23 days to go...

I only have 23 days until I am sworn in and officially start my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV)! Some days it feels as though I’ve only been here a few days, and others it feels like I’ve been here a year already. Things are still going really well, but the days can be pretty jam packed, and I have been taking in a whole lot of information lately. Training is definitely exhausting – that’s something that other PCVs have told me before, and while I didn’t doubt in the least, I also didn’t fully understand how true it is until now. But it is all important stuff, so I'm willing to push through it.

I spent the last two weeks in Ochi with WHROMP (pronounced wee-romp), and am now back in Hellshire for this week with the rest of the group to process the experience and get some more training as a larger group. By far the best thing about this week is seeing the rest of my training class. I really like my group, and it’s really nice to hear about everyone’s site and what everyone will be doing while they’re here. In general, people seem really happy with everything. Everyone has their own unique challenges, and no one’s site is anywhere close to perfect, myself included. But people seem to be adjusting well, and I think once we get through training, start doing some work and get a little more freedom, people will be a lot happier.

We’ll all be going back to our sites this weekend, and will be there for another two weeks. Then we’ll have one final week of training in Kingston, complete with an official swearing in ceremony.
After that, it’s back to our sites to start our two year journey as Peace Corps Volunteers.

I don't really have too much else to say now, and need to get going anyway. But some people have been asking me what types of things I would appreciate being sent to me, and so I’ve decided to put together a little list, should you feel so inclined. No pressure, but who doesn't love a care package??

- Letters!
- Books (fiction, non-fiction, political, I'll really read anything at this point)
- Movies or music
- Magazines (Food magazines or current events/political ones are personal favorites)
- Food (non-perishable or non-melty stuff is probably best.)
- Yoga DVDs (A fellow trainee taught us some this morning and I really liked it!)
- Things to do in my room/house that don’t involve going outside after dark
- Really, anything else you can think of!

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.

Greetings from Hellshire!

(For a bit of context, this was written on March 23^rd)

Greetings from Hellshire, Jamaica! I’ve been in country for just under a week, and I am still really, really liking it here. I feel like I really lucked out with this placement – the staff seems pretty on top of their game, the people in my training class are great, and on a whole, Jamaicans are really warm and friendly. And, they cook a mean baked chicken.

We’ve spent the past 4 days in a community called Hellshire, about 45 minutes west of Kingston. The group of 36 of us sort of took over this neighborhood...there are at least 2 of us on every block and no one is more than 5 minutes away from anyone else. It’s a really nice way to ease into Jamaican culture and to prep for the home stays we have coming up in April, where we’ll most likely be the only American in our community. The whole town has really embraced us, and we all feel safe and comfortable here. Although it’s barely been a week since I left the states, I feel like I already have so much to talk about! For now, I’ll stick to the highlights, and I think I’ll start with my family.

I have a mom and dad, and a sister. There are a few more children, but they no longer live at home. My mom is really sweet and has definitely made me feel welcome- from day one she was introducing me to people as her new daughter. She’s really easy to talk to, and seems really happy.  She’s always singing something – usually connected to whatever she’s doing/thinking at the moment, i.e. – “I have to wash the pot”, “I need to buy some carrots”. I don’t know what it is, but there’s just something about hearing someone singing for no particular reason that makes me smile.

I also really like my sister - she’s 14, and is really sweet as well. She wants to be a pediatrician when she grows up, and she spends a lot of time studying. She gets up at 4:30 every morning to get to school on time and seems really dedicated. She also loves Miley Cirus, so we bonded over that a few nights ago. She bakes and cooks a lot as well, so I think we’re going to plan a night to bake something together, which will be a lot of fun. 

My dad is definitely the quietest of the 3, but I really like him too. He’s a deacon at the church that we go to as well (yes, I did go to church yesterday…) and works night shifts as a security guard in Kingston. I haven’t gotten a chance to talk to him too much, but I’m hoping that will change in the next few days.

