Nuf tings gwan fi mi mon!

I have SO much to tell you guys about. I'm gonna give you a break down of the week and then ramble about some of the events that took place:

Tuesday: Took an oral examination on what I have learned during PC training

Wednesday: Had a BBQ with the other PCTs to celebrate the end of training

Thursday: Sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer at the U.S. Embassy

More of Thursday: drove on a mountain during the beginning of tropical storm Gustav

And more of Thursday: had a flat tire on the side of a mountain during Gustav

Thursday night and Friday: spent a night and day w/o power

Saturday: took part in an assessment of drinking water sources after the storm (luckily no major problems in St. Ann)

Sunday: Went to church and then went cliff diving in Discovery Bay :D

The swearing in ceremony:

Our ceremony to swear in as official PC Volunteers was really nice at the US Embassy. The US Ambassador for Jamaica was there along with a Jamaican minister, and the head of Ministry of Agriculture who gave a nice speach. The ambassador presented each of us with a certificate for successful completion of PC Training. It went like this, they call your name and your title, and you walk up in front of everyone to shake her hand, receive the certificate and a really cool PC Jamaica pen, and pose for a picture with the ambassador in front of the audience. What I didn't know before my name was called was that the ambassador was saying something to each person as she shook their hand, something like "Where are you from?" or "what school did you go to?" So I get up there to shake her hand and she asks me, "So you're an engineer?" ... This caught me completely off guard. I said "Yes..." very uneasily and she turns to the crowd and goes "Oh! Pretty AND smart!" I was soooooo embarrassed!

HomeComing:

For the last week of training me and my fellow PCTs had to stay in Kingston for final tests, lectures, and administrative purposes. On Thursday after the swearing-in ceremony I returned "home" to my host mother, just before the heaviest part of the storm hit our area. I was greeted with the warmest welcoming, it was so very sweet! My host mother (we call her Nurse cause she's a retired nurse) had made fried chicken and baked a white fluffy cake to celebrate my swearing-in. I felt loved. :) And how did she know that white cake is my favorite?? hehe! Her and Shavan, my host brother, also filled up my water tank and put kerosene in my lamp for me before the storm. I feel so blessed to be living with a caring family. So despite the storm I felt comforted and part of the family.

TS Gustav:

Lots of you were worried about me when you saw satalite pictures of TS Gustav, but luckily the storm wasn't that bad here in St. Ann. Just lots of rain and some wind, nothing I couldn't handle. As I mentioned earlier, we were without power for the night and some of the day but nothing unmanagable.

Lessons of the week:

Not a good idea to travel during a tropical storm. Also not a good idea to swerve a donkey on the road, it could possibly lead to a flat tire during a tropical storm... yikes!

Aaaand here is a few pics for ya:

Me with my fellow Civil Engineers at the swearing in ceremony. We make engineering look goooood!

I did it Mom! Me with my offical documentation from PC after the swearing in ceremony.

A giant snail we found on my friend's porch. Tastes like chicken ;)

My "job" job

OK so people keep asking me about my actual job in the pc. Truth be told, because I’m still a trainee (until Thursday) I haven't done too much as far as my actual "job" job is concerned. But there are things I can talk about:

I am technically assigned to the North East Regional Health Authority (NERA) . I am supposed to be connected with water and sanitation projects across the region, but specifically in St. Ann because they have the most water issues at the moment. My supervisor is a public health inspector who inspects water quality across the parish of St. Ann. This includes drinking water, pool water, waste water, and water used for recreational purposes. He is a very knowledgeable guy and really laid-back and friendly. This past month or so I've been following him around out in the field to get a feel for the layout of the parish and learn a little bit more about water quality and how the health department operates. I think I ask him about a hundred questions a day, but he doesn't seem to mind... yet! I keep being told that if you don't know something in Jamaica, you need to speak up and ask because otherwise people are going to assume you know what you're doing.

