodge of new pictures on the Flickr site. But they do offer some more insight into what we have been up to the past few weeks. Two weekends ago we chilled around our house, for the first time in a long while not going anywhere or having any visitors. We hung out with one of the neighborhood girls, Regina, for a bit and even took a little walk to get some tasty ice cream. She is quiet the talker and told us all about her plans to go to the U.S. and all the things she is going to buy and bring back. She also drew a nice picture of me or I should say of Candee which is what she has taken to calling me. And she has informed all the other kids in the neighborhood of my name too, which they love to call out whenever they see me.

Then we had a visit from our friend Khaled who has been helping with our database project at work. He is convinced that I can learn Visual Basic in a week. But since I haven't had a week yet to go through his tutorial he has to come and do the programming for now. We had a bit of a scare when Access went berserk and locked us out thanks to some security corruption. But luckily the solution came to Khaled in a dream and everything was back up and running again the next day.

Quarterly meetings happened the first weekend in June. Those are always a good time to catch up with everyone. And of course there is Happy Hour at the Four Seasons which is always lots of fun. But there are also lots of meetings which can last forever. What we need is more Happy Hour and less meetings! Another exciting note of the weekend - we discovered some sunflowers in New Kingston. As we walked along between the bus stop and the Peace Corps office there they were giving us a lovely reminder of our Kansas home. Ahhh, the things that make you smile!

After Quarterlies I ventured to Malvern, in exchange for Khaled's help I was off to help the St. Helena's Womens Group with their accounting system. They are a group of weavers who live in Retrieve, St. Elizabeth who Caitlin assists as a secondary project. She is working to help them market their baskets and other woven goods, which are quite gorgeous and I must admit I own a few pieces myself. I spent part of a day up in Retrieve (which would definitely be considered deep bush Jamaica) working with the woman who is in charge of keeping their records and attending a meeting of all the women in the partnership. It was truly one of the most rewarding days I've spent as a Peace Corps volunteer and I hope I have more opportunities to help this group in the future.

While in Malvern I also spent some more quality time with the kitties. Their rank has sadly gone from four to three but they are still as cute as ever. We had previously selected the squeaker as the one we would adopt but he is pretty much a scaredy cat and we don't know that he could handle the bus ride to our house. So we have decided to go with the most outgoing one in the bunch, Duo. Although Brownin is the sweetest and Caitlin's favorite we are pretty sure she is a girl and we just don't think we could handle baby kitties of our own. So Duo it is and he should be arriving at our house this coming weekend which will be all sorts of exciting!

Otherwise we have just been dealing with our "Adventures in Plumbing" and the lack of power at our office. Unfortunately no pictures of the enormous holes in our bathroom floor. The sight was just too much to bear and I really didn't want any reminder. I will say that we are getting better and better at adapting to these annoying instances of no showers, lack of power, and constant rainfall. These are some interesting times!

- Kaelyn

Drains, Rains

2006-06-12T13:58:00.000-05:00

It has been a long time since we posted, so we wanted to give everyone a little update on what has been going on with us lately.

A tropical depression developed near Jamaica from about June 4-7. It caused some rain, but nothing heavy enough to cause problems. It mainly meant getting wet and not being able to dry clothes. The power also went out at our office a few times due to the rains. The last week, though, the power at our office has not been functioning even though it has stopped raining. It is due to faulty wiring, and the contractors have not been able to correct the problem yet. It should be fixed soon, and then we can get back to work.

We had been having drain problems since May. At first, the water would take a few minutes extra to go down the drain after you showered. Then, it started pooling around your foot as you bathed, which isn't very pleasant. Finally, it would not drain at all. Why, you ask, did we not get this fixed sooner? The main reason is that we wanted to wait for a our landlady to get back into Jamaica, so we could ask her about it and see if she could reccommend a plumber. In the meantime, we did try using drano and a long piece of wire to try to remove the obstruction, but neither of these worked.

We got a hold of the plumber, and his solution was to dig up our bathroom floor, remove the blocked pipe, and replace that section. I did get to learn about how Jamaican floors are constructed and deconstructed while observing this process. He first removed one tile using a chisel and hammer. There is tinset surrounding the tile and underneath it to hold it in place. Below the tinset is concrete, and the two are about 4 inches thick combined. Then, there is just loose rock and soil and various stuff for about 8 inches underneath the concrete through which all the pipes run. So, he takes all of this dirt and stuff out of the hole in the floor. Unfortunately, no pipe. He tries another one with the same result. I tell him that there are only three good tiles to use as replacements. Finally the third one is paydirt. Instead of removing the pipe, he just knocks it, and this dislodges the "choke" in the pipe. Let's hope this process does not have to be repeated.

-Shane and Kaelyn

Jamaican Migration

2006-06-12T13:42:00.000-05:00

After talking to a few Jamaican acquaintances, I learned some interesting facts and stories about how they split their time between Jamaica and the United States. For half of the year, they live in Jamaica, where they own a home and consider it their permanent residence. For the other six months or so, they live in New York City with relatives, working there to earn money to bring back to Jamaica. This lifestyle allows them to work very little or just do odd jobs while they are in Jamaica, since they already own their home. The amount of money they get paid in New York is also much greater than they could earn for equivalent work in Jamaica.

There is also an interesting gender division in their women. The men do construction or painting, while the women work as nannies or live-in household help. The male work is seasonal, since most construction is carried out during the summer months. One couple I talked to even goes at opposite times of the year, so that someone is living in their house throughout the year.

The funny thing is that many Jamaicans can relate stories to me about New York City, like how they were up there during the blackout in the summer of 2003. One of them had to walk all night to get back to his apartment because the buses were not running when there was no transportation. Since I have only been there a few times, the Jamaicans know a lot more about NYC than I ever could, and it is their main image of the United States. I try to describe the Midwest, and how it is quite different from New York, but it is hard to explain.

An interesting example of migrant labor, but one that does not fit the common stereotype of people coming from Mexico to do farm work.