We’ve spent the past few days in class learning Patois (it’s a really cool language to listen to, and fascinating from a linguistics viewpoint), learning about Jamaica, about PC policies and about our particular sectors – mine being environment. The classes are pretty boring, and the lectures are really long and usually run over. Classes are from 8 am – 6 pm, so we are all pretty exhausted at the end of the day. But our pace will slow down a lot once we are done with training, which will be really nice. But from stories I’ve heard from other volunteers, it sounds like our training is pretty painless over all, so I’m trying to focus on that. And I really like my host family and training class, so that makes it easy as well.

In about 10 days, we are going to be getting our site assignments, so I’ll be finding out exactly what I’ll be doing and where. I’m really anxious about that – there’s a lot riding on it, and they really didn’t consult us as much as I thought they would. They pretty much had all the sites planned out before we got to Jamaica, and are using the first few weeks to make sure their placements are right. It’s a little frustrating that they aren’t telling us, but I guess that’s where flexibility and patience comes in, huh? Until we find out, I’m just trying to enjoy the time with my family and fellow trainees.

There are a couple things I don’t have space to get into here, so look for another post soon! I do want to tell you all about my first Jamaican church service, as well as a little more about Patois and Jamaican culture. Oh – and I have had so much delicious food to talk about too! But, it’s getting a little late for me, so I’m going to save all of those things for another entry. Until then… 

Nothing but smiles (phone # and revised address too!)

I know I've only been in Jamaica for about 36 hours, but I'm absolutely loving it so far. They've kept us pretty busy so far, and there's been a whole lot of information thrown at us in the past few days. I won't bore you all with the details of safety and security, medical stuff and PC policies, but there's a whole lot of information to take in. If only for the policies and paperwork alone, there is absolutely no doubt that PC is a government agency. 

On the bright side, the policy lectures have been the only boring part so far. My training class is great, and the staff all seem really excited and really positive. I'm sure I'll have frustrations with some of the people around me soon enough, but for now I'm just enjoying all the excitement floating around on all sides. There's nothing too substantive to update on now, seeing as I've only been here for a day or two. But yes, I am safe and I am enjoying myself. Thank you all so much for the messages of good luck and all the terribly nice emails and letters. They really have meant a lot to me. 

Tomorrow night we are heading into our first home-stay, and will be there for the next 2 weeks. The Internet connection there will be spotty, so I won't be too quick in responding, but feel free to keep the emails coming! 

And as promised, I have some updated contact information. The old address will still work, so no worries if you sent something to the old one, it will just take a lot longer. So use this one in the future:

Melissa Dentch

c/o Peace Corps Country Director, 

Leila Webster

8 Worthington Ave

Kingston 5

Jamaica, West Indies 

Phone Number: 876-488-0542

876 is the country code, and I will post more information on the best ways to call after I test out some methods with people back in the states. 

I'll try to update again soon, but I miss you all and hope you are all doing well!

Some pre-departure thoughts

As most of you know, I will be leaving for for Jamacia on Tuesday (3/17) to join the Peace Corps. I'm flying to Miami, where I'll meet the rest of my training class and have a bit of an orientation about Peace Corps. On Wednesday (3/18), I will fly to Jamaica with my training class - about 30 or so people. From there, we'll have about 2 months of training in the language (Patios - a creole), technical skills and Jamaican culture. Then, on May 16th, I will be officially sworn in as a Peace Corps volunteer (PCV) and begin my two years of service. I won't know my exact placement or job until a few weeks into training, and I'll be sure to keep you updated on all of those details. 

A lot of people have been asking me lately how I'm feeling - excited? nervous? scared? anxious? The answer is all of the above, and more. The best way that I can describe it is that I feel like I'm about to jump of a cliff. Now, keep in mind I like that sort of thing - cliff jumping, roller coasters, etc - I'm one of those people who likes the rush that it brings. But it's an action that is simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying, an action that is fun precisely because it is so scary. For the past few weeks, with all the goodbyes, and packing and what not, I feel like I've been getting a running start on the jump - and there definitely has been a small part of me screaming to stop and turn around. But as with any leap, you just have to let your momentum push you forward, and commit to it, knowing you will be happy you did in the end. And once you do jump, you can start to relax - there's nothing you can do to change course now, so you might as well enjoy the ride, right? Eventually, you land in the water, swim to the surface and enjoy the afterglow that comes when you push yourself despite all of your fears and doubts.  

