Switching Gears

     During the past six months in Accompong, different project ideas have presented themselves to us. Because we have almost complete autonomy to put our energy into projects that seem worthwhile, we can pick and choose what we want to do. We do this partially based on our own passion, and partially based on what the community wants and needs. Some of these ideas have flourished, while others have fizzled. One of the original, and primary, projects that the Peace Corps identified for us, through the Accompong Maroon Council, was the creation of a Junior Council. The Accompong Maroon Council is the ruling, elected body in our community. The structure of the Maroon Council goes back almost three hundred years, and at first glance, looks, and functions, much like any other town council, but one has to remember that the implications here are far greater because (remember your Jamaican Maroon history)… Accompong is technically a semi-autonomous state within Jamaica. But that is another story, for another time.
     The Accompong Junior Council… is one of the ideas that is beginning to flourish, and could begin to absorb more of our time. The idea for the Junior Council (at least as we see it) is to train a small group (less than ten) of young (17-25 year olds) to do exactly what we do as Peace Corps volunteers… community development, with a side-focus on responsible, effective leadership. The goal is to empower a small group of young people to affect positive change within their own community. The Junior Council wields no power, is accountable to, and is recognized by the “senior council”. One of the identified needs of the community is to have a community “action group”, a group of people (Junior Council) who can get things done, proactively, in Accompong. The Accompong Maroon Council model works… reactively. We think of the Junior Council as the “legs” and the Maroon Council as the head. I was recently speaking to a grant-proposal writer for-hire in Kingston who has a long history of working with Accompong. What he told me was this (paraphrased)… “Accompong does well when Peace Corps is there, projects happen, things move forward… but as soon as Peace Corps volunteers leave things begin to fall apart. They lack strong central leadership…”. What we’d like to do is to get Peace Corps out of Accompong, and move towards sustainability. As Peace Corps volunteers, as community developers, no matter what we do, it has to be “sustainable”. The creation and training of the Accompong Junior Council is one step towards this goal.
     What we have with the Junior Council is this… youth, energy, drive and passion. Practically, this is how it is looking… a brain-storming session on the project possibilities, and desires and goals of the community, training in grant-writing, action. This group has identified dozens of projects, some small and some very large, that they would like to possibly start in order to improve their community. Ideas such as… replanting the flower bed at the entrance to the community, making and distributing food to the elderly, writing a grant proposal for the rebuilding of the herbal garden hut, revitalizing the football field and school playground, re-painting the library in a way that reflects their shared heritage, and on and on and on. The most valuable thing about these ideas is that they are community generated. The tricky thing about this first step is that generating these ideas is the easy part…

Halloween Par-Tay

     As we’ve mentioned before, there exists a ‘guesthouse/eco-lodge/place of stay’ here in Accompong that’s run by a good friend of ours, Tony. Tony is an American that moved to Accompong about 7 years ago and decided to build Baboo’s Garden, a rustic getaway. Dowdy serves as Tony’s sidekick, or as Tony calls him, the General Manager at Baboo’s. Tony and Dowdy have become part of our ‘family’ here in Accompong, and we have spent many a night hanging out up at Baboo’s or traveling around with Tony and Dowdy in Tony’s truck.
     Tony also seems to be part of the greater PCV family on island, and in some circles we’ve started to call him Uncle T. This is partly because Tony is very generous with PCVs when they come to visit and carts us around to all sorts of places, while charging only a very nominal fee to cover the bare cost of us staying there and gas. It’s also probably because Tony is quite the character –which I’m sure we’ll get into at some point. (Much love T!)

     Here in Jamaica, us PCVs often get together for American holidays. It’s a great time to catch up, hang out, and freely act as American as we’d like. This past summer, it was suggested that we host Halloween in Accompong at Baboo’s. Luckily it didn’t take much arm-twisting from Tony as he loves company, loves PCVs, and loves a good party.
     So this past weekend we hosted over 30 fellow PCVs here in Accompong. Despite Matt and I being completely wiped Monday when the last couple of guests left, it was well worth the energy. Good times were had by all, and of course it’s always fun to dress up in silly costumes. Although it wasn’t pre-planned, there was a strong Jamaican theme among costumes: a dancehall queen (done by yours truly), a rasta, Sean Paul, rice and peas, and Kojo –leader of the Trelawny Maroons (done by Matt).Of course, there were numerous other non-Jamaican costumes as well.