"I love farming, I just love it."

I’m standing on a farm in the hills of northwestern Jamaica, and I take a minute to pause and look around. Behind me is thick bush and undoubtedly hundreds of ants waiting to eat my feet should I cross their path. To my left there is a marl road that will, with some patience and a little bit of skill on the part of the driver, take me back to the coast and the landscape I’ve become accustomed to. In front of me is a small, small farm brimming with dasheen and callaloo that look too fresh for words. I look to my right, and there is an old woman walking down the path towards us. Her back is hunched and her clothes hang loose on her body, but she walks with an air of grace and confidence that defies her age.

When she reaches us, she stops to chat. The farm we are looking at is her sister’s, and she has a farm about the same size further down the path. We ask her how long she has been farming, and she replies enthusiastically:

“I’m 83 years old, and I’ve been farming since I was a girl. I love farming, I love it. I just love farming.”

She tells us she works in her farm every day, and the well-used machete in her hands can attest to that. She repeats what seems to be her mantra, I just love farming over and over again. She says that she takes joy in her work and is proud of what she does, “without us farmers, what would we all eat?” she asks us.

Her sister is in her late 60’s, and also still farming. Her mother is over 100 years old, and although she doesn’t farm so much anymore, she’s still alive and alive and well.

We were only able to spend a few minutes with this 83 year old woman and her sister, but it was an experience that has stayed with me since. Seeing these women was truly inspiring and humbling. I can only imagine the things they have seen in their time – the joys, the hardships, the hellos and goodbyes. But they are still here, still happy, and still doing what they love.

A good day.

Once a month, NEPT (my agency) organizes beach clean-ups. This is pretty much exactly what it sounds like – a service event where we spend a few hours picking up trash from the beach. The clean up for August was scheduled for just 3 weeks after I started with them, and happened to fall on a day where my supervisor would be across the island for the entirety of the week leading up to the clean-up. This meant that I would be in charge of making sure the clean-up happened and happened smoothly. I wasn't sure if I would be able to pull it off, but knew I had to find a way to make it a success. Oh, and did I mention that we had practically no budget for the event?

The week before she left, my supervisor and I talked about what I would need to do to pull the event off. I wrote donation requests, sent emails, called people, and even Facebook-ed to advertise the event, organize the logistics and get prepared. I did all of this not knowing if it was going to be anyone but me at the beach that day cleaning up, or any need for us on that part of the beach, since I hadn’t seen the actual site yet.

The day of the event (last Friday), I was really nervous - were people going to come? Was there going to be work for them? Would we have enough supplies? Would someone pass out from the heat? But the day was fantastic. We had 20 participants - including 13 of the most motivated students I've met here, and 3 other PCVs. Together we picked up 50 huge bags of garbage - so many that we had to beg one of the nearby hotels for additional bags because we ran out of the supply we brought after only about an hour. We got a lot of "good jobs" from people on the beach, and it looked amazing when we were done. On top of all that, one of the participants was so impressed by one of the students that she hired him on the spot to work in her hotel. Everyone went home feeling productive, motivated, exhausted and even asking when they could come back and work more.

The whole day was a really great motivator. Working with an amazing group of students like that was refreshing – there’s a lot of apathy in the youth here, so it was nice to see another side. They’re a group that NEPT is going to continue to have a relationship with, so I’m hoping I’ll get to know some of them better. A lot of times with service programs like Peace Corps, the results of your work are intangible and difficult, if not impossible, to see. So a project like this one was fantastic – just take a look at the before and after pictures:

A shot of the area before

And after - what a difference, huh?

I did have a lot of help and guidance putting the clean-up together, but I was certainly the lead person for the event, and had done most of the background work myself. It felt amazing to have a successful day, and has given me the confidence to tackle an even bigger project in the near future, including our next beach clean-up in September.

The whole group with our 50 (!) bags of trash.

There are more pictures online: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=101129&id=636823325&l=bba5148742

PS - Gavin - I hope that was exciting enough for you, you jerk.

Part I - Independence?

