Week Two-ish/Three-ish

Greetings from the principal's office! I think that on the next leg of my Jamaican experience, I will bring my own computer, but until then I will use whatever computer is available to me. Though having intermittent internet access has been a challenge for me, a more frustrating thing is not being able to watch Olympic hockey highlights when I do have access. Yaarrrgg! Stupid NBC and their broadcasting rights. Phooey. If anyone finds a way around this that is somewhat legal and won't be a danger to this computer that is not mine, let me know. I will pay you 1 (one) fun-size half-eaten Snickers bar upon my return to the United States. You have my word. I digress. Back to Jamaica.

Story time! Sports Day (field day) was this last week and it was a very good time. Following the indoor competition, which was held on Monday, all the students competed in an outdoor competition on Tuesday. My contribution to Sports Day, along with helping to paint the track on the field (which was done quite beautifully I must add), was to help in keeping score of the three different houses during the competition. The names of the houses are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. NO THOSE ARE NOT THE REAL NAMES, HUNTAR. You huuuge nerd. The houses are Red, Green, and Blue House.

As sports day began, parents and alumni from the school gradually began showing up, almost like a homecoming celebration. A former student who I met five years ago on my first visit to Jamaica, Garnett, was among the alumni who attending. Immediately upon his arrival, Garnett pleaded repeatedly to race me. Though I was taking my score-keeping duties very seriously (as any diligent C.P.A. would), a break between events allowed enough time for us to race. So I raced 100 meters against Garnett, 3 other alumni, and my boss, Warren. The race went well, I lost to Garnett (who can turn on the after-burners it turns out!) and potentially tied for 2nd place with one of the other alums (there was controversy over who got 2nd and who got 3rd, one of my young deaf fans was enthusiastically positive that I got 2nd, and he's a bit of a liar, so I probably got 3rd). A few years ago, I might have been embarrassed by the loss, but not anymore. After losing in Nintendo to girls while in college, losing a race to my brother this past summer, losing my bike in Atlanta, losing my side-view mirror in Atlanta, and losing an arm wrestling match to a 17-year old deaf student just last week, I have very little pride left in my abilities or my possesions.

After the race, I walked back toward my "scorers" table, congratulating Garnett on my way and telling all the little kids "he was just too fast." After sitting back down, a few of the kids kept asking me if I was okay and if I needed water. "I'm fine," I kept signing to them, "I will get water soon," I reiterated. I think the kids may have been on to something. After about 45 seconds of sitting back down, my vision started to darken a little bit. Uh-oh. I quickly thought about the last time I had drank any water and realized I hadn't even had a sip yet that day. Uhhh-oh. I looked over toward Warren, my boss here, and saw him drinking a bottle of juice. I thought, "If I can just make it over to Warren and drink his juice, followed by lots of water, I can get out of this without making a big scene."

One hundred meters to my doom

As I made the 30 foot trip over toward where Warren was sitting, my vision began to darken more and my ears began losing their ability to pick up distinct sounds, like I had just gone under water. Walking toward him, I began what I like to call "involuntarily falling asleep" mid-stride. As I took my final step toward the unsuspecting Warren, my journey into unconsciousness came full bloom, as I staggered, tripped, and my momentarily uncontrolled body flailed into him. My head struck his shoulder pretty sternly (as I've been told) and then I was able to sit up next to him, following the collision, regain (at least partial) consciousness and request water. "Did you mean to hit me that hard?" Warren asked. "Naah. Nah, I think I was in... another dimension," I replied.

As I sat next to him, with my glazed over eyes staring into the distance, focused on nothing in particular, and my head at a disengaged tilt, I realized that my attempt at not making a scene had indeed failed, as children and parents were trying to glimpse what was going on, looking into my eyes as if they were checking to see if I still had a soul. And as I remained sitting there, somewhere between this world and the dream world, what thoughts I was able to harness were poised not on how many people were looking at me and how I could minimize how much attention I was getting, but at whether I had health insurance or not (I was recently in-between plans) and how badly I did not want to visit a Jamaican hospital.

Though it took about a half-hour and a half-gallon of water, I was eventually brought back to life. Though I was not embarrassed about losing the race, I was embarrassed that of the 54 students, 3 teachers, 6 parents, 4 alumni, and 1 missionary that ran at some point on Sports Day, I was the only one who got dehydrated and give everyone a scare. All of the staff, however, were very kind, handled the situation very well, and did not hit me with their handbags, for which I was most grateful.

Though I did not get any pictures of Sports Day or my delightful dally down dehydration drive, I did take many other pictures that will help give depth to the descriptions of my experiences.

The following 2 pictures are related construction items I discussed previous post. I mixed the mortar for these projects and David, the mason, slapped it up there and then smoooothed it out.

Rebar clamps holding up forms
post-rough cast, pre-rendering

Window after rendering (Still needs paint, mon!)

