I (Julie) teach grades 7-9 at the Jr. High school here in Accompong. The two classes I teach are computer class and Health and Family Life Education (HFLE). In HFLE last year, for part of a school project, I required each student to do a very small presentation about themselves at the beginning of each class i.e. one student each time class met. For part of their presentation, they needed to bring in a “family” picture to present to the class. Knowing that most students wouldn’t have access to any photos, and also knowing that JACOM had a photo printer I could use, and also knowing that it would be nice for each student to have at least one ‘family’ photo to call their own, I agreed to come to their home sometime before their project was due to take a picture of them with someone else in their family. I printed the picture and brought it to class, and if they successfully completed their presentation, they would get to keep the picture. (This was also really helpful for me to connect with their parents/guardians, especially after first coming to site.)
I thought I might share some of these pictures with you:
p.s. It still amazes me how much some family members resemble one another here.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
PCMI
Peace Corps Master’s International is a collaboration between PC and certain US Universities. PCMI offers graduate students the opportunity to incorporate their PC service into their studies. It differs from university to university, but generally, most PCMI students take a year’s worth of coursework at university, and then follow this with their 27 month PC term, in which they receive graduate school credit.
Julie is enrolled in this program through University of Alaska Fairbanks, studying Alaska Native and Rural Development, or as she likes to put it, “Rural/Community Development with a Cross-Cultural or Indigenous component”. She has already completed all of her coursework, a small portion of which she did correspondence since being in Jamaica, and while here is receiving graduate credit while she works on her thesis. This means that the only thing that stands between Julie and her Master’s is the successful completion of her thesis, as well as the passing of her comprehensive exams, to be taken next summer upon returning to Alaska. If everything goes as planned, we will finish our service here in May, and Julie will graduate in August.
There are many benefits to being in the PCMI program:
And some last pics of Culture Camp:
Julie is enrolled in this program through University of Alaska Fairbanks, studying Alaska Native and Rural Development, or as she likes to put it, “Rural/Community Development with a Cross-Cultural or Indigenous component”. She has already completed all of her coursework, a small portion of which she did correspondence since being in Jamaica, and while here is receiving graduate credit while she works on her thesis. This means that the only thing that stands between Julie and her Master’s is the successful completion of her thesis, as well as the passing of her comprehensive exams, to be taken next summer upon returning to Alaska. If everything goes as planned, we will finish our service here in May, and Julie will graduate in August.
There are many benefits to being in the PCMI program:
- PC tries to place you with an assignment that corresponds with your studies. This is nice, as sometimes PCVs are placed in fields they might not have first chosen.
- Julie regularly communicates with her professors back in Alaska, as they offer guidance on her studies, suggest applicable readings, as well as provide insightful discussion on all topics pertaining to PC/grassroots development/cross-cultural interactions/etc. This has augmented Julie’s PC service nicely, as well as provide more practical experience for a graduate degree.
- The PCMI program has also greatly helped our piggy bank, as UAF waives her tuition fees for the credits she’s gaining while in PC, AND Julie also received a fellowship during her year of coursework due to her involvement in PCMI.
- Plus, having a Master’s Degree on your resume should count for something, and being a Returned PCV must open some doors… right? So, what about the double whammy… A Master’s Degree that worked hand-in-hand with PC service? We’re hopefully talking about pretty hirable material, right? As we start to shift our focus to life after PC, AND hear about the job climate back home….we sure hope so.
And some last pics of Culture Camp:
Friday, September 23, 2011
Let the Rumors Fly
The other day I was voicing my frustration to Matt about the amount and level of rumors we’ve been the subject of during our stay here in Accompong. We’ve been rumored to be thieves, adulterers, involved in regular domestic violence, liars, spies, and probably almost anything else that might make for a good story.
