this and that

first of all, we all got mail today. wait, let me re-phrase that: the mail was delivered to us today. WE, as in Matt and Julie, didn't get anything. don't worry. we'll forgive you this time since we figure that we haven't officially given you our address:

Matt and/or Julie Emslie
c/o Leila Webster, Country Director
Peace Corps
8 Worthington Avenue
Kingston 5, Jamaica

okay. there. now you don't have any more excuses. :)

and a few pictures of our past weekend...washing our clothes (by hand of course) and hanging out with our "siblings" at the beach:



p.s. the fruit was ackee. the black olive looking things are actually the seeds. someone once described ackee as very similar to scrambled eggs, in look, texture, and taste. and they were right.

yum yum

as you might have guessed we've eaten all sorts of new and interesting fruits in the last week:
jackfruit, soursop, julie mangoes, common mangoes, black mangoes, stringy mangoes, star apple, star fruit, tambarin, passion fruit, sugarcane, plaintains, custard apple, ackee, naseberry, papayas, guava, coconut, breadfruit, otaheite apple, stinky toe, and june plum

can you guess this famous jamacain fruit:


some other interesting foods we've had: chicken feet, festival, fish head, cassava, ox tail, pig tail, callaloo, chochos, and curried goat. annnddd we've only gotten started. for example, we've yet to try manish water (soup made from the head of a goat).

mama rose (what we're now calling her) is an excellent cook, and has served us many excellent dishes.


and she really splurged last night when she took julie somewhere extra special...KFC

our butts never hurt so much...

we've been in training...and will be in training for the next 9 weeks...right now this involves a lot of sitting. lots of lectures. and sitting. and small group discussions. and sitting.

don't get us wrong. much of it is pretty helpful. but it hurts our tushies. miss rose understood our pain and sent us off to school (what our community calls it) with pillow in tow today.

what has our training consisted of you ask? wellll, here's some things that have been on our agenda so far:
medical kits, history and culture of jamaica, safety and security, sector discussions, language and cross culture, PC policies and regulations, personal safety and incident review, medical matters, jamaican music, emotional wellness, administrative matters, STI/HIV AIDS, adapting to a new culture, PCV panel discussions...

and to demonstrate language and cross culture, matt practicing singing in patois and dancing jamaican style:


and to demonstrate HIV prevention, the right sequence of proper use of a condom:

you like look a mash of callaloo

...this was the response I (Julie) got this morning when I was halfway down the stairs. I greeted my host mom with a hearty "Good morning!" Our host mother, Miss Rose, looked at me, wrinkled up her nose, and said "You look like a mash of callaloo." I answered, "Me?" And Miss Rose then let me know "You're not leaving my house looking like that." I wasn't wearing anything that anybody we know would think to iron, but here in Jamaica.....completely different story. As Miss Rose keeps saying, "Mr. Ellis (our host dad) done presses his clothes to go out to de garden." As you might have already guessed, Matt's had a few lessons from Miss Rose on how to iron his clothes. Not only did she have him wearing a tie yesterday to church, but she had him iron both his pants and shirt so that the crease could be seen a few feet away.

Don't get us wrong. We're having a great time with Miss Rose and Mr. Ellis. They're taking good care of us. That's part of the reason she won't let us walk out of the house looking like slobs (or what she perceives to be a slob). And in Jamaica, if you look like a slob, nobody's going to hesitate to tell you. God forbid we look like "ippies" (hippies). Another thing Miss Rose keeps telling us. Miss Rose is trying to guide us into the Jamaican culture, teaching us things that will help us integrate more. Integration is the first, and quite possibly the most important step in being a successful PCV.


p.s. a picture of our current digs:

safety first (oh, and we made it to jamaica!)

soooo, we're here! Whoopee! Things are going well as we've begun our PST. Geez, what to say and where to begin. as you might imagine the amount of information we've learned within the last 48 hours has been endless. so instead of sharing every little detail. we'll just choose a topic and go with it...the topic for this evening: safety.

now, back home, when us PCVs shared with our friends and family that we were assigned to jamaica, there seemed to be a common theme that many of us heard in response. something like, "sounds like a 2 year vacation to me." okay, yes, the island and people are beautiful. however, poverty, crime, and many other social issues are a very real and present reality in jamiaca. so much so that although jamaica is not a very challenging post physically (i.e. most volunteers have electricity, running water, and even internet), however, it is considered to be a very demanding post psychologically. i'm sure we'll get further into some of these details later. however, we can address one of things that we've been drilled on since we got here: safety.

unfortunately, jamaica has one of the highest murder rates of anywhere in the world. crime is relatively abundant, and needs to be taken very seriously on island. we met with the safety and security officer from the american embassy today, and he informed us that all american embassies throughout the world are labeled with a safety/threat level: low, medium, high, and critical. surprising to many people, jamaica is listed as "critical". jamaica falls into the same category as mexico city, jakarta, and ethiopia.

