One week of on-site training

It's been one week today and we are falling into the Jamaican lifestyle in terms of work, travel, diet, etc. At the last posting Margaret mentioned the travel from here to May Pen for meetings and more meetings. I won't say anymore. As far as work we have had two meetings (attempts at meeting our supervisors and counterparts) in May Pen....both have been cancelled because all relevant parties were on vacation. We did however succeed on sitting in on a hospital staff meeting in Chapelton that had as it's headline a goodbye party for the PC volunteers that we are replacing. Just your typical "good-bye" party. The first 15 minutes consisted of a devotional with psalms, singing and prayers. Then two women from a Jamaican trust company spoke for 45-60 min (it was sooo long I can't remember) on the benefits of home mortgages, equity loans for fix-up, and in general how you could get money to build and or repair....or anything else. I zoned out in the first three minutes. Others were sleeping as well! This was the equivalent of Sargent College having an all-college meeting and having Bank of America come and talk for the first 45 minutes about all-inclusive loans. I kept asking myself if this was really happening! This was supposed to be a send off for two people that gave two years of their life helping the hospital community.

Well finally the bank people finished and I breathed a sigh of relief....now, I said we can get to the celebration....NOT....For the next two hours the "chairman" (sort of like the chairman of health sciences) directed the monthly hospital staff meeting. Each constituency reported on any problems...well...that just opened the doors for all kinds of complaints: nurses re maintenance, records re nurses, doctor re records, nurses, patients,....and on and on...Finally, with this meeting beginning at 10:30...it was 3:00 and the celebration began. Kind words were spoken about the departing PCVs...along with the introduction of Margaret and I. Everyone said we had big shoes to fill...except that we were unable to get started this week because of vacation schedules. Yesterday we had a regional meeting of Peace Corps volunteers in our parish...four of whom are leaving. It was the most informative meeting we've had since our arrival in Chapelton..(at least that's my impression - GSS). Well, it's Friday afternoon and we are going to help the departing PCVs before we head back to our digs...Lata, mon!