This past weekend marked a major holiday here – Jamaica’s Independence Day. The holiday is actually August 6, but the celebrations lasted into this weekend. I’m still not sure if there’s a Jamaican equivalent to fireworks – or any major tradition to mark the holiday, but there is definitely has been a festive atmosphere here, and people are enjoying themselves and the remainder of the summer. (As a side note, how is it already the second week of August? It’s amazing how time flies...)

Jamaica gained its independence from Great Britain in 1962, 47 years ago. It’s interesting living in a country where a good portion of the population can remember such a dramatic event. The transition from colonial rule to self rule here was peaceful, and I’ve actually been surprised at how rarely the subject comes up – I’ve almost never heard a Jamaican talk about that day 47 years ago, and I’m not entirely sure why. The country has gone through a lot of ups and downs since gaining independence, and Jamaica definitely still has a long way to go. But if you think about it, 47 years after we declared our independence, we had already ratified a new constitution, fought a few wars, still had slaves and had yet to fight our own Civil War. So, in comparison, Jamaica’s really not doing too badly.

While I’m writing all of this, I can’t help but think of a conversation I had in a taxi a little over a week ago. (A quick note about Jamaican taxis – they run just like buses do in the states, only with compact cars – there are set routes and prices, and passengers get in or out wherever they want to along the route.) I got into a taxi, and the driver and passenger were having a conversation about the current state of Jamaican politics and what can and should be done about it. At one point, the driver made a comment about how Jamaica has been independent for almost 50 years, and its government officers should know how to behave by now. A valid point, indeed, but I did consider comforting him with the fact that 233 years after our own independence, American officials are still working out a lot of those same kinks. I held my tongue though, and am glad I did, as the other passenger made what I think to be a more interesting point. He said that although Jamaica is independent on paper, he really doesn’t consider it to be an independent nation - it’s not a country that can stand on its own two feet, and really never has. There has been so much aid poured into this country in so many different ways, and I can’t even imagine where the country would be without it. Perhaps if things had been different from the start, this would not be the case. But after almost 5 decades, such a culture of dependency has evolved that even now, there is a deeply held feeling among many Jamaicans that instead of just doing work themselves, they should just wait for someone else to come along and do it for them – politicians, missionaries, aid workers, etc.

It would be unfair to lay the blame for this attitude fully on the shoulders of Jamaicans. Development work is a tricky thing. The whole idea of development is (or should be) that a “development professional” work for a period of time on a specific problem in a specific area, and work towards making themselves obsolete. If a project is successful, it should eventually be run entirely by nationals of the developing country, with no outside help needed to keep it running. But there’s a problem with this for the development professional – true success would mean that she or he would no longer have a job. And yes, they could just move on after the project is successful and sustainable, but that would mean starting a whole new project in a whole new country – a whole lot of work. And a lot of development workers work on a contract – once a project is done, they need to find a new contract. So in a lot of ways, it actually doesn’t pay for development workers to be too efficient. Modern development work started almost 60 years ago, after World War II, and I can’t help but think that if people had really tried to make development sustainable from the start, I wouldn’t need to be here right now, and the world would be a different place. When you think about how far we’ve come in other aspects of life in the past 60 years, it boggles the mind to think that we can’t assist in making a country like Jamaica independent in the truest sense of the word. This cycle of dependency that has been created and is still being encouraged is no accident.

I know this is a somewhat controversial and cynical position to hold, and one that does not shed a very good light on development as a whole. But it’s a side of the truth that’s important to know, and important to see – especially as a Peace Corps Volunteer. It’s so easy to get fed up with the “give-me” attitude that so many Jamaicans have, but when that attitude is put into perspective, it helps. And Jamaica is by no means alone in any of this. Developing counties around the world are remarkably similar in this way. So many countries that started out as colonies have never grown out of the colonial mind-set that their problems are someone else’s responsibility to fix.

Granted, development and its history are a lot more complicated than what I’ve explained here. There’s a lot more to it, and there are an endless amount of books on the subject. And there are a huge number of development projects have been sustainable on a large scale and over a long time, so development can work, and it can be sustainable and successful. But that’s easy to forget sometimes.

