A Bolt of Lightning

Although television is a rarity it appears that the current Beijing games have brought many of them out of the walls! The Jamaicans are estatic about their sprint champions...even Margaret and I are rooting for them. It really is amazing that such a small country has had so much success. Here I am in the library (Friday a.m.) writing this email and the staff was watching the 400 m relay...Jamaicans won another gold. Exciting....maybe this will help this country in some small way.



This week at our last language lesson I gave intructions to another PC volunteer on how to take blood pressure in Patois. Not one of my strong points..."Yu rap de cuff roun de uppa arm an skueez de bub.....blah, blah, blah." Glad that's over..hopefully we'll pick up more as we settle in. We leave for Kingston tomorrow for our final training, testing, and swearing in at the US Embassy next Thursday, August 28. After that we return to Chapelton and begin our 2 year stint. Things appear to be picking up within the hospital and community....maybe after September 1 we'll settle into a routine. One of my tasks is to set up the electrocardiograph room and train the nurses how to give an ECG. They opened a storage cabinet and put five machines on the table for me to look at...supposedly ECG machines. I have never seen the likes of these machines before...they weigh as much as the old black and white televisions (some of you probably don't remember what they look and felt like)...and look like them as well.



Margaret had a unique experience with a couple female health workers from the hospital...they went up into the mountains about 10 miles away and when encountering any group of people (cook shop, bar, assembled on a street corner)..the two women started handing out condoms and giving short lecture-etts on HIV/AIDs. Will let her explain next time.



Leita,

We're going native

See the attached pics; I have my hair braided and we learned to cook potato pudding "bush style". The braids are the first step towards dreds for us. Only one problem, Gary had his hair cut by a local barber and the poor guy was driven nuts with all his "fine" hair. With fans blowing for cooling those little white hairs were like small knives on the barber's arms. He cut Gary's hair very short, so dreds will be a ways off for him. My do is so easy, I can't even comb it; even if my head looks more like a flag with white stripes. It will last about 6 weeks, enough time to demonstrate to the Jamaican's that we've adopted their culture.



The pot pics are of our baking (with a friends help) potato pudding without an oven. All you need is a pot, a sheet of metal for a cover, and coals on top and the bottom. The pudding tastes like zucchini bread but has yams, potatoes, and plantain. Delicious.



The Jamaican's are thrilled about the Olympic results. To draw on the enthusiasm I'm thinking of starting a running group for children. There is a soccer field/goat pasture nearby that we can use.



Training comes to an end on August 28 and we're looking forward to getting to work on an array of possible projects. We'll update you as they unfold.



In the meantime, continue to look trash and redi (your best-if you can believe it). ms

Back in Kingston

On Saturday, August 2, our training resumed in Kingston as we all took our respective public transportation (ugh!) from our sites back to the teachers college. It appears that the training is running thin with a number of the trainees (I agree) as most of the recapping of our two weeks on site was discussed the first day back and we're still discussing it after day 5. Everybody seems anxious to get back to their sites so that planning can continue...some have had very little to do because of supervisors being out of country or out of touch...others have already settled into a work schedule five days a week. Margaret and I have scheduled meetings to address needs in the community and the hospital. We sort of fit in between the 5/days per week and the nothing to do crowd.



Today (August 6) is Independence Day in Jamaica...1962 they became an independent country. We head out to a cultural event/celebration tonight, have a few more language lessons tomorrow, and then head back to Chapelton until Saturday, August 23rd when we head back to Kingston for final tests and swearing in ceremony on August 28th at the US Embassy.