The end of a chapter and the beginning of another.

Living is described by each person differently. No one lives the same way and each person's experience is unique. That said, there are still people that never live. Staying in our comfort zones and passing through life is without purpose is pointless. Purpose and reason are guiding factors in my life. To read why I joined the Peace Corps, read this.

"My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." JFK's inaugural address has a famous line most are familiar with but this quote is the next line in his speech. This part resonates with me even more than "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." and many people wouldn't have any idea who said it.

The preparation for the Peace corps has been a process taking a year and a half, resulted in boarding a plane, ending life as it was. Heading to Jamaica for over two years took time, energy, planning, quitting my job and placing friendships on hold. Saying heartfelt good byes to everyone with sadness in order to have an experience of a lifetime was hard. Leaving my dog behind without him possibly knowing that I wouldn't be back for long long time was even more difficult. (I love my dog) Turning back in the security line and wiping tears of sadness for those closest to me as I took my last steps in Phoenix was the hardest.

Jamaica lasted for 22 days and I am back. If you are reading this, let me tell you how it happened, what I learned, loved, and even the things I didn't like so much. I will tell you how I felt and feel now. In an attempt for closure for myself, I will explain to everyone how 22 days can change your life.

Jamaica. Wow. Walking out of the airport greeted by Peace Corps staff and volunteers into the oppressive heat and humidity was our welcome. Organized chaos all around, the staff clearly have done this before. The roads are roads of a developing country. Not a big surprise. The city of Kingston is a city designed to hold most of the Jamaican population, nearly 2/3rd's. Crowded streets, mud puddles (tribute to one of my Jamaican mother, Linda), goats, donkey carts and lots of black people made for an immediate culture shock. Again, not a big surprise. I'm prepared for this!

Welcome ceremonies, tours, hand shaking with the who's who and lots and lots of paperwork begin our process towards becoming volunteers. We all get phones issued from the Peace Corps which allow us to make calls between each other for free and back to the states for really cheap. The best part of the phones were the converter and flashlight. Both were used regularly. It even came in handy for taco night when figuring out how many kilos of beef to buy for dinner or navigating to the bathroom when the power was out. There was no app for bucket showers though.

I love this poster!

Jamaica's motto is out of many, there is one. This is very true. Historically, Jamaicans are not from Jamaica. Much like the USA, everyone there came over time, some on their own accord and many, not so much. Conquered by the Spanish and the local population killed off, the English then decided Jamaica was of value and fought the Spanish. The English then brought in slavery which is where most of the remaining ancestry comes from. There is also Indians and Chinese that came in after slavery to do manual labor. Spend a little time in the country and you will see there is a lot influencing culture and language. It's a melting pot that has shaped Jamaica into what it is today.

So what happened? I am no longer in Jamaica. Yup. Back in Phoenix.

I missed the sunsets!

I received a phone call from the Director of Programming, Weston Moses, on Monday evening while I was walking with another trainee and her host dad, getting a tour of Stony Hill. He informed me that he wanted to meet on Tuesday to discuss a few things, including the missing money. I asked him if there was anything I needed to do to prepare. He should have said pack everything up, we are making you leave. He didn't. In fact, I really didn't know what to expect going into the meeting.

Lets back up and discuss a few incidents that happened leading up to this meeting.

Saturday morning, we all had a tour booked to visit key historical and cultural points of interest in the Kingston area including Port Royal and the National Museum (of art). We were scheduled to leave at 7:30 am, earlier than training started normally and after a long week of classes. Before I left the house, I realized I didn't have any cash in my wallet. Not a good idea when going out to be a tourist all day. I had a bunch of cash pulled out of the ATM for our rent, due the next day, as well as 11 days worth of what is called your walk around allowance. Now, everyone who knows me knows I am not the greatest with money. It pours out of my wallet very easily. For that very reason, I decided to take about the equivalent of 20 dollars with me and leave the rest behind. My rent money is in the same pocket of the walk around allowance but folded separately. From the walk around allowance that I had, I placed about 30 dollars back and didn't think anything of it. I make sure my windows are closed and latched as well as I lock my room. It's become a habit. We all board up on the bus and are on our way to Port Royal.