So it’s tough to say whether Jamaica is really independent or not. In some terms, there really isn’t any country that’s fully independent, is there? As the recent economic downturn has shown, we are all connected a lot more than we thought. Jamaica is in a lot of financial trouble, and starting next month, will be borrowing from International Monetary Fund (IMF) again to help get itself through the next year. Many Jamaicans don’t think this is the best plan, and I am inclined to agree with them. There’s a lot more to say on this topic, but I’m going to save that for a post a little later in the week – this one is already long enough.

I’m not sure what would make a country fully independent, or if Jamaica is there yet. But it has been an interesting point to think about it this past holiday weekend.

"No experience is ever wasted"

As if getting hit by a car wouldn’t make for an exciting enough month, there has been a lot more going on in the past few weeks. Most notably, as of this week, I am now longer working with WHROMP in Ocho Rios. Tomorrow I will move out to Negril to start a new job with a new agency.

There are a lot of reasons that things didn’t work out with my old agency, but in the end, what it came down to were a series of unspoken expectations, miscommunications and frustrations on both sides. There was a lack of communication, and in the end, it just wasn’t really a good match, so the decision was made to move me to another site. I am upset that things didn’t work out with WHROMP, and that I didn’t get more of a chance to work with them, but this move really is the best for both parties.

On a more positive note, I’m really excited for my new placement. I’ll be working with NEPT – the Negril Environmental Protection Trust. They’re an environmental NGO that work with a lot of different groups – farmers, hotels, schools, etc. They are also in charge of managing the Royal Palm Reserve – a protected area on the outskirts of Negril that is pretty much a 300+ acre forest.

I’m not 100% sure what I’ll be working on yet, but I do have something of an idea, and the work is pretty varied. One of my projects will be to work on their Clean Fields Campaign, which works to promote best practice farming techniques within the Parish. I’ll also be working to promote the Royal Palm Reserve to the local communities as well as tourists in the area. My other major project will be to implement a program through the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), either with hotels in the area or with schools (the decision about which program we will implement has yet to be made). And I’m sure there will be a lot of other things that pop up for me to work on as well, as there always are in Peace Corps.

Each of those three major projects could all be full time projects, and yes, it is a little overwhelming. But I’ve learned a lot over the past 2 months, and I feel a lot more confident about this placement than my last one. The way my experience at WHROMP played out has taught me a lot about what it takes to be a volunteer. Mainly, it takes the courage to just jump in and work through a project. It doesn’t matter if you’ve ever done it before, if you think you are qualified, or if you think you know what you’re doing. The trick is to seek guidance where you can and be willing to go it alone if you don’t get that guidance. Either way, you do the absolute best that you can do with the resources you have at hand and work from there. One of the many reasons that things didn’t work out with WHROMP was that I was too scared to just jump in and get things moving - I was far too afraid of failure. And while that fear does still linger on my shoulder, it’s not something that I will let dictate my actions in this new placement. I’ve been given another chance to prove myself at NEPT, and it’s not something that I intend to waste.

Like I said before, it does upset me that things didn’t work out with WHROMP. I think they are a great organization and they do a lot of much needed work in the area. I spent a few days really analyzing why things went the way they did, and was able to take a lot of good lessons from it. But now I am ready to take those lessons, move on and start work in Negril at NEPT. I think this is a much better placement for me and I now feel a lot more confident that I’ll be able to handle whatever challenges the next 22 months might bring.

It's always something in Jamaica

I actually debated for several days whether or not I should share this story with all of you, but ultimately, I decided in favor of sharing it. My reason for this is twofold – for one, it is one of the more exciting things that has happened to me in the past few weeks, but it is also something that will define at least part of my experience here for a number of reasons, and as such, I figured it’s something that I should be sharing. So, here it goes.

