Tuesday, November 25, 2008

WHERE’S THE SNOW!

It’s November 19….it’s 85 degrees, and there are no snow plows around! Ever see the movie “Groundhog Day”? Well, that’s what it’s like in Jamaica. Not the radio alarms..(they wouldn’t think of it….”I’m late…no problem”) but the weather every day. Sure, we get some rain and wind (every now and then), but I’m still soaked after walking a mile to work or the library. I know some of you think I’m wacko, but I was telling Margaret this morning……”can’t wait to get a few days of cold air in my lungs when we get back home for Christmas.” Someone at the hospital told me back in September that we would need sweaters in November and December! How does it go…”yeah, right!” The only time our room fan has been off is because of a power outage. Not really “skrinarplaining,” but never realized I missed the seasons, especially the fall, so much.

The only place that we will need sweaters is our planned trip to the Blue Mountains in the middle of December. No matter where you are the weather is cooler at 7,000 ft +. Speaking of this trip it should be a real camera lover’s hike. Apparently, the guides take you to the “cabins” after hiking for a hour or so…where you eat and go to sleep (cot) and are awakened at 2 am. The hike continues for the next 3 hours or so until you arrive at the peak and are there just in time to witness the sunrise. The Blue Mountains rise to the aforementioned heights just east of Kingston and provide a beautiful easterly view for those living and visiting Kingston. Those who have taken the trip say that if the clouds are at a minimum you can see Cuba to the west and of course the sunrise to the east.

Things have been going pretty slowly the past week or so and particularly this week as we have had two functions cancelled at the last moment, even though there was no rain and no power outages! The EKG project came to a rousing halt as the machine from Mayo died about a week before administering the first EKGs….talked to Mayo and they are sending a replacement.

But we are treating this as a “fall” vacation week as we are heading to Ocho Rios (first time) for a Peace Corps conference – called the Early Service Conference – from Wednesday to Friday. Then, rather than head home we decided to travel just east of Montego Bay, about 1 ½ hours west of Ochi (both MoBay and Ochi are on the north shore) and spend the weekend (Fri, Sat, Sun morning) at Ironshore, just outside of MoBay. The tourist season (if there is one this year with the economy) usually starts around mid-December and lasts through April. This area is considered the tourist mecca. We hope to get a jump on the snowbirds and play golf while there are only a few people on the course.

Since this blog seems to be based on the weather we thought we would try and give you a sense of the roads (although experiencing them is much more fun). The roads, of course, are affected by the weather, particularly the rain. Last Friday, Nov 7, I was in May Pen (10 miles down the mountain)…and experienced the normal bad roads. On Saturday, tropical storm Palermo skimmed Jamaica and so we had some pretty heavy rains. On the way down to May Pen the next Tuesday the road was horrendous….the picture we posted shows the depth of the asphalt on top of “marl (crushed rock beneath the asphalt).” I saw 5’ X 8’ sections of the asphalt that had simply separated from the rest and floated off the marl, leaving big crevasses in the roadway. The only unsettling thing about going to Blue Mountain is the total time of travel… approximately 7 hours….”are we having fun yet?”

Monday, November 10, 2008

The latest news

More ups and downs. First, the weather is cooling down, a little. We can walk to work and not always be soaked with perspiration and on a few nights we actually turned off the fan. The latter was hard to do because the fan serves three purposes: cooling; mosquito deterrent; and noise abatement. We’re not so sure if night time cooling will be beneficial in the long run.

Gary was all primed to start teaching the nurses how to conduct an electrocardiogram on patients until a few days ago. He had been given a desk and a small locked room to house the machine and one day he discovered the door unlocked, a key sitting on the desk and the EKG not working. He worked on it, called Mayo Clinic [recall they sent it], spoke to a few techs and finally realized it wasn’t going to work. So, in true Jamaican style the big training event had to be canceled. The good news is Mayo is sending another machine so not all is lost. As well, BU has one we’re going to bring back at Christmas. With used equipment you can never have too many back-ups. In the same vein, tomorrow we’ll conduct our pilot run-through for the Wellness Project; that is, unless some glitch pops up.