Anyone who knows me also knows I'm not much of a morning person so I sit up front on the bus because it's quieter. Turns out there isn't enough room on the bus for us all to comfortably fit so a trainee who I really like but is notorious for talk, talk, talk sits next to me. All I wanted to do is take a nap on the way there, easy to do with the constant gentle swerve to the left and right to dodge the potholes with a good 45 minutes to do it. It's like putting a baby on the dryer. But, no. No sleep for me. We get to Port Royal and begin our tour. In typical Jamaican fashion, it heats up real quick, the sun is intense and with no way to avoid the heat, we deal with it. By 9:30, we are all sweating and the whiny gay white boy in me starts to come out.

After the tour of the historic British base, we are ready to head to the next part of the tour. I practically run to the smaller bus, which has joined us after bringing staff members. The front seat has the best ac and no  room for a talk talk talker next to me. (the driver Froggy is quiet unless you engage him)

I jump in the seat, one of the first people to get in. Looking around I see a book laying on the seat behind me. I pick it up, a book written by our language instructor and begin to read the introduction. A trainee who I don't particularly care for decides that in her typical fashion, starts complaining that I have her book. Rather than asking for it back, she goes off on me telling me that it's her book and I shouldn't be touching it. Whoa, woman. Seriously. Its a book and its definitely not that serious. Slow your roll. I give it back to her after taunting her a little bit because she is an easy person to engage, asking her questions like where did she buy it and how much was it? She didn't buy it. She borrowed it from the peace corps library. Good grief. Immediately afterwards, one of the Language and Cross Cultural Facilitators (LCF) gets on the bus and says to me that I took her seat. I said, this is your seat? What's wrong with that one you are in?She tells me that she gets motion sickness and I said, well if you want to sit here, you can. I can move. I didn't know. No, it's fine. I'll just sit here. I think to myself... So, you are complaining about me taking your seat and when I offer it to you, you don't want it anymore? At this point, I am becoming irritated. It's early, I'm hot, I'm hungry and I just want to get to the next place so we will be that much closer to being home, enjoying my Saturday afternoon to relax. I have to start packing up my stuff too since I move on Sunday to the new place. We have a potluck this evening with all of the host families so at this point we are not getting any time off this weekend. A few minutes of downtime would be nice.

Two more LCF's get on the van and say to me "what are YOU doing on this bus?" I turn around, look at one of them and say... There are assigned buses now? News to me. He laughs and you can tell they are kidding.  I turn back around and say as a general statement, can't you people just fucking leave me alone this morning? Froggy starts laughing and the bus goes silent. Good. Peace and quiet. That was easy.

We get to the museum, go to lunch, go see the Bob Marley statue, go shopping and then to Devon House for ice cream. Day is over and we head back to our homes where we get dropped off. During the day, I bought ice cream as a gift for my host dad, lunch and an iron. Broke again. Damn.

When I get back to my house, I go to my pocket of money and immediately, something isn't right. There is no longer two stacks of money and there isn't even enough to cover rent. I count and recount. Thinking back to what I did this morning, its clear that there is money missing. It worked out to be 3800 Jamaican dollars which is about 45 dollar that disappeared since this morning.

The Peace Corps doesn't pay us. We volunteer. Something I knew going into the whole thing. They cover our minimal expenses such as food and board with a few extra bucks here and there to make your stay somewhat comfortable. We received about 600 Jamaican dollars a day during training. If you are good at math, you'd already know that is about 7 dollars.

But the more I thought about it, the more angry and upset I got. I now have to replace this money and I'm 100 percent positive that I didn't misplace it. I have no way of knowing if it was in fact them, but what I did know is the windows were not broken and they had a key to the room as well. Regardless, it had to be resolved some way. So I text the two staff and begin the process of reporting a crime according to the policy handbook. They question me about the incident and I immediately feel as if they don't believe me or better, don't want to. This would be the first incident in Jamaica in ten years that a host family member has been accused of stealing from a volunteer. Just my luck, huh.

