About four years ago, I made a resolution to only regret things that I've done, and not things that I wish I did. While the past two years haven't been perfect, and while I had plenty of nights where I really questioned just what the hell I was doing here, I'm glad I took the plunge. Peace Corps is by now means perfect, but I felt it offered me an opportunity to create my own experience, challenges, opportunities, and rewards. Reading through some of my old journals, I see that I'm a different person than when I left, and I'm glad for that. I've always been of the mind that I should be more concerned with where I'm going than where I am, and I'm happy to see my progress.
I guess I learned some stuff here too. I learned that during a four day storm you can dry your clothes in the oven if you're really careful, and that beans and textured vegetable protein are friends to your wallet. I also learned that boarding a plane or signing a contact isn't enough to change who you are. Wherever you go, there you are. Along the same lines, I learned that the idea that tough times build character is bs. Tough times reveal character. Then it's up to you to decide where to go from there. Building character, growing as a person, takes place incrementally over many nights, it takes an infinite amount of commitments and an endless supply of resolve, and even then requires the continual reevaluation of yourself to ensure you're heading in the right direction. When the tough times come again, then you'll be able to see if you succeeded. Someday soon I'll find out where I stand.
One of the benefits of the Peace Corps is that you get to share the experience with dozens of other people who have that similar mental defect that caused them to leave everything they had for two years of stress and dejection and cockroaches. You also quickly find nationals with the same fire inside that makes them show up at 6 in the morning for community work days or stay up to 2 in the morning organizing teaching resources. Some of the people I met here I couldn't comprehend how they manage to do what they do for an hour, but they manage to wake up every day with determination that leaves me in awe. To everyone I worked with these past two years, Peace Corps or Jamaican; it was an honor to work with you all. The experience would have been worth it just to say I served with you.
But enough of this heavy crap. Often overlooked is just how fun Peace Corps can be. Watching two goats butt heads for half an hour, joining in with a whole minibus singing Michael Jackson, watching an 80 year old woman dance in the street during carnival, or chasing the most adorable lizards out of your kitchen are all entertaining as hell. Always remember to keep it Irie.
Walk good.
-Craigery
Silly goat, you're looking for apartment "B-AAAAAA"
The fast-paced limited-spaced Peace Corps workstation.
Clothes dryer
Hehe
The Jamaican Sears' Catalog
It got a little chilly this winter
The staff prepares to grade the students' delicious final projects
Umbrellas are essential for any type of weather
Gotta be stylin' even if you're just holding a pineapple
My security system
Christmas shopping under the stars (and tarps)
Every workshop should come with a cannon
I'm smiling because I picked enough apples for 60 bottles of wine
Pint-sized kitty
Portland vending machine
Two Michiganders happy to be somewhere else in February
Hehe again
The tropical heat from the painting must be getting to us
The rare combination of cute and badass
Jamaica is a smaller island than you'd think
Hammocks: traps for lazy people
Goodnight Port Antonio, and goodnight Jamaica.