We’ve been here for about a year now and think we might have discovered a sense of normalcy for us here – whatever that means. Looking back at the 12 months there were many frustrating days that seemed to linger (especially those really hot and humid, sometimes no power days). Other times the novelty and excitement of the adventure passed over as quickly like a traveling thunderstorm.
Christmas Eve at the downtown Sav-la-Mar night market
As a volunteer, your concept of time changes from counting minutes, days, or months and instead you think of things in regards to moments, situations, and special memories. You think of the concept of time as what is going on currently but more importantly, all the things you missed out on back wherever you call home. Though I should be used to being away, I feel like a Continue reading “Year One”→
A former volunteer recently shared with me an interesting reflection about our time in Jamaica. They said that day-to-day life here is not really hard, but it’s wearing. Volunteers will need to find an outside source of rejuvenation because our daily work and community life will, more often than not, be draining. I didn’t want it to be true, but in many ways, it’s a pretty accurate statement. Fortunately, we are in a country that offers us numerous ways to re-energize and keep our lives in balance, from exercising outdoors to finding familiar foods in the bigger towns, from decent access to the internet to spending a nice day on a beautiful beach. Just last week, we had a special opportunity to find respite and rejuvenation just when we needed it most
We were delighted to take up an offer to stay at the Galina Breeze Hotel on the north coast of St. Mary parish for a long weekend. We had heard good things from a former PCV and had stayed once before when my parents visited, which is when we were invited back to learn more about their non-profit/mission work in the surrounding community. The hotel is connected to an organization called ACE (American-Caribbean Experience). They’ve been in Jamaica for 25 years and focus on the parish of St. Mary with projects including education, agriculture, child sponsorship, micro-enterprise, and more. Continue reading “Galina Breeze”→
Secondary Projects: Other things I’ve worked on outside of literacy pull-out groups, include:
Website and online marketing for family-friendly event by our host mom
Created marketing materials and signs for local organizations and businesses
Supported strategic planning meeting at The Source community center
Assisted in editing The Source rental agreement, volunteer training outline, and operations manual
Face painting at the school fair
Tech assistance for parent workshops at the school
In the works: I’m helping the school apply for a small grant to support a “Productive Classroom Environment Project” which includes Continue reading “Project Update: Part Two”→
A part of Peace Corps accountability is our trimester reports, which summarize what we’ve been up to every four months. As I (Michelle) am working on my upcoming report, I thought it might be helpful to share a bit of it with you.
Primary Project: Pull-out groups
In the first school term, I worked with 36 students in small groups of 2 to 5, for about 40 minutes each, once or twice a week.
Students practice spelling their name with letter tiles and alphabet beads
Six girls and twelve boys from grades 2, 3, and 4 were still reviewing some of the letters and learning the sounds the letters make. Two girls and eight boys were still reading below the grade one level and we worked on letter sounds, how to sound out new words, and recognizing basic sight words. The few remaining students are either reading only two grades below or are in grade four and still don’t know half their letters. Since January, I’ve also started a few groups of 1st graders.
I try to make my sessions fun, incorporating games like Bingo and songs. I didn’t want to bring in my own electronics at first, but seeing how the kids responded to alphabet and other educational videos and being that there are no working computers to use at the school, I took the risk to bring something to watch ‘shows’ on twice a week. I think it’s been really effective on a number of levels.
The time slots when I can pull students out of their usual classes are limited, so I started taking the more “advanced” ones for individual reading time during their morning break and lunch hour. Surprisingly, most of them come willingly, unless they haven’t eaten yet, in which case I just find another student to read with.
Challenges: My greatest challenge at work is the level of disorder that goes on outside my little reading room because it means frequent distractions in my class. I’m already trying to minimize energy spent managing behavior of the kids I’m working with, but some days I spend even more energy keeping other unsupervised students from interrupting my sessions. Occasionally, it has gotten exasperating, like the day some kid threw gravel through the slat windows while I was with a group of first graders. But for every chaotic day there is usually a mediocre or productive one.