We have been rumored to do more and worse during our limited time in Jamaica than we had during the whole of our lives back in the US. I cannot tell you how infuriating this can be. Here we’re doing our part to better the community, and it seems all you get is grief. The two of which seem to go hand in hand. The more we do, the more we get scrutinized. (I’m sure public servants everywhere are nodding their heads in understanding.) However, in my earlier naiveté, I kept thinking, “don’t worry, once they see what we’re really here for, that we’re decent people who are just trying to help, it’ll get better.” And it did....for some people. And for others it gets worse.
You put yourself in the spotlight, and all of a sudden everyone wants to talk about you and pick you apart. It is ironic because usually the people who are the most critical are the ones that never stand up or help with anything. And who would, with people like themselves lurking around?
The truth is we’re probably the most active community members in Accompong. We’ve been able to accomplish alot in the short time we’ve been here. And this comes with a lot of power. When you write the grant for the revitalization of the parade grounds, you have asay in who gets the jobs associated with it. If you successfully refurbished the library into a top-notch internet café and library, you get to help determine the rules for the facility. Let’s say you’ve decided to teach computer classes for the community, well then you can decide the class schedule, what will be taught, and who you’ll be targeting for classes.
Now, that being said, we really and truly try our best to make the best decisions for everybody. We try and try and try to be fair. We don’t abuse our power, but we do hold people accountable. If you stole coffee suckers from the farmer’s co-op, we’ll confront you. If you disrespect the library employees, we’ll kick you out for a week. If you came out and volunteered on a community project, we’ll give you job priority in our next project.
Fair or not, this doesn’t always go over well with everyone. Most people, yes, but not the people you kicked out, confronted, or snubbed… And their friends…. And maybe with all the unemployed idlers (which is every other person here) who have nothing better to do with their time, and just want a good story about the weird white people who moved into town.
Sure, there are other factors at play here. We live in a rural small town, where everybody knows everybody, and there’s not a whole lot going on a.k.a. rumorville worldwide. Also, we’re strange. I mean, I think we’re strange to those of you who know and love us, so can you imagine how we must seem to rural Jamaicans?
So here’s the ultimate paradox: Our character has never been questioned more in our lives since we started our work as Peace Corps Volunteers…. And that’s the paradox. We’re VOLUNTEERS. That’s what we do for a living. For 2 years. I don’t know if I’ve ever done more outright ‘good’ in my life. Makes you think twice the next time you bash a public figure? Hope so.
(Some more Culture Camp pics....)
We have been rumored to do more and worse during our limited time in Jamaica than we had during the whole of our lives back in the US. I cannot tell you how infuriating this can be. Here we’re doing our part to better the community, and it seems all you get is grief. The two of which seem to go hand in hand. The more we do, the more we get scrutinized. (I’m sure public servants everywhere are nodding their heads in understanding.) However, in my earlier naiveté, I kept thinking, “don’t worry, once they see what we’re really here for, that we’re decent people who are just trying to help, it’ll get better.” And it did....for some people. And for others it gets worse.
You put yourself in the spotlight, and all of a sudden everyone wants to talk about you and pick you apart. It is ironic because usually the people who are the most critical are the ones that never stand up or help with anything. And who would, with people like themselves lurking around?
The truth is we’re probably the most active community members in Accompong. We’ve been able to accomplish alot in the short time we’ve been here. And this comes with a lot of power. When you write the grant for the revitalization of the parade grounds, you have asay in who gets the jobs associated with it. If you successfully refurbished the library into a top-notch internet café and library, you get to help determine the rules for the facility. Let’s say you’ve decided to teach computer classes for the community, well then you can decide the class schedule, what will be taught, and who you’ll be targeting for classes.
Now, that being said, we really and truly try our best to make the best decisions for everybody. We try and try and try to be fair. We don’t abuse our power, but we do hold people accountable. If you stole coffee suckers from the farmer’s co-op, we’ll confront you. If you disrespect the library employees, we’ll kick you out for a week. If you came out and volunteered on a community project, we’ll give you job priority in our next project.