Nothing is said to me really other than they will deal with it. At first, the home-stay coordinator wants to bring it to my host family's attention. I make a big stink and say that I only have one more night in the house before I move to the new town and for my safety and peace of mind, it would be best to address it tomorrow after I am packed and on my way out of the community. Theft is taken seriously in the community. Reputations are very important to people as well.

Two days pass, I've moved to my new house and am starting to adjust to our new town and it's people. Then Weston called.

I could tell by the phone call and the tone of his voice this wasn't just any meeting. I also knew that meeting with the country director and the director of programming during your normal training and at the peace corps office was a heads up that shit was going down. I just didn't know why. Fellow trainees told me that there was nothing to worry about and I was overreacting. I had an uneasy feeling about the whole thing.

On Tuesday, I get to the office where they take me into a conference room. The first thing out of the Country Director's mouth is "we are considering you for administrative separation. We have brought you here to get your side of the story. Here are the allegations."

Administrative separation happens for many reasons. Medical issues, site placement issues or as I soon find out, issues that need no justification or legitimacy. To read the policy manual governing such things, click here. It's a good thing for current and potential volunteers to read. This was never provided to me. I found it after leaving Jamaica.

We begin to discuss the money that had disappeared from my room. It then turns into a completely different conversation. Rather than acknowledge that the money in fact disappeared, the conversation turned into one of the Peace Corps reputation and how I had damaged it. Turns out, trainees found out about the money disappearing and without thinking about the potential consequences, they shared this information with their host families. Their host families decided to participate in the game "telephone" and disseminate these rumors/information to the entire community. The Peace Corps then started getting phone calls. Somehow because I was the victim of the crime, it all comes back to me. I shouldn't have said anything to anyone, I think to myself.

Oh and we heard about the incident on the bus, they said. You were culturally insensitive to the LCF about her motion sickness and the swearing was unprofessional was the message they tried to persuade me to accept as reasons for my departure.

Then, they mentioned an incident that had allegedly occurred two weeks prior about cursing at a local restaurant which I believe to be made up and falsified to support the allegations and justification for admin separation. When I asked about more specific details regarding the incident, they had none. They didn't know what was said, when it was or who reported it. Hmmm. You all know as much as I do about the "incident". Apparently, the United States Peace Corps Jamaica office doesn't believe in facts to support their argument.

I have since then sent an email to both the Country Director and her boss asking for clarification on the reasons for their decision. I have received no response from either, other than an out office office reply from her boss notifying me he is on vacation from July 20-August 5th. We are now going on 4 business days.

The one thing I wonder was if they really cared about my opinion. The assumption would be no. I had my meeting on the 19th and they had priced out my flight and scheduled my final (required) medical exams the day before. So much for due process and listening to all sides of the story. I still don't know what could have been differently to avoid the same results. That's the hardest part for me. There is no right to appeal their decision. Essentially, as a trainee, you can be forced to resign or be administratively separated (kicked out) for no reason at all. They don't need to provide you any information other than this is it. Good bye. It's very similar to Arizona's right to work state laws.

I spent so much time preparing for this journey. I packed up my life in 4 bags. I left everything behind, as did all of my fellow trainees (and the volunteers that are currently serving or have served). I hid my sexuality in order to integrate into Jamaican culture and made that commitment for over two years and had a pretty easy time accomplishing that. To have the whole experience taken away so prematurely has been very hard to digest, process, explain and move forward. I think how I would say something in Patwa (Jamaican Creole) and pride myself in not saying me no no, even though it goes through my head every time. The funny part is when I say it here, people laugh just like they did in Jamaica, for different reasons of course. Just a taste of the cultural differences and challenges a short 22 days can cause. Guess it's just the novelty wearing off.

My friend said just be glad you got a month vacation in another country. Trust me when I say the Peace Corps is no vacation. However, I really had a wonderful experience and hope this post isn't perceived as a reason not to join the Peace Corps. I believe in the message, purpose and potential experience. I hope to fulfill a duty to the world again, eventually. Now I must focus on myself again. I must decide what's next and move past this unfortunate disappointment in my life.