After several rain canceled meetings we finally held the last of our steering committee meetings for the Community Association and the big Community-wide meeting is set for this Thursday [unless of course it rains]. Rescheduling that baby will be a real challenge. We have fliers up all over town and a guy with a giant speaker system atop his car is announcing it daily. Cross your fingers that it stays dry.

A Jamaican friend of ours told us that some of the locals, who didn’t know she knew us, told her we are spies. They said they knew it because we ask so many questions. Oh well!

Wak gud, Margaret

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Ups and Downs

It’s the day after the presidential election and the passionate Jamaicans are as excited about Obama winning as they were about their Olympic track team’s accomplishments. Certainly, more of them want to talk with us about the meaning of this win than they did the feats of Bolt, et al. They are proud of Obama and glorious about what the “white” Americans have done. It seems to be a statement about each of them as individuals and their legitimacy as much as recognition of America’s and the world’s need for the promise Obama’s leadership hopefully will bring. We’ve got our fingers crossed he is able to follow through on what he seems to stand for.

There have been some ups and downs in our projects. We’re home helping our host mother, Mrs. Rumble, prepare for the first ever Chapelton Senior Citizens gathering. She’s been inspired to start one after the early success with the Citizens’ Association. We’ll keep you informed as to whether or not it blossoms in to a viable organization.

The Citizens’ Association has its second planning meeting tomorrow night and it’s first full community meeting next Wednesday evening. We’re not as confident we can muster sufficient participation to make this group effective. Their first planning meeting went well but last week was supposed to be the second meeting. It didn’t go off because it rained. We’ve learned that Jamaicans DO NOT GO OUT IN THE RAIN…….EVER!!!
Since this is the “rainy season” it’s a little difficult to plan and keep momentum going but we’ll see. Can’t figure out why they don’t like rain but it’s clear the custom is spread throughout the culture.

The shoe collection efforts seem to be going great guns, especially on the west coast. Thanks to those of you who are contributing. My sister, Aimee, has set a goal of 1,000 shoes and has made contact with a Jamaican-American Association that may try to help with shipping and possible donations. Like John and me, it must be in her genes to dream big. I’m excited to see what she’s able to pull off.

The shoes will be used first for those in the community who want to begin exercising. The second group will be those who participate in the Wellness Project Evaluation. We’ll be able to give them a necessary tool to carry out the prescriptive lifestyle recommendations we make. We have a pilot run-through on five volunteers next Wednesday. If all goes well we’ll launch at both hospitals beginning January 15.

For those who are familiar with the Fitness Evals we used to do at BU, this will be a hybrid of that. Available equipment is limited so there’ll be some field test screenings like a Step –Test for cardio-fitness rather than a treadmill or bike test with an EKG monitor. We won’t be able to estimate fat volume, lean body mass or strength so we’re doing BMI and waist girth instead. But we are confident we’ll have enough risk info to estimate chances of chronic diseases and levels of wellness. Along with what’s been mentioned we’re doing resting EKGs, blood lipids and glucose, flexibility, posture analysis, nutritional analysis, oral health exam and depression screen.

We’re coming home for Christmas!!….. well, it’ll be the day after Christmas, for nine days. If any of you are in New England and are dying to see us, we’ll be in Greenwich, CT at Johns from 12/26 to the 30th, then in Hardwick, MA with Art Dell Orto until 1/3. Then we’ll return to John’s for a Jan. 4 departure for JM. We’re delaying our JM departure to the US to participate in a “Jamaican Christmas”. Apparently it’s a bigger event here than in the US. We’ll let you know what transpires. Todd may also join us for a while and bring Riley. It will be wonderful to see the boys and hug them.

Tek cyar, Margaret