-Shane

Creepiness

2006-05-24T10:55:00.000-05:00

I have a creepiness on my hand. It started last week on my knuckle and then spead to my fingers over the weekend. It is mainly just dark splotches with a little but of skin peeling on the fingers. It isn't raised or red and it doesn't itch. It mostly just tingles and sometimes it hurts a bit. I showed it to the Peace Corps nurse and she didn't know what it was so she sent me to the dermatologist. He looked at it and said "strange, very strange" over and over. He couldn't identify it or its cause. He didn't do any tests either, just perscriped dermatop cream and told me to come back in 3 weeks. I hope it goes away by then, it is really creeping me out!

-Kae

Goodbye Michelle

2006-05-24T10:32:00.000-05:00

On Sunday our friend Michelle left the island. She came with our group in July of 2005 so her time wasn't up yet, instead she early terminated (et'd). She isn't the first person from our group, she is actually the 15th out of our original 62. Everyone has different reasons for leaving - health, frustration, boredom, and better opportunities back home. Before being here, back when I was anxiously awaiting Peace Corps, I could have never imagined coming and leaving before my time was up. In fact I hardly even knew that was a possibility. And considering all the time and effort put into applying and the many things you give up in preparation for Peace Corps it would seem crazy not to see it through. But once you are here and are actually part of the experience you can understand why people leave and you support them in their decisions because you know that they have made the best decision for them.

Of course we were sad to lose Michelle as she had become a very close friend, but we are also very happy for her because she is much happier now. However, we didn't let her leave without a proper send off. On Friday night we gathered at Christopher's, our favorite bar in Kingston, and then we went to dinner at the Mediterranean/Latin American restaurant down the road. This was followed by a slumber party at our house, what fun! On Saturday, Maggie, Anne and I went with her to Porty to pack up her things. That was when Jamaica gave her very own send off to Michelle - there was no electricity or running water in all of Porty! So we got to pack by lantern light, what a romantic way to spend your last night in Jamaica. We helpers made off with some good loot too since she could only leave with 2 bags. If anyone wants to have a Halloween party this year, I'm the girl to see as I was bequeathed two bags of decorations. All in all, we had a good time and made sure that as few tears as possible were shed.

- Kae

p.s. We miss you already Michelle! Think about us often and be sure to feel guilty for living the good life!!!

Negril

2006-05-08T13:47:00.000-05:00

We journeyed to the west coast this past weekend and hit up the resort town of Negril, known for its hedonistic atmosphere. Our friends, Caitlin and Khaled, traveled with us and since it is such a trek for us (4-5 hours) we stopped at theirr house on the way to visit their new kittens and eat some tasty bagels. But we made sure to make it to Negril early enough on Friday to swim, whip up a tasty Cinco de Mayo feast, and watch a beautiful sunset. We were staying on the cliffs side of Negril (as opposed to the 7-mile beach side) but we were right on the ocean so in the morning we were able to roll out of bed and go snorkeling. The reef is pretty dead but we did see some pretty fishies and some jelly fish, as well as a brightly colored ginger beer bottle that Shane retrieved from the bottom. We decided to splurge and be a bit touristy by having dinner at Margaritaville Saturday night. It was almost more trouble than it was worth because we had to fight with the taxi driver who was trying to overcharge us on the fare. But the Margarittas were tasty and we really enjoyed our veggie cheeseburger in paradise. We also got a souvenir mug showing a rasta parrot, that will now be used during happy hour to pour the drink for the person who had the worst day. Sunday it was back home, and after the 4 hour bus ride (including Shane's short frisking interlude with the Jamaican authorities) our butts hurt so bad we needed a relaxing vacation all over again!

-Kae

Kittens are Cute

2006-05-08T13:35:00.000-05:00

Our friend Genip had four kittens a week and a half ago. It may sound a bit surprising to those who know us well that we have made friends with a cat, but she is really cute and we are good friends with her owners, Caitlin and Khaled. When we heard about her adorable babies that looked just like her we decided to adopt one. So on our way to Negril we stopped by to visit the babies and pick out which one would be ours. It was a pretty easy decision - we picked the squeaker. It won't be able to come home with us for at least 6 weeks but when it does we are going to name it Coco. For those who don't know, Coco refers both to coconut flavored rum called Coco-Mania and also to the wonderfully sturdy root crop, coco. Coco, may you be hungry for roaches, lizards, and creepy crawly things.

- Kae

Dinner and a Movie

2006-05-02T10:50:00.000-05:00

We volunteers who live near Kingston or other cities get to enjoy certain creature comforts that other volunteers may not get to access very often. Our rural counterparts do have other quaint pastimes, such as "parachuting," that we do not get to enjoy very often. If you're like me, though, and you like movies, you might as well take advantage of the movie theaters and restaurants in Kingston. That's just what Kaelyn, myself and another Peace Corps volunteer did the other night.

The dinner part was best. Habibi Latino is a Middle Eastern restaurant off of Knutsford Boulevard -- the heart of New Kingston -- above the Burger King. They also serve some Latin American dishes, such as patacones. The restaurant is so popular among a certain set of Peace Corps volunteers (by that I mean, those who like Middle Eastern food such as myself) that its reopening, after a temporary closing, was trumpeted via email to every volunteer on the island. I have to say, the food was very good, even if they were out of Diet Coke. We shared the hummus and baba ganoush, while Kaelyn had the lentil soup and I ordered the falafel sandwich. It was also tasty and fresh, with colorful presentation. The atmosphere of the restaurant is relaxing and warm, with a TV playing off to the side, but not in a position to distract from conversation, just provide a little respite when their is no conversation. Paintings of Arabic scenes line the walls and fabric hangs neatly from the ceiling, taking you away from the Jamaica scene quite effectively. I definitely recommend it, and the prices are all in the 200-500 dollar range.

The movie we saw was "The Sentinel." Really, not that good, but up to the task in diverting one's attention. There are a few too many characters to focus on, so some such as the villains have very little screen time. The use of a blackberry to tap phone lines was intriguing, though. The real fun is going to the movie theater at Sovereign, at the corner of Hope and Old Hope Read. This is one of four movie theaters in Jamaica. I prefer the one in Mandeville, as it is newer, but Sovereign affords you the chance to examine the upper class of Kingston, and you can sip your Miller Lite through a straw.