The character of a man shouldn't be based on what he has done right. It should be based on how he reacts when something goes wrong. This whole thing isn't right but the next steps forward will determine how I will reflect on the situation. Lots of people have told me that things happen for a reason. I'll take that leap of faith. I received a card recently that says You may not know exactly where the road is leading or what the days may bring or how you'll manage them but there is one thing you can know for sure, you will have friends like me along the way. I am glad to have such a supportive group of friends to help me along the way.

I have an interview with Godaddy.com on Monday to get my old job back. That will be the first step to normalcy. Work. Joy. I am so bored sitting around with nothing to do. I am also going to the Statewide Youth Advisory conference, which I have helped facilitate for 6 years, tomorrow. Good timing to get back, I guess.

Overall, there are lots of good reasons to be happy about coming home early. It just takes a little time some days to remind myself of them. I am disappointed with the whole situation, with myself, with the Peace Corps and a little bad luck but I have been a survivor my whole life. This will be easy looking back after some time has passed and the wounds heal. This is just another chapter to add into the memoir. 

If you have questions that weren't answered, feel free to contact me. I'd be more than happy to clarify.

1st Jamaican Birthday

Waa Gwaan!

Another week has passed in Jamaica. Most of this last week was uneventful. There has been lots of training, questions, answers and clarifications provided by our excellent training staff in preparation for our service as volunteers. Bonding as a group continues and its amazing how this experience will create life long friends. I feel I know so much about some of my fellow trainees and we have only known each other for just under two weeks.

It was my 26th birthday on friday. I was anxious about celebrating my birthday in Jamaica, simply because my birthday is usually a great time spent with my friends in Arizona. Of course, in true "Mark" style, everyone knew it was my birthday and it turned out to be a great birthday. Another trainees birthday was Sunday so we sorta celebrated together.

My host family, Peace Corps staff and fellow trainees made up for the fact I am over 2,000 miles away from home. The morning started with the Jamaican "Happy Birthday" song which our trainers taught us all how to sing, followed by a cake later in the day. I got a silly little birthday hat which I wore for most of the day and a card signed by everyone. Then, we went and saw the Mayor of the town we are living in. Here is a picture of him talking with the news after we were done meeting him. I never did tell him it was my birthday. I should have.

After training was over for the day (nope, I didn't get the day off), my Host family took me into Kingston.. Before dinner, we walked through Emancipation Park, a great park memorializing Jamaican slave emancipation. It is one of the nicest parts of Kingston I have seen so far. Then, for dinner, we went to a great jerk place called Sweetwood Jerk. We had Jerk Pork which was a nice change from fish, chicken, rice and beans. When we got back into town from Kingston, a lot of the trainees and host families gathered for my "birthday party" at one of the other trainee's house. It was a nice way to end the evening. Here is a picture with a few of us!

Saturday, my host dad and mom, another trainee and I went to the largest Caribbean open air market which is located in Kingston, known as Coronation Market. During training on friday, they prepared us for this mandatory training exercise designed to teach us how to bargain, shop, navigate transportation, become aware of potential security risks and experience Jamaican culture. They scared the crap out of a lot of us as to what we would expect. My experience was watered down a bit compared to my expectations from the day before. It was overall civil, very dirty with lots of trash laying about, rowdy and a bit chaotic but overall it's purpose of purchasing goods at decent prices was easily accomplished. It was funny to watch my mother bargain with the vendors. We won't be going back to that part of town again during our stay in Jamaica though. It is not in the best part of town.

It has been very hot lately. Coming from an Phoenician, that should mean something. The humidity will take some time to get used to, if ever. The good thing is that, while it lasts, we are really close to the beach. When my host dad, another trainee who tagged along and I got back, a beach trip was in order. Meeting up with a handful of other trainees already at the beach, my new favorite drink soon found itself in my hand. Due to impending financial issues, I found it okay to splurge on some Rum and Ting.