Fair or not, this doesn’t always go over well with everyone. Most people, yes, but not the people you kicked out, confronted, or snubbed… And their friends…. And maybe with all the unemployed idlers (which is every other person here) who have nothing better to do with their time, and just want a good story about the weird white people who moved into town.
Sure, there are other factors at play here. We live in a rural small town, where everybody knows everybody, and there’s not a whole lot going on a.k.a. rumorville worldwide. Also, we’re strange. I mean, I think we’re strange to those of you who know and love us, so can you imagine how we must seem to rural Jamaicans?
So here’s the ultimate paradox: Our character has never been questioned more in our lives since we started our work as Peace Corps Volunteers…. And that’s the paradox. We’re VOLUNTEERS. That’s what we do for a living. For 2 years. I don’t know if I’ve ever done more outright ‘good’ in my life. Makes you think twice the next time you bash a public figure? Hope so.
(Some more Culture Camp pics....)
Friday, September 16, 2011
Nine Nights, Dead Yards, Funerals
We made reference to how death, and all that goes with it, differs here in Jamaica. With Tony’s passing it’s been our minds more than usual lately. In comparison to our experiences in the US, death and ‘all that goes with it’ is a big thing here, bigger and more common than weddings.
In Accompong, when someone dies, it is not uncommon for the whole town to come around the yard of the deceased to ‘pay their respects’. Sometimes, ‘paying respects’ has more to do with curiosity than anything else.
Following someone’s death, a ‘dead yard’ is held at the home of the deceased, sometimes for weeks, until the ‘nine night’ and funeral. A dead yard largely consists of the home/yard being open to visitors to hang out, play dominoes, drink, etc. In many cases, it is expected that the food and alcohol be provided by the family and friends of the deceased. (Sometimes I find out someone has died because ratty, blue tarps have been strung outside someone’s home, ready to host that evening’s visitors.)
A ‘nine night’ is held the night before the funeral, and it’s much like the grand finale -one huge party. Often there is a DJ, food, a band, dancing, singing, and just straight up partying. Anyone’s invited to a nine night; we’ve been invited to countless nine nights of people we’ve never met. Accompong will sometimes empty for the evening while many from the town attend a nine night in a neighboring village. Nine nights –like all Jamaican parties- last ALL night, often not really getting started until after midnight.
Funerals are HUGE deals, and like most Jamaican services and ceremonies, they last hours. The more ornate and flashy the casket, grave, the hearse, etc. the more respect it is thought to give to the deceased.
Other interesting tidbits: Cremations are not common here. In Accompong, the Abeng (cow horn instrument) is blown upon someone’s death as well as at the funeral. If someone dies with their eyes open, it is thought that they died looking or waiting for someone –often a loved one. When someone dies, the persons clothes must all be gathered in one place or pile, the bed turned a different way, and whatever chair, couch, etc. they were sitting in when they died turned as well.
In Accompong, when someone dies, it is not uncommon for the whole town to come around the yard of the deceased to ‘pay their respects’. Sometimes, ‘paying respects’ has more to do with curiosity than anything else.
Following someone’s death, a ‘dead yard’ is held at the home of the deceased, sometimes for weeks, until the ‘nine night’ and funeral. A dead yard largely consists of the home/yard being open to visitors to hang out, play dominoes, drink, etc. In many cases, it is expected that the food and alcohol be provided by the family and friends of the deceased. (Sometimes I find out someone has died because ratty, blue tarps have been strung outside someone’s home, ready to host that evening’s visitors.)
A ‘nine night’ is held the night before the funeral, and it’s much like the grand finale -one huge party. Often there is a DJ, food, a band, dancing, singing, and just straight up partying. Anyone’s invited to a nine night; we’ve been invited to countless nine nights of people we’ve never met. Accompong will sometimes empty for the evening while many from the town attend a nine night in a neighboring village. Nine nights –like all Jamaican parties- last ALL night, often not really getting started until after midnight.
Funerals are HUGE deals, and like most Jamaican services and ceremonies, they last hours. The more ornate and flashy the casket, grave, the hearse, etc. the more respect it is thought to give to the deceased.
