And here we are after swearing in with Joan:
Saturday, May 22, 2010
it's official
It's official, we're no longer PCTs; we're now PCVs. Yesterday we had our swearing-in ceremony. It was at the American Embassy, and was quite the formal occasion. Annnddd, Matt was one of the speakers from our group. We'd love to write more, but we don't have time. So here's some random pictures instead:
And here we are after swearing in with Joan:
And here we are after swearing in with Joan:
Monday, May 17, 2010
who are the maroons?
Ironically enough, here's the short answer from Julie, and the long answer from Matt:
Julie's answer: In short, the Maroons are descendants from Africans slaves who escaped into the deep Jamaican Bush when the British took over the island. Despite the British attempts to subdue them, they were never conquered. The British ended up having to sign a treaty with them to grant them their semi-autonomous land area. Impressive, huh?! As a result, the Maroon culture holds a close tie to African culture. The Maroons are the closest one can get to an indigenous culture within Jamaica, as all the Tainos and Arawaks (the original Natives) were all killed off by the Spanish. The Maroons have their own jurisdiction, a "gated" community, and operate under a council of elders, and of course are located in the deep Jamaican Bush.
Matt's answer: (using some outside sources)
In 1655, when the British army and fleet failed to capture Santo Domingo, Spain’s most prized colony, Gen. Penn and Adm. Venables decided to seize Jamaica so as not to return home empty handed. Lacking any organized defense, the Jamaican Spaniards fled to Cuba and released their slaves who, in the west, sought refuge in the inhospitable hills of the Cockpit Country. The “Maroons” here have a colorful history of outwitting and harassing the British who eventually negotiated a treaty in 1738. Sovereign lands were ceded to them and they were given the freedom and autonomy that slaves in the New World did not acquire for another 100 years. Their descendants still live in the Cockpit Country which remains uncharted and impenetrable.
And
The Maroons that made treaties with the British crown in Jamaica in 1739 were destined for special fame (or infamy, depending on the perspective).The maroons, though hugely outnumbered and poorly equipped, launched a highly effective armed resistance and nearly managed to bring economic development in parts of the island to a standstill. Unconquered, they persisted as free peoples in the heart of Britain's most important and notorious slave colony until long after the abolition of slavery in 1834. The fact that they were never defeated or assimilated into the larger population set them apart from most of the other Maroon groups spread across plantation America. Today they remain, after the Maroons of Suriname and French Guiana, the most culturally and politically distinctive of all surviving Maroon communities of the Americas.
And
The two treaties signed by the Maroons and their British antagonists in 1739 gave legal recognition to de facto ethnic groups that already differed culturally (despite significant areas of overlap) from the rest of the Jamaican population. Two major groups were covered by the treaties: those under the leadership of Cudjoe (Kojo) in the Cockpit Country in the western part of the island (Accompong), known as the Leeward Maroons; and those affiliated with Quao (Kwau), Nanny, and a variety of other leaders in the Blue Mountains in the east, known as the Windward Maroons. Over several decades, while building new societies in the island's interior, both groups had developed distinctive Afro-creole cultures to which new recruits from the plantations adapted and contributed. The treaties of 1739 reinforced and institutionalized preexisting cultural differences between the Maroons and the coastal slave population by legally sanctioning the Maroons' existence as semi-autonomous free peoples within a slave colony, and by providing them with bounded territories that came to symbolize their corporate identities as communities of common landowners.
After 1739, the British colonial government helped to further entrench the distinctions between Maroons and other Jamaicans by employing the former as a sort of internal police force whose responsibility it was to track down and capture future runaways and to aid in the suppression of slave insurrections. The deep divisions and resentments caused by the post-treaty Maroons' willingness to cooperate with the British in this way continue to haunt much of the thinking, both official and popular, about Maroons today.
With the general emancipation of slaves in 1834, things changed drastically for the Maroons. Since the British no longer needed their services as a tracking force, they had little interest in maintaining distinct, partially autonomous communities in the interior of their colony. The first formal attempt to encourage the assimilation of the Maroons into the wider population was the so-called Maroon Lands Allotment Act of 1842. This piece of legislation aimed to abrogate the treaties of 1739 and absorb the Maroons into the emergent peasantry by dividing the communally owned Maroon lands and parceling them out to individual owners. The Maroons, however, simply refused to comply, and the colonial government did not force the issue. It soon found that its interests were not, after all, necessarily served by dissolving the Maroon communities. As late as 1865, some three decades after slavery ended, the Maroons assisted the government in putting down the peasant rebellion led by Paul Bogle -- the last time they were to serve in this military capacity.
