Quick story about an accident on the road yesterday,
A group of us are heading back from MoBay (Montego Bay) yesterday evening, winding around the hills near Ewarton. Some of the people in the car were talking about the road conditions and how accidents can cause 5-10 hour detours around the mountains. Shortly thereafter 5 cars in front of us a flatbed tractor-trailer is approaching a hairpin turn. A sedan wants to pass the semi right at the turn so it speeds up right at the corner, turns too fast, and flips, landing on its roof.
A few of us get out of the car and walk over to see. Nobody is hurt, and a few drivers start to give their opinion on this particular driver's mental state. A crowd soon gathers around the car, and in one motion flips it upright. The trailer is motioned to backup up the hill to give room to move the car, and the cars behind it backup to allow him room. With the space cleared by the trailer, the uprighted car is maneuvered into a nearby driveway, and the road is clear. All the gawkers (myself included) are forced to run back to their cars to keep the traffic flowing.
All of this - from when the car flipped to when traffic started to flow again - couldn't have taken more than 5 minutes. I was mentally preparing myself for a late return home when the group flipped the car, and I stood amazed while the car was flipped and moved in less time it takes some people I know to parallel park. The driver was of course extremely lucky - if the car had flipped a hundred yards earlier or later it would have fallen off the precipice.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
PCT to PCV
As of Friday, May 15th I'm no longer a trainee and am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer!
The swearing in ceremony was held at the U.S. embassy, and we weren't allowed to bring cameras in, so I don't have any photos from the ceremony. Here's some pictures from the weeks leading up to it.
A few weeks ago fellow trainees Matt and Judy accompanied me on a SPA (Small Projects Assistance) site at Ewarton high school. The SPA projects are funded through US AID with grants written by Peace Corps Volunteers. We were visiting the project of a volunteer who completed service and left the island.
The project was a greenhouse built with the local farmers group with the intention of educating community members on the benefits of greenhouse farming. Because the greenhouse was constructed on the grounds of the high school, the agriculture students do much of the work. They also do other fun things like butchering and plucking the chickens for the school lunch. I have photos of that, but figured most people wouldn't like to see them.
This is the high school in the distance with some corn stalks in the front. As of yet all the only corn I've seen in the country was imported U.S. sweet corn (and very expensive.) There's a lot of trade economics that I'm not fully aware of, but the end result is a strange scenario where 75% of the food Jamaicans eat is imported, and you have weird circumstances like how powdered milk from New Zealand is so cheap it makes it impossible to have large-scale dairy production and cattle farmers dump their milk.
This is the front of my office. I would probably have to stand on the other side of the by-pass to get a shot of the entire office and both warehouses. It's really big. When I'm not on the road with coworkers I'll come here and help around the office. Exactly what that means, I'm still working out. I'm still working out what priorities I will be focusing on and how my skills would be best utilized. If anyone wants action pictures of me updating Access databases let me know, otherwise I'll continue with pictures of worksites and the country, like the ones below:
This is a typical country water supply. Many of the smaller communities are too small to have municipal water piped around mountains to their homes, so they may use something like the rainwater catchment here. This particular system is about 80 years old and catches rainwater that falls into the holding tank on the right where some of the workers are sitting on. From there it is piped into the pumphouse on the left which will eventually house 4 standpipes for people to fill water tanks, and for the rest to be pumped to a school located around the corner.
The view from the top. There are some cracks in the cement and the blocks along the edge that are in need of repair, which is were Food for the Poor comes in. FFP supplies the community with funds for the cement and labor to do the repairs.
Some of the workers posed for me for this one. It was fairly steep and I had to walk really slow. I tried to ask if they used a specific water/cement ratio when they were mixing the concrete, but I should have learned by now that cement work is more of an art than a science here. However, I've seen the photos from afterwards and the repairs seem to be holding up quite well.
Since I love showing off ridiculous photos of myself, here's one of me losing a sack race at the FFP beach outing in Runaway beach. I was close and tried to dive for the finish, but was a bit behind, and landed hard on the sand (which wasn't that forgiving.) I also embarassed myself playing dominoes by passing when I could have played, and later by locking up the board, both times causing my partner and I to lose.
Last week back at the Mayfair in Kingston, the last time group 80 will all be together until our Close of Service seminar 2 years from now. (Actually most of us will see each other a week and a half from now at the quarterly meeting, but still.)
Our farewell barbeque at the Powell residential building in Kingston. Everyone chipped in and I made a few other volunteers and I made a menu of cheeseburgers, vegeburgers, hotdogs, baked potatoes, chips and mango salsa, and brownies. That is the same bandana that I wore while flipping burgers at the hideaway over 5 years ago back at Michigan. We also had some cane, but no machette to cut them with, so we had to make due with the brownies and cake that Ann our Safety and Security Coordinator brought for us. Which was delicious.