-Shane

Portmore Gets Healthy

2006-04-20T10:08:00.000-05:00

In other great news two wonderful new shops have opened in the Plaza where our office is located. The first is Vibrant Health, a health food store that has lots of dried nuts and fruits and even some rare finds like Tom’s of Maine Organic Toothpaste, seaweed, and miso paste. The other is Earl’s Juice Garden which is a new location of a vegetarian restaurant we eat at sometimes in Kingston. It is only two doors down from our office and tonight is the Grand Opening complete with Earl himself and a menu tasting. We are excited to attend but even more excited at the thought of replacing our boring PB&J with healthy veggie lunches from Earls. Jamaicans complain that health food is too expensive but to us a few extra dollars (Jamaican dollars) is definitely worth it if just for the Good Vibes!

- Kaelyn

The First Mango

2006-04-20T10:00:00.000-05:00

Mango season has officially begun. I knew it was coming, ‘cause the last time I was in Kingston, the Friday before last, I saw someone eating one. However, there have not been any on sale anywhere and most people I have asked have said “mango soon come”. The trees in our neighborhood have definitely been hanging lower, weighed down by this wonderful fruit. It has really been quite taunting and I have been getting pretty anxious. Then Shane saw some in Kingston last Monday at a streetside vendor but he didn’t have any extra money with him so he couldn’t bring me one. That was pretty disappointing. When we were in St. Elizabeth we checked out the market in Santa Cruz but all we could find were some puny blackie mangos. Since I have been waiting for it so long I really wanted the first one to be good and those kind are pretty stringy so I decided to pass and wait a little longer. And boy was I rewarded for my patience. When we came back to work yesterday from our little Easter vacation our friend Randy surprised us with 4 mangos fresh from the tree in his yard. It was a thank you for the big chocolate bunny and KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce we had carried him back from the States. I made myself wait until I got home to eat the first one; I wanted to be able to document the momentous occasion and they are pretty messy so not really good for the workplace. I had it for dessert and it was fabulous – scrumdidleumptious in fact! What a great start to the wonderfulness of mango season!

-Kaelyn

Easter in the Fog

2006-04-20T09:08:00.000-05:00

We spent the last week, from Wednesday to Tuesday at our friends Caitlin and Khaled’s house in Malvern, St. Elizabeth. Malvern has a much nicer climate than Portmore. Read: It’s not constantly hot, since it’s at a higher altitude. Instead, it is cool and the fog and rain roll in off the Santa Cruz Mountains during the afternoon. It’s also very calm and quite compared to the hustle and bustle of our Metropolitan Area.

We went there on a working vacation. Our goal was to relax, play cards, eat and drink, and work on the database and some grant applications. All of these were accomplished plus we even got to do a little site seeing. We ventured over to the local waterfall at the YS river and on the way got to drive through the famous Bamboo Avenue. YS falls was beautiful, although the water was a bit muddy. We couldn’t help but stare at all the tourists there, as strange as it sounds white people look a bit funny to us now, especially in big groups. Shane finally learned how to play Canasta, so now he can enter the Peace Corps Jamaica Canasta circuit and compete. We opted to skip the Yam Festival in Trelawny on Monday and instead attened the Easter Fest at a local school. There was a cricket match, fried chicken and even a Talent Contest. We took 3 of the neigbour girls and they seemed to enjoy it a lot. But most of the time we sat around, read, and went for walks in the hills of Malvern. Very chill!

Our friends should really consider opening a local bakery because the treats they made us were out of this world! The baked goods list included Dutch baby (a quick soufflé) with bananas foster topping, éclairs, biscotti, cinnamon rolls (with coffee and reading material, the ultimate breakfast), and banana cupcakes. There were also some really good dinners like pasta primavera with coconut cream sauce, soy meat loaf, and stuffed peppers. Luckily, we didn’t eat lunch usually so there was room for all the tasty breakfasts and dinners. Us city folk were in awe at all the garden goodies brought over by neighbors and we had lots of fun at the open air market in Santa Cruz. Buying your fruits and veggies at the grocery store just isn’t as nice as getting someone’s abundance for free or chatting with the market ladies. We did bring back a few local treats though, some lemons and a nice big bottle of St. Elizabeth honey.

It was a really wonderful time and with such great company, yummy treats, and a cool climate Malvern definitely tops our list of escapes from the hot, hot Sunshine City of Portmore.

- Shane and Kae

Bun and Cheese Update

2006-04-11T16:02:00.000-05:00

Bun and Cheese 02
Originally uploaded by Shane and Kaelyn.

Here is my very own bun and cheese meal that I ate for breakfast the other day. As you can see, the cheese did not melt. But it did taste good. Also, check out this article from the Gleaner for more info about Jamaican Easter traditions.

Bun and Cheese

2006-04-10T10:40:00.000-05:00

Buns and small cakes are extremely popular in Jamaica. People eat them for lunch, breakfast, or a snack. They are basically a sweet bread with various ingredients to flavor them. Spice (they never tell you exactly what kind, but I think it's allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg), raisins, fruit flavor, and cheese are some common fillings. For Easter time, though, nothing beats the Easter bun and cheese.

Easter bun and cheese is the quintessential food for the holiday. Now, I used to think that it was only eaten on Easter weekend. But I was wrong. People eat it for up to an entire month before Easter. And some people eat it everday. The bun is basically a sweet, dense bread, with raisins and the aforementioned spice. There are different kinds, but I have found the HTB brand (Haflway Tree Bakeries) to be very good. The cheese has to be Tastee cheese, which is pasteurized process cheddar that comes in a tin. You open it with a can opener. It is very hard and, unlike Velveeta, will not melt no matter how long I put it in the toaster oven for. I actually like the bun and cheese, and have had it for breakfast and lunch.

You can order your own Easter bun and cheese here.

