A new home, A new job

Expectations are a funny thing. As much as I tried to come into this experience with none at all, a few had slipped in – some that I was conscious of and others that I was not. When I decided to join Peace Corps, and even when I got invited to serve in Jamaica, I was preparing myself for any situation – living with no running water or power, being the only American for a hundred miles, working in a school, working in an office, not having access to internet, eating food I was entirely unfamiliar with, etc. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, so I had no idea what to expect. As it turns out, my situation is not at all what I had prepared myself for – not at all what I expected.

I’m living and working in a small city on the north coast of the island called Ocho Rios (Ochi for short). My house here is really nice – running water, electricity, a washing machine and very close to a supermarket that sells Ben & Jerry’s, good wheat bread, cheerios, peanut butter and a selection of beer that includes more than just Red Stripe and Heineken (and yes, that is about all it takes to make me happy). There are about 4 produce stands between my house and office and I’ve already gotten the low down on who has the best prices. Within the next few weeks, I will have hot water and internet at my house on top of all the other amenities. I’m living with a married couple – a Jamaican man and a Canadian woman who has been here for about 20 years. They are both really nice, and the woman has been giving me all sorts of tips and tricks for living in Jamaica (especially as a white woman) and in Ochi. And she cooked me a great Jamaican meal my first night – curry chicken, rice and beans, and stewed beef.

I’m working with an organization called the White River Watershed and Ocho Rios Marine Park Association (WHROMP). The White River runs for 15 miles from the mountains into the ocean, and dumps right into the Ocho Rios Marine Park. Activities in the White River’s watershed range from agriculture to tourism to mining to fishing and much more. WHROMP is working all over the watershed in 9 different “clusters” of communities over 25,000 acres to promote responsible use of the watershed. The watershed supports countless communities all over Jamaica, either directly or indirectly. And as I said, the river dumps directly into the marine park, with its beaches and coral reefs. So any negative effect on the watershed will have the same effect in the coastal communities and in the ocean.

From what I have gathered from Alex, my supervisor at WHROMP, the organization (or disorganization as he calls it) is still in the very early stages and needs a lot of work on the organizational/management side of things. And that’s where I come in. They have a lot of interest and a lot of motivated people, but need some focus and someone with an outsider’s view to come in and sort things out. So it’s a very exciting time in the organization, and a very important time as well. I was placed with WHROMP because of the watershed work that I did with the SCA a few summers ago in California, but I think that the work I did with GW Students for Fair Trade/United Students for Fair Trade (GWSFT/USFT) will be even more useful, and I’m excited to get to use and expand those skills. I’ll be working with a lot of different communities in a lot of different areas – anything from hotels here in Ochi to rural farmers in the hills. It’s going to be a lot of really hard work, and I can already see how frustrating it’s going to be at times, but I can’t even express how excited I am. The opportunity to help shape an organization from the beginning is more than I ever expected and something I feel confident I can make a difference with. It’s going to be a slow process, but I guess that’s why I have 2 years, right?

Alex took me around a small section of the river the other day, and it’s absolutely beautiful. The water is crystal clear with a sandy bed that looks almost like the sea. Just this one small section of the river supports so many different activities: fishing, agriculture, tourism, hydro-electric power, livestock, and more I’m sure I missed. Here’s a picture of the river under a bridge that was built by the Spaniards, probably in the early 1600’s – now it’s mainly a tourist attraction with companies offering tube rides starting from the bridge.

On a side note, Alex has a really interesting back story. He’s of British and Irish descent and has done everything from farming to metal work to environmental consulting, and often times it’s a mix of those 3 things and more. He has 4 children, 2 of whom I met and seem really nice as well. It’s funny, I actually look more like I could be his daughter then the two I met – his wife is Indian and they both look a lot like her. We already had one woman ask if I was Alex's wife or his daughter (yes, both of these from the same woman). For now, we’re going with the latter. But growing up as a white Jamaican, he’s had a lot of unique experiences relating to biases some black Jamaicans have against white Jamaicans. He’s already shared a lot of his story with me, and he’s had some really interesting and varied experiences that I’m excited to hear more about over the next 2 years.

So there are parts of my placement that were very unexpected. Namely living in an urban area, working and living so closely with other white people and being so close to other volunteers – there are at least 10 others within an hour of me. I guess I just have to adjust my expectations a bit and take everything for what it is, not what I thought it might be. I am very excited about everything, and can really see myself being happy in the whole situation for the next two years. I’m sure there will be challenges along the way and I’m sure there will be times I’ll want to throw my hands up and go home, but for now I’m really looking forward to this whole experience and can’t wait to see where it takes me.