I know that the next few years, and specifically the next few months, will be a huge challenge, but it's one that I know I'm up to and one that I have been looking forward to for a long, long time. It definitely helps to know that I have an amazing support network in the states. I have some amazing friends and family, and you all have been so supportive and so wonderful - especially lately. I am very lucky to have you all, and I owe you all a huge thank you.  

And finally, for those of you who have asked, some contact information. My address is below - it's the address for the main Peace Corps office in Jamaica. I will have a more specific address when I get to my site in a few months, and I'll be sure to send that along when I get it as well. But for now, feel free to send letters or packages to:

Melissa Dentch

Peace Corps

8 Worthington Ave

Kingston 5

Jamaica 

Email: mdentch@gmail.com

I realized the other day that it has been a long time since my last post, and I apologize for that. I have been super busy and have not had a lot of time to write. I will write a longer entry (or 2) when I get back to the states though to get you all updated on the last month of my stay in Kenya. But for now, just know that ISP went very well, the paper, the presentation and just the experience in general was amazing. It was really hard to leave Kisumu, and I am hoping that I will get to go back sometime soon. But we'll see if that happens...

Speaking of my return, I guess I should let you all know what the deal with that is. I am flying out tomorrow (Saturday) night, getting into NYC on Sunday evening around 6. So starting on Monday I will be fully accessible by American standards! My cell phone should be back on in the first few days when I am back, and I will be back to my old obsessive email habits.

And, I think I should also let you all know what my plans are for this summer, since several of you have asked. I am working with an organization called the Student Conservation Association (SCA). They place students in national parks around the country doing various conservation efforts. I am going to be in California working in the Inyo National Forest, about 150 miles north of LA. I will be working with 5 other college kids and 1 team leader, doing reforestation to prevent off road vehicles from going off their designated trails and ruining the surrounding environment. I will be camping for most of the summer, which I think will be really really fun. It will be an adventure for sure, but one that I am really looking forward to. I fly out to start my job on May 29, leaving only about 8 days in Fishkill...

I definitely have a lot of mixed emotions about coming back home. I am really excited, but also really sad to be leaving. And I'm not really sure yet what's gonna hit me in terms of reverse culture shock, but I'm sure it will be an interesting experience, and I'll let you all know how it goes.

The other side of Kenyan life

Just as a disclaimer, this entry might be a little bit of a downer. It’s not that I have started to get depressed or overly homesick or anything, but there are a lot of things about living in Kenya and Kisumu that get me down sometimes, and I wanted to share them with all of you.

I’ve said several times how much I like Kisumu, and this is true. It’s a great little city and it’s got a great atmosphere – most of the time. But like every other area of Kenya, it has its own set of problems and issues.

The poverty here is very different than the poverty in Nairobi, and while I did have some exposure to the extreme poverty there, for the most part I wasn’t around the poorest of the poor. In Nairobi, my house was in a pretty good neighborhood, and yet it was only about a 5 minute walk from Kibera slum. That kind of poverty is really overwhelming and in your face, but at least it presents itself all at once. So it may knock you over the first time, but after that you can start to accept it and get on with things and you know what to expect next time. In Kisumu, it’s a little different. The poverty here reveals itself a little slower, and doesn’t really give you a chance to fully digest it right away. Just when you think you have started to get a handle on it, you see something else that knocks you right back off your feet.