Julie's answer: In short, the Maroons are descendants from Africans slaves who escaped into the deep Jamaican Bush when the British took over the island. Despite the British attempts to subdue them, they were never conquered. The British ended up having to sign a treaty with them to grant them their semi-autonomous land area. Impressive, huh?! As a result, the Maroon culture holds a close tie to African culture. The Maroons are the closest one can get to an indigenous culture within Jamaica, as all the Tainos and Arawaks (the original Natives) were all killed off by the Spanish. The Maroons have their own jurisdiction, a "gated" community, and operate under a council of elders, and of course are located in the deep Jamaican Bush.
Matt's answer: (using some outside sources)
In 1655, when the British army and fleet failed to capture Santo Domingo, Spain’s most prized colony, Gen. Penn and Adm. Venables decided to seize Jamaica so as not to return home empty handed. Lacking any organized defense, the Jamaican Spaniards fled to Cuba and released their slaves who, in the west, sought refuge in the inhospitable hills of the Cockpit Country. The “Maroons” here have a colorful history of outwitting and harassing the British who eventually negotiated a treaty in 1738. Sovereign lands were ceded to them and they were given the freedom and autonomy that slaves in the New World did not acquire for another 100 years. Their descendants still live in the Cockpit Country which remains uncharted and impenetrable.
And
The Maroons that made treaties with the British crown in Jamaica in 1739 were destined for special fame (or infamy, depending on the perspective).The maroons, though hugely outnumbered and poorly equipped, launched a highly effective armed resistance and nearly managed to bring economic development in parts of the island to a standstill. Unconquered, they persisted as free peoples in the heart of Britain's most important and notorious slave colony until long after the abolition of slavery in 1834. The fact that they were never defeated or assimilated into the larger population set them apart from most of the other Maroon groups spread across plantation America. Today they remain, after the Maroons of Suriname and French Guiana, the most culturally and politically distinctive of all surviving Maroon communities of the Americas.
And
The two treaties signed by the Maroons and their British antagonists in 1739 gave legal recognition to de facto ethnic groups that already differed culturally (despite significant areas of overlap) from the rest of the Jamaican population. Two major groups were covered by the treaties: those under the leadership of Cudjoe (Kojo) in the Cockpit Country in the western part of the island (Accompong), known as the Leeward Maroons; and those affiliated with Quao (Kwau), Nanny, and a variety of other leaders in the Blue Mountains in the east, known as the Windward Maroons. Over several decades, while building new societies in the island's interior, both groups had developed distinctive Afro-creole cultures to which new recruits from the plantations adapted and contributed. The treaties of 1739 reinforced and institutionalized preexisting cultural differences between the Maroons and the coastal slave population by legally sanctioning the Maroons' existence as semi-autonomous free peoples within a slave colony, and by providing them with bounded territories that came to symbolize their corporate identities as communities of common landowners.
After 1739, the British colonial government helped to further entrench the distinctions between Maroons and other Jamaicans by employing the former as a sort of internal police force whose responsibility it was to track down and capture future runaways and to aid in the suppression of slave insurrections. The deep divisions and resentments caused by the post-treaty Maroons' willingness to cooperate with the British in this way continue to haunt much of the thinking, both official and popular, about Maroons today.
With the general emancipation of slaves in 1834, things changed drastically for the Maroons. Since the British no longer needed their services as a tracking force, they had little interest in maintaining distinct, partially autonomous communities in the interior of their colony. The first formal attempt to encourage the assimilation of the Maroons into the wider population was the so-called Maroon Lands Allotment Act of 1842. This piece of legislation aimed to abrogate the treaties of 1739 and absorb the Maroons into the emergent peasantry by dividing the communally owned Maroon lands and parceling them out to individual owners. The Maroons, however, simply refused to comply, and the colonial government did not force the issue. It soon found that its interests were not, after all, necessarily served by dissolving the Maroon communities. As late as 1865, some three decades after slavery ended, the Maroons assisted the government in putting down the peasant rebellion led by Paul Bogle -- the last time they were to serve in this military capacity.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
accompong, st. elizabeth, jamaica
(FYI: Updates on our blog will become more sporadic, as our access to internet is limited now that we will be living at our site permanently.)
