Wa'gwaan Mi Friends!

Well I've been in Jamaica exactly 7 days and if I thought pre-departure was a whirlwind I was fooling myself. The first 3 days we spent in the capitol of Kingston at a hotel, where sleep was minimal and activity was frequent. A wonderful welcome ceremony greeted us at the Peace Corps office the evening we arrived- a day that we got a total of 3 hours of sleep at best, so we were all more closely resembling zombies.
Last Friday we headed to Hellshire in St.Catherine parish where we met our first homestay families. We met through a word matching game, I had a slip of paper that said 'peanut butter' on it, my 'jelly' I came to find, is a short older woman affectionately called Peggy. I thought it appropriate that she was wearing a purple floral shirt as she loosely resembled jelly.
Miss Peggy is a firecracker of a woman, who knows pretty much everyone in Hellshire proper. She cares for her 18 year old grandniece, who has already taught me a great deal about the younger culture as compared to Peggy's age bracket. She also sings wonderfully- we share a love of singing Adele. Upon hearing me sing, Miss Peggy told her entire church parish that I was to sing in church on Sunday. Which I did, along with a co-volunteer. We sang Amazing Grace so that the congregation could sing along and a lady of the church later told me she wished we'd sung a song no one knew so she could hear our voices. mwahaha my plan succeeded.
Hellshire is a coastal town, and a drier climate than most in Jamaica. Limestone, palm trees and cacti are predominant in the landscape, along with papaya, mango and other fruit trees. From the church where we have training class, you can see the town and the ocean beyond. The beach on weekends is covered in locals and tourists alike, shacks parallel the waterline selling seafood and beer while rasta and the like sell bagged shrimp, candies ('sweetie') souvenirs and of course, ganja. Yes this is illegal, and yes, the police are often quite nearby when this happens.
Houses are all generally open, doors are iron 'grilles' so that there is no need for a doorbell, one must simply yell the name of the person they need, and that person can hear from the back room: 'Wa'gwaan Miss Peggy!?' is a phrase often shouted by my peers as they search for me but also, they love my host mom.

Training has been exhausting, we just started language training. It's a lot of info to keep up on day by day and the paperwork is piling up but sector training offers promise of topics I can understand and provide some knowledge in. I still have a lot to know about Jamaica but for now I 'tank de lawd' for my outgoing personality in winning over the village ladies.

thats all for now my loves, until next time
<3