-Shane

p.s. Isn't it funny how they have Easter Bun in Jamaica and in the States we have the Easter Bunny? I think they must be connected somehow, perhaps the lack of bunnies in Jamaica explains it.
- Kaelyn

Fun Citi

2006-04-03T16:08:00.000-05:00

I spent the past Saturday helping out at a Kid's Day celebration for about 300 kids living in youth homes around southern Jamaica. It was sponsored by Food for the Poor, one of the largest charitable organizations in the Caribbean. A number of Volunteers serve with Food for the Poor, and one of them was organizing this day of fun. Fun Citi, in good old Portmore off Port Henderson Road, was the venue for this event. It started at 10 AM and the kids left around 6 PM.

There were many activities for the kids. Sports like soccer, volleyball, and basketball. Swimming was the most popular, as the facility is located right on the beach. There is a skating rink. I helped kids put on their roller blades and tried to teach them to skate. A number of boys preferred just wearing one skate and racing around as if they were on scooters. There was also an old plastic electric motorized car (pink, with no batteries left) that kids would push each other on and then ram into the walls and trees around the skating rink. Hours of enjoyment.

My favorite thing, and the scariest thing, was the hand-operated ferris wheels, of which there were three. I operated the largest one, with six carts and standing about 15 feet high, for quite a while. It sat on railroad wheels, and so used to be towed around on rail. But it was sunk into the ground with poles at each corner of the platform. To operate, you pulled the wheel on either side (sometimes easier with two people) and loaded the kids into the carts, which had a safety bar the kids were supposed to hold onto. Then you would keep pulling down on the wheel to spin it, the kids shouting "faster!" until one of them wanted to come off. The scary part was when kids would try to climb on before it had stopped moving, or climb down from one of the top carts. At one point one of the carts flipped all the way around, but the girl inside was able to hang on. Towards the end of the day, a safety pole came off of the cart. That's when we realized it was time to stop, and we made everyone get off. I had to play the role of the boring adult, always worrying about safety, but it wasn't too bad.

The kids got their chicken and rice lunch, which took about four hours to feed them all. Before that, there was hot dogs, snow cones (I got one), Chubby brand soda, and popcorn for snacks. The talent show at the end was fun, just like Rising Stars, with dancing, singing, and poetry. At the end, I got a free red stripe, chocolate bar, and Bob Marley shirt. The kids had fun. I had fun. A day well spent.

-Shane

A Trip to the States

2006-04-03T08:50:00.000-05:00

We just got back from our nearly two week trip back to the USA. It had been nine months since we left for Jamaica. Was the readjustment shocking? Not too much, but there were certain phenomena that gave pause. For instance, the first taste of the US was the airports (Miami, O’Hare, and Kansas City, for those scoring at home) and every other person had a Starbucks. Coffee is not that popular in Jamaica, and most people drink instant if they drink anything. Wow, people in airports are very caffeinated, unless it was decaff. Getting into Chicago was when we remembered the Midwest. The scene: lots of large white people – again drinking Starbucks. But it was colder than Miami. It was snowing outside, and most people had coats on because it was cold in the terminal. What, are the O’Hare Fat Cats trying to cut down on the heating bill?

The rest of the time being in the States wasn’t too weird. We saw our family, including the four nieces and one nephew that belong to Shane’s siblings. There was lots of eating out (Mexican, Thai, pizza twice, Indian, Pittsburgian chicken, subs, Central American, brewpub) with some good beer. The Jayhawks lost. Taxes were paid. Shane gave a presentation on Jamaica to his brother’s class. They liked it, especially the candy – bustas, coconut drops, and tamarind balls. Family, friends, and food was the order of the day. What more do you need?

On the way back, we happened to sit next to someone who works at Peace Corps Jamaica in the Miami terminal. We were able to hitch a ride halfway home with her, a lucky break. Being back in Jamaica was a harder adjustment than going to the US. Was it really that hot before? Answer: pretty much, but it might have gone up a few degrees since we were gone. We brought back a chocolate bunny for our co-workers. Nothing says Easter more than that. Kaelyn carried back an infectious disease. Luckily, she has now recovered. Shane brought chunky natural peanut butter (Oil separation is natural). Two possible scenarios that greeted us when we returned to our home:
a)A neighborhood welcome banquet was held upon our arrival (false).
b)We ate Thai noodle soup and trail mix from the States while watching cable (true).

Back on the island . . . The Red Stripe is brewed right down the road. You can’t take your grocery cart outside the supermarket. The nut man’s piercing steam whistle fades away into the distance. A large cloud of smoke from a grass fire obscures the setting sun, grey mixing into the pink and orange.

-Shane and Kae

P.S. Thanks bunches to all our friends and family for their wonderful hospitality. We already miss you guys but now we have new memories to cherish until we see you again at Christmas. You're the best!

Margaritaville B & B

2006-03-08T15:44:00.000-05:00

Stats for this past weekend.

Consecutive days with overnight guests: 4
Total guests: 6
Meals served: 5
Tequila consumed: 400 mL (1/4 gold, 3/4 blanco)
Oscars watched: 1
Frank Capra films viewed: 1 (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington)
12 A bus tickets purchased by all guests: 20 (J$50 per)

Looking past the numbers reveals an interesting aspect of the Peace Corps ethos. Letting other Peace Corps stay at your house is fun. This is one of the great undavertised perks of the Peace Corps experience. You don't have to get a hotel, because there's always a floor (and sometimes even a mattress) to sleep on. Some volunteers even go to other countries and sleep on the floors of the volunteers there.

So, for quarterly meetings, since we live so close to the Peace Corps office and have cable, many people sleep at our place instead of a hotel in Kingston. It's cheaper, and we all cook together, which is fun. Plus, we have finally perfected home made tortillas, after the third try. (Thanks Caitlin!) Karma dictates that if we let people stay at our house, then we get to stay at their house. Works out nicely.

-Shane

Happy Hour

2006-03-08T15:01:00.000-05:00

There are certain rituals that must be observed in the Peace Corps. One of these is happy hour. I would venture to guess that posts all across the globe have their own version. Some may be smaller, others swankier, more frequent, or featuring different drinks. But they all have them.