Just an overview over these couple of weeks:
May 9- All of us PCTs in G81 gathered together once again in Kingston.
May 10- On Monday, we were all told our official sites (meaning our assigned communities, jobs, and living arrangements), and discussed/prepared for our first few days in our community.
May 11- Each of us through PC are assigned a supervisor that will more or less oversee us while working with our organization in the community. This person does not work for the PC, but rather in collaboration with the PC. For example, if a PCV is assigned to an elementary school, the principal will be their supervisor. Many times they happen to be the actual person who requested a PCV to begin with.
On Tuesday, all of our supervisors came to Kingston to meet us, and then took us back to our sites.
May 11-16 We all traveled to our communities for the first time. We spent these first couple days as orientation to our sites, getting a feel for what we will be doing, who we will be working with, where we will be living, etc.
May 16-20 Back to Kingston to do a little more training (how to live on a shoestring, serving as a single/couple, Jamaican cooking, etc.) and tying up loose strings (shopping for household items with our settling in allowance, gathering more resources, etc.)
May 21- Our swearing-in ceremony @ the Embassy. The day we evolve from PCTs to PCVs. Big Deal. Professional dress required. Only official guests allowed.
After the ceremony and proceeding reception, we head back to our sites to start our PC service.
Okay, now onto the exciting news: WE’VE BEEN PLACED IN ACCOMPONG!!! It’s a very remote Maroon village in St. Elizabeth. The Maroons are a specific and distinct people in Jamaica, with an extremely rich history. Matt will share more about them in our soon-to-be-posted next blog entry…..
….oh, and yes, we’re pretty psyched about it :).
Just an overview over these couple of weeks:
May 9- All of us PCTs in G81 gathered together once again in Kingston.
May 10- On Monday, we were all told our official sites (meaning our assigned communities, jobs, and living arrangements), and discussed/prepared for our first few days in our community.
May 11- Each of us through PC are assigned a supervisor that will more or less oversee us while working with our organization in the community. This person does not work for the PC, but rather in collaboration with the PC. For example, if a PCV is assigned to an elementary school, the principal will be their supervisor. Many times they happen to be the actual person who requested a PCV to begin with.
On Tuesday, all of our supervisors came to Kingston to meet us, and then took us back to our sites.
May 11-16 We all traveled to our communities for the first time. We spent these first couple days as orientation to our sites, getting a feel for what we will be doing, who we will be working with, where we will be living, etc.
May 16-20 Back to Kingston to do a little more training (how to live on a shoestring, serving as a single/couple, Jamaican cooking, etc.) and tying up loose strings (shopping for household items with our settling in allowance, gathering more resources, etc.)
May 21- Our swearing-in ceremony @ the Embassy. The day we evolve from PCTs to PCVs. Big Deal. Professional dress required. Only official guests allowed.
After the ceremony and proceeding reception, we head back to our sites to start our PC service.
Okay, now onto the exciting news: WE’VE BEEN PLACED IN ACCOMPONG!!! It’s a very remote Maroon village in St. Elizabeth. The Maroons are a specific and distinct people in Jamaica, with an extremely rich history. Matt will share more about them in our soon-to-be-posted next blog entry…..
….oh, and yes, we’re pretty psyched about it :).
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
misunderstood
I guess we should start by making a correction. Our anniversary was Monday, not Tuesday. Funny as it may be, Matt and I always forget which actual date we got married, and our mothers often have to correct us when we get it wrong. This last time wasn't any different, and both moms e-mailed us to make sure that we knew that our wedding anniversary is May 3rd, not the 4th, nor the 2nd, nor the 5th. May 3rd. Okay, maybe we'll remember this time. (Thanks mommas!)
So do you remember a number of blog posts ago, when I wrote about the response most Jamaican PCTs/PCVs get when people back home heard that we're serving in the PC in Jamaica? No? Well, I'll refresh your memory: "Jamaica! That sounds like a rough time! (hint hint, wink wink)" "Jamaica! Sounds like a 2-yr vacation to me!" "Jamaica! Maybe I should join the Peace Corps so I can go live in Jamaica..." etc.
