So for once Jamaica has made it into CNN and the BBC! …unfortunately not for very pleasant reasons though. Just wanted to send out a quick update and reassurance. For those of you who have been keeping up with international news lately, Jamaica has been dealing with some civil unrest revolving around an extradition request by the US for one ‘Dudus’ Coke. This week Kingston and Spanish Town have been battling through some worrying violence, but it seems as though things are starting to cool down a bit. As I’m sure you can imagine, Peace Corps has been taking the issue very seriously and all of us PCVs on island are being well taken care of.

In other news, this is the one week mark for Group 81 becoming official Peace Corps Volunteers! Here is our promo picture.

Kind of a tough pic to see, but notice the mustaches and bow ties on the guys. True group solidarity! and silliness.

First week on the job, not much work done. Monday was Labour Day, so I got to check out a few nice beaches in Port Antonio with Angie, a fellow volunteer here. Tuesday was spent mostly waiting in the doctor’s office (darn lungs), followed by a crazy taxi trip up into the mountains for our parish warden meeting. Stayed over night there, met all of the volunteers in the area and ate some delicious chili! Started work in earnest yesterday, organizing and figuring out funding for our environmental summer camp this July and applying for book donations for our nascent library/homework center. So many opportunities for projects here, I don’t think it will be hard to find things to do every day. The only issue that I can foresee so far is having so little structure or direction in my day…lots of self starting! I think that will be a good skill for me to work on in the end anyway though.

Alright. Sitting happy at the Port Antonio Marina enjoying free internet access, but the persistent rain is making me realize that I need to figure out how to get to where I’m staying tonight pretty soon before the taxis decide that it’s just too wet and they’re done for the day!

Walk good everyone.