This past month I have also been working on building a small database for my supervisor to better organize/store information on the results of water quality samples for the parish. I keep tweaking the database to be more user friendly and have been doing some data entry to make sure it's working properly. So far so good, but the real test is when other people try to use the database. We'll see how that goes...

I've also been brainstorming with the public health inspectors and other employees at the health department about other projects I could work on. Here are a few we've thought about:

1. Water catchment tanks in St. Ann- repair broken ones, increase number of communities with access to treated water, talk with communities about the importance of treated water, work with parish council to generate funds for these projects, train caretakers, etc.

2. Solid waste management/vector control - better plans for solid waste management in communities, create central places to throw away trash, encourage behavior change with-in the community (away from littering and burying or burning trash)

3. Youth - I've been approached by several people about the idea of working with youth in my community. We don't have specific projects planned yet, but I said YES! I'm always down with working with youth!

I haven't started any of these projects yet but there's a Jamaican saying I'd like to use, "Soon come," meaning it WILL happen eventually, just maybe not in the time frame you're expecting it to happen. :D

Some other Jamaica blogs...

There are quite a few other pcvs down here in Jamaica that are doing a really good job blogging about their experiences and it's funny that the things they write about are sometimes exactly what I want to say too. So today I'm gonna be lazy (hehe) and just link to their blog posts for you to read:

Jesse wrote a beautiful post on the ups and downs we are experiancing as pcvs: http://joshnjesse.wordpress.com/

And Andrea wrote a good post about some of the cultural norms in Jamaica:
http://andreaandwill.blogspot.com/

Well I have to run because today I am going with my supervisor to take pictures of old water catchment tanks in need of serious repair. We're going way out into the "bush" (the country) where the roads are really bad but the views are spectacular. I'll post pics for you later on.

Blue Hole

Last weekend I went with some other pcvs to a local spot called Blue Hole along the White River. It is this gorgeous place with lots of deep blue swimming holes, waterfalls, ferns, flowers, and big tropical trees. We spent the whole day swimming, jumping off waterfalls and banks into the river, hiking upstream to find more falls and swimming holes, and being amazed by the beauty of the place. Pretty much a perfect day.

Beware of the mango

did you know that the sap from mango skin has the same oils as poison ivy??? yea, i didn't either but i definitely know now. on thursday i ate a mango by biting into the skin instead of peeling it first and now my lips are on fire and big and puffy. it's pretty miserable. guess i learned my lesson the hard way. let's hope that i start to feel better tomorrow. :(

but i'm not completely miserable. yesterday i spent the whole day at a local beach with some other pcvs. it was an amazing time just chilling in the water and hanging out together. wish i could share some pictures with you but i accidently deleted allll my pictures from my camera before i could transfer them to my computer. i was so MAD at myself!!

so there were two lessons learned today. beware of the mango skin AND the delete button on your digital camera. both are extremely dangerous and you should only proceed with extreme caution. ;)

Tanks!

I just wanted to say "tanks" (tanks how ya say "thanks" in Jamaica) to everyone who has sent me letters and stuff in the mail. I can't explain how exciting it is to get things in the mail here... it completely makes my day! Thank you guys for everything and keep those letters coming! :D Love you!

Happy Emancipation Day!

So today, Jamaica celebrates Emancipation Day in observance of August 1st, 1838 when slaves all across the English speaking Caribbean were set free. Last night I went with two other PCVs to Seville for the annual Emancipation Celebration. There was lots of dancing, music, people to meet, and chocolate "tea" (basically hot chocolate) to drink. The tea is free if you bring your own mug, and there's a contest for the biggest mug and also the mug with the most dinks in it. I found an old article talking about the event if you're interested: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20000718/ann/ann1.html The coolest part of the night was when the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding, made a surprise appearance and came to join in the festivities. I was so close to him, just about 20 yards away. I kept thinking: wooooow that's the Prime Miiiinister! Craziness!! Definitely an awseome experience to say the least.