Sunrise

I woke up really early to run an errand with my host mother and saw this along the way...

Yum

Thought I'd let everyone in on some of my favorite Jamaican foods:

Patties

Patties are kind of like a giant empanada. The dough is made into a circle, spicy beef or chicken or whatever kind of filling you want is put in the circle and then the dough is folded over and fried. The best pattie i've had so far is the beef pattie with cheese... mmmmm! It's pretty common for me to eat a beef pattie for lunch, but I’m gonna have to cut back on that or I'll be coming home real nice and fat in two years.

Mangos, Pineapples, and Guineps, oh my!

While you can get mangos and pineapples in the states, nothing really beats eating them fresh right off the tree. :) so nice and juicy! As for guineps, they grow in bunches like grapes but they have a thick skin and a giant seed in the middle. Once you break off the skin, you pop the piece of fruit in your mouth and suck the fleshy yummieness off of the seed. I've seen little kids eat the seed but it's pretty huge, I always spit it out afterwards. Unfortunately guineps are seasonal, so unless you come visit me in the summer you're gonna miss out on them.

Ackee and Salt Fish (Jamaica's national dish)

We eat it for breakfast. Ackee is a fruit that is poisonous until it is ripe and opens up. The fruit is boiled (it looks kinda like scrambled eggs after its boiled) and then its cooked up with salt fish and other flavorings, very nice and salty, I love it!

Festival

Festivals are basically a sweet breadstick, crunchy fried on the outside and nice and fluffy and sweet in the middle. Yes, another fatty food that I can't resist. :)

Swordfish fritters

Well I don't know much about how this is made, but its nice and crispy and salty, always a good combination to me!

I'm sure this list will grow as I try more and more food here, but so far these are my favs and you have a lot of yummy things to try when you come to visit me in Jamaica ;)

Finally, the beach!

On Saturday we fiiiinally got to go to a Jamaican beach in St. Thomas. Don't have a lot of time to write about it, except that it was very beautiful yet five people got stung by jellyfish! Yikes! Since I wasn't one of theose five people, I had an amazing time ;)

West view of shoreline

Chillin!

East view of shoreline

Peace Corps Bus!

Scrub, Scrub, Scruuub

a few days ago i did my first load of laundry by hand washing. let's just say that i can't believe people in the statesc complain about doing laundry!! what a work-out! in the heat, scrubbing, rinsing, wringing, hanging. i took all my clothes to the washroom, which is an area fenced off with lots and lots of clothes lines and washing sinks. the washroom happens to be right by the cleaning ladies' quarters, so they were there watching me attempt to make my colored clothes clean and were just laaaughing away, i'm sure it was a pretty funny site cause i had no idea what i was doing. luckily they decided to teach me how to properly wash 'n scrub so by the end of the load i was gettin it pretty good i think... lol!

i <3 cooold showers!

hmm didn't think you'd hear me say that one, but trust me, it's so hot and humid here that i start sweating the moment i step out of the shower! so its completely fine that there is no hot water here, cause usually i can't waaait for a nice cold shower. and after a morning run or a game of ultimate frisbee or basketball or whatever i happen to get dragged into after dinner, a cold shower is simply marvelous!

i don't have any new pics to share right now but i stole a picture from one of the guys in our group, josh, who is an amazing photographer. this is a pic of must of us chilling after a long day of training and celebrating a 23rd birthday. good times!

Waagwan? (what's going on)

Yesterday we did a "walk-about" in Kingston. We went off in small groups to explore the city along with a local Jamaican guide. They taught us about the transportation we could use, what was safe and what wasn't, where we shouldn't go, how to bargin for prices and find our way around the city, etc. I had a smile on my face the whoooole time. It was my first experience away from the states; thrown into the middle of a completely new culture. We tried to speak/understand patois (pa-twah), which is the language here. Things like "waagwan?" (what's going on?), "waapm?" (what's happening?), and "respec" (thank you). I got to try my first bag juice, which is frozen juice sold in a little bag, kind of like ice pops in the states. I bought fresh pinapple and mango from a street vendor, got my first taste of jerk chicken and festival, a sweet fried dumpling, and listened to a man give a church sermon on the bus. Our ears were filled with dance hall, rap and r&b music eeeverywhere we went. Of course the day was not complete without a crazy taxi ride where the "driva" decided to drive in the opposing traffic's lane. I wish that I could have taken pictures of it all to share with you guys but unfortunately, having a camera and taking pictures in the city is a very unsafe practice. But i do have some pics of the scenery outside my living quarters.

Happy 4th from Jamaica

Guess what, I have a phone now! Email me and you can get my number, its free for me to receive calls and if you get an international card its only like 15 cents a minute for you. Here's the order of events I've been through the past few days:

On thursday we woke up suuuuper early to get loaded up and ready for our flight to Jamaica. When we arrived we were greeted by PC staff and current volunteers, everyone was so sweet and welcoming. There was lots more paper work and registration when we arrived at the training site. They had a welcome dinner for us and the U.S. ambassodor for Jamaica made an apperance. There was a dance/music group that preformed for us too. The food was amazing, and it has been this whole time I've been here.

I was a little bummed that I didn't get to see any fireworks or participate in Fourth of July activities, but hey, I AM in Jamaica, I can't really complain. :)

78.5 Pounds!

The limit of baggage we can take with us is 80 pounds. I held my breath as I set my bags on the scale at the airport and watched the numbers climb to 78.5 and stop. Whew!! That was close!

I have spent the last two days partaking in a "staging" event, kind of like orientation. Basically its time for all the volunteers to get to know each other, review PC policy and rules, talk about cultural exchange, etc. There are 51 other volunteers going to Jamaica with me and they are all amazing people with very impressive backgrounds. We're leaving for Jamaica tomorrow morning, its so crazy to think I'll FINALLY be there! Can't wait!!