love. serve. live.
The other day, a family member back home asked me if there were any flowers blooming in our yard here in Jamaica. It’s something hard to fathom, coming from the Pacific Northwest where everything is dead and gray right now, but the flowers here are always blooming. That’s one thing I love about the tropics. It never gets dreary. Here’s a glimpse of what’s growing in our yard:
Continue reading “Jamaica in “Winter” Photos”
Bags packed for Peace Corps 
First day in Jamaica
We’ve started to hear from the incoming group of Volunteers (about 30 come to Jamaica each year) who will start their training in March. I know it’s an exciting time for them. When I was in their shoes, I was soaking up all the information I could find about Peace Corps in Jamaica. Being less than five months away from our departure, there are inevitably a good number of lessons we’ve learned on our journey. Maybe they can help the next generation of PCVs…
Continue reading “Thoughts for New Peace Corps Volunteers”
Annual Review
This year, we’re trying out the Annual Review exercise shared by blogger Chris Guillebeau on the Art of Non-Conformity site. The basic idea is to set aside time to consider:
Because the coming year brings a close to our chapter with Peace Corps and starts a whole slew of new things, I’ve been really looking forward to this exercise. I think Jedd and I both truly enjoy dreaming about possibilities. And because we’re not going home during our Peace Corps service, we decided to treat ourselves to a Christmas “staycation” here in Jamaica so we can rest, relax, and reflect.
Another Year in Jamaica
In the spirit of looking back at 2013, here are ten of our most memorable moments and favorite blog posts:
Do It Yourself: Peace Corps DIY Ingenuity – It was really fun to see all the ingenious creations volunteers around the island have put together
Continue reading “A Year In Review”
It was not until I was asked to put together decorations for a Jamaican Christmas choral service at school, that I realized how much of the American Christmas celebration is really just about winter:
Snowflakes.
Snowmen.
Evergreen trees.
Holly.
These were some of my first ideas for decorations. But none of them translate to the Jamaican context. Sure, Jamaicans are accustomed to these images being imported into their Christmas. But they really don’t make sense in a place that will never experience winter as we know it. Continue reading “Christmas in the Caribbean”
Photos from this past week with our visitors. Photo credit: Jedd and Aunt Susan
It means a lot to know that someone is reading our blog. I was just looking back over our list of blog subscribers, and some of you – like Mike A., Paula, and Jeff D. – have been following us for over three years now! We really appreciate you sticking with us. Continue reading “Some Blog Updates”
Peace Corps Volunteers live on a minimal budget and, often, the resources and supplies that were so readily available at home are harder to come by in our countries of service. This brings out some very creative ways to make do. The spirit of resourcefulness is also a big part of Jamaican culture. One of our PCV friends had a brilliant suggestion that we compile a list of all the ingenious, crafty, make-shift creations that current volunteers have made while living in Jamaica. We were pretty impressed with the results.
(And there were so many responses that we have to split them into two posts- so for all those PCVs out there who still have something to share, it’s not too late to send us your crafty photos for the second edition.)
The #1 Carpenter/Handy-man: Kevin
“Bamboo gutter: I made so we could catch water to mix concrete up on the hill of the demo farm. We have since put metal gutters up, but the bamboo did its job in the interim. Continue reading “Do It Yourself: Peace Corps DIY Ingenuity”
Values: Choosing Freedom October 2009. You could say this is where it all started. We were well on our way to buying a house but instead, we changed the trajectory of our lives.
The Waiting Game The challenges of being nominees in the Peace Corps application process- a process which apparently has changed since we’ve been serving in Jamaica (hopefully for the better).
You Want to Send Us Where? Things with our placement did not turn out as we expected. This was a difficult bump in the road but it turned out for the best.
Looking Back At 2011: Our Year In Review (VIDEO POST) With almost nine extra months on our hands before our new departure date, the door of opportunity swung wide open. 2011 was packed full of adventures we never dreamed were possible.
Peace Corps Invite!!!!!!!!! (VIDEO POST) A short video capturing the very exciting moment when we opened our official invitation. We knew the region in advance but were surprised to learn our country.
Crossing the Waters (VIDEO POST) In March 2012, we were finally off to meet the other 36 members of PCJ Group 83. The video depicts our transition from home- farewell parties and packing- to staging in Atlanta.
Community-Based Training (Part One) (VIDEO POST) Upon our arrival in Jamaica, we moved quickly from orientation in Kingston to our first home-stay community for several weeks of general training.
Life Pon di Hill and Rise and Shine: A Morning in the Life of a Trainee Here’s a glimpse into each of our “Hub” communities where we spent about 5 weeks doing sector-specific training while living with host families. The video on this page also shows more of the education sector’s Hub training.
Volunteer Shadowing (VIDEO POST) Having the chance during our training to shadow a currently serving Volunteer brought our soon-to-be life as a PCV that much closer.
Swearing In After about 10 weeks of training, we were finally sworn in as official Peace Corps Volunteers. Jedd was chosen to give one of the speeches at the ceremony (his speech transcript is included in this post).
Home Sweet Home (VIDEO POST) Before swearing in, we found out our permanent site placement and were able to visit for a few days. After swearing in, we got settled in to our apartment, got to know our amazing host parents in the house above us, and started work at the community center and school. (We also celebrated our 4th anniversary!)
There are many more posts from our Peace Corps journey, experiencing the ups and downs as well as sharing what we’ve learned about Jamaican culture… Browse here.
I don’t know why we haven’t really addressed Jamaican public transportation on our blog until now. It plays a major part of our daily lives and can be quite fascinating for those who are new to it. There’s a lot of fun stuff to cover when it comes to our route taxi and bus system, so we’ll break it up into two parts.
Who’s Who on Jamaican Public Transit Continue reading “On the Road: Jamaican Public Transit (Part One)”
Following my recent post, Current Volunteers Tell All, I’ve continued to send questions to my fellow PCVs via text message. This time the poll question gives some insight into the various obstacles we face.
If you had to choose your #1 challenge or stressor here, what one word sums it up?
I thought this would be a fun experiment and, thankfully, a good number of my fellow volunteers were willing to help out. The following information comes from a poll I conducted via text messages, thanks to our Closed User Group phone plan which allows us to contact each other for free. I want to thank the 39 volunteers who are participating in this “experiment” for sharing their responses!
When you applied for Peace Corps, what countries or regions were you most hoping for?
• As you can see in the chart, most volunteers had the quintessential Peace Corps experience in mind: Africa. Continue reading “Current Volunteers Tell All”
Simply Intentional 