what we do

Matt and I are starting to find our place/role in the community although we're sure it'll change regularly. Our actual titles are “Community Developers”, so the possibilities are somewhat endless. We've been spending much of our time at the local school to get to know the children better. School let out July 2, so we really tried to take advantage of the opportunity to get to know the kids in some sort of structured setting.

Otherwise we've been spending much of our time integrating. Peace Corps Jamaica really pushes integration, and thus strongly recommends spending the first 4 months in your community focusing on this. Obviously, many PCVs would love to “hit the ground running”, but this is oftentimes where mistakes and misunderstandings happen. We're trying our best right now to develop relationships with the people, learn the lifestyle, live the lifestyle etc. Thus, we bought a goat, started a garden, hang out in the local shops, learn how to cook the food, go to church, etc. I personally strongly agree with this structure, as we are not here to implement our own ideas, but rather ideas that we come to through community members as we get to know their day-to-day lives.

Still, we both have our little array of projects that we have been working on developing. Some are further along than others. Some are not much more than ideas. Either way, Matt and I had a little family business meeting the other day to organize the different things we were working on. Here's the notes from our meeting. See if you can make sense of it...

Matt:
*Farmer's Co-op
-Greenhouse
-Hatchery
-Coffee
*Agricultural Teacher (@ Primary and Jr. High School) for the next school year
*Water, developing an independent system for the community
Waste Management, none currently exists unless you count throwing everything into the gully or burning it as “management”
*Original Trails of the Maroons (OTM)- Ecotoursim project
Cross Country running program
*Universal Access Fund- Organization that brings computers/internet to communities
*Hugh Kresser- Kingston grant consultant
*Misc. Funding Research
*Refurbishing the broken computers within Accompong
Playing field/parade grounds
Heritage Center/Museum
*Youth Summer Program
-Computer/Literacy
-Culture
-Sports
*Food for the Poor
-Housing
-Pit latrines @ school turned into toilets
-Summer school lunches
*Trail to Flagstaff
*Internet Cafe

Julie:
*Guidance Counselor @ Primary/Jr. High School
*Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning
*Internet Cafe
*Books
-Library Improvement
-Book Club
-Reading Mentors
Drama Club
*Summer Program
-Computers
-Environment
-Culture
-Summer School
Women's Club
Junior Council
Accompong Options for Guests
-Marketing
-Food, Souvenirs, Activities
*HEART
Herbal Garden
*Grad School
*Small Projects Assistance

Some of these projects are already underway, while others might not go beyond being written down once. Some of them are our own little pet projects, while others we collaborate on together. The starred (*) ones are the ones that are farthest along/most viable/what we've been spending most of our time on.