Other interesting tidbits: Cremations are not common here. In Accompong, the Abeng (cow horn instrument) is blown upon someone’s death as well as at the funeral. If someone dies with their eyes open, it is thought that they died looking or waiting for someone –often a loved one. When someone dies, the persons clothes must all be gathered in one place or pile, the bed turned a different way, and whatever chair, couch, etc. they were sitting in when they died turned as well.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Coconut bowls...
Serving as a volunteer, anywhere, means that you are constantly giving and serving. In Peace Corps life there is sometimes a need to work on small, simple projects that are not related to Peace Corps work: projects that are non-stressful, fulfill a personal need or are therapeutic. Over the past couple of months I have started work on a coconut cup and bowl project.
Based on their age, there are a couple of different types of coconuts: jelly coconuts and dry coconuts. Jelly coconuts are the young, green ones that have lots of the sweet coconut water in them, but almost none of the coconut meat that people grate and use in candies, to make coconut milk, etc. The dry coconuts are the ones that we as Americans are more familiar with, they are what we think of as a coconut, with a fibrous, brown, hard outer shell. Once they are cracked open they a have a little coconut water in them but are mostly meat. After the meat is pried out of them, the hard, woody shell can be used to make nice cups and bowls.
Generally people just chop them with a machete or bash them against a rock to get to the meat out the dry coconuts, but if a person, like me, wants to make something nice out of the complete shell and not just the shattered fragments then a little more care needs to be taken with them. A stiff, fine-tooth handsaw works nicely to cut off the tops exactly where you want the rim of your cup or bowl to be. Next, the meat of the coconut needs to be carefully extracted without cracking the rim of the shell. Once the meat is out I take a wire brush and remove all the excess woody material on the outside of the shell, which also save s me a ton of time in the next step… sand papering. Just like any other piece of wood a coconut shell needs to be sand papered smooth before applying any type of finish.
The final trick in making coconut cups and bowls is in making some kind of pedestal that allow the round-bottomed cup or bowl to stand upright. I have yet to perfect this, but in the attached pictures you’ll see where I’m going with it.
Matt
Based on their age, there are a couple of different types of coconuts: jelly coconuts and dry coconuts. Jelly coconuts are the young, green ones that have lots of the sweet coconut water in them, but almost none of the coconut meat that people grate and use in candies, to make coconut milk, etc. The dry coconuts are the ones that we as Americans are more familiar with, they are what we think of as a coconut, with a fibrous, brown, hard outer shell. Once they are cracked open they a have a little coconut water in them but are mostly meat. After the meat is pried out of them, the hard, woody shell can be used to make nice cups and bowls.
Generally people just chop them with a machete or bash them against a rock to get to the meat out the dry coconuts, but if a person, like me, wants to make something nice out of the complete shell and not just the shattered fragments then a little more care needs to be taken with them. A stiff, fine-tooth handsaw works nicely to cut off the tops exactly where you want the rim of your cup or bowl to be. Next, the meat of the coconut needs to be carefully extracted without cracking the rim of the shell. Once the meat is out I take a wire brush and remove all the excess woody material on the outside of the shell, which also save s me a ton of time in the next step… sand papering. Just like any other piece of wood a coconut shell needs to be sand papered smooth before applying any type of finish.
The final trick in making coconut cups and bowls is in making some kind of pedestal that allow the round-bottomed cup or bowl to stand upright. I have yet to perfect this, but in the attached pictures you’ll see where I’m going with it.
Matt
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Uncle 'T'
One of the reasons that we’ve been MIA this past month is that one of our closest friends here in Accompong died a week ago. We’ve referenced Tony before, but for those who don’t recall, Tony was the other American living in Accompong. He’s been here roughly 8 years, running a humble eco lodge called Baboo’s Garden. His death wasn’t out of the blue, as he found out definitively 3 weeks prior that his cancer had returned, and there was a lesion on his liver. Tony suspected this and he hadn’t been feeling 100% for months.
