I know I'm posting this a little late, but I haven't been down from the Bellevue for a while. Either way, I stayed in Jamaica for my second Christmas, this time spending it with my host family in Bellevue. It was quite a different experience from last year when I spent it with other volunteers.
First off, in the weeks before Christmas here, most families do a thorough house cleaning similar to a Spring Cleaning back home. This was a pretty big thing at my house this year since a lot of construction has taken place and two of the rooms were not really furnished as yet. So, after two days of painting and scrubbing, my family put down linoleum, carpet and moved in a bunch of furniture along with cleaning out and re-arranging all the furniture in each of the other rooms of the house. Now we officially have a living room and each person has their own bedroom.
About 2 days before Christmas is when the real preparations began. My host father raises chickens throughout the year, and Christmas is a time when everyone places orders. In addition, his brother and sister down in Port Antonio bought a goat from a neighbor and asked my host father to butcher it and send it down. Of course, this all means that my host brothers have a lot of work to do. Since school was out and I didn't have a lot going on, I offered my help since they had to kill a goat and 27 chickens all in one day (while it was raining). While Rick and I were sharpening the knives and bringing the goat around back, Rick asked if I wanted to kill the goat. I was a bit hesitant, but then again, it's just a goat, not a cow or something big that could do any damage, and if I'm not willing to kill it, I shouldn't be willing to eat it. So, I said, "What the hell, there is a first for everything."
This is me "Grabbing the Goat by the horns" and taking care of business. The picture doesn't show it, but we are on the side of a gully, in the rain and mud and I almost slipped and cut my own throat, but all turned out well, except for the goat of course. Before I killed him, I thanked the goat, saying "Thanks Mr. Goat for making such a good soup and tasting so good with curry." I thought it was appropriate. I can't say it was the best job, but it worked, and thanks to Rick for helping and butchering him after we were done.
After we finished with the goat, it was time to take care of the chickens. I'm not real fast at plucking the chickens, so it was my job to chase them around the coup, put them upside-down in the baskets and cut off their heads. At least I'm good enough now so that I don't get blood all over my clothes like the first time I tired a few months ago. By the end we had Rick, Tallest, Sammy and myself working on the chickens with occasional help from Lebert (mostly giving us rum to try to warm up - it was pretty cold with the rain). It was a long day of cutting, plucking and bagging, but at least it made for some tasty meals.
Next up was Grand Market on Christmas Eve. Grand Market is a day and night affair where the shops all stay open until 11 or midnight on Christmas Eve and have pretty good deals and people are out on the streets walking and partying. Josh (another PCV) took a bunch of pictures, so check those to see what it was like. It is pretty amazing to see so many people out on the road - certainly not something you see every day. I came down with my host family around 6 PM, met up with Josh, Jesse and Molly in Port Antonio and brought them back up to Bellevue around 1 or 2 AM.
Next was Christmas Day - a relaxing day where most people just hand around their yards, eating, drinking and occasionally going to see other friends and family at their yards. After waking up and having breakfast, I took Josh, Jesse and Molly for a bit of a walk around showing them the sites around Bellevue. Here is a picture of me on my roof showing them some of the sites.
Also - here is a cool picture of my host families house from the top of the hill coming down that Josh took:
(Josh really can take some crazy pictures)
We also had Tallest and his baby mother (yes - that is a technical term here) come by the house for a while with Tallest's little sister Samoya. We took a few family pictures that I printed out and gave to Lebert for his birthday on January 1st. Here is one of them:
From left to right it is Lebert, his son Sammy, Omar, Julie, Rick and Tallest (cousins of the family but I pretty much consider them brothers), Tallests baby mother Rochelle with their baby Rihanaa, Samoya in front and then me.
The rest of the week between Christmas and New Years was pretty low key. A few community parties at night, some grave cleanings during the day (which is a party in itself) and a lot of time to relax and read. I think I've read about 4 books in two weeks. New Years was another small community party and then January 1st was Lebert's birthday, which had a bunch of people stopping by to give him well wishes and have a few drinks. I gave him the picture in a frame and a bottle of whiskey - he seemed to enjoy it. I know I certainly enjoyed a small break from the rum.
That was about it - now it's time to get started into a new year and get some work done. I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and have a healthy and prosperous new year and new decade!
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