The biggest happy hour ritual in Peace Corps Jamaica happens during quarterly meetings in Kingston at the Four Seasons Hotel. Part of the appeal of happy hour is cheap drinks, and this one is no exception, serving everything half price for one hour. Since this hotel is owned by German-Jamaicans, though, the really fun part is the German beers which cannot be found anywhere else in Jamaica - Hofbrau and Beck's. The restaurant serves sausage and potato salad as well. Happy Hour is one of those time when you really feel like part of the expatriate community. It's a time to reconnect with your fellow Peace Corps and relax. We all need that sometimes.

Here's To Happy Hour!

-Shane

PS - Sadly, at the time of this writing, the Four Seasons had run out of German Beer. We will give them until the next meeting to restock.

Happy Birthday Peace Corps!

2006-03-02T10:17:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the 45th Anniversary of the Peace Corps. It was also Ash Wednesday which is a national holiday in Jamaica, so we are a day late in our recognition.

As President John F. Kennedy said in his remarks on March 1, 1961 when he established the Peace Corps:

"Life in the Peace Corps will not be easy. There will be no salary and allowances will be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and meet basic needs. Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the nationals of the country in which they are stationed--doing the same work, eating the same food, talking the same language."

"But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying. For every young American who participates in the Peace Corps--who works in a foreign land--will know that he or she is sharing in the great common task of bringing to man that decent way of life which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace."

- Keeping Kennedy's Promise

In doing our part to achieve the 3rd goal of the Peace Corps (“Help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of all Americans.”) we reached out to our local newspapers back home and encouraged them to cover the 45th Anniversary of Peace Corps. We previously shared the article in the Lawrence Journal World in which Shane got his 15 minutes of fame. Yesterday, Kaelyn's hometown newspaper wrote a story so now she's had hers as well. This story was taken from the email interview we previously posted about.

To commemorate the event in Jamaica we had a booth at the U.S. Embassy's Blues on the Green concert which was held last Friday night at Devon House. We promoted Peace Corps by showing a slide show and video and handing out stickers, bookmarks, and brochures. Be sure to check out our pictures of this event, including a few of the new Ambassador.

- Kae and Shane

This One's For You Dad

2006-02-23T16:18:00.000-05:00

Apparently my Dad isn't the only one who thinks Bob Marley's Legend is a disgrace to his legacy. This article entitled "Free Bob Marley!" from Slate.com really drives the point home. I officially apologize for my blasphemous comments in an earlier post. I will burn my copy of Legend and never again allow it to be played in my presence.

One Love,
Kae

Interesting Tings

2006-02-23T13:57:00.000-05:00

Below is a list of interesting things we could have blogged about over the past month or so but didn't (mostly because we have gotten a bit lazy and more busy at work).

We spent the weekend of Shane's birthday at our friends' house in the cane fields of Clarendon. They had piglets in their back yard and made an awesome feast of lentil burgers, sweet potatoe fries, hummus, and vegan chocolate cake. We provided the wine. They borrowed a projector and we watched a movie on their wall. Good times!
We made chocolate chip cookies and hummus for our Super Bowl party for two. Commercials were sub-par in our opinion. The buff he is sporting in the picture was courtesy of a birthday package from Kaelyn's family, it also had a new KU t-shirt (his old one got bleach on it) and a t-shirt for the Swizzle Stick Club.
Our friends from St. Elizabeth, who we spent Christmas with, came down to our house and we had a Mexican Fiesta and watched nuff cable TV. They also had the luxury of sleeping on the air mattress in our living room.
The next day the 4 of us went up to the Blue Mountains of St. Andrew for the Woodford Hold 'Em Poker Tournament, a benefit for LTAG (Literacy Tutoring Advisory Group). Kaelyn dealt and Shane made it to the final table. Everyone loved the candy we brought from the birthday/valentine's package Shane's Dad sent, especailly the Hot Tamales. During a raffle at the tournament Shane was the lucky winner of a Vote for Pedro t-shirt. And to appease the crowd he even quoted Napoleon ("This one tastes like the cows got into an onion patch").
On our way from the tournament to the cabin where we were staying 7 of us took a midnight hike up the wrong mountain, twice, before eventually finding the right road on the 3rd try. It's a good thing cell phones work in the Blue Mountains.
Once we got to the cabin we were exhasted and promptly blew up the air mattress that the 4 of us were planning on sleeping on. Of course it found a nail and promptly deflated. Sleeping on the floor = not good times. But we did eat noodles at 3 AM.
Kaelyn attended a week long training in Kingston so that she could become a Peer Supporter. It was great: 5 days of hot water, free food, and socializing with other volunteers. While in Kingston she also discovered an awesome Mediterranean/Latino restaurant, drank way too much wine, and spent lots of time at TGI Friday's (located across the street from the hotel).
On Valentine's day we had a 7 1/2 hour dinner with two of our friends. It invovled checking out and quickly leaving Bob's Cafe (at the Bob Marley Museum) which was way too commercialized. Eating wonderful food at a Devon House restaurant. And concluding with drinks, then dessert, then more drinks and an appetizer at TGI Friday's.
Our friend delivered Shane's birthday drum from Accompong and pictures of the Rasta who made it. We'd never seen a square drum before but it sounds great!
Last week we got a 600 gallon water tank installed at our house. Now we can take a good pressure shower any time of the day. And we no longer have to haul water from downstairs to do laundry and flush the toliet between 8AM and 5PM when the pressure isn't strong enough to come upstairs. We are very, very happy!
Thanks to a patch, super glue, and duct tape we believe the air mattress has been fixed!

- Kae and Shane

Morning Sun Interview

2006-02-23T13:51:00.000-05:00

We did an interview by email with the Pittsburg, Kansas Morning Sun (Kaelyn's hometown newspaper) in our attempt to fulfill the 3rd Goal of Peace Corps and to generate publicity for the 45th Anniversary of Peace Corps which is March 1st. We thought we would share our answers with our blog readers.

-Kaelyn and Shane

How did you come to choose entering the Peace Corps? Was this something each of you had thought of individually, or something that you decided on as a couple?