Well, believe or not, Jamaica is supposedly one of the most challenging placements for PCVs.
ET stands for Early Termination here in the PC, and it is the term used anytime a PCV leaves before the end of their 27-month service. Of course, a PCV might ET for a myriad of reasons: an unexpected death back home, medical reasons, University schedules, etc. And of course, there are ETs that occur when the volunteer essentially resigns, for whatever reason of their own. All of these early departures are lumped into the one category (ET) to everyone outside of the official circle. Well, regardless of any of this, Jamaica has one of the highest ET rates of any PC countries in the world.
Now, before we get too much deeper into this blog post, I want to make sure to make clear that Jamaica is a beautiful country with wonderful people, and we're having an excellent time here.
All the same, Jamaica is an extremely complex country. Many locals and PCVs alike have aptly described Jamaica as 'schizophrenic', which in many ways seems to be fitting. There seems to be many contradictions and confusion within its intense culture. The minute you think you might have it figured out, you're instantly shown that you really know nothing at all. Jamaica is unpredictable, eccentric, layered, and in your face.
Unavoidability is usually the part of the culture I refer to when people here ask me what I think of Jamaica. I often say something along the lines of..."Jamaica's intense. It's in your face. You can't avoid it. You either love it or hate it, but either way, you can't get away from it." And I've yet to have a Jamaican disagree with me -and trust me, they would let me know if they thought I was wrong.
We don't exactly know why Jamaica is so challenging. We could only offer our own theories, which are simply ours, and simply theories. PC Jamaica itself is ardently trying to figure this out as well. What exactly is it about Jamaica? This question has been asked over again by many of us here, and there seems to be 101 different reasons. I'm sure we'll get into some of these reasons as we make future blog posts. So stay tuned. :)
So we wish you luck in trying to figure it out. As we've heard many times, "It'll give you a head trip."
So remember how I said what most people say, have said, and probably will say when they hear that we were assigned to PC Jamaica? I suspect that this will be one of the hardest parts of it all. I'm sure from now on when we go back to the States, and we say that we served in the Peace Corps, in Jamaica, we'll get much of that same response from here on out, "2 yr vacation!" I hope we don't get too frustrated, and are content to say, "Oh, if you only knew..."
So do you remember a number of blog posts ago, when I wrote about the response most Jamaican PCTs/PCVs get when people back home heard that we're serving in the PC in Jamaica? No? Well, I'll refresh your memory: "Jamaica! That sounds like a rough time! (hint hint, wink wink)" "Jamaica! Sounds like a 2-yr vacation to me!" "Jamaica! Maybe I should join the Peace Corps so I can go live in Jamaica..." etc.
Well, believe or not, Jamaica is supposedly one of the most challenging placements for PCVs.
ET stands for Early Termination here in the PC, and it is the term used anytime a PCV leaves before the end of their 27-month service. Of course, a PCV might ET for a myriad of reasons: an unexpected death back home, medical reasons, University schedules, etc. And of course, there are ETs that occur when the volunteer essentially resigns, for whatever reason of their own. All of these early departures are lumped into the one category (ET) to everyone outside of the official circle. Well, regardless of any of this, Jamaica has one of the highest ET rates of any PC countries in the world.
Now, before we get too much deeper into this blog post, I want to make sure to make clear that Jamaica is a beautiful country with wonderful people, and we're having an excellent time here.
All the same, Jamaica is an extremely complex country. Many locals and PCVs alike have aptly described Jamaica as 'schizophrenic', which in many ways seems to be fitting. There seems to be many contradictions and confusion within its intense culture. The minute you think you might have it figured out, you're instantly shown that you really know nothing at all. Jamaica is unpredictable, eccentric, layered, and in your face.
Unavoidability is usually the part of the culture I refer to when people here ask me what I think of Jamaica. I often say something along the lines of..."Jamaica's intense. It's in your face. You can't avoid it. You either love it or hate it, but either way, you can't get away from it." And I've yet to have a Jamaican disagree with me -and trust me, they would let me know if they thought I was wrong.