The next morning we were sworn in as volunteers and had more cake. I'm incredibly relieved that training is over and both excited and terrifyed at the idea of being out on my own. Wish me luck, and thanks for all your support!
The swearing in ceremony was held at the U.S. embassy, and we weren't allowed to bring cameras in, so I don't have any photos from the ceremony. Here's some pictures from the weeks leading up to it.
A few weeks ago fellow trainees Matt and Judy accompanied me on a SPA (Small Projects Assistance) site at Ewarton high school. The SPA projects are funded through US AID with grants written by Peace Corps Volunteers. We were visiting the project of a volunteer who completed service and left the island.
The project was a greenhouse built with the local farmers group with the intention of educating community members on the benefits of greenhouse farming. Because the greenhouse was constructed on the grounds of the high school, the agriculture students do much of the work. They also do other fun things like butchering and plucking the chickens for the school lunch. I have photos of that, but figured most people wouldn't like to see them.
This is the high school in the distance with some corn stalks in the front. As of yet all the only corn I've seen in the country was imported U.S. sweet corn (and very expensive.) There's a lot of trade economics that I'm not fully aware of, but the end result is a strange scenario where 75% of the food Jamaicans eat is imported, and you have weird circumstances like how powdered milk from New Zealand is so cheap it makes it impossible to have large-scale dairy production and cattle farmers dump their milk.
This is the front of my office. I would probably have to stand on the other side of the by-pass to get a shot of the entire office and both warehouses. It's really big. When I'm not on the road with coworkers I'll come here and help around the office. Exactly what that means, I'm still working out. I'm still working out what priorities I will be focusing on and how my skills would be best utilized. If anyone wants action pictures of me updating Access databases let me know, otherwise I'll continue with pictures of worksites and the country, like the ones below:
This is a typical country water supply. Many of the smaller communities are too small to have municipal water piped around mountains to their homes, so they may use something like the rainwater catchment here. This particular system is about 80 years old and catches rainwater that falls into the holding tank on the right where some of the workers are sitting on. From there it is piped into the pumphouse on the left which will eventually house 4 standpipes for people to fill water tanks, and for the rest to be pumped to a school located around the corner.
The view from the top. There are some cracks in the cement and the blocks along the edge that are in need of repair, which is were Food for the Poor comes in. FFP supplies the community with funds for the cement and labor to do the repairs. 
Some of the workers posed for me for this one. It was fairly steep and I had to walk really slow. I tried to ask if they used a specific water/cement ratio when they were mixing the concrete, but I should have learned by now that cement work is more of an art than a science here. However, I've seen the photos from afterwards and the repairs seem to be holding up quite well.
Since I love showing off ridiculous photos of myself, here's one of me losing a sack race at the FFP beach outing in Runaway beach. I was close and tried to dive for the finish, but was a bit behind, and landed hard on the sand (which wasn't that forgiving.) I also embarassed myself playing dominoes by passing when I could have played, and later by locking up the board, both times causing my partner and I to lose.
Last week back at the Mayfair in Kingston, the last time group 80 will all be together until our Close of Service seminar 2 years from now. (Actually most of us will see each other a week and a half from now at the quarterly meeting, but still.)
Our farewell barbeque at the Powell residential building in Kingston. Everyone chipped in and I made a few other volunteers and I made a menu of cheeseburgers, vegeburgers, hotdogs, baked potatoes, chips and mango salsa, and brownies. That is the same bandana that I wore while flipping burgers at the hideaway over 5 years ago back at Michigan. We also had some cane, but no machette to cut them with, so we had to make due with the brownies and cake that Ann our Safety and Security Coordinator brought for us. Which was delicious.The next morning we were sworn in as volunteers and had more cake. I'm incredibly relieved that training is over and both excited and terrifyed at the idea of being out on my own. Wish me luck, and thanks for all your support!
Friday, May 1, 2009
Fish and More Fish
Went out with some Food for the Poor (FFP) employees this week for site visits, one to an ornamental fish farm and one to a fishing village. Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera to the farm and only have a few pictures from the fishing village. My coworker took photos from the farm, so hopefully sometime next week I’ll have pictures of coi and angel fish, and of me struggling with a net to catch some goldfish.
FFP assists 17 fishing villages across the island, providing fishermen with boats, motors, lifejackets, and safety and mechanical training in exchange for contributions to the community they are based in and a commitment to safety.
Here is one of the FFP boats (all painted yellow and blue.) The fishermen can go an hour or so out to sea to catch fish, which are then sold to venders and then sold across the island. All the other boats were at sea, this being the first calm day in the past week. Of course it didn’t stay that way for long, and was raining pretty hard on the way back to Spanish Town. My coworker told me the rainy season should last a few months, and then hurricane season begins. Awesome.