As far as our lives here in Accompong, Tony was much like family, and I’m pretty sure he’d say the same about us. As such, we’ve been the primary people ‘sorting out his business’ over the last few weeks, alongside Dowdy his closest Jamaican friend. Tony was a close friend to the previous two Peace Corps volunteers who have been most recently in Accompong and they considered him family as well. Tony’s place has been a refuge of sorts to many Peace Corps volunteers over the years not just those, like us, who have lived in Accompong.
Although it’s sad that Tony passed, the hardest part for us has been ‘sorting out his business’, alongside cultural differences with death. Although we have had loved ones die before, neither of us have been the point person to call the hearse, pick up cremation ashes, and sort out death certificates –not to mention figuring out what debts need to be paid, what money might be available, and what’s to happen with his ‘stuff’, his business notwithstanding. (We do have to give a shout out to Coby, Tony’s sister, who traveled down to Jamaica the week before he died and helped us to get much of this in order. She’s been an amazing support through all of this. )
It’s been difficult responding to the handful of people who claim that Tony owes them this or that. Or the people who are trying to interfere with Dowdy’s right to Baboo’s Garden and the land it sits upon. It was also difficult to have 50 people arrive up at Tony’s within 2 hours of us finding out he passed, many to pay their respects, some because they were curious, and yet another handful to see what they could gain from Tony’s death themselves –even if that just meant ‘a likkle breakfast’.
The good news is that timing couldn’t be better, as Culture Camp is over, and school has yet to start back up again. And it has been nice to just be ‘human’ in this community for a little while, rather than the unending role of Peace Corps Volunteer. It’s nice that most people in town seem to understand our loss and the stress of the situation, even if they didn’t really know either us or Tony, and as a result have given us some much-needed space for a little while.
There’s no doubt that things will never be the same around here with Tony gone. He was quite the character, and extremely generous with us...I’m sure there are many things that we’ll never forget about our PC experience, and Uncle T happens to be one of them.
As far as our lives here in Accompong, Tony was much like family, and I’m pretty sure he’d say the same about us. As such, we’ve been the primary people ‘sorting out his business’ over the last few weeks, alongside Dowdy his closest Jamaican friend. Tony was a close friend to the previous two Peace Corps volunteers who have been most recently in Accompong and they considered him family as well. Tony’s place has been a refuge of sorts to many Peace Corps volunteers over the years not just those, like us, who have lived in Accompong.
Although it’s sad that Tony passed, the hardest part for us has been ‘sorting out his business’, alongside cultural differences with death. Although we have had loved ones die before, neither of us have been the point person to call the hearse, pick up cremation ashes, and sort out death certificates –not to mention figuring out what debts need to be paid, what money might be available, and what’s to happen with his ‘stuff’, his business notwithstanding. (We do have to give a shout out to Coby, Tony’s sister, who traveled down to Jamaica the week before he died and helped us to get much of this in order. She’s been an amazing support through all of this. )
It’s been difficult responding to the handful of people who claim that Tony owes them this or that. Or the people who are trying to interfere with Dowdy’s right to Baboo’s Garden and the land it sits upon. It was also difficult to have 50 people arrive up at Tony’s within 2 hours of us finding out he passed, many to pay their respects, some because they were curious, and yet another handful to see what they could gain from Tony’s death themselves –even if that just meant ‘a likkle breakfast’.
The good news is that timing couldn’t be better, as Culture Camp is over, and school has yet to start back up again. And it has been nice to just be ‘human’ in this community for a little while, rather than the unending role of Peace Corps Volunteer. It’s nice that most people in town seem to understand our loss and the stress of the situation, even if they didn’t really know either us or Tony, and as a result have given us some much-needed space for a little while.
There’s no doubt that things will never be the same around here with Tony gone. He was quite the character, and extremely generous with us...I’m sure there are many things that we’ll never forget about our PC experience, and Uncle T happens to be one of them.
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