 In the spirit of the second goal of the Peace Corps, (to help promote a better understanding of the American people on the part of the peoples served), I thought it would be neat to make dinner for my host family. Since they have been cooking breakfast and dinner for me everyday, I'd let them take a break. I racked my brain for the last few days trying to figure out what to make for them. When I casually asked them if they had ever had tacos and when they said no (and had no idea what they were), I knew it was settled. They also didn't know what a tortilla was which was shocking to me. Now. I know there are people that would say Tacos are not American food but I would disagree. Anyone who lives in the United States has had them and those living in the Southwest would consider them a staple. (even if its just Taco Bell, which they don't have here)

Before going to the beach and after the market, we stopped at the Mega Mart. Its similar to a Costco, but you don't need a membership to shop there. Turns out mexican food stuff is expensive here. Oh well. It was for a good cause. Two of the fellow trainees decided to assist in the cooking/eat some mainland food. When the tacos, rice and beans were prepared, we di nyam our dinner.  It turned out a success and my family was pleased. Completed product below.

Sunday, I went to church with my Host mother. We attended the Pentecostal church just around the corner from the house. Last week I heard them worshipping for a good part of the morning but we did not go. This week, we did. The best part about the whole experience wasn't even the church. I decided not to take my bible with me but instead took my iphone. I had loaded an application which contained the entire scripture. My host mother told me to take my bible with me and when I told her that it was on my iphone, she said she was surprised it fit. Mind you, I just got her to sign up for an email account and join facebook. I shouldn't be surprised.

Church was an interesting experience. I am not the most religious person as many would know but it was an eye opening experience to be reminded how seriously some people take their faith. I was slightly distracted by a few things.

• The pastor looks like Barack Obama. Seriously. 
• Up, Down, Up, Down. I wasn't quite sure when I was supposed to be standing and when I was supposed to be sitting. 
• Occasionally, someone would just start shouting out random things. Some of it, I understood and some of it, I'm pretty sure no one else understood either.
• The fantastically ornate hat the pretty young girl in front of me was wearing. She would have fit in at the recent Royal wedding.

We left early. I think we were both ready to go. It was her idea. Here is a picture we took just afterwards. She told me on sunday that she was going to miss me. I will miss her too.

This next week is our last week as a group together. We are then moving to a different host family in smaller groups around the island for a few weeks. Just before swearing in, we will all gather again. It will be nice to be in smaller groups to focus in on sector specific training but it has been nice to hang out as a big group. We leave for our new site on Sunday. Again, I won't know my host family and again I will have to adjust to new living situations, climate, location and disorientation. I am looking forward to it. Internet will probably be scarce. I have been lucky to have readily available access at this home and cross my fingers my luck will continue. If not, I will be online when I can. I did get an international plan on my cell phone (which is extremely cheap here) and can call back to the States pretty easily.

Hope all my friends and family are doing well. Keep in touch.

PS. Send me letters. It's nice to get snail mail, especially if I don't have access to the internet to stay in touch. Also, if you send something, include US Forever stamp(s) in the envelope so I can reply. If you send me something, I promise I will respond. 

The address in the correct format is located on the right hand side.

Chicken Foot Soup

This weekend has been a well rounded learning experience. Living with a host family is an excellent way to get aquainted with Jamaican society. Having parents to teach you things like what side of the street to walk on, (seems silly but walking on one side of the road your whole life and having to switch takes concious effort) what foods to eat and how to eat them (more about that later on in the post) and where to go and not to go in town is very helpful in getting acclimated.

I miss my friends back home but the experience is so new and novel that its only during the down times that the States crosses my mind. Knowing that tomorrow is America's Independence Day makes me want to get out my (newly legal in arizona) fireworks and sparklers, bud light and watermelon and celebrate however I will be working tomorrow. We only get Jamaican Holidays off. August 1st and 6th are the next holidays Jamrock celebrates. However, I am confident that my friends back home have the celebrations under control and those who drink too much can count a few of those in for me!