These next two pictures are from the main project we worked on during my 2nd week. The vocational building, as it's called, is a three-story building next to the school that is not yet completed. In this building, there will be a kitchen for culinary training, a shop for training in woodwork, a few apartments for students, a room for all the tools and storage of unused PVC pipes, and the top floor will be hospitality suites. The plan is that on the top floor, tourists will stay and be served by the students who are still in training at the school.

The waste from this building will filter through to giant pits that have been dug into the earth down hill from the building. The first is the septic pit, where solid waste will be stored. The liquid wastes will flow to soak-away pit. As liquid waste goes into the pit, it will soak into the ground. Our task last week was to line the soak away pit with rocks, so that it will keep its shape, yet still allow liquids to permeate the walls and into the soil. I snapped a few pics of Warren walking around the hole. It's about 10 feet deep and 12 feet across. Very fun for climbing!

Hole-E Crap!

Me big man. Me dig hole for to pee in.

Funny story about the hole. When we were putting that top band of concrete to solidify the structure of the rocks, we used wheelbarrow to pour the mixture directly onto the rocks, instead of shoveling it into buckets for more precision and control. Ladrick, a deaf man who graduated from CCCD a long time ago and now does construction work, was pouring concrete onto the rocks from the left side of the hole (where you'll notice there is a hill), lost control of it and sent the wheelbarrow careening 10 feet down to the bottom of the pit. Luckily, nobody was hurt and the wheelbarrow survived, so it was okay to laugh at. If somebody is reading this that would be upset about this story, I made it up.

Next is a view from campus followed by the tool trailer.

View of the bay from campus
Please notice the beautifully painted track
FYI: Track painted with used motor oil. Nothing gets your whites whiter!

I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes

Glenford's tool trailer

Notice the sign in front of the tool trailer: 1) "Notce" is missing the "i". 2) Why does it randomly say "Jamaica"? Maybe it's just in case you forget where you are. 3) I don't know what "MAO" means so I can't make fun of it. I will ask Glenford what it means. Then maybe I will make fun of it.

On to food. My favorite part. I have had jerk chicken/jerk pork now 10 times in my 19 days here, which has not nearly been enough. To my delight, it's not that spicy (unless you add spicy, spicy sauce) so I am able to really enjoy the delicious flavor. Num, num, num. I also got to try ginger beer (like root beer mixed with ginger ale, I'll say) and ginger biscuits and digestive chocolate. (I have no idea why it's called that, but it is hilarious) As far as I could tell digestive chocolate was just a ginger biscuit covered in chocolate. Which was good, but I'd also take a Snickers down in about three bites.

Mmmmm Jerk Chicken... Nom, Nom, Nom

Hooray Ginger Beer! Pretty good stuff


Ginger Biscuits and Chocolate Degestive
Wait... What?!

On to my last few pictures. During my second week here, a team from Bowling Green, Kentucky was here. I told them I had driven though many times on my way to Atlanta and that the gas in Bowling Green was top-notch, sometimes getting me clear into Georgia before my next fill-up. Last Friday, I went with the team into Ocho Rios to visit the market, Dunns River Falls, and then Glistening Waters on the way back.

As much as I hated being pestered by all the merchants at the market (it's the ABSOLUTE worse place to be if you are honestly not going to buy anything), getting to go to Dunns River Falls made it worthwhile. I have been once before, about 5 years ago, and it was just as much fun as I remembered it. Quite beautiful, too. At Dunns River, you walk in the park and down several paths and flights of stairs to the beach. You access the river at the beach and climb up and across(let's say...) 150 yards of falls against the current. Some big groups get guides and all hold hands and take the journey very slowly. I find it much more fun (and probably easier) to bypass these groups and find the moderate to challenge routes.

I also got to experience Glistening Waters, which I had never done before and was really neat. In certain bodies of mixed salt and fresh waters, dinoflaggelates in the water glow (similar to a firefly) when the water is stirred. So at night, anytime you make a splash, all the moving water lights up in a green glow. It looks awesome, especially when you get to swim in it.

Aside from those two events, that day helped to remind me that I am a terrible tourist. I get fidgety and want to do something productive besides go "Ooooh! Aaaaah! Let's buy one of theeeese!" and "Humphh, I never knew that before!"

The beach at Ocho Rios
It's kinda pretty I guess


The bubbles


Maybe the "N" is backwards on purpose,
to make this scene even more deep and artistic?


Dunns River Falls
Notice people near top of picture for scale


Discovery Bay - Where Columbus first anchored in Jamaica
Somewhat pretty

Those are all my pictures for now, thanks for viewing!

This week has been substantially slower than the first two, as we have no work team here this week and the kids when home for the week after Sports Day on Tuesday. I have been passing the time by working on random small projects around campus, hanging out with Glenford, practing my JSL, and reading my book on Microsoft Excel (Smile if you're JEALOUS). Suckas!

This upcoming Sunday I am heading up to the Jamaica Deaf Village (JDV) for two weeks to help out with the work teams that will be there, before returning back to MoBay for a few weeks. If you are still awake, thanks for reading! My next post will probably be less pictures and more words since there are a number of topics that I have not covered, which I would like to reflect on, but am too lazy to do right now. Much Love!