Thursday, March 22, 2012

This isn't your father's Peace Corps...


A lot of us, when we start the Peace Corps application, imagine ourselves eventually living in difficult conditions where we have to gather water and carry it home to take a cold bucket bath or find ways to adjust living in a mud hut with no electricity. That is not the case here in Jamaica, and in a lot of countries now. Some do end up in places like that, but it's becoming more and more common to go to areas that have running water, electricity, internet and maybe even cable. Right now the 36 of us are in a more developed area, think middle class suburban, for 2 weeks where we have all of those amenities I mentioned. Here, I not only have running water but hot running water, a washing machine (although we are supposed learn to wash by hand) a screen on my window (no wonder I'm being bit up less than some of the others) and reliable internet (not everyone here has that though). Things will be a bit different when the sectors split up and the 12 of us in Green Initiative go to Woodford and then I don't know where on the island I will be placed to serve for 2 years. I can say with confidence that wherever I end up it won't have everything I have here. Even if  I could have the chance to have everything there is no way I could afford it on my volunteer budget.

When El Salvador got cancelled and I got Jamaica as my new placement I was a little bummed. Well, a little more than just a little but I did my best not to let it show and to stay positive about it. There are a few of us who did not have Jamaica as a first choice but ended up here because of cancellations or medical reasons. I can't speak for everyone one else, but after being here about a week I am really happy that I ended up here. Although we don't and most likely won't have the hardships that we were looking forward to when we started our application ( I understand that might sound strange to some) there are a lot of great things we can do with people here. I know I am still in a bubble right now though and that things will get more difficult, but I'll take it as it comes and right now I will enjoy the good days.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Summer and Autumn

     I know it's springtime, or almost if not, but that's not what I mean. Yesterday group 83 met their host families. Our country director, Carla Ellis, made it a fun game where we each got a piece of paper with a word or words on it and we had to find the person who had the word that went along with it, my word was "Toots" and I was glad that the other person knew what she was looking for because I had no idea. This person would be our host family and we would be their trainee. I felt like a puppy finding a home when my host mom said to her friend "look, we got good ones." It was cute though, and she was joking of course, and we were all excited and happy. But let me back up a bit and let you know how I got to this point from when I left LAX at 1:15pm on Monday.
   
      The plane ride went smoothly and I arrived in Atlanta on time and met up with two other girls to share a towncar together to the hotel. I know what you are thinking... towncar? Fancy right? Well we decided not to take the limo (which was offered if we came within a 3 mile radius of the hotel). Orientation was the next day at 12:30pm so I woke up at 9:30am to eat breakfast and get ready, and that's when the long few days began. I fell asleep a little late and had my alarm set for 1:25am to make sure I had time to get ready for our 2am checkout. I ended up waking up way too early and not being able to fall back asleep so I only got 1 hour of sleep. 2am was checkout and 7am was our departure from Atlanta to Miami. We didn't have much time in Miami to get food, but at least we didn't have all of our luggage to carry (36 people with 2  years worth of luggage), we had just enough time to go to the next terminal and wait a little. We got to Kingston and are taken straight to the PC office where we fill out paper work, turn in information, got a little money and finally eat some pastries and finger sandwiches. After, we were taken to the hotel and finally had our first real meal of the day at about 5:30 (6:30 Atlanta time), I think. It's still not time to rest though. We were taken back to the PC office and there were some speeches, some singing and dancing. We've arrived in Jamaica on their 50th anniversary as being an independent country and it's also 50 years that Peace Corps has been in Jamaica, so that was what this party was for. Everything was really nice but I almost fell out of my chair a few times because I was falling asleep (only 1 hour of sleep). We left the office around 9 (I think anyway) and we were all finally able to fall asleep to wake up at 6:30am and get ready for the day. We had training on Thursday and Friday; we set up bank accounts, got phones, shots and lessons on money, safety and health. That brings me up to date to last night and meeting my awesome host mom and her daughter Summer... See??

      I have more to say on my first day around town and my thoughts and feelings about being in Jamaica but I'll save that for another time. Tomorrow, the beach!

     

Sunday, March 4, 2012

This is for my friends

With just over a week left I have started saying my goodbyes and although I have been a pretty emotional person in the past I have kept myself pretty composed lately. There was a brief moment that I teared up as I gave my goodbye speech to my 3 month old nephew, but to be fair he is really adorable and he made it difficult. My first goodbye was in Oakland and my second was last night at a dinner party thrown by my friends where the gave me this amazing gift
Now I have to make my rounds to all the Tia's and get my blessings, make sure all my little cousins can write me letters, and have one more big goodbye at a bbq before I leave. Plus some packing and maybe a trip to Disneyland squeezed somewhere in between.
Thanks again to all my friends for all the love... and for finding my blog. Don't forget to subscribe so that you can keep up to date with everything in Jamaica.