Peace Corps Volunteer Swearing In

It is official, I am now a Peace Corps Volunteer, along with the Ambassador, Governor General, Jamaica Country Director, plus ...and the incredible group of Peace Corps Jamaica 83  - we are finished training!  Also practice picture, before formal final:

And my sector (Green/Environment) ... another 'big up' ... we did it! Training is over!

Our swearing in ceremony was at the US Embassador's Residence ... Very nice!...Below is the Governor General, Patrick Allen.The Governor-General of Jamaica represents the Jamaican monarch, and head
of state, who holds the title of King or Queen of Jamaica.

 Great Friends, Mike and Pat ... part of the over 50 group ... they are in education, and on the other end of the island (lucky the island is only the size of Connecticut)...and it is great to have friends scattered broadly, so we can visit often.

As always, internet is limited ... but I will likely develop a routine to come to the internet cafe on a regular basis, and ideally be better at blog updates.

MGEG - Mile Gully Women -it is all about eggs and women doing amazing things.

Where I will be living for the next two years,St. Mary Parrish, Mile Gully (not on the maps - closest to Gayle)

 

My Home (Host Family) ... great people, and home. They lived in the U.S. for 36 years, and returned home to build on family land in Mile Gully. My morning view from the veranda - a favorite, is to make coffee, and start the day looking at the incredible hills.

Some of the chickens (two coops with 500 in each coop) and the new greenhouse -still under construction

1. 

Pencils for Jamaica ... each one reach one!

I don't know yet where I will be assigned for my two year service after training  - and won't know until I am sworn in - May - that said - PENCILS are sorely lacking in every school I have been at, and educators here in Jamaica as well as Peace Corps Volunteers would love to have a pencil for every child.

Pencil sharpeners and/or erasers are also not available - if the students have pencils, they chew them down, to sharpen them.

 I will be working in the Green/Environment sector... SO ... if anyone has pencils that you could donate- please send them to:

 Alice Anderson, Peace Corps Volunteer,
 %Carla Ellis Country Director, 
8 Worthington Ave.,
 Kingston 5, Jamaica, West Indies.

When I have my permanent assignment - I will update this address. Ideally, at the end of my two year tour, students will have pencils. We will never have a surplus ... so more is better. I will also be able to distribute your pencils to others in my group, or the past groups that are here in Jamaica. Ideally, we can cover the entire island with Pencils from everywhere USA and beyond.

Blogs for Peace Corps Jamaica group 83

For insights into the past three weeks in Jamaica for Peace Corps Group 83...check out videos plus on blogs by talented fellow PC Trainees:
http://kcapes.wordpress.com/
 or
Kristen and Marie's combined blog:
The World We Know

http://simplyintentional.wordpress.com/
Especially the video "Community Based Training Part I" and more ..

The Jamaican Brandi: One ...


Also Kevin, Linnae and Autumn (in my Green/Environment Group) Blogs

• Kevin's Agricultural Adventures
• Letters from Linnae
• Autumn's Flying By 

 Other PCV's from group 83 - Greens

• Mark Hudson Walk Good
• Keeping Up with Sarah Marshall

Blue Mountain Coffee...from field to market

The world's best coffee, grown in Jamaica...Blue Mountain Coffee. A small farmer shared his growing technique, and later we discovered how the berry is dried, cleaned, roasted and ground for consumers. Typically a small farmer will grow (prune, fertilize with chicken manure and Nitrogen, treat for the berry borer, pay women to pick the berry in 50# boxes) and sell to wholesalers as the berry.

My Hub training in St Andrew hillside community

I seldom have Internet access so have not been able to upload photos however try this to get a quick overview of the first two weeks:
http://vimeo.com/39170093
full blog athttp://simplyintentional.wordpress.com/
Video produced by two fellow Peace Corps Trainees who are at different locations with their groups.

Photo of fellow Peace Corps trainee Autumn and myself as we shadowed a small coffee farmer growing Blue Mountain Coffee, clearing land to plant okra with gungo beans and group photo of our Sector (Greens).

If yuh go a trump afoot dance, yuh if dance trump afoot

if you go to a wooden foot dance You dance the wooden foot...or when in Rome, do as the Romans do...

I have arrived...
Life is good...is is 80 degrees back Home in WI, and warmER here...food and people wonderful. The language has a rythm. A great group of 36 people are in this together, with trainers administrators, nurses, and more support ...12 of the 36 volunteers/trainees are in my sector (environment/green)...

Week 2 in Jamaica...now that we are officially starting our training (rather than paper buffets and welcomes...we start the day with Patois Language training, after another great breakfast with my host family.