Frequent and passionate meetings have been the motif of the past week, a necessity to prepare for Thursday’s big event. Stakeholders involved in the event are proving marginally more helpful than a hole in the head and this whole thing is teaching me what questions to ask preemptively, BEFORE responsibility is agreed upon. Questions such as, do you have the funding lined up for this event? Who else could host it and do THEY have funding? Can the rest of the community attend, etc.
Sigh, I’m going to stay away from getting too political, my blood boils sometimes, the stakeholders involved in this rural and limited community are difficult to reign in but I hope to be able to do so. As it is, the planning and preparation of this event have put pretty much everything else for me on hold until it is over.
This past week, daytimes have been dubbed ‘Work Days’. Beeston Spring does not have a maintenance team or garbage pickup, and well meaning citizens have attempted a recycling program that has turned into ‘storing’ plastic bottles in an abandoned historic building adjacent to the event space. Generally the same crew comes out to volunteer their time to weed whack along each side of the road, sift through the rubbish for garbage which is then separated into garbage or recyclables (only plastic bottles are recycled here, no glass or tin/metal). The rubbish is raked into piles and either burned or thrown beyond the road as mulch. Any time an event is held in Jamaica, particularly a service event, food MUST be prepared- and not just sandwiches and water. Jamaicans believe that the only filling food is something hot and wet (with gravy etc.) so the curried chicken with rice and peas and some sort of sweet cool-aide-ish drink is served and eaten in the shade of trees or a veranda.
I awoke on Monday with the familiar feeling of my single wisdom tooth poking out of its secure cocoon in my mouth. By Wednesday the pain was pretty intense, worse than it ever had been, and my jaw was beginning to swell. Fearing a trip to Kingston if I told the nurses, I self medicated with motrin and ice, also buying a topical oragel. Wednesday night, having been fighting a toothache turned headache and sore throat all day, I found myself sitting at the kitchen table doing yet more community related paperwork with community members. My crying host sister, the TV in the background and the chatter of three different conversations overwhelmed my already fried brain and I excused myself to cry in my room- the first time since leaving that I felt compelled to do so… I don’t blame myself in the slightest. I was banned from leaving the house on Thursday to work since Barbara was convinced the heat was making the pain worse, to which I grudgingly complied. I resumed working yesterday and my regimen of self medication made the pain manageable. Today I think things are cooling down, I only woke once in the night and have not yet taken motrin- but have not felt the absolute need to do so. Works for me though, I could use the detox. We’re going to Negril later today to go to the beach, Lesa’s cousin is visiting with his family from Pennsylvania. I’ve never been to Negril so I’m taking the opportunity to join along.
During the work day on Wednesday I let one of the pickney use my camera (under very strict guidelines, she’d been working with us all day so I thought she deserved a treat). I didn’t teach her how to zoom, but the photo’s she took were actually very good… and mostly of me. I bet you guys miss my face too (hehe) and I can’t get enough Internet time to post photos to Facebook SO, here ya go
Looking out from the CDC container- behind the roofless wall is tons of garbage, behind that is the bottle collection room
CDC Container
Cleaning behind the abandoned building
Ahh. I miss that face. The scrunched up one - you know the one =P
ReplyDeletehehe. miss you.
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