About two weeks ago, I was traveling through a town about 45 minutes south of Ocho Rios (where I live) called Brown’s Town. I was on my way to a meeting and after paying my taxi fare I decided to ask for directions at a shop across the way instead of just wandering around to look for the building. What I remember is this: crossing halfway onto a median/island and waving good morning to some men who were on the sidewalk. I was heading across the next street to the shops, and the next thing I remember is being in the back of a police car holding a handkerchief to my forehead and talking to the police men who were sitting in the front seat, where I was told that I had been hit by a car. (Now, let me pause here to save you all the suspense: I am fine. I was more or less fine from the beginning. I have a cut on my forehead and a few bruises, but nothing major – I actually got really lucky.) I still don’t remember the accident, so I can’t really be sure what happened. What I’ve been able to put together from what the cops told me is that I was hit by a car, who drove off before anyone was able to get his plate number. I’m not sure how I was hit, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t head on – I think I just got bumped hard enough to knock me down. A taxi man in the area took me to the police station, where I was moved into a police car and driven to the closest hospital (about 25 miles away). I’m still not sure how long I was out, or if I was fully unconscious or just blacked out during this time, but I think it was about 20 – 30 minutes. It was a little weird to wake up in the back of a police car, but I was still so out of it that it didn’t really phase me at the time. I was trying to piece it all together while trying to answer the officer’s questions, which was a difficult task at that point.

Once I got to the hospital, I was taken care of really fast. I guess that’s one perk of an open head wound – doctors tend to pay attention to you pretty quick. I was cleaned up, stitched up, given facial x-rays, prescribed pain killers and antibiotics and sent on my way. Overall, I wasn’t too impressed with the hospital, and I am a little concerned that they let me go without more of a neurological check-up (they didn’t even talk to me about symptoms of a concussion or what to do if I have one), and they were definitely doing the bare minimum they had to before they could let me go…my doctor didn’t even tell me when I could get the stitches out or how often to change the dressing. I am really lucky that I was able to rely on Peace Corps for more thorough medical care, and am a little uncomfortable with their standard of care for the general public. I was lucky – I didn’t have any internal bleeding or a bad concussion. But I very easily could have, and if I had been suffering from either of these things, the hospital would have let me walk out their doors with no one the wiser. A scary thought indeed. But once again, I had Peace Corps to fall back on, and this is where the story takes a much needed positive turn.

While waiting at the hospital I called the PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer…we love acronyms in PC) to let her know what had happened. There are 2 PCMOs on staff and they are in charge of making sure that the 75 volunteers on the island stay healthy. We go to them with any medical issues, and they take care of us – either by seeing and treating us themselves or by setting us up with a doctor in our areas to see. In my case, there wasn’t any time to consult with them before seeing a doctor, so I called afterwards. The PCMO decided that she wanted to see me in person, and informed me that she would be coming up to Ocho Rios later that afternoon to check me out. I was a little floored by this – it meant an extra 3 hours of travelling tacked onto the end of her day for just a 10 minute visit. But I know by now not to question Peace Corps staff when it comes to medical or safety issues. So I made my way home and waited for her to arrive. I was still a little out of it, and I remember walking around my house unsure as to what to do. I knew what I had to do – clean up myself and my house a little, take a shower, call my mother, unpack my bag from the day, etc. But actually sitting down to do these things was another story. Except for calling my mother, of course. That I did right when I got home, and for the record, she took it well. There was a little bit of freaking out on her side, but that’s to be expected and she did a good job of keeping a calm front for me, which was helpful. I’m sure Courtney could tell you a different story about how she reacted, but I was glad that she was more or less calm when she talked to me.

When the PCMO got to my house, she decided to take me back down to Kingston, for two main reasons. The first being that I live by myself and the other being that I had lost consciousness and probably had a concussion. So I packed for a few days, took a quick shower and rode back down to Kingston with her to stay at the Country Director’s (CD) house – more on this to come a little later. I saw a private doctor the next day, and got a CAT scan, both of which confirmed that am healthy and that my brain is in tip-top shape (despite what some of you may think…) I spent the next day and a half in the Peace Corps Office, which was really nice. The office staff is great and volunteers are constantly coming and going, so I got to see a lot of people (and had to relive my story countless times, thanks to a very unambiguous band-aid on my forehead). There’s also internet, books and TV, so I had plenty to keep myself busy when there weren’t volunteers around. The PC office is a really nice and homey place, and somewhere I feel really comfortable spending time so it was a good place for me to be. I was in a good amount of pain the 2 days after the accident, but nothing that was unexpected – some headaches and body aches. On the third day, I was feeling relatively good, and day by day I’ve gotten a lot better. I still have a few bruises left over, and I got the stitches out this past Monday, which was almost more painful than getting them in. I have a nice scar on my forehead, but luckily my hair covers most of it, and I’m hoping it’ll fade over the next few months.