We don't exactly know why Jamaica is so challenging. We could only offer our own theories, which are simply ours, and simply theories. PC Jamaica itself is ardently trying to figure this out as well. What exactly is it about Jamaica? This question has been asked over again by many of us here, and there seems to be 101 different reasons. I'm sure we'll get into some of these reasons as we make future blog posts. So stay tuned. :)
So we wish you luck in trying to figure it out. As we've heard many times, "It'll give you a head trip."
So remember how I said what most people say, have said, and probably will say when they hear that we were assigned to PC Jamaica? I suspect that this will be one of the hardest parts of it all. I'm sure from now on when we go back to the States, and we say that we served in the Peace Corps, in Jamaica, we'll get much of that same response from here on out, "2 yr vacation!" I hope we don't get too frustrated, and are content to say, "Oh, if you only knew..."
Sunday, May 2, 2010
portie
Here’s a picture of our current home in Stony Hill, our room is the open window in the upper left-hand corner:
For those of you who might have forgotten :), our anniversary is on Tuesday, and we asked the PC for special permission to leave Stony Hill for the weekend. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but the PC has us on what we all are referring to as "lockdown". Mostly due to safety reasons, we are currently not allowed to:
~Leave Stony Hill unless we are in groups of three.
~Be out after dark unless we are with a trusted Jamaican.
~Stay the night anywhere but with our host family.
In some ways, this is pretty frustrating, but in other ways, it’s somewhat understandable, as Jamaica can be very dangerous.
This policy will change as we move along in our training, but for right now we’ve got to go with the flow.
Luckily for us the PC approved our trip to Port Antonio, a place we’ve wanted to get to since we’ve reached the island. Partly due to the fact that Port Antonio is known to be a beautiful place. Located on the windward side of Jamaica, it receives lots of rain and also tends to be a little bit cooler. As a result, the north-eastern section of Jamaican is quite lush with some stunning scenery. One of the other main reasons we’ve wanted to get to Pt. Antonio is that we met a man who lives there on our original flight into Jamaica. Andrew is a fellow American who has married and moved to Jamaica within the last few years. He’s somewhat of a kindred spirit, and we’ve had it in the back of our minds to catch up with him since our arrival. Plus, it’s also nice to know you have a friend/connection on island, and we want to keep that connection alive as much as possible. In addition to that, Andrew and his wife, Charmaine, own Jamaican Heights Resort. It’s a quaint little getaway, that seemed perfect for an anniversary weekend (and maybe a visiting family member's destination spot).
Unfortunately, Andrew was visiting his family back in Colorado this weekend. But we did meet Charmaine, and spent a great weekend relaxing in Portie.
For those of you who might have forgotten :), our anniversary is on Tuesday, and we asked the PC for special permission to leave Stony Hill for the weekend. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but the PC has us on what we all are referring to as "lockdown". Mostly due to safety reasons, we are currently not allowed to:
~Leave Stony Hill unless we are in groups of three.
~Be out after dark unless we are with a trusted Jamaican.
~Stay the night anywhere but with our host family.
In some ways, this is pretty frustrating, but in other ways, it’s somewhat understandable, as Jamaica can be very dangerous.
This policy will change as we move along in our training, but for right now we’ve got to go with the flow.
Luckily for us the PC approved our trip to Port Antonio, a place we’ve wanted to get to since we’ve reached the island. Partly due to the fact that Port Antonio is known to be a beautiful place. Located on the windward side of Jamaica, it receives lots of rain and also tends to be a little bit cooler. As a result, the north-eastern section of Jamaican is quite lush with some stunning scenery. One of the other main reasons we’ve wanted to get to Pt. Antonio is that we met a man who lives there on our original flight into Jamaica. Andrew is a fellow American who has married and moved to Jamaica within the last few years. He’s somewhat of a kindred spirit, and we’ve had it in the back of our minds to catch up with him since our arrival. Plus, it’s also nice to know you have a friend/connection on island, and we want to keep that connection alive as much as possible. In addition to that, Andrew and his wife, Charmaine, own Jamaican Heights Resort. It’s a quaint little getaway, that seemed perfect for an anniversary weekend (and maybe a visiting family member's destination spot).
Unfortunately, Andrew was visiting his family back in Colorado this weekend. But we did meet Charmaine, and spent a great weekend relaxing in Portie.
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