Back in Jam Town

Well my Canadian Christmas has come and gone and I'm back in sunny Jam town. Good thing too as I've heard from numerous sources that Toronto has been barraged with a monumental amount of snow. I'm fairly certain I'm the only CUI intern to have made the trip home for the holidays, so I consider myself extra lucky. Arriving back in Jamaica felt a bit like how the start of summer holidays feel when you're 12 I have to say. I was thrown right back into the mix of Jamaican life too, traveling in a minivan, yes minivan, that held 23, yes 23 people. I sat on the edge of my seat with my giant travel bag on my lap for the entire trip back to Mandeville, where I spent the night before heading to Black River in the morning. After the cramped journey and almost 2 weeks away from Jamaica, I was desperately in need of a fried chicken fix. Not to worry, after striking out at the first restaurant I checked (apparently many shops stop serving food at around 4) I was led around by an 8 year old tour guide who was determined to get me some chicken. He succeeded and after giving me an exuberant high five, I was finally able to consume a large quantity of chicken curry and rice and peas. Good to be back.

Oh yeah, back to the weather contrast..I'm feeling the need to rub it in right now. Today was a balmy 28 in Black River, and last weekend I spent a total of 6 hours swimming in the ocean with my 4th trip to Treasure Beach, quite possibly my favorite area of the Jamaica, and hope to double that this weekend with my 3rd trip to Negril. I also had my first night out in Black River. Yes,  you heard correctly. I've been here more than 3 months and had not been out in the evening. Not safe to walk around solo I was told. Up until now I've been the only intern/volunteer in Black River. Well there was a lovely girl named Rachel from England here for my first week, but she was on her way out as I was coming in. Last week 2 new volunteers arrived though and this week another 2 are settling in. While my fellow Jamaican work folk are great, they actually don't live in Black River. So me and my 3 new friends decided to hit the town. Well, as I predicted there is nothing open in Black River after 6pm. Except for the Waterloo Guest House which is owned by the family I'm staying with. I also have lunch there prettttyyyy much every day. So with limited options we headed to Waterloo.

But really none of this is relevant to what I initially wanted to write about. However I suppose providing a bit of a context for where I'm at now doesn't hurt. I actually wanted to show a picture of me at work, seeing as how I haven't actually posted one yet. Somewhat self indulgent I know.  But seeing as how most of my time is spent in exactly this position... I'm at my computer pretty much the entire day right now, as the project has yet to really take flight, I thought it relevant. Hopefully the official launch of the project will be in mid Feb, and from that point I'll be in the field a lot more, working with the community, doing site analysis etc. Anyways, here's the picture. Oh and below is pic of the Waterloo Guest House. As I said I spend a lot of time there. Lunches, occasionally for a beer to watch the sunset and now for our a night out here or there. Now that it's peak travel season, it's actually a pretty decent place to meet other travelers too. Oh and did I mention it was the first house in Jamaica to have electricity?? Because it was.

Oh and this was a surprise picture, hence the lack of facial expression.

The ole Waterloo Guest House.