I know it’s a weird thing to say, but I do feel like I got really lucky. Thankfully, I didn’t have any broken bones – I can’t even imagine what being in cast in the middle of the summer would be like here. I’d much rather a cut on my head and a few days worth of a headache. And I had a lot of valuable items in my bag – ipod, camera, phone and cash to name a few, and all of those things made it with me to the hospital. In a country known for pick-pockets and petty theft, that is a miracle in and of itself. Even my sunglasses which must have come off my head made it home with me. And Peace Corps took amazing care of me, so that’s definitely comforting to know.

As a side note, there is one funny anecdote from the situation. The accident happened on the Monday after July 4^th. I had spent the weekend with other volunteers in a house on the south coast of the island grilling and just hanging out. The meeting I had was on the way back from there to my town, so I had my backpack with all my stuff from the weekend still with me. And besides clothes and a camera, this also included a bottle of rum that I hadn’t finished (because this is Jamaica after all)…a glass bottle. As it turns out, glass isn’t the strongest material in the world, and at some point the bottle broke in my bag, soaking everything and causing my bag (and by extension me) to reek of rum for the rest of the day. And it didn’t help that I was so out of it from hitting my head that I was talking, walking and acting like I was drunk. For the record, this all happened at 10:30 on a Monday...and yes, the police did ask me if I had been drinking. I wasn’t really sure why they asked that at first, but once I started smelling the rum, it all made sense.

Oh, and just a small note on our Country Director (CD) – she is phenomenal. I stayed at her house (which is a really, really nice house), for 2 nights and she was so warm and welcoming. We had a long conversation about PC and concerns I have been having about my site and she gave me a lot of fantastic advice and is just so patient. I felt comfortable being entirely open and honest with her despite the fact that she is technically my boss. Apparently the last two country directors have not been so fantastic, so I feel really lucky to have her around and to have gotten the chance to talk to her on an individual level, despite the reason for that opportunity.

I’ll end it on that positive note. Let me say once again that I am fine and healthy and the only lasting effect of the accident will be a small scar on my forehead. Peace Corps took amazing care of me, and I don’t feel unsafe here…it’s something that could have happened anywhere. It wasn’t the best experience to have had here, but hey, at least I get a good story out of it, right?

Oopps...

I realize that I’ve been delinquent in updating my blog, but I didn’t realize it had been almost a month. My apologies. There are a few reasons I’ve not written in a couple weeks, and it mostly boils down to feeling like I don’t have a lot to write. Work has still been going really slow, but like I said last time, I have faith it will change soon. But until then, I’ll spare you any more stories about work…they would all pretty much be me sitting in an office anyway, so not too different from what I did back in the states.

But I have been able to keep myself busy during non-work hours, which has been good for my sanity. I’ve been doing a lot of yoga and a lot of running. I’m training for a half-marathon in December, so I have to stay fit! It’s in Negril, and a bunch of volunteers are either running in it or volunteering, so I’m really looking forward to it.

I’ve also been getting a lot of visitors lately (one of the perks of being in Ocho Rios). This weekend a handful of people came up for the Ocho Rios Jazz Festival… which, despite the name, was not really a festival, and not really in Ocho Rios. There was a free concert on Friday afternoon, as well as a concert we were able to get into for free on Sunday (thanks to some smooth talking by Craig, a fellow volunteer). But we managed to keep ourselves busy for the rest of the weekend. Saturday was a full day – Dunn’s River Falls in the morning, and Blue Hole in the afternoon. Blue Hole is one of the most beautiful/ fun spots I’ve been to in Jamaica yet (see link to pictures below), and luckily, it’s only about 30 minutes from where I live. So I feel as though I’ll be going up there a whole lot this summer. And, since it’s a spot on the White River (the same river my organization works to protect), I can count trips up there as research trips, right?

