Reflections on my experience thus far.....

I don’t think that many people in America realize what a sad state Jamaica is in right now. Most of the people that I talk to have considered immigrating off of the island but for one reason or another they decide that they cannot (usually because of the intimidating process of paperwork that’s involved and the idea that maybe the US won’t want them because they have nothing to offer or they’re too old). Yesterday we took a bus around Kingston and saw many areas that you would never see in America. In America’s ghettos, people live in houses that have overgrown front lawns and are in need of a new paint job. In Jamaica’s ghettos, people live in abandoned houses without roofs or they build their own houses out of metal and wood scraps. They have no running water, no electricity, no heat or A/C, no locks on their doors, no beds, no protection from mosquitoes or the malaria outbreak that is troubling Kingston right now. It’s hard to imagine that anyone would have to live like that, especially when you look to the mountains and see huge mansions.

On the tour, I found out that there are colors associated with the political parties. Green and orange represent the two parties and because some residential areas are completely associated with one party, if you wear the opposing party’s color you could be attacked and even killed. The politics here are so crazy and it’s an election year, so there’s a lot of tension already. We drove through an area called the Tivoli Gardens. This area is strongly associated with the opposing party so wearing colors is dangerous. However, if you go to visit Tivoli Gardens it is extremely safe. People that live there don’t lock their doors at night. Even tourists are not in danger because the community is so tight that if anything happens to someone, the perpetrator will be killed. It’s so strange that violence is such a strong force in this country. It’s ironic that violence is used to keep peace within Tivoli Gardens.

Last night I took a cab home from Liguanea. Liguanea is where two other students in the IPSL program live and Cliff and I were down there at a pharmacy getting bug bites checked out (we can’t tell if they’re mosquitoes or not because they don’t itch). Anyway, the cab driver on the way home was very interesting until he got us lost. He picked us up and started driving us home to Mona. While we were driving, he asked us if we’d tried the Jamaican white rum yet. We said that we hadn’t and he asked if we had tried the Jamaican herb yet. Again we said no, and he started telling us that he smoked it but his wife always told the preacher at church that he smoked. I’ve been here five days and this is the first time that anyone mentioned marijuana in a positive way. For the most part, in Jamaica, marijuana is associated with delinquents and is a source of violence. America has this perception, though, that Jamaica is all about marijuana and that you can’t go anywhere without having it offered to you. While this might be true in tourist areas like Montego Bay, it is completely wrong and ignorant to associate ganga with the entire island. I am not in a tourist area and no one talks about ganga in a positive manner. It’s a sad stereotype that Americans hold about this nation that has much more to its culture than drugs.
Right now I’m listening to the radio, station 94.7, and all they are playing is ska! It’s like heaven for me. The neighbors are listening to the same station.

Patois is a beautiful but it is so different than English. For example, instead of saying child, they say pickney. And instead of saying children, they say pickney dem. So if you want to say that the children are coming, patois would be "pickney dem a com". This is a really easy phrase, but if you listen to people talking on the street, it is literally impossible to understand. It’s like they’re speaking a completely different language. I hope that I can begin to understand it before I have to come home because it is so pretty.

Yesterday we went to Port Royal, which was where the Spanish originally settled in Jamaica. In 1862 there was a natural disaster (I can’t remember if it was a hurricane or an earthquake), and Port Royal was destroyed and it now sits at the bottom of the ocean. We visited it yesterday and went to a famous fish restaurant called Glorias. I ordered my fish, but when it arrived it came with the entire fish – fins, tail, head, EYES…THE ENTIRE FISH!!! It was not what I had expected and I couldn’t eat it. Just the idea of eating something that was looking right at me was not appealing. I don’t think I’m going to be eating much fish out here if they all come like that. I guess I’m just super American but I can’t help it… Jamaica is also a very religious country and regardless of your religious beliefs, whenever you eat or whenever you go on a trip, you have to say a prayer. I think it’s very nice.