The first thing I noticed about the poverty here was the street kids. As the name suggests, these are kids that have no home. Most are males, and are either orphans, or have been abandoned by their families for various reasons. In America, these kids would have foster homes, orphanages or other places to go, and while these places may not be the best, they are better than the streets. I’ve seen kids as young as 6 or 7 and it’s heartbreaking every time I see them, no matter what age. They all huff glue and turpentine, since being high and passing out is easier then feeling lonely, hungry, cold and depressed. Many of them walk around high all day and just stare at people with glazed over eyes. If they are sober enough when they see me to realize that they are looking at a Mzungu (a white person), they usually ask me for money or food, or say some incomprehensible insult. I have a policy of not giving out money to anyone, and usually do not have any food on me, so I just walk by them. That is one of the most heart breaking parts. I want to help all of them, but I know they will just use the money to get high, and that’s not helpful. There are a few rehabilitation programs for them, but no where near enough. One of the guys that my roommate works with used to be a street kid, and actually went to one of these homes. Now he has a wife and a baby and is helping to run a youth football league here that is helping a lot of kids (much like MYSA from a few weeks ago). So there is some hope, but it’s hard to see that when I have to walk by a group of 5 street kids on my way out of the grocery store who are just waiting for handouts.

Many of these kids spend their whole lives on the streets. And when they get older, their adult life is no better than their childhood (if you can even call it a childhood) was. I see many of these grown men walking around downtown. Their clothes are just as tattered as their young counterparts and I have yet to see either one of these grown men or a street kid with a pair of shoes or sandals. Their hair is disheveled, and they carry the few possessions they have in old bags over their shoulders. There are no programs that I know of for these older people, they just seem to be forgotten about. They will also ask me for money just like the younger kids. I had a banana that I tried to give to one of them, but he told me that he didn’t want it and asked me if I had any money. I wonder what that money would have gone to… Many of them are not even lucky enough to have clothing at all. Some walk around wrapped in plastic bags, and my friends have even seen people walking around in just a T-shirt.

These people have no where to sleep but the streets, and it is not uncommon to come across several of them either downtown or a little bit further out, where I work. They sleep at any time of the day and are usually passed out from some kind of drug or drink. I was eating lunch at a small café near where I work, and I saw a woman just lying on the side of the road, passed out. No one was paying her any mind, and I couldn’t help but wonder if she was even alive. A few minutes later I saw her head move, so that fear passed. This is not an uncommon sight here – people passed out anywhere they can find some grass and some shade. Some on cardboard, others just sprawled out where ever they happen to fall over. It’s so hard to walk by these people every day and not do anything – but what can I do? I know that is kind of a cop-out, but I can’t give them money, I can’t start any kind of program, and while I may be able to give a few of them food, that won’t even make a dent in the larger problem. So it’s been hard.

Another thing that has been getting to me is the prevalence of HIV/AIDS. I talked about this a few entries ago when I talked about the village I stayed in, but it’s worth mentioning again. While HIV is big a huge fact of life in the US, I haven’t really been too exposed to it. But here it is a constant fact of life. The prevalence rates in this area are probably over 30%, the highest in Kenya. It’s really sobering to be sitting in a room and suddenly wonder how many of these people are infected with HIV/AIDS. And it’s not if anyone is infected, but rather how many. And there are programs where people can get free treatment, but there are never enough drugs. Another issue with this is that the drugs need to be taken with food, something that is a big issue for many people. So they stop taking the drugs or take them irregularly, which can have larger consequences of drug resistance, spreading the disease, etc. So curbing the affects of HIV/AIDS will take a lot more than just free drug programs, abstinence only education and charity. It’s an overwhelming problem, as are most issues in development.

Like I said, I do really like it here, both Kenya and Kisumu. But there are some facts of life that I haven’t (and hopefully never will) get used to. And so while most of the time I am optimistic about the future of these places and have great experiences here, I would not be giving you all a fair portrayal of my time here and my experiences if I did not share the hard aspects as well as the good ones. While there have been a lot hard things about living here, it’s the hard stuff that you learn the most from, right? And I can say with confidence that my good experiences in Kenya have outweighed the bad, and even the bad ones were not a total loss, since I have learned so much from them – both as a human being and as a development student. So don’t let this entry get you down, once I finish school, I’ll be back here to change a few things!