Unshared Pictures and Untold Stories

Greetings from Atlanta, Georgia!

I have now been back from Jamaica for a month and have settled back into Atlanta, the city in which I will be residing for the foreseeable future. Though I have been away from Jamaica for quite some time now, I still have a number of pictures I have not yet shared and a good amount of reflection yet to do before I cease sharing my experience in this blog.

The following is a random smattering of pictures that I never had a chance to put into previous posts. Though the order is a bit chaotic, the pictures near the top are generally from more recent months and the ones near the bottom are from older months. Enjoy!

This is a patch of land measuring 20 yards by 20 yards. The last team I worked with spent an entire week leveling out this patch of land using pick axes, hoes, rakes, blood, sweat and tears. They were animals. It was scary. Prior to the landscaping, this ground was covered with grass, very uneven and impossible to mow. In a few months, the grass will grow back and the area will be mowable and beautiful!

This sidewalk was poured with the Connecticut/St. Louis team that came my 21st week in Jamaica. Though it is only 60 feet worth of sidewalk, it took us all week to set up the forms and string, and then pouring took almost our entire last work day. It was a good work-out.

This is our concrete mixer, Old Yeller. I may or may not have accidentally dumped an entire load of concrete onto the ground below at one point, then yelled at the team to hurry up and quickly shovel all of the concrete off the ground and into wheel barrows to get it to our pouring site. In my defense, it was gravity's fault. I was a victim, not a perpetrator of the crime.

I made this concrete lid. Built the wooden form, cut and welded the rebar handles, ordered work team members to pour the the concrete in, then finally pulled it out of the form once it had dried. It's art. I'm an artist. No big whoop.

I also built these white boxes, which are used for loading rock and marl into the mixer. More art. Still no big whoop.

Our last week was a week of mucho painto. That's Spanish for a lot of paint. I'm also a linguist. Whatever. These are some of our empty paint buckets. This team painted until their arms fell off, at which point, they were unable to hit me with their handbags, for which I was most grateful.

The cement bag. The building block of Jamaica. With the help of these bags, I was molded into the best shape of my life over 6 months. Thank you C-Plus Carib Cement. My back will never be the same.

This is the sign above the front office at CCCD. Alison touched it up to give it some more flare. I gave her an "A", which of course stands for "Average."

This is a picture of pretty clouds I tried to take through my screen in my room. So the camera focused on the screen, instead of the clouds, but I thought it still turned out pretty cool.

This is one of the last sunset shots I captured during my stay in Jamaica. I never got tired of watching these :)

This was the tassel hanging from our bus driver's rearview mirror. I joked to Alison that you get the big tassel when you graduate from graduate school, then I laughed at my joke. Then said, "I'm pretty funny, huh?" to which she replied, "No."

This is the view looking down over the valley from the town of Spurtree. This picture truly can't do justice for how amazing of a view this was. Prior to getting to travel across the island, I never understood how vast the elevation differences were. Driving from Spurtree feels like you are smack in the middle of the West Virginia. It's crazy.

This is a day in the life of a Gunnar Jamaica t-shirt. This sweat would be after about 2 hours of work. Many days I changed shirts at lunch, just to drop the water weight absorbed in my first shirt. I would tell teams the only time I every felt completely clean in Jamaica was the half second before turning off the shower; every other moment I was sweating. I won't complain too much though; after all, I'd rather be sweating than shivering!

So we needed to dig a trench toward the vocational building from the waste pit for the sewage pipes to lie in. Using the pointed end of my trusty pick axe, I embarked upon this endeavor. So I swung away for about 30 minutes, took a quick water break, and then prepared to go back at it. After checking my angle, I took one beautiful swing to continue my trench and pulled my axe out to swing again, when I noticed water start to quickly fill up the trench I was digging. I panicked, and immediately ran and got Warren to fix my boo-boo. Glenford, who was standing right there, calmly went and turned that water main off (which I might have done if I had not gone into panic mode), then proceeded to make fun of me for running and getting Warren (whom Glenford joked was my dad) after I hit the pipe. After a good cry, I brushed off Glenford's taunting, Warren fixed the pipe within 40 minutes, and I finished digging the trench. How perfect did I pierce that pipe though? Keep in mind that pipe was 4 inches below the dirt and I could not see it at all and pierced it with a pick-axe (not exactly a scalpel, but I was surgical nonetheless).

This is at Glistening Waters, a place where micro-organisms in the water cause it to glow anytime a motion is made. Unfortunately, you can't catch any pictures of the water glowing, but this was my best attempt. I swam in the waters a few times. It's a lot of fun, and the muck 4 feet below the water feels like warm pudding between your toes...

This was a nice sunset picture I got on the way back from an Ocho Rios trip. Love those sunsets.

Me and a few of the boys on a work/school day. Notice my sweat-shirt. Beautiful, I know. I sure do miss those guys. Good friends, good friends.

This is Kolt's neck tan line after his week of work in the Jamaican sun. Didn't think black people could have red necks, did you? Kolt is also a big fan of country music, so you can go ahead and post country music videos on his Facebook wall when you get a chance.

Kolt, Chase and I at the Jamaican Bobsled Cafe, located on the Montego Bay "Hip Strip." It's a mega-tourist trap, so after we overpaid for our meals, we sat backwards in the bobsled just to show that we are not part of the system.

Broken glass bottles top all of the walls around the school. I've always thought they were quite poetic.

This lizard lived in my apartment with me. His name was Jeff. He was a pretty good roommate, I guess. Sometimes though, he would poop on the mirror and not clean it up, but who hasn't done that before, right?

Chase, Glenford, Kolt and I just chillin' at night after dinner. Good times, good times.

This was the picture I took of the cross at JDV the day of the March fire. (See previous post if you haven't read about it.)

This was the same cross a few weeks later. Pretty amazing how fast the grass grows back, eh?

The Campbell family. This family, along with the Huber family (not pictured, sorry Hubers!) were wonderful hosts at JDV. Pastor Damian went to college in Georgia, and his wife Felicia lived in the US from age 14 and then moved back to Jamaica after college. Their 3 kids are hearing (unlike their deaf parents) and absolutely adorable. Pheobe, Denae and Caleb were always willing to play with me whenever I was around.

A candid picture at the JDV worksite. This was either right before or after I broke a tooth off of the blade of the saw at the bottom of the picture. Ooooops. It was one of the many things that got destroyed by me as I tried to help out the ministry.

Sunset from my apartment balcony at the school. I do miss 'em.

One last sunset at JDV with some pretty colors. Maybe one day I will get a camera capable of capturing a bit more than I am able now. Until then, everyone must suffer these...

I have now exhausted all of the good pictures that I had not yet shared. I hope you're happy. Thank you for looking and listening. I plan to, in the next few weeks, sit down and write one last synopsis and reflection of my 6-months I was able to spend in Jamaica, as a final send-off from my blog.

Meanwhile, I am now here in Atlanta, eagerly (and impatiently) awaiting what is next in store for me. I have a few leads on potential new jobs and am excited to see what the next chapter of this story is going to hold!

Take it easy! Much Love!