Wa gwan - Jamaican Patois meaning "what's going on?"
I have been here more than 4 weeks, and am only now getting to my blog – I have obviously embraced “Jamaican Time” (being late for everything) extremely well.
Needless to say, my time here so far has been a whirlwind. Here’s what’s happened...
The flights from Vancouver to Kingston (via Toronto) were uneventful (the way all flights should be). In Toronto, after a couple of hours sleep, I met up with Alex and Kimberley (CUSO-VSO volunteers that I met at the training) for the Jamaican leg of the journey. The flight was a short 4 hours, which made me realize what an ideal destination Jamaica is for those on the east coast.
Arrival in Kingston, oh the heat. We were met at the airport by the CUSO-VSO driver, Mr. Neville Mason, along with 2 other smiling faces, whom I assumed worked for CUSO-VSO. Our luggage (and there was a substantial amount, not only from me) was packed into Mr. Mason’s blue van and we were off. After about 20 minutes of questioning about Kingston to Jacob and Onyka (the 2 smiling faces) with lots of “I don’t know” responses, it finally dawned on me that perhaps they did not work for CUSO-VSO after all. They are in fact also volunteers, having arrived just a few days before us, and were there to welcome us as fellow newbies. Jacob is from Ghana and Onyka is from Trinidad. Now we are 5. Driving from the airport through the suburbs of Kingston I had a strong feeling of déjà vu – it looks and feels a lot like South Africa, or at least how I remember SA, not having been there for almost 15 years. Ramshackle houses, vendors, loud music, people yelling. The language is different, the people don’t really look the same, but there’s a resemblance. Entering a more “upscale” neighbourhood – New Kingston – we picked up Keith, a volunteer, and his wife Stephanie, the unofficial welcoming committee, and were taken to get cell phones. There are 2 cellular providers in Jamaica, and CUSO-VSO volunteers are “encouraged” to go with Digicel (it’s cheaper to call other Digicel customers) – fine with me. The process to get 3 cell phones was lengthy and by the time we were done it was after 1:00 pm, and we were starving. No problem, Mr. Mason whisked us off to a restaurant for our first taste of Jamaican food – chicken, rice and beans and a small side portion of salad (no dressing to be found).
Our home for the next week or so was the L’iguana Club in New Kingston (pronounced “liginny,” and not like the lizard, as I was soon to discover, when a taxi driver looked at me like I was mad when I said I was going to the “Le Igwana” club). We had a few hours to relax (Kimberley and I used the time for a swim) and then Mr. Mason was back to take us to Keith and Stephanie for dinner. My first experience of how volunteers in Jamaica live was an apartment in Abbey Court – perhaps an unfair view, as the apartment complex is swanky – four, 6-storey buildings overlooking a central courtyard with a swimming pool. Not too shabby, I could see myself living here, I thought. I heard talk of a suite available in the building and mentioned it to Kimberley. We had discussed the possibility of sharing when we met in Ottawa, but my work location was not yet finalized, and so I wasn’t sure if it would be possible.
Apartment hunting in Kingston takes place on a Sunday (that’s the day everyone advertises in the local papers). Jacob and Onyka were being taken the next day to look for apartments, and we were given the option to come along, or wait until the following week. Not wanting to waste any time, we decided to get busy, and so we met at Keith and Steph’s place bright and early Sunday morning. For safety reasons, CUSO-VSO is very strict about the areas volunteers are allowed to live in, and any apartment has to be approved by them before a leases can be signed. Steph had already reviewed the paper and there were a few 2-bedroom places available for me and Kimberley. Steph also put in a call to Abbey Court’s realtor to enquire about the available suite – being Sunday, she, along with most other Jamaicans, was in church, so many messages were left, and a few viewing appointments made. At the end of long and tiring day, the only person to have a confirmed place was Onyka, and she was taking over the apartment of volunteer scheduled to leave the next week, so not much progress was made. But, I did get to meet my “buddy” France (CUSO-VSO Jamaica is piloting a “buddy system,” pairing new volunteers with current ones in order to ease the transition). We’d arranged to walk down to Emancipation Park for dinner, but then Steph called to say we could see the Abbey Court apartment, if we got there by 6:00 pm. Kimberley and I grabbed a taxi and raced up to Abbey Court, just making the 6:00 pm deadline, only to wait 25 minutes for the owner to arrive. It was just as well that we waited though, because the security guard mentioned the availability of another suite in the building for which he had the key. We saw both suites, and the second one was a winner – 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 balconies, washer-dryer, tiled living areas, well equipped kitchen... the only downside was that it faces a busy intersection (Hope and Trafalgar Roads), but it’s on the 5th floor, and so the views are spectacular, despite the hornets-nest-infested balcony. We phoned the owner of the apartment, who just happens to be Harold Brady, the infamous Jamaican lawyer involved in the Dudus/Manatt enquiry. Kimberley’s superb powers of persuasion got him to agree to lower the rent so we could get the apartment at the CUSO-VSO rate. To quote Kimberley “sweeeeeet”. Still had no final word on my work location, but I decided to run with it and hope for the best – which turned out to be an excellent strategy. We finally met up with Alex, Onyka and Jacob (only 2 hours late) and they watched us eat our first jerk chicken – hot and spicy, but delicious. Phew, it was a long day, but some late hour progress was made – fingers crossed that the apartment deal would go through.
Monday morning, after a not so brief stop at the Digicel store to clear up an error with Kimberley and Alex’s phones, we walked to the CUSO-VSO office to meet the office staff – Tarik, Kerry and Warren – and finally put faces to the e-mails. We also met the 2 volunteers that had recently arrived to work in the CUSO-VSO office – Myrna and Rafael – now we are 7. Running late as usual, Kimberley and I raced to meet Mr. Brady and his assistant Michelle to discuss our lease. Power walking with blistered feet in the heat of the day is not fun, but the North American habit of needing to be on time is hard to break. Mr. Brady was extremely charming and admitted we “twisted his arm and won him over.” Michelle definitely runs the show, and so he left it to her capable hands to coordinate the logistics, and another meeting was scheduled for the next day.
Four days of in-country training started on Tuesday. We met Bernice, the final new volunteer, and now we are 8. Monday and Tuesday were spent within the confines of a small training room with AC blasting in our faces and drying up my contacts. The content was interesting, but they were long days, starting and ending late and making us miss our Tuesday meeting with Michelle. Thought of the apartment slipping through our fingers made the long days more frustrating, but we met her late Wednesday afternoon and everything seemed to be on track for a Friday move. Thursday we finally escaped the training room and spent the afternoon in Trenchtown. We toured the neighbourhood, including a music studio built by local reggae artists.
To be continued...