Rewards: In just one trimester, I can already see improvement in some (though not all) of the students. A few have gotten into the habit of sounding out unknown words when they read, instead of just guessing or giving up like they used to. And the chart I made to track how many books each student has successfully completed in individual reading sessions has led to a competition among some of the third grade boys to read more than their friends. Finally, one of my favorite little accomplishments has been with one of my neighbors who is in first grade at the school. He and his sister sometimes join me on the walk to school; and since he is a recent addition to my reading sessions, I learned that he did not know how to spell his own name. I got the spelling of his name from his sister and encouraged her to help me coach him whenever she could. Every time I saw him in the schoolyard, I would spell his name in a little chant and make him repeat it. Then one day as we were walking home, I heard him tell his sister two separate times, “I can spell my name!” followed by his name chant. It was so cute!
My (Michelle’s) parents came to Jamaica over New Years, and we had a wonderful time showing them our community and exploring new parts of the island together. It was a week Jedd and I had been looking forward to and dreaming about for months. And my parents reported that they enjoyed themselves even more than they thought they would. On our way back to the airport, I asked them what their impressions were of the country and the culture. Here are a few of their observations:
People seem happy, friendly, and easy-going. They sing while walking down the street and greet each other constantly.
It’s not hard to survive in Jamaica without a car.
There are an unexpected number of imports in the grocery stores, including the Latin American version of Frosted Flakes and cheese from New Zealand.
Dogs are not pets so much as they are an alarm system and perimeter guard.
People dress much nicer than you would expect after seeing their living conditions, and they make their fashion choices regardless of the temperature.
There are tons of little bars, every twenty yards in some areas.
Peace Corps job positions appear to present a lot of challenges to success in their very nature, and many volunteers have helpful skills and expertise that are not used in their primary PC job description. (This is another reason why Peace Corps is not just about what you do in terms of achievement because the cross-cultural exchange is just as important.)
Driving on the other side of the car, on the left side of the road; dodging pot holes, goats, dogs, people; over-taking and being overtaken by cars; and the many other challenges of being a new driver in Jamaica is “exciting.”
Although we’ve both experienced Christmas away from home before, this was our first in Jamaica. Downtown is the place to be on Christmas Eve, where shops are open until the wee hours of the morning and the main street is packed with families, teens dressed to the nines, and last-minute shoppers.
Christmas Eve at the downtown Sav-la-Mar night market
Christmas morning we went to a sunrise church service then spent some time with our host family singing carols. I introduced them to my own family’s Christmas morning tradition of home-made cinnamon rolls, which I think went over pretty well. Since it was also Grandma’s 89th birthday, they hosted extended family and friends for a dinner party in the yard, as well as a Boxing Day party the very next afternoon. We also enjoyed Boxing Day dinner at Jedd’s supervisor’s home.
The completed nativity scene (I ran out of glue for the three kings so they’ll come next year)
So we kept busy and enjoyed our Christmas, despite being far from home. And we had my parents’ visit to look forward to over New Years, which turned out to be all that we could have hoped for. We plan to share a few of their observations about Jamaica in our next post. Until then…
-M
Michelle’s awesome timeline to keep track of our service time
I realize I am posting this on December 21st assuming the world will not end.
9 months have gone by and these are the two things that I think about…everyday. Maybe it’s the holiday season and I’m jealous of my fellow volunteers that are heading home. Maybe it’s the heartbreaking, unthinkable tragedy that happened last Friday. It could be the fact that back at home my family has been going through Continue reading “Why am I here? Why I am here.”→
In the Christmas story, several angels are mentioned. Rather than spend much time on the character of angels, I though it would be more interesting to talk about one of their messages. One of the angels essentially tells Joseph to lead his family into becoming illegal immigrants. Doing a Bible search for the word “alien” or “immigrant” (depending on the translation), you’ll find that this was a surprisingly frequent topic Continue reading “Advent Project: Part Four”→
Did you ever stop to think: why were shepherds the first to get revelation of Jesus’ birth and the first, according to Luke, to visit his family in the manger? I learned recently that at the time, shepherds were considered low life outcasts. Continue reading “Advent Project- Part Three”→
The first, and often, central person in the nativity story is Mary. Growing up, I pictured her as a pretty young lady who always wore blue- for some reason- and would never hurt a fly. On church walls and famous paintings, she’s depicted as royalty. I’m not sure how we missed it, but the true person of Mary is not quite so.
Simply Intentional 