Alva

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  Alva, Jamaica
Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Hello everyone! It is now the tenth day at my site in Alva. I have been very busy doing nothing. Alva is pretty rural and in some rugged terrain. There are a lot of farms growing coffee and bananas. I'm certain other things are grown also. It is a lot cooler here than in kingston I have a blanket on my bed. If you have not figured out yet I do not have internet at my site. I do have a washing machine though! The water here is from a rain water collection off of the roof and there is a pump providing water to the house. I would say the worst part of my day is taking a shower because the water is freezing cold. My host dad said they had a water heater but it broke.
My host dad owns a farm and owns a couple of houses that he rents out. He has a prostetic leg because someone shot him in the nearest town. My host mom is nice and has feed me pretty well. I even bought some macaroni and cheese and the next day she made it for me without asking if I wanted it which was kind of weird. The three of us live upstairs in the house which is pretty big and has two bathrooms and four bedrooms. Downstairs one of my families sons lives with his wife and there 4 or 5 kids. Two of the kids are twin girls and I cant tell them apart at all I don't really know how old they are but I think there in second grade. They have a son who is a little younger, and then a daughter who is in kindegarten or whatever the equivilent of that is here. The 5th one im not sure where she came from. I didn't see her untill this weekend when one of the girls said sistrin jovi had helped her with her homework. Jovi is in high school. My host dad and mom are apparently going to visit there daughter in florida for like three months sometime next week so I will have the whole top of the house to myself.
I havent really done very much work since ive gotten here. People ive talked to say that it can take up to a year untill things really start falling into place. I went to church last week with my family who are catholic and that wasn't much fun. The priest called me up to do one of the readings. Then on Monday I went to the primary school and had a ton of kids jumping on me. One got wet finger nail polish on my shirt. After that I showed a girl who is in some youth program right out of high school how to use excel to enter in the schools registration data into a spread sheet. Tuesday I had to go to ochi for language training. Ochi is about an hour and a half away. I had to take 2 taxis and a bus to get there. The public transportation is very exciting on one of the taxis we had 8 people in a carolla. On another taxi we turned off the radio so that one of the passengers could give a prayer for the ride. Wednesday was the last day of school for easter break which lasts till the 20th, so nothing really happened. Friday I went with my family to do the stations of the cross since I had nothing better to do. Saturday we had a wardens meeting at a beach near ochi. Wardens are voleenters who you must inform of your whereabouts if you leave your site. They also report to there volenteers about crime statistics. I got to be the new assistant warden for St. Ann parish which means that I get to go to kingston for free three times a year. There I met the voleenter who lives about 15 minutes up the road. Easter was fun apparently all jamaica likes to fly kites and eat this type of fruit cake called easter bun and this incredebly proccessed cheese together. The cheese also comes in a steel can which is kinda fun to watch them try to get it out. Tomorrow I am going to Ochi again for language training where I will hopefully get to use the internet and post this.

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