okay, so moms and dads out there, stop freaking out. we're okay. we'll be okay. peace corps has been serving in jamaica for almost 50 years and no one has been seriously hurt. the VERY large majority of these crimes are done by jamaicans to jamaicans, and foreigners are not targeted. however, serving a group of people with this kind of social situation can be tricky at best. one of the many reasons that makes jamaican culture and norms so incredibly complex.

living it up in Miami

soooo.... when you think of peace corps volunteers, do you think of fancy hotel rooms, your own credit card, or personal cell phone? yeah, neither did we.



now of course the fancy hotel room was only for one night, the credit card was only good for 24 hours, and the cell phones are partly necessary for our safety in jamaica, but stilllll....

more on that safety part later.

packing up, closing shop

our packing pictures:

books. we could narrow down almost everything else but our books.

and of course, matt finishing up those last little projects....

logisitcs, logistics

ahhhh! so much to do before leaving the country for 2 years...
should we insure our things? wait a minute, I think my license expires while we're gone. cancel the cellphones. cancel the electricity. does Matt have a tie? does Matt know how to tie a tie? should we get a power of attorney? we still have money due to us from the clinic. geico owes a reimbursement too. oh, and ACS. mail? where should we have the mail sent? visas. passports. H1N1 shots? we have to get one of those?! copy and transfer music to the new computer. (thanks Judy for the computer! thanks Mike for all the new music!) still need earplugs, socks, guitar strings, toy shark (what Matt?), razor, nylons (do I need nylons?), scissors, shoes for Matt....

oh boy.

current timeline

3/10-3/14: Chicago area, visiting with Julie's family
3/14-3/17: Buffalo area, visiting with Matt's family

3/17-3/18: Miami @ PC Staging
3/18-3/20: Kingston, Jamaica
3/20-4/7: Community Based Training (CBT) living with a host family in Hellshire
4/7-5/9: Hub-Based Training (HBT) living with second host family

distance makes the heart grow fonder

so matt and I will see each other tomorrow for the first time in over 2 months. as many of you know the separation seems to be a regular part of our relationship. for those of you keeping track, we have yet to live in the same zip code, much less the same house, for more than 8 months in a row, and have lived apart anywhere from 2-9 months.

in the Peace Corps we will be together for 26 months straight...so do you think we'll be able to handle it? :)

FAQs

Q: Do you know where you'll be living in Jamaica?
A: Nope. Not yet anyway. A PC term consists of 26-27 months, all of it in the PCV's assigned country. The first 2-3 months is training, after which begins the 2 years of "service". For those two years we will be assigned to a specific location and a more specific job. Most PCVs find out this information towards the end of their training. The PC uses the few months of training to better assess where each volunteer would best be placed, looking at things such as how well a PCV is adjusting to the culture, learning the language, and so on. After seeing their PCVs "live and in action", the PC then decides which location would best each individual (or couple). Sooo, that being said, we really have no idea where we will be living in Jamaica, and neither does the PC.

Q: When you say "language training"...well, don't Jamaicans speak English?
A: Yes. English is the official language of Jamaica. However, Jamaicans also speak an English-African Creole language known as Jamaican Patois. Here's an example:

Dah language weh yuh proud a,
Weh yuh honour an respec –
Po Mas Charlie, yuh no know se
Dat it spring from dialec!
—Bans a Killin

Can you translate what it means?

PC 101

Okay so here's a brief rundown on things PC:

First of all, know that how things are done in Jamaica are not necessarily how things are done in all PC countries everywhere. Although all volunteers are part of the PC, every individual country operates a little differently. A comparison that I often make is with my job at Big Brothers Big Sisters. Although BBBS is a nationwide organization and has certain aspects that are the same across the board (i.e. the terms Bigs and Littles, the use of the same database, the support a match is given, etc.), every office operates a little differently. How we operate in Alaska is not the same way things are done in Michigan or Northern Texas (i.e. overall office structure, recruiting techniques, activities offered to volunteers). We all are part of the same big happy family, have national conferences, and have a general understanding and appreciation amongst one another.

BUT when it comes down to it, we have some vast differences between one location to the next. This is much the same with the PC. There are many similarities throughout the PC (the overall application process, length of service, basic guidelines and groundrules). There are many differences (the overall training process, living accommodations, how structured your assignment is).

The differences seem to be largely based on 3 things:
1. Maybe the most obvious- culture.
2. The Country Director. Every PC country has one. Consider it the equivalent of a CEO for each location. Just like with BBBS, the "buck stops" at each individual CEO or Executive Director, the same is the case with the Country Directors. The Country Directors seem to have a large influence over country policies, rules, and the overall nature of the program.
3. The amount of time the PC has been working in the country. PCVs have been serving in Jamaica for almost 50 years. Matt and I will be in the 81st PCV group to come to Jamaica. PCVs have been serving in Mexico for barely 5 years. As you would guess, there is a huge difference between serving in a country that has a program that has been around for 50 years versus 5 years.

More to come...