That’s about all I have for today. Like I said, not much to update on right now. Hopefully I’ll have some exciting stories to tell you all in the next few weeks, so stay tuned…

More pictures for those who are interested:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2258074&id=5301199&l=b22a586126

Work soon come

As I am quickly learning, patience is one of the most important skills a Peace Corps Volunteer can have. Unfortunately for me, patience is not one of my stronger qualities. Something I’ve been told by countless Volunteers, both here and around the world, is that things can take a few months to get started once you actually get to site. There are a lot of reasons for this – adjusting to any new job is difficult, people may be skeptical of you, people are sometimes too busy to help you out or aren’t too sure what to make of you. But no matter what the reason, it can be pretty frustrating. There’s a really fine line between being pro-active enough to ensure that you’re not bored and being pushy and turning people off. So you end up just biding your time until things start to slowly roll your way. Then, with a little initiative, some hard work and a bit of luck, you can start to get things done.

The odd thing is that I know there’s a lot for me to do. I just don’t know where to start or how to get things going. I’m definitely still in an adjustment period, and am still learning how things work here – both within my organization and in Jamaica in general. And you have to start out slowly, and start out with something you know you can do well, and finding that is hard sometimes. There seems to be a lot of projects in the works, so it’s just a matter of me figuring out where I can fit in and be most useful. Some of the things I’m excited about working on in the near future include:

-          Working with coastal fishermen and hotels to create a fish sanctuary

-         Sponsoring a beach clean-up day as part of the International Coastal Cleanup in September

-          Starting/strengthening local school environmental clubs and school gardens

-          Partnering with government ministries to alleviate the squatter problem in Ocho Rios

-          Starting a bird-watching tour in the area

-          Working with a particular farmer’s group in the hills on environmental education

 So it’s not that there’s a lack of work for me to be doing. Just a lack of direction. And I’m still so new that I don’t feel like I even know where to start by myself. But I do feel like things will pick up a little bit soon, and I’ve talked to a few volunteers who were able to give me some solid advice on where to start and how to make sure things are successful. All in all, I’m optimistic that things will start happening, one way or the other.

And it’s not just my organization that moves so slowly. In Jamaica, as well as in many developing countries around the world, things move a little slower. Most people here have what’s called the “soon come” attitude. The phrase soon come can be used in any number of situations, and can either be a handy tool or an incredibly frustrating thing to hear depending on the context. When someone says, “I’ll soon come back,” that person could be back in 5 minutes or 5 hours. Or, when someone says “The meeting soon finish”, or “Me soon call you”, you really have no idea what time frame they are talking about. And trying to get Jamaicans to set a solid time is like trying to catch a fish with your bare hands – you might think you’re getting close, but it’s really never going to happen. Trying to get things done in a culture like this is difficult, especially from an American perspective. I’ve already sat in several meetings where it was decided that a certain action should be taken, and instead of hammering out the things that need to be done and delegating these tasks, people talk about setting up another meeting to find a good time for people to meet to talk about what needs to be done. It seems like a very inefficient system at times, but things do get done here, just a little differently then I’m used to.  

I’ve had a few other things going on to keep my busy though. I moved into a new housing situation this weekend - I now have my own flat on an older couple’s property and it’s been so nice. I have my own kitchen, and there’s a bathroom, bedroom and little living room – more than enough space for me. I’m closer to work, closer to Ocho Rios, and really happy there. I’ve also been seeing other volunteers a lot lately – there was a birthday party last weekend, a 2 day Peace Corps conference this weekend, and a lot of other events coming up in the next few months. There are a lot of concerts and music festivals in Jamaica in the summer, and a lot of festivals in general. They are a great reason to travel, see more of the island and see friends in different parts of the island.  

So there’s a lot to look forward to in the coming months, both with work and personal things. I’m still a little overwhelmed at the idea of living here for 2 years, but I’m trying to take it one week at a time. And I have a feeling that 2 years will be over before I know it, so I’m doing my best to enjoy it while I’m here!