Yesterday I hung out with my host day and watched a lot of tv. He is big into sports and has designated saturdays as the day to sit in front of the television and relax. Easy to justify because the sun here is scorching hot during the day and nearly requires an afternoon nap to pass the time. I learned about cricket, which I had never watched a game before in my life. It's not like baseball which took about a half hour to figure out. I still don't have all the rules down, which is okay since I don't plan on playing anyway. Good news is I am slowing understanding a lot more of what he says. We did a lot of channel flipping from one station to the next, from soccer, tennis, cricket, track and field, and anything else playing on the sports channels. He writes down all of the lottery numbers too, all four times a day and enjoys the horse racing, so we flip over to those channels as well. We had porridge for breakfast, which was quite tasty. This wasn't the type of breakfast they dish out in the black and white films without flavor and mindlessly slopped into a bowl in a buffet style from a laddle in orphanages. It is made from cornmeal, water, vanilla, sugar, and nutmeg. He showed me how to make it, and I plan making/having it soon! Lets hope I took good mental notes. I'd hate to screw it up and then serve it to them. Its pretty simple.

I've done a lot of walking during my spare time, mainly because I've never been the type to just sit around and do nothing. Over the weekends during training, there is a lot of free time. We are in a small town and its pretty easy to run into other volunteers. Its nice to compare stories about each others days and nights.  We have lots to read but I did that the first night and yesterday. I was always a well prepared student!
Yesterday afternoon, I found the pattie(sp?) shop, the local bakery store that has lots of other random things for sale next to the grocery store. They are delicious! They taste like a pot pie, with a beef mixture inside. I probably don't want to know whats in them because its a beef paste. The best part is they are quite inexpensive and close by. I went by today but he didn't have any left until tomorrow. I let him know I would be back! I also really like a candy called Ping Pong which are chocolate covered peanuts.

I made the mistake of mentioning that the grocery store, next to the pattie place, has chicken feet for sale to my host dad when I returned from my walk. I asked what you would use them for. Little did I know that my little inquiry would result in Chicken Foot soup for dinner. I am very open minded when it comes to food, or at least I thought so. Dinner rolls around. I am hungry and there are chicken feet in my bowl. Now, the soup is great. It had potatoes, carrots, and a few other random tasty things in it with a broth that had a pumpkin base. That wasn't the problem. What do you do with a chicken foot? So, again I asked, fearful for the answer. He said, let me show you. He picked up the foot, stuck it in his mouth and started sucking. With an impressive quickness, he starts pulling out pieces of the bones and placing them on our (reoccuring) bone plane. Looks simple enough. Hesitantly, I tried to recreate the action.

Now, I grew up around farms. My grandfather had one and often I would go and gather up the eggs with or for him. Chickens are nasty and poop everywhere, with no regard for what they are stepping in. I have the image of chicken shit having been all over these dirty birtys feet as it goes into my mouth. Probably not the best thing to think about as I am about to eat it. Too late. I separate a few of the bones from the foot in my mouth and start there. I put the rest of the foot back into my soup. I begin the sucking, since that gets the meat off the bone. It works. Now I have to swallow. This is the hard part. There isn't anything to chew, really. It's mostly fat.  Chicken fat isn't my favorite texture either.  I do, quickly washing it down with Jamaican lemonade, which is really good. I fought the urge to gag, mainly because I thought it would be rude. Only 90 percent left of this foot and two others to go.

I ate it all. It took me forever to finish it. My dad asked me if I liked it and I told him I would never make it for myself. I mentally patted myself on the back afterwards and swore I'd never eat it again. Nope. Never. This is one dish that I won't be trying twice. Thanks but no thanks. I felt even better about having eaten it after another volunteer told me she just plain refused. My host dad seemed to enjoy it. I'll let him have mine next time.

Today, we had collalil(sp) which reminds me of southern Greens in the states. My host mom showed me how to prepare these as well. They were very good, not too difficult, and extremely healty.  It went well with buttered bread and a hot cocoa tea, which tasted a lot like Hot Chocolate. Not bad for breakfast. I imagined Ashley would have enjoyed it!

This afternoon was a lot more walking around. Lots of the neighborhood goes to church and some of these churches are an all day affair. The music coming out the churches is quite spectular. I will go next week for the experience. Lots of hooting and hollering. I played cards with another volunteer brieflly with his host dad trying to teach him how to play Hearts. "Practice makes perfect" I told him as I moved on to the next adventure.

