Half Way Through Training

I have finished about half of my training here in Jamaica to become a PC volunteer. The normal PC training program has the trainees kept in one location for the duration of training (2 months), with a few site visits to active volunteers in the field. It is not until the end of training that the volunteers find out what their assignment is and where it will be. However, here things are a little bit different. This is the second year they have tried a “Site Based Training” approach where we were given our assignments and our sites after only two weeks of training. So, after spending the first two weeks on a college campus in Kingston with the other 51 new trainees, we were all shipped off to different parts of the island to be introduced to our sites and our communities that we will be working on for the next two years.

Initially, I was assigned to live in the town of Port Antonio (Porti), which is located on the north-east coast of the island in Portland Parish. As a brief side note, I highly recommend visiting Porti if you come to Jamaica – it has great beaches and awesome hiking very close by. It is not very touristy and its pretty safe. The agency that I have been assigned to is the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) which is an organization that gets money from various international aid agencies and then use this money to construct needed infrastructure on a community level. Examples of the types of work they do are the water collection and distribution projects currently underway near Porti. There are two communities located in the mountains about 5 to 10 miles south of Porti that do not currently have running water. These communities depend on water trucks, nearby streams and small rainwater collection systems to get water. They then store this water in large tanks around their houses for use when needed. This water is un-treated and needs to be boiled if it is to be used for drinking or cooking. JSIF worked with these communities to construct water catchments (small man-made ponds) to collect water at springs in the mountains near the communities. The water is then piped to holding tanks in the communities where the water can be treated and stored for use. The water is then distributed from these tanks to the houses in these communities.

These projects are community run and community constructed. Various members of the communities form a board that is in charge of handling the money given to them by JSIF and is in charge of coordinating the necessary labor required to construct the project. These board members receive training from JSIF on how to perform these duties, however the board member are not paid for this work. Therefore, the role of the PCV is to act as a facilitator to make sure that these board members, who are busy with their full time work and family obligations, are doing what is necessary to get the job done, properly handling the money, and giving technical advice on how to interpret engineering designs that may be lacking in detail. In addition, it is also required that the PCV actually performs some work and trains the community members how to do various tasks that may be new or unfamiliar to them.

So, for the past two weeks, I have been traveling around Porti with the current PCV, seeing these sites, learning how to navigate the town and adjusting to a new host family. Unfortunately, JSIF realized that the current projects in the area around Porti are almost completed and will not be able to keep me busy for two full years. Therefore, at the end of the two weeks, I was transferred to a town called Portmore in St. Catharine Parish, which is located on the south coast, near the middle of the island, about 30 minutes west of Kingston. The types of projects I have been told that I will be working on are reconstruction projects for roadways, schools and health clinics around the Portmore area that were damaged during Hurricane Dean last year. I only briefly met my new host family on Saturday for about one hour when I dropped off my luggage at their house before I was required to travel back to Kingston for another week of training at the college campus.

It has been very interesting being back here on campus with the other trainees after being at site for two weeks. Each of the 52 trainees all had very different experiences, however there are a lot of the same feelings. Some people are living in very small, rural mountain communities where there nearest town is an hour drive on horrible roads and some are in urban areas where they can walk to downtown areas. Some are within walking distance of beaches (as I was in Porti) and some have awesome hiking trails and waterfalls very close by. Some people spent two weeks just trying to talk to people and trying to figure out what people were saying, others spent two weeks working in very structured job with a boss constantly telling them what to do. In general, everyone is a little shell shocked and trying to adjust to a culture that is very different from what we’re used to.

I’m sorry for not giving more detail about my specific situation at this point, but, as I said, I was moved at the last minute and have only had one hour to meet my new host family and see my community. Hopefully I will have more detail in the next few weeks and will also have some interesting stories. I am excited to get back out to site and meet my new family and start working with my agency. So far, most of my experiences have been positive and I am remaining optimistic. Jamaica is a country of contrasts, and it will take a while to get used to it, but I am looking forward to the challenge.