living like a local

If I come out of this experience learning one lesson it is that the best way to experience any country is to live exactly like the locals do. I spent the past weekend in Montego Bay, which is quite the tourist area, however, instead of trying to find places where tourists would be, we purposely sought out places we knew locals would be. It made the experience a lot more fun and defintely different. When telling my host mom about my preference towards the more authentic approach in travelling she told me I was sounding a lot like a real black girl. It will go down as one of the greatest compliments ever given to me. 
I'll give you a little recap of my totally amazing weekend. On Saturday we spent the day at a quiet beach just outside of Montego Bay where all we had was the sound of reggae music, the ocean, and drinks and food to keep us company. I live a hard life, I know. Once it got dark out we headed to something called the Glistening Waters. I'm still not sure about why this water glows at night when you touch it but it was incredible. I felt as if  I was in an episode of the X Files. However, the X Files soon turned into an episode of Grey's Anatomy when I got stung by a jellyfish and had to seek the medical attention of another vounteer who graciously put cream on the sting which is located just beneath my butt. The rest of the weekend was spent going to the craft market, lying on the beach and attending a great beach party.
I'm loving every minute I spend here and I'm already getting upset thinking about how soon I have to leave. I hope these next two weeks are the slowest one's of my life! Ik hou van jullie, xoxoxo (i love you all - in dutch - I'm becoming so cultured!)

HOPE YOU ENJOY THE LINK!!! I don't go a day without hearing this song!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkWXXGe49cw

better late then never...

Forgive me for not posting this blog earlier. The internet has been a little weird here for the last couple days and I meant to post this blog LAST week.

Mayhem. Absolute mayhem. If I was to describe my first counselling session in one word it would be mayhem. I was prepared to go into this group counselling session and I was ready to carry it out. However, I knew it would be no easy task getting through the whole session I had planned as soon as the first couple of girls came into the room. In order to not bore you with every detail that occurred I’ll explain it in the most straightforward way I can. The group session was supposed to last for 45 minutes and in the 45 minutes I was supposed to go through an introduction, setting ground rules, recapping everyone’s week, then doing a discussion and activities pertaining to conflict resolution. We made it through the introduction before we had to call the session quits. These girls were vultures. That’s all I can really say to describe them. My supervisor from Projects Abroad came along to facilitate the session with me and she told me that it was the worst she had ever seen this group act before. After talking about what happened in the session we decided that for the time being I discontinue the group sessions and only do individual sessions.
    On a lighter note, yesterday I did several home visits for foster parents within the parish of Manchester and the scenery was absolutely amazing. I seriously regret not taking my camera along with me and my supervisor is going to start harassing me to do so every time I leave my house so that I can have a ton of amazing pictures to show everyone! I also got quite the workout climbing up some hills and down rocky slopes to get to houses that were not accessible by road. I know… so Jamaica. Love everyone… xoxoxoxo.

celebrity appearance at church

One of the things I wanted to experience while in Jamaica was having the opportunity to go to church with my host family. So when they asked me to attend today's service I was more then happy to take them up on the offer. I really didn't know what to expect but was excited nonetheless about crossing something off of my Jamaican bucket list! Things were pretty uneventful until... BAM! Boyz 2 Men shows up for a musical number. I wish I could say that Boyz 2 Men actually showed up but if they ever had a cover band these guys would be it. I almost could not contain my laughter because they reminded me so much of Boyz 2 Men but what really sent me over the edge was when I turned to see that a lady had her blackberry out and was filming them. Why are you filming them in church? Might as well ask for an autograph there lady. Anyways, if you haven't heard of Boyz 2 Men I suggest you watch some youtube videos of them performing and you will get a sense of what I witnessed today.
After church today I went into Mandeville and walked around with a couple of the other volunteers. I wanted to get a better feel of the town and see where things were. We decided to be a little adventurous and wander into the market. Basically there are a bunch of vendors selling all sorts of fruits and vegetables and some clothing items. I will not be going back in there on a Saturday afternoon. It is beyond crowded and you can hardly move. The fruit looked amazing though and I really want to go back and buy some. The mangos are AMAZING this time of year.

                                                         The busy, busy streets of Mandeville

Hope everyone enjoyed their Saturday. xoxox

first week... DONEZO!

My first week of placement is done and I'm very happy about that. Now I know what I'm doing and I have a better handle on things and I can feel confident about going into next week prepared. Today I presented the idea to my supervisors about starting counselling and preparation sessions for children who appear in the children's court for various matters. I had the opportunity to go to the children's court twice this week and observe what goes on there and I came up with the idea because I thought that the children who were appearing in court seemed very unprepared for some of the general aspects of court etiquette. Things such as, how to dress, how to address the judge, ect, ect. So I came up with the idea that it would be good to prepare children for these aspects of court in order to alleviate some stress about appearing in court. My supervisors thought this was a good idea and that I could further extend it to providing support to the children in general aspects of life as well and basically just give them someone to talk to about things going on in their life. All in all I'm pretty excited about whats going on and what will be happening! MISS YOU ALL! xoxooxx

canada needs to get a new transportation system...

Jamaicans have it down to a tee when it comes to public transportation. We should really all take a page from their book. Let me explain to you how the public transportation works in Jamaica. Their taxis/buses are regular cars where four people squish in the back and you have the driver in front along with one or two people sitting in the passengers seat. Illegal, no? Apparently its completely normal to squish tons of people in the car and get away with it. So essentially I feel like a sun baked sardine each morning and every afternoon when I'm going to and from work.
In other news, I wish I was completely hideous or could paint myself black because I was cat called today by what had to be a 60 year old man who said to me, "hey my sexy thangg." I'm not your sexy thang but I do appreciate the compliment thank you very much. Also, my host family has invited me to go to church with them on Saturday which I'm very excited about! Bring on the hallelujah!!! OH BABBY!
My placement supervisor has also offered for me to lead group and individual counselling sessions for children at a nearby children's home. I'm beyond excited about it!
Hope all is well back home! Lots of love xoxoxox

pssst, pssst whittieee....

    So if I come back to Canada with a big head let me explain the reason why. If you are white you can not walk down the streets of Mandeville without hearing... "psssst, pssst, whitiiie"(nothing racist) or "hello beautiful". I was told by workers at Projects Abroad that this is a Jamaican's mans way of getting your attention. They also said when this happens that we should just smile and wave and say hi. So for the past 2 days I've taken on the persona of a beauty queen as I walk down the street and smile and wave at everyone.
    In other news, I started my placement today and really enjoyed it. I also participated in a reggae yoga class at the Projects Abroad office. All in all a good day! Hope everyone elses day was an excellent one!xoxox