We are really close to the water and since I am a big fan of beaches and water, I wanted to go. Due to safety restrictions, trainees can't just go by ourselves. So we had dinner first, which was also quite tasty. Rice and peas (beans) with chicken, green beans, carrots, and the best carrot juice I've ever had(which was also handmade) filled up my stomach before our journey. After dinner and  some finessing, my host dad and mom took a handful of us to go meet up with some of the other volunteers. I also took my waterproof camera with me, excited about getting to use it for the first time. The water is perfect here. The temperature is nice, its really clear, and it was nice and busy. Of course, it was really easy to find the other volunteers since a super majority of them are white surrounded by Jamaicans. After saying hellos, I jumped in for a bit. You can find a few pictures on facebook, if you havent already looked at them.

It started to rain, a nice rain, not the cold rain I'm used to as we walked back. After drying off and changing, I had promised to show my host mother how to use the computer her daughter got her. With lots of patience, practice and explanations about this and that, she now has an email account and a facebook. She emailed the former vounteer that lived with them as well as her daughter. I told her that there would be another lesson tomorrow night to see what she remembered.

I am really liking the people here. Everyone is so nice and friendly. They have a sense of community that I've never experienced before. I can see why people fall in love with the island. Lots to do this week, all of which I am excited about. Not sure how much free time I will have but will try and keep up on posts. Hope all is well and HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY AMERICA!

Integration

Today completes the first part of Pre-Service Training and the start of phase two. (Not that there was really a phase one) By that I mean... we have gotten the first of many shots, ate a lot of great food, socialized with the fellow trainees and had loads of general information provided along with tons of handouts. (There is so much to read!) We have had a wonderful welcome from our staff members, members of the community in different performances and even the Ambassador at a breakfast the other day. But that's not why I packed up my life and boarded a plane to come to Jamaica.

Tonight was. I met my first host family where I will be living for the next 17 days. We all did. We boarded our PC bus and drove out to a smaller sized town (which I won't be mentioning in my blog for security and safety reasons) outside of the capital. We played a game where the 30 of us volunteers were handed a piece of paper that a word on it. Mine was Bagel. The goal is to wander through this group of strangers and find the one thats word goes with yours. Instantly when I saw the word Bagel, I thought Cream Cheese. Easy enough. Now I just have to find Cream Cheese man/woman. Eventually, I did.

I met Devon, a man in his 40s. We gathered up my bags together and walked to his house where fortunately I was just around the corner from the Church where we all started our little meet and greet. It was hot and I was sweating! I was embarassed to be going into his house with 3 large bags, a stack of PC material in my arms, a PC issued medical kit AND my computer bag but he didn't seem to miss a beat. He helped me right into my room, chit chatting the whole time in Patois where I understood every third word.

Patois is its own language but for those who know nothing about it, its derived from several of the other love languages, mostly english with a twist and lots of slang and metaphors. On top of it, they say it real fast, like any native would.... So, I am dripping in sweat, tired and slightly overwhelmed and I looked at him, smiled, and asked him to slow down please. He smiled back and said, you sound just like Patrick. Patrick is a former Peace Corps Volunteer this family has hosted before. They come with great recommendations, says the Homestay specialist.

Mind you, I have been in the country for less than a week, learned VERY LITTLE patois so far... But, what better way to learn than to immerse yourself . I get the tour of the house and then we sit down for dinner. I had Chicken Curry, Irish potatoes not to be confused with Sweet Potatoes... I clarified... and boiled green bananas. We are sitting down discussing stuff and then the lady of the house comes home. Her name is Jackie.

Jackie is a wonderful lady with a nice smile whose accent I can make out a little better than his. She just got off work. He works for a school as a security guard and she works at an offsite horserace betting facility. Our discussions were broad and quite superficial but Im sure since we have the weekend off, our relationship will continue to develop.

As usual, when I am typing out these things for the world to see... I am sleepy. I have stuff to read this weekend but fortunately have no plans set in stone yet. This probably wont be posted for a little while but I will keep a digital journal and post when I can.
In-a-da-strong. (Say it real quickly together)

Good night to you too :)

(I wrote this last night. Turns out my host family has the internet. Jackie is excited because she wants me to show her how to use her computer.)