Five Events in One GIANT Post!

Holy moly what an eventful last two weeks! It began with a trip to Kingston to meet our friends Josh and Jesse for what appears to be Josh's Birth Month! I had a SPA meeting but Will and the Hunters went to tour the Red Stripe Factory. The tour was free but no samples of good ol Red Stripe. Here are a few pictures of the tour:

It is also important to mention that the Red Stripe Factory recently won an award for being Environmentally friendly- Will said it was extremely clean and that they're trying to find new ways to reuse some of their waste products- WAY TO GO RED STRIPE!
On that trip we were also able to pick up two packages- one from Nick and Joy along with our Christmas Present from Cisco and Kaui (We saw it was postmarked December 31- don't ask me why it took so long to get here!) what a nice surprise! We loved the shirts and pictures! A certain object in Nick and Joy's package brings me to my next story.

As all of our faithful readers know- I now have a flippin sweet school garden at Holland Primary- last week I went back to see how the kids were doing and just to make sure they were taking care of the garden. To my amazement they are not only taking care of the garden but they also planted about 10 rows of black eyed peas! WHOA! I had some spare corn seeds along with some cucumber and cabbage seeds I wanted to put in seed trays so the kids started working on all that- Once we were finished I explained to the kids where I went to college in the states and that each school has a school mascot- I then proceeded to show them Joe Vandal (a gift from Nick and Joy) the kids absolutely loved him- I then told him that I would like to take a picture of them with Joe Vandal- for Joe Travels- of course the kids love having their picture taken. I thought this picture was especially funny, mostly because one little boy is holding his pitchfork while the other one next to Joe has this terrified look on his face (mostly because he's getting shoved out of the picture) and of course you have to love the guy in the back, just throwing his arms up in the air! Thank you Nick and Joy for sending that- everywhere Joe goes it seems like people love it!

I also had another compost training with another woman's group. I won't go into too much detail- there were about 10 women there. It was a lot of fun to do another training with women interested in Agriculture.

We also attended 4-H achievement day for St. Elizabeth. We were supposed to be judges for various events however we managed to get lost on the list. At the last minute they asked me to help judge the Environment Challenge so it wasn't a complete wasted day. I have some pictures of the days events...There was a Ferris wheel (looked old dangerous and had a hand crank), a man with a mullet, a cheer leading performance and a display about water and the environment!

Finally this last weekend I went caving with the Jamaican Caving Organization. I was so excited to go but hurried to pack my stuff because I was running late- well I forgot to charge my camera battery! Grr.... However I had a blast. We went to Smoky Hole- the deepest cave in Jamaica at nearly 200 meters. We descended down about 50 meters (165 ft) since it was my first time caving with them and ascended back up. I went back the next day to do it again- what a rush and thrill- It was amazing, breathtaking, beautiful, and totally AWESOME! Andy Kolb- a PCV was there and took some pretty sweet pictures of me descending down, some of the group, and playing dominoes in a rum bar along with the aftermath of some flippin sweet caving bruises.

Progress....finally Progress

What can I say....things are falling into place! Is it real- boy I sure hope so! Last week was busy with little tasks here and there. As you read in the previous post I was able to give a talk to about 160 kids about Peace Day and my role as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

On Wednesday I was able to do my very first farmer training! It was great! This is something I had always kind of hoped I would be doing- working directly with farmers. I did two different trainings to farmers that grow hot peppers. The first was on Biological Pest Controls- how to control pests in a more natural way rather than using pesticides and other harmful chemicals. The second training was on why it's important to keep farm records. There were about 20 farmers at the training. It was at a hot pepper farm, very hands on, and the farmers were very interested in everything each presenter had to offer. What a GREAT DAY!

<-- Holland Primary School Kids

On Thursday- one of my small dreams came true- We finally did some planting at the primary school in Holland! I have three blisters on my hand which are very painful but totally worth it! Will also came to help and together we helped the kids prepare the ground, carry water, and plant callaloo, lettuce, and corn. I also have some cucumbers and cabbage to plant but we had to start those seeds in small trays. It was inspiring to see so many kids out using the tools to prepare the ground, carry bucket after bucket of water, and get their hands muddy and dirty all in the name of FARMING! Of course it was a hard day because it was not the mechanized farming we're so used to. Instead we had to take a pitch fork, shovel, hoe, and pick to agitate and dig up the soil- oh the pain!

Will is setting up several Production and Marketing organizations with computers and will soon start doing trainings on basic computer skills. He will also train them how to keep accurate farm records on the computer. He has also been busily working with the head RADA office in Kingston to get his Crop Estimates program off the ground- hopefully next month there will be a system online that the entire island will be trained on- all courtesy of my amazing husband!

I need to take a deep breath.....okay! So as you can tell things are really starting to pick up for both of us! We're taking baby steps and being patient, understanding, and above all cooperative. I can't even put into words how much this experience has changed Will and I. We have grown so much as people together individually and in our marriage. I see Will becoming more confident in himself and the ways of Jamaican culture and I'm learning to not take everything so seriously- I can't change the world but by golly I can make a difference in a few peoples lives and I am content with that! We just have to sit back, take a deep breath, and learn to laugh at our mistakes and celebrate those small victories.

Peace Day in JAMAICA!

Today Jamaica celebrates Peace Day! I was slightly unaware that schools would take such an active role in the day! I was in Beeston Springs working with some organic farmers and was asked to present to the Beeston Springs All Age School. They wanted me to talk about the meaning of Peace and what it's like being a Peace Corps Volunteer. It was exciting to talk to the youth and have them be so interested in what i'm doing in Jamaica.

It feels like Will and I are finally turning a corner- this could be the part of the roller coaster ride where we're slowly ticking up only to fall down again drastically however we're feeling pretty confident in ourselves lately. While people aren't banging down our door to recieve assistance and technical advice people are asking us to do trainings here and there and seem to be more and more interested in the things we can help them with.

In other news we have decided to move out of our current home. We found a small house in the same neighborhood that hopefully we'll be moving into by the end of the month. We're really excited to finally have our own little place to call home with our own kitchen, living room, bedroom, and bathroom. Pictures Soon Come!

This is a short and sweet post- but with it being Peace Day I can't help but leave you all with a final thought! "If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day."Alex Noble

Peace!