November/ December 2011

On the day before Thanksgiving, I had visitors from way back! John and Anita Zavacky from Hope College days stopped in Ocho Rios for an afternoon while on a cruise. We had such fun eating jerk chicken and pork and reminiscing. They also came bearing Christmas gifts for me and my students. How neat is that!
Thanksgiving this year included a real turkey! I had truly missed that last year. Quite an expensive treat, but thoroughly enjoyed, and I have turkey soup in my freezer still! Diann, Juanita, Patrice and Laura, all PCVs, came to celebrate on Saturday. And we had a wonderful time together. A time to reflect and appreciate our blessings and eat down home food!


My next adventure was to travel to Negril to volunteer at the Reggae Marathon. This is an internationally sanctioned marathon (and half marathon and 10k). At least a dozen Peace Corps volunteers and staff participated. Ann and I were lucky enough to be assigned to the finish line to help put medals around every finisher. We managed to get photos of most everyone as well. We had to report to our spot at 4AM- its pretty dark out then! We got done around 11AM and went straight for a swim in the sea! We were impressed with how efficiently the meet was run; runners from 28 countries were there! The rest of the weekend we enjoyed the 7 mile beach at Negril (really only 4 miles, but beautiful all the same!). Sunday noon we left for the 4 hour bus/taxi trip home. It’s funny how accepting we have become about travelling public here.

At school the 4th grade literacy exam re-sit was held Dec. 6. This was the last chance for some grade 6 students to pass this exam. School had been running special sessions for these students and having practice tests for them.
There are 3 components to the exam- vocabulary, comprehension and writing. Students must pass all three sections. There is a lot of pressure- on the school to show that they have a high % passing this exam on the first or second try, and on the students because not passing means they cannot go on to high school in grade 7. Students are only allowed to take the exam 3 times. If a child does not pass, they will be moved on to a special remedial program; sort of a junior high school. At the end of grade 8 they may take another exam and if they do well enough they can move to a high school. Here high school begins at grade 7 and goes until 5th or 6th form (grade 11 or 12)

The Ocho Rios East Rotary Club was officially chartered on November 16. The big topic now is our charter ceremony- to be held Jan. 20th 2012. This will be a formal affair with dinner and dancing after. I am grateful for the financial support I have received from the Wallingford CT Rotary Club as well as friends and family. Otherwise I could not have afforded to become a charter member. Th club has ready adopted the Ocho Rios High School Track and Field team as one of our projects. Some kids on the team are running barefoot- and there is need for nutritional food for them as well. We are collecting used running shoes- if you’re coming to Jamaica, bring a pair with you and I’ll see they get to the right place! Thank you!
Schools here run on 3 terms per school year, so term one ends just before Christmas holiday. The last 2 weeks at Breadnut Hill were full of activities- first came exams- for all grades even grade 1. Then we had a fair and a crowning of Miss Breadnut Hill that evening. The Miss Breadnut Hill program was just like on TV- the 6 finalist had to model, give a talent (most of them sang, one said a poem), then they were each asked a question. There were 3 judges and then the crowning by the former Miss Breadnut Hill from 2009. Quite a production. (This didn’t happen last year) Then on Tuesday, we had a school Christmas Carol sing. The school choir sang a few carols including my favourite- Go Tell it on the Mountain. Their version is one I had never heard before- I hope I can download it for you to hear! Each class did a song and the grade 6 students did the Christmas story. I really enjoyed this; very Jamaican. But I was frustrated and sort of disappointed about how noisy the students were. Only 1 teacher was even sitting with her class. It didn’t seem as if that is a teacher’s responsibility here. The principal would occasionally yell at the students but that only lasted a few minutes and then it was noisy again. School does not have a sound system- that had been stolen with the office computer last year, but I'm not really sure that would have solved the problem. Wed. Dec 14 was a very rainy day and the last day of school for the year. Only 50 students (out of 240) even came to school. I had invited my 8 library helpers to an end of term thank you Christmas party on that day. Only 5 of them even came to school, but we had a fun time. My daughter Carrie had sent, on my pleading, How the Grinch Stole Christmas DVD. We showed that to most everyone that day. Only 1 or 2 kids had ever seen it. It has such a wonderful message I just love it. There is no Santa Claus here, and Christmas trees are only in the big stores or around tourist areas. Then our principal announced to the teachers that school would resume on Jan. 9th not Jan. 3rd as scheduled. Seems so amazing that the date can be changed so informally and at such a late day! I also observed how there really was no instruction going on at school for any of the last 4 days. Seems like not the best use of student time.


I’m getting ready for Christmas now, and enjoying the down time!
Merry Christmas to you all!