Kaelyn: One of the things that we had in common when we met was that we were both interested in pursuing the Peace Corps after we graduated. However, we both had reservations about being able to handle the difficulty of being away from friends and family for such a long period of time. As our relationship progressed we decided that we would apply to Peace Corps together as a married couple, which brings its own challenges but also ensures that you won’t be alone in the process. However, we each had our own reasons for wanting to become Peace Corps Volunteers. For me, it fell in with my interests in Community Development and International Aid. Although I am most interested in working in Non-Profit Management and Grant Writing I wanted an opportunity to first work in the field. I feel that the experience that I am gaining is important in shaping my perspective and understanding of development work.

Shane: Kaelyn and I wanted to have an adventure together. In some ways, the Peace Corps is like an intense, working honeymoon. But, instead of spending two weeks lying on the beach, we get to spend two years working and learning. I knew that the two years in the Peace Corps would provide us with the time and freedom to undertake projects, travel together, and share the experience. That was part of the reason that I wanted to apply as a couple. For myself, I wanted to live and work in another country. I also wanted to learn a new language. Along with Kaelyn, I think the Peace Corps became a real possibility when I could go with a partner. Leaving behind family and friends was difficult, but bringing along both a member of my family and a friend would make the emotional side of the Peace Corps much more bearable.

Tell me about the type of work you're engaged in, what Jamaica is like, and so on. We've had a cold snap here, and I really envy you being in a tropical place.

Kaelyn: My assignment is to be a Small Business Advisor with the Planning Department of the Portmore Municipal Council in the parish of St. Catherine. The Council is fairly new and Portmore is the first Municipality in Jamaica. Most of my work revolves around systems and capacity building. I find ways to make the office more organized and efficient and to increase their use of technology. One of my main projects so far has been to create a database for cataloging the Building Applications submitted for approval. The next step will be to train the staff in use of the database and implementing it into their current job tasks. As a secondary project I work in the Peace Corps Office in Kingston with the Small Project Assistance (SPA) Grant Program. The grant money comes from USAID and Peace Corps works in partnership with them to fund Peace Corps Volunteer’s projects in communities they are living and working in. I coordinate the committee that reviews, selects, and monitors the projects. Jamaica seems like such a small island but living here I have realized how much there is to do and how diverse the different areas of the country are. We spend most of our free time visiting other volunteers in different parishes and enjoying those areas of the country. Because we live in such an urban area (Portmore is part of the Kingston Metropolitan Area) it is really enjoyable to get away for a weekend to visit our friends in more rural areas like the cane fields in Clarendon or the Blue Mountains in St. Andrew. Of course, the beaches are great too and Hellshire Beach, famous for fried fish and festival, is nearby our house in Portmore.

Shane: I also work in the Portmore Municipal Council, with the official title of Environmental Promoter. I collaborate with Kaelyn on some of her projects, like the Building Applications database, and also do some of my own. I conduct research on the history of Portmore, traveling to the National Library to find information on historical sites in Portmore that could be turned into heritage sites to bolster tourism. The historical information is also to be used for a Development Plan, which we will both assist with. On Fridays, I tutor reading and research skills at a local high school, while teaching tennis lessons after school. Both of these activities have introduced me to Jamaican Patois, the language spoken by many Jamaicans, although they use English in formal settings. Patois has English words and some from other languages, but spoken in a different syntax and with different pronunciation. Jamaican dancehall music is very popular. It is done in Patois and usually features a heavy drum and bass with a quarter note triplet pulse. You can hear it from every taxi and from Thursday to Sunday out of large sound-systems, with speakers as tall as the people listening to them. The food is interesting, too, although we don’t indulge in the meat dishes – such as curry goat, fried chicken, and chicken foot soup – because we are vegetarian. We do like fried fish, ackee (a tree fruit from West Africa that is used in the national dish of Jamaica, ackee and saltfish) and the dozens of varieties of mangos.

Tell me what you feel about the worth of the Peace Corps, both to the people you're working with and to you. Would you recommend this experience to others? How do you feel that your experiences in the Peace Corps will influence the rest of your lives? How long are you in for? What are your plans afterward?

Kaelyn: I have really enjoyed my experience with Peace Corps thus far and I would definitely recommend it to others. However, it is important that you don’t go into Peace Corps with too many expectations. We have really tried to keep an open mind about the experience and I think if we hadn’t we could have been easily disappointed. Our situation is a lot different than one might envision in the Peace Corps; we live in a very urban area, shop at supermarkets, work in an office, and the country we live in is very familiar with American culture. We feel like we are making an impact by assisting our agency in areas they are interested in making improvements in. I feel that my experiences in Peace Corps will affect the rest of my life in many ways. I have become more patient as things always take much longer in Jamaica than you would expect them to. Also, I will definitely be more appreciative of the conveniences and freedoms of life in the States. But most importantly I have learned to see the world from a different perspective and have become more able to appreciate and understand the motivations and hurdles of those in situations different from my own. Our commitment to Peace Corps is 26 months so we will be closing our service in August 2007. After Peace Corps I am hoping to continue working with a non-profit doing community development work. And we are definitely considering doing Peace Corps again as older volunteers after retirement.

Shane: I have contributed to the office where I work by sharing my research, writing, and computer skills. The Peace Corps has been very beneficial to me, foremost by showing me how people live in the developing world. This puts my US experiences in context. Peace Corps is not for everyone. Sometimes the sites do not work out. Other times it takes six months to a year for a volunteer to get acclimated and figure out how they can contribute. Patience is definitely a virtue in the Peace Corps. But you also can’t forget that you are here to do a job and contribute. In other words, it is bad to be too patient. I would recommend the Peace Corps to people, but only if they have both the patience to figure out how to operate in another country, and the tenacity to work through the many hurdles that exist. I plan on going to law school when I return from the Peace Corps. I hope to ensure that systems work efficiently and that everyone has equal rights before the law, things which are often lacking in developing countries.

Close Encounter

2006-02-16T14:14:00.000-05:00

On Monday, as I was walking to work, a man on a bike riding the other way asked me if I would give him some money, and if I was Mormon. "No," I answered, to both questions. As he rode away, I surmised that was the end of our conversation. But then he rode back and crossed to my side of the road to talk to me again. And this is where it got strange.