These black rhino tanks are ubiquitous across the island. Where there is no piped water, the tanks are filled with rainwater harvested from roofs or from concrete-lined gullies, or purchased and shipped in trucks. Where there is piped water, it is frequently unreliable, and the tanks provide storage for the inevitable shutoffs. They also provide pressure for times of high usage, such as in the morning when or just after work. This tank is currently filled with trucked water, but will soon be connected to the municipal water system. Unfortunately, they are also teethed (stolen) frequently, hence the need for the locked cage.
Don’t ask me why, but I’m still fascinated by these little guys. I have vague memories of going to Disneyland when I was 5 or 6 and being more entertained by the lizards than anything else (all the rides terrified me. Even the teacups. Yeah.) Also, they eat bugs and mosquitoes, so I don’t mind finding them in my room.
After the visit was over I was dropped off at my host mother’s house on Jefferson street. Being the second largest city in Jamaica, we have the luxury of occasionally having street signs, most of our potholes filled, and pretty consistent running water and electricity. I’ll take some more pictures of my community, but after I become more integrated and don’t look like a tourist or a C.I.A. agent.
Here’s how I’ve been spending most of my evenings lately, doing peace corps homework and catching up on some reading. My veranda is very nice for this.
Bonus picture I grabbed of facebook. Here’s what the inside of a typical coasta (Toyota “Coaster” bus) looks in Jamaica, although usually there would be far fewer “whiteys,” and Jamaicans can usually fit 5 or more people in each of those rows. There are chairs that fold down in the aisle, which is great for packing in people but not so great when you’re in the back and your stop comes up. Each bus is unique to the Jriva (Driver) and will be covered in decals, and will sometimes sport dvd players, shag carpeting, and air conditioning inside. On the ride home from Kingston on Wednesday, I heard a reggae version of “Tracy Chapmen – Fast Car.” That, and a reggae version of “Harry Nilsson – Everybody’s Talkin’” have been the strangest covers I’ve heard yet here, although I’ve been assured that I’m sure to hear just about every type of music covered and sampled hundreds of times over. Now if I can only find some good accordion playing…
FFP assists 17 fishing villages across the island, providing fishermen with boats, motors, lifejackets, and safety and mechanical training in exchange for contributions to the community they are based in and a commitment to safety.
Here is one of the FFP boats (all painted yellow and blue.) The fishermen can go an hour or so out to sea to catch fish, which are then sold to venders and then sold across the island. All the other boats were at sea, this being the first calm day in the past week. Of course it didn’t stay that way for long, and was raining pretty hard on the way back to Spanish Town. My coworker told me the rainy season should last a few months, and then hurricane season begins. Awesome.
These black rhino tanks are ubiquitous across the island. Where there is no piped water, the tanks are filled with rainwater harvested from roofs or from concrete-lined gullies, or purchased and shipped in trucks. Where there is piped water, it is frequently unreliable, and the tanks provide storage for the inevitable shutoffs. They also provide pressure for times of high usage, such as in the morning when or just after work. This tank is currently filled with trucked water, but will soon be connected to the municipal water system. Unfortunately, they are also teethed (stolen) frequently, hence the need for the locked cage.
Don’t ask me why, but I’m still fascinated by these little guys. I have vague memories of going to Disneyland when I was 5 or 6 and being more entertained by the lizards than anything else (all the rides terrified me. Even the teacups. Yeah.) Also, they eat bugs and mosquitoes, so I don’t mind finding them in my room.
After the visit was over I was dropped off at my host mother’s house on Jefferson street. Being the second largest city in Jamaica, we have the luxury of occasionally having street signs, most of our potholes filled, and pretty consistent running water and electricity. I’ll take some more pictures of my community, but after I become more integrated and don’t look like a tourist or a C.I.A. agent.
Here’s how I’ve been spending most of my evenings lately, doing peace corps homework and catching up on some reading. My veranda is very nice for this.
Bonus picture I grabbed of facebook. Here’s what the inside of a typical coasta (Toyota “Coaster” bus) looks in Jamaica, although usually there would be far fewer “whiteys,” and Jamaicans can usually fit 5 or more people in each of those rows. There are chairs that fold down in the aisle, which is great for packing in people but not so great when you’re in the back and your stop comes up. Each bus is unique to the Jriva (Driver) and will be covered in decals, and will sometimes sport dvd players, shag carpeting, and air conditioning inside. On the ride home from Kingston on Wednesday, I heard a reggae version of “Tracy Chapmen – Fast Car.” That, and a reggae version of “Harry Nilsson – Everybody’s Talkin’” have been the strangest covers I’ve heard yet here, although I’ve been assured that I’m sure to hear just about every type of music covered and sampled hundreds of times over. Now if I can only find some good accordion playing…
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