Friday 6/10/2016

A journal entry:

"Yesterday I arrived in Jamaica for the Jamaica Field Service Project.  After many hours at the airport and on a plane, we all met outside the airport in Montego Bay and loaded into two buses to ride to the guesthouse.  We rode about one hour until we stopped for dinner at the Ultimate Jerk Centre.  I decided to be adventurous and try curry goat.  It was kind of a weird, soft texture and a strange green color, but it was good.  The texture was mushy and I just kept thinking about how I ate a goat.  And the rest of the ride, I thought about that whenever I saw a goat (there were tons of them, all over).

After we stopped for dinner, we still had about three hours of driving to do.  It got dark pretty early (due to the time change--one hour back) and the ride was long and bumpy.  The poverty here is widespread.  Many of the old, rand houses that must have belonged to the rich and affluent at one point are left abandoned.  Every house has steel grates covering every opening to protect from burglars.  It was interesting to drive through the entirety (almost--we drove completely across the island) of Jamaica and see the differences from parish to parish.  We are in Portland, which is very rural, very lush and beautiful, and very poor.  We drove through some cities and larger towns to get here, and there is a lot of poverty there as well--many people live in shacks.

Our tree hut

We arrived at the Great Huts in Boston Bay at 8:00pm, got settled into our rooms, had a meeting and got to hangout and meet everyone.  The huts are located at the end of a small street with shops and vendors lining the sides.  We are staying right in town and it is really neat to be so immersed in the culture--we're not getting the typical "tourist" experience.  Kate and I are rooming in a tee hut called "Lemba."  You walk up a very steep set of wooden stairs to reach the hut, which has two twin beds (with mosquito netting) and is completely open on all four sides--there are tarp-like cloths we can put over the windows, but otherwise, we are completely open to the wilderness.  After searching for critters (we only found a few termites), we went down to the meeting, then chatted with the other people on the trip and the very friendly staff here.

It is incredibly hot and humid, and I have been sweating nonstop since arriving!  It got a little chillier when we slept, and I ended up under my covers.  The noises of the tree frogs were soothing and we slept in complete blackness in the complete wilderness (on top of a tree in the jungle!).  You can also hear the ocean waves in the distance.  it is very peaceful here.

Today, we had a free day to explore, enjoy the beach, and recuperate from our flights.  We woke up early (around 5:40) because the sun was brightly shining into our hut.  We slept on and off until 7:45, when we went to a group breakfast in the main hut.  We had the famous hand roasted, fresh Blue Mountain coffee (delicious!) with toast, a vegetable omelet, and fresh fruit (watermelon, pineapple, and papaya).  They also served freshly squeezed orange juice.  Eric, our trip director, took us on a tour of the grounds and the town, after we exchanged our US dollars to Jamaican ones.  $1 US is about $110 JA.

Everyone in the town knows our director very well and they exchanged handshakes, greetings in Patois, and a lot of 'Respect, man.'  Everyone tried to get our attention and told us to come to their stand for lunch.  Eventually, we made our way to the Boston Bay Public Beach.  We met and talked with the locals who all promised that they are the best surfing teachers.  We told them we'd come back.

When we got back to the hut, a group of us decided to head down to our private beach.  We immediately got in the water, which was the perfect temperature and a beautiful shade of blue.  The waves were gentle past the tide and it's fun just floating over them and staring off into the horizon--nothing but ocean as far as you can see.  We relaxed and some people jumped off the cliff into the water (I might do this later).

The locals from the beach came over offering surf lessons.  After watching a few people try, I decided to give it a go for myself.  My instructor's name was JJ and he was really friendly and a good teacher.  We went to the beach and he showed me how to go from laying on the board on my stomach to standing up (basically a quick pushup into a wide sideways lunge/squat).  We practiced this three times, then he said I was ready and that it was 'really easy.'  I was a bit skeptical, but he was right.

I fell pretty early on the first wave, but I knew exactly what I needed to do for the second.  The rest of the times, I was able to stand up and actually surf!  One time, I made it all the way to shore!  It was awesome and I want to try it again at some point.  I'm not sure if I could do it by myself (JJ pushed me into the good waves), but it was so neat to do.

After surfing, we went to the Jerk Center for lunch.  We chose a stand (this was hard because there were about five Jerk stands all vying for our business).  I ordered 1/4 Jerk chicken and festival bread (the Jerk chicken is basically spicy barbecue, and the festival bread tastes like fried dough and is tube-shaped).  We made friends with some guys at the stand (Jamaicans) who invited us to go dancing with everyone in the town on Sunday--we're planning on it.  A nice lady ushered us onto her porch and let us eat there, saying it's her job to take good care of us.  We talked and ate, and she packed up our leftovers for us (Jamaicans do not waste anything) and told us she'd have passionfruit juice for us tomorrow.  We went down to the beach to pay the surfers, then sampled free juices from another vendor (we bought some for $100J, too).

When we were done exploring town and talking to the locals and vendors, we went back to the hut and went to the swimming pool, which is on the edge of a cliff.  We relaxed, talked, and marveled at the view.  We went down to the beach when we were done and Kate and I bought bracelets from the vendor there.  He had long dreadlocks and a very heavy accent, which made haggling confusing, but I got two coral bracelets and a friendship bracelet for $2000J (I think I was ripped off, but I just need more practice haggling).  Later I discovered a walking path along the cliff that leads to a chair swing, perfect for writing--that's where I am now.

After dinner, we all sat in a circle for drumming basics--we learned 'booms' and 'das' and different drumming styles from across the island.  It was so fun!  We broke up into group sessions--therapy and music ed--for training.  Music ed went went up to Eric's porch.  We just sang through all the songs and learned the movements for 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight.'  They needed an extra guitar player, so I volunteered.  I'm very excited to have this opportunity to practice and get better!

After training, we went to a platform on the cliff by the sea to watch the stars.  There were so many and it was fun hanging out with all the music ed people on the trip (just seven of us).  We talked about so many things, but the most interesting things was definitely concepts of sound, which I definitely want to study and learn more about.  I never thought about it too deeply, but all of us had completely different concepts (I think in colors, but other people think of sound in different ways-- in terms of personalities, shapes, textures, feelings, taste, sensations, settings/landscapes, stories, lines and shapes, motions, temperature, and even bodily functions).  It gives me so much to think about for teaching in the future and I'm excited to look more into this topic."