He said his name was Michael, that he likes making love (not his words, but perhaps you can imagine what they were), and he would like to have my number and/or know where I live. For those of you who don't know, Jamaicans are for the most part viciously and violently opposed to same sex relationships. In light of this fact, I told him that I was married and not interested in seeing other people ("I'm in a monogamous relationship, sorry"). All the time, I kept walking so that I would be closer to my workplace. Finally, he relented and rode off.

After speaking to others, and I tend to agree, I do not believe this was a mild-mannered offer of companionship. It may have indeed been a ruse to root out, and possibly act on, the liberal opinions of a non-Mormon Peace Corps Volunteer. I never felt in danger in this situation, but it is a good idea to be cautious out on the street. Sometimes it's best not to reveal your feelings; it can be a form of protection.

-Shane

Shane's 15 Minutes

2006-02-12T13:15:00.000-05:00

Check out this news article in the Lawrence Journal World about Peace Corps 45th Anniversary. It features an interview and photo of everyone's favorite volunteer, none other than Shane McCall.

Very Exciting!

-Kaelyn

p.s. I am also mentioned as Shane's gorgeous, brilliant, and very funny wife. Or maybe just as Shane's wife but you know that other stuff is implied.

RIP: Porky

2006-02-09T17:01:00.000-05:00

My sister just called with very sad news. Our beta fish that we left in her care during our Peace Corps service has passed away. Porcus Puff, known to close friends as Porky, was a wonderful fish. He never asked for much, just clean water once a week and a few sprinkles of beta food each day. He liked to excercise by fighting his own image in a mirror. Getting him out of the city and moving to the country in our absence did wonders to his health. He lived to the ripe old age of 1.5 years. Which is a record in our fish owning experience. Thank you, Erin, for your wonderful job as a caretaker - we couldn't have asked for anyone better. And thank you Porky for all the memories. We hope you enjoy the big fish bowl in the sky.

Peace & Love,

Your Owners - Kae and Shane

Note: The picture isn't really Porky, he wasn't very photogenic so he asked us to use a model.

Happy Birthday Shane & Bob

2006-02-06T08:16:00.000-05:00

HAPPY BIRTH DAY!

HAPPY BIRTH DAY TO YOU MY DEAR!

HAPPY BIRTH DAY!

That's the Jamaican birthday song. Imagine it sung really fast with lots of clapping. Fun stuff! Friday was Shane's birthday and the drum pictured above was his gift. It's a Maroon drum called a gumbe made by a Rasta in Accompong, St. Elizabeth. Today is Bob Marley's birthday, so you are all obligated to drink a Red Stripe and toast Shane and Bob while singing along to Legend.

One Love,
Kaelyn

My Adventure in Jamaica

2006-02-06T08:08:00.000-05:00

Note: This is a guest post by our very special visitor. If you want to see pictures of the mitten's adventure click here.

I traveled 1,807 miles from Missouri to Jamaica to visit Aunt Casey’s friends, Kaelyn and Shane. The climate here is much warmer than in Missouri. The sun stays out for about the same length every day instead of being shorter in the winter as they are in the United States. It gets dark around 6:00 PM throughout the year. Since I journeyed such a long way, I had to see some of the wonderful sites in Jamaica.

The best place I went was the beach. There are pictures of me at Hellshire Beach. It is near where Kaelyn and Shane live, in the city of Portmore on the south coast of Jamaica. It’s famous for fried fish and festival, which is a fried biscuit made of flour and cornmeal. The sun and sand were nice and warm and the fish was very tasty. I enjoyed the beach, but there were other fun things to do on the island.

After being at the beach, I got a little bit sandy, so I decided to clean up. In Jamaica, people hang their clothes up on clotheslines to dry, so that is where I went to dry off after washing the sand off. The sun is very strong in Jamaica, so it did not take long.

Finally, I tried some of the local Jamaican foods. The red fruit on the tree is ackee. Jamaicans eat it with dried fish, onions, and tomatoes for breakfast. It’s very popular. Ting is grapefruit flavored soda – so refreshing. The fruit is called an ortanique; it’s a mixture of orange and tangerine. Those little peppers are called scotch bonnet peppers. They are really spicy, but very common in Jamaican food. There are many hot sauces made from them. Jamaican food is really fun.

Finally, I had to say good-bye to Jamaica and return home. I had a wonderful time. It was fun to explore a new and exciting part of the world.

Yours Truly,

Magellen the Mitten

Aged Musings

2006-02-02T09:46:00.000-05:00

I am starting to feel a little bit different with the weight of 25 years soon to be hanging from my neck (tomorrow). It certainly feels a lot older than 18 or 21 years old. I think 25 is pretty much the age when you can't be considered a child or young adult any longer, no matter what your station in life or are how hard to try to keep being treated like youth. Before then, maybe you can get away with it if you are in college, or some other circumstance where you are not "earning your keep." At 25, though, it's in with the new, and the new is the old.

-Shane

Packages and Cable

2006-02-01T14:22:00.000-05:00

We got three packages last Friday. I would have written about them earlier, but it has taken us this long to look through all the goods that were inside of them. Just kidding. Kaelyn and I really enjoyed the packages we got from the States. It always reminds us that the most significant thing that we gave up in joining the Peace Corps is our friends and relatives.

One package was from Kaelyn's grandparents and included lens wipes and our favorite rectangular meals - Clif bars, Brewer's Yeast (great for protein in soups and popcorn) and a can of tennis balls for the tennis team. My friend sent tennis balls, jelly beans, reading material and oodles of music (and comedy recordings), along with a very nice note written on quite small paper. Finally, members of our KC connection gave us a box stuffed with books, organic chocolate, dried fruit, energy bars, and Harper's magazines. They also sent us a traveling mitten that we took to see some of the sights in Jamaica, like the beach. It is an educational activity which Kaelyn will explain more in her post later.

Thanks for making us feel special. The experience of getting packages has convinced us that we really need to send letters and packages to our loved ones when we return to the states. They're so cool to receive. Just one of the many things you learn (or recognize) in the Peace Corps.

-Shane

PS - If you are still reading . . . We got cable installed yesterday. It only took two working days for them to come out, making it one of the faster processes in Jamaica. You get about 90 channels, including movies, for the basic rate here (US$12.50).

PPS - Peace Corps can be spelled Pea Score and still sounds the same at loud. As a fun game for all of our readers, how would you answer the question, "What is the Pea Score?"

RIP: Iron

2006-01-24T13:31:00.000-05:00

Our iron died this morning, in a most flashy exit. As Kaelyn plugged in the cord, the iron literally went out with a bang. There was a cracking sound and a large spark that I heard and saw from across the room. The cord separated from the plug and the copper wires inside were severed from the spark. Kaelyn's finger had a mild electrical burn, which we fixed up with 3-in-1 ointment and a bandaid. Needless to say, our shopping list gained a new item.

An iron is very important in Jamaica, so we will have to get a replacement right away. As our host-mother taught us, you cannot go to work without ironing your clothes. If you don't iron them, your clothes will be "crushy." And nobody wants that. Here's to irons, and to one specific iron that will live on in our memory, if not in our apartment.

-Shane

PS - While the iron did not have a name in life, posthumously we shall call it Sparky.

Posh Corps?

2006-01-16T14:25:00.000-05:00

We really enjoyed this article we found today on the Third Goal website. In case you aren't aware the Third Goal of Peace Corps is to "help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of all Americans." Which is something we try to achieve by sharing our stories through our blog ramblings.

A few excerpts:

While volunteers who know each other well talk about more interesting things, a common discussion among groups of volunteers, especially at the beginning was the level of “suffering” that we were going through. After all, everyone joins the Peace Corps expecting and hoping to live simple lives full of inconveniences that we would like to tell ourselves most Americans couldn’t handle.

The Peace Corps doesn’t mandate physical discomfort (“suffering?”) and apparently doesn’t believe it necessary to be a successful volunteer. So, when we talk about how much we “suffer,” at least on a country-by-country or region-by-region leve, maybe we are judging our personal suffering by those around us.

We, the Peace Corps volunteers, are not suffering. Not a one of us, whether we are in the Ivory Coast or on the coast of Sunny Thailand or in a country headed towards membership into the European Union, we are all in the Posh Corps together. And since we are all in the same thing, we may as well call it the Peace Corps.

The article resonated with us because when we get together with other volunteers in Jamaica we are always discussing which areas of the country are the worst (or best) and which volunteers are the most hard-core. People upon hearing we were serving in Jamaica used to assume we were joining the "Beach Corps". Which is true for some volunteers who seem to be on "extended spring break". There seems to be a hierarchy of suffering (or perceived suffering) within countries, between countries, and even between regions.

In Jamaica some volunteers are very "Babylon" and live in ways similar to those in the states. They have washers and dryers, cable, high speed internet, AC, the works. The least "Babylon" volunteers have no fridge; bathe, do laundry, and fetch water from a spring an hour away; and are about 4 hours from the nearest big town. We live in suburbia and are surrounded by neighbors living much nicer than us (cars, AC, washing machines, etc.) and our co-workers are appalled that we aren't allowed to drive out here. While we could easily obtain some of the nicer luxuries, we don't feel like subsidizing our living allowance to blend in with the Joneses. There are definitely vast differences between volunteers here in Jamaica, not only in the sites they were assigned to but in the decisions they make about how they are going to live.

There are so many ways to rank suffering that sometimes you end up going around and around, making it a pointless exercise. While we appreciate some of our suburban luxuries we often wish we lived in an area with more of a community feel to it and sometimes would happily trade the fancy supermarket for a bustling open air market. So how do you really decide who has it better? The volunteer in either situation could have a really powerful effect on the people he or she is working with. So maybe those aspects of the experience are the ones we should be comparing. But of course that isn't nearly as much fun as discussing who got worms and who walks the farthest every day.

-Shane and Kae

19th Day of Christmas

2006-01-13T13:42:00.000-05:00

In our world Christmas goes on forever. Today we received a package from a friend of Kaelyn's family. It was the perfect Christmas package, complete with homemade cookies, white chocolate pretzels, Christmas music, the DVD Christmas with the Kranks, and our favorite - Clif Bars! And not just any Christmas cookies, Kaelyn's absolute favorite waffle cookies. And even after traveling all the way from Kansas they are still incredibly tasty! We were thrilled when we opened the box!

Thanks!

- Kaelyn and Shane

King of All Media

2006-01-10T16:32:00.000-05:00

No, not Howard Stern, but our friend in Lawrence who sent us 5 DVD's packed with movies and music. There were about 20 movies in all, and about 30 CD's. We already watched The Chronicles of Narnia and The Life Aquatic, to much satisfaction. Big up to the Slice, who hath made our life more fun. A bottle of rum will surely find its way into his life when we visit.

-Shane

From The Bluest Mountains, The Blackest Brew

2006-01-09T15:00:00.000-05:00

The French Press and Grinder I received in the package from Kaelyn's family was really good with the Blue Mountain beans I got in Kingston the other day. The beans still cost a lot down here, about US$23 a pound, so I just got a half pound for the weekends and I will use the instant Blue Mountain coffee on the weekdays. We hope to hike up to the Blue Mountains where you can get coffee for only US$9 a pound.

The freshly grind beans make a very smooth cup. No milk is necessary with the Blue Mountain as it would be with the inferior brands, although addition of milk can be ok sometimes if you really need it. I mention the dairy for those stalwarts in my family, you know who you are, who for which coffee sans cream or milk is not really coffee at all. These same people are also appalled by my use of sugar and/or artificial sweetener. But I digress. There really is no one way to enjoy coffee. As evidence, the most popular type of coffee in Jamaica is instant, mixed with powdered creamer and sugar. Espresso bars are few and far between. In fact, few Jamaicans drink the Blue Mountain coffee and something like 90 % is exported to Japan. The Japanese get all of the good stuff.

-Shane

PS-Does anyone know about the merits of leftover coffee grounds as a soil additive? I like to pour out the grounds into the potted plant we have on the patio in hopes that bacteria and insects will break down the grounds into soil. I know this experiment has been conducted millions of times in middle school science fairs, but where are the results when I need them?