Inspecting a Community Water System, Jamaican Style

Since I’ve been here on the island, I have been getting accustomed to many different ways of doing things. I don’t know if it is that I have started adjusting more and things don’t surprise me as much now, or if it is the fact that I try not to dwell on things that aren’t important to the job at hand, but it wasn’t until last Friday was over that I realized how strange of a day it was compared to my normal days back in the states. The day started off well, sleeping in a little and skipping my normal 5am run and having a bowl of oats porridge for breakfast. The driver from JSIF picked me up a little after 8 and we took off for our site visit to a community called Bybrook, located in the mountains of Portland parish. We were going to inspect a water system that had been installed by the community with funding from JSIF to make sure that it was functioning and could be turned over to the community.

After spending about an hour getting through the Kingston traffic, we finally got on the Junction Road, which leads through the Blue Mountains from Kingston to Annotto Bay. It’s hard to describe the experience of driving on this road. It is a two lane road (for the most part) that runs along a valley with very steep cliffs that are easily more than a 100 feet in places with a lot of blind turns and a few scattered communities on the side. The entire time you can see rain forest on the mountain slopes along with bare patches where there has been a recent landslide. About two weeks ago I was on this road during a rain storm and almost got stuck behind a small landslide. When we came around the corner of one of the sharp bends, we saw rocks and soil completely blocking one lane of traffic and only partially blocking the other. The other passenger and I got out of the car while there were still a few small rocks coming down and threw the rocks that were only partially blocking the second lane over the cliff while the driver managed to squeeze by. Luckily, this past Friday there was no rain storm and no landslides to be concerned about.

We finally met up with our community contact person in a town called Buff Bay, which is on the coast, about 20 minutes east of Annotto Bay. On our drive back to Bybrook we took a turn off the main road onto a typical mountain road that I have become accustomed to driving on. In most places, these roads are only wide enough for one vehicle to drive on, the roads are in varying condition, usually with a lot of potholes making for a pretty slow, bumpy ride. When we reached the town, we picked up another local resident who was involved in the maintenance of the water system. I have gotten used to seeing people who live out in the bush carrying machetes and other knives, but they usually carry them in there hand because how sharp they keep them. He was actually wearing his knife in his pants, with no sheath. Another thing that struck me as strange was that it was only about 11am and Ian was smoking.

I figured that at this point we would get out of the car and start hiking up to the water source, which I had been told was a 45 minute hike up into the mountains. I was mistaken. We then turned off the small mountain road onto an even smaller road leading up into the mountains that I don’t think had more than an inch or two of extra room on some of the corners that, if we fell into, would have been a long, steep drop into the gully. The places of this road where there was asphalt, it couldn’t have been more than about a ½ inch thick. Other places had some potholes that were more than 6 inches deep. After driving on this road for about 10 minutes, we finally came to a point where the driver said he couldn’t go any further (which I would have said was about a ½ mile earlier).

The hike finally began. The hike to the water source was up hill for about 20 or 30 minutes in some pretty dense bush and next to some real steep gullies. The picture (admittedly not a great one) shows one view from the trail of the mountains accross the valley. It gives some idea of what the landscape and the bush is like.

I just followed the maintenance guy as close as I could while he continued smoking and I was trying to inspect the water lines as we passed. It was tough keeping up with him, even though I, who consider myself in shape, was wearing my hiking boots and he was wearing a pair of boating shoes that probably had no traction left on them. On the hike up, the maintenance guy mentioned that he had already hiked up to the water source once today, walking not only the part of the hike that we were currently doing but also the part that we had driven up from the town. This guy was a machine.

We finally got to the catchment which is a four-foot high concrete dam that impounds water so that it can be piped down to a treatment shed and storage tank. The picture below shows the catchment and the maintenance guy getting ready to drain the water. Imagine hauling all that cement, rebar, piping and other suplies up this trail, I know why it took them two years to construct this thing.

While at the catchment, the maintenance guy decided to remove the “silt” build up that was behind the dam. The “silt” was really all sand and gravel and there must have been close to 1,000 pounds behind that he dug out without any question or complaint. This would have worn me out and I would have been sweating buckets by the time I was done. All this work didn’t even seem to phase him.

After about an hour at the catchment, we hiked back down to the car, with the maintenace guy continuing to smoke entire time. While driving down to the treatment and storage tanks, we met a local farmer who offered some of his crops to us. The maintenance guy cut some sugar cane, a small bushel of plantains (large bananas), two bushels of bananas and a sack full of yellow yam and cho cho (similar to a potato). While he was digging up the cho cho, we heard a loud bang come from over by the treatment house and storage tank, which was weird since we were so far out in the bush. When we got down to the treatment house, we saw water gushing out from behind the door. After opening the door and letting the water drain out, we realized that after cleaning out the silt from the dam and unclogging the pipes, the water pressure down at the treatment house was so large that it blew the top off of the sand filter.

We left the maintenance guy at the treatment house and went to get a hack saw to cut the pipes and put a temporary patch on the system. By the time we got back, which was about 15 minutes, the maintenance guy was smoking again and cleaning up the storage compartment next to the treatment shed. I then tried to help in vain while he put a temporary patch on system so that he could fix the sand filter the next day.

After all of this, I was pretty well exhausted and hungry, and all I did was hike the trail and observe the walk. On the drive back, the JSIF driver stopped at a small shop on the side of the Junction Road and we had a cup of fish soup and a plate of fried chicken, rice and peas that I devoured. It was then that I realized how phenomenal Jamaican style rice and peas are and how I’m not sure what I would be doing without them. When I got home around 7pm, I managed to get enough energy to go to a bar a few blocks away and have a few beers. While sitting on the second floor of the bar, zoning out and staring into oblivion with maybe 2 other people in the entire place, a 9 year old boy started talking to me. It caught me a little off guard to see a 9 year old boy in a bar on a Friday night, but as I said before, I’m getting used to these things. Come to find out, this boy lives with his grandparents who live next door to the bar and work as cooks in the kitchen. As a result, the boy spends almost every night at the bar, talking to whoever comes in.

Finally, at around 10 pm, exhausted and ready for sleep, I made my way back home and passed out, getting ready for my Saturday morning football game with some of the local guys in the community. It was far from the most stressful day here, but it certainly sticks out as being unique to me.

Swearing In and Starting Service

Finally, after two months of training, we were finally sworn in as Volunteers last Thursday! 49 trainees of the 52 that showed up on island made it through the full two months. Now I have no more endless days of lectures, no more studying for tests on Peace Corps policy, and no more restrictions on traveling and staying somewhere over night.

In reality, I don’t have too much to complain about with the last week of training. PC put all the trainees up in a pretty nice hotel in Kingston which was set up as a bunch of smaller buildings on a pretty large compound. The rooms were comfortable and some even had kitchens, which made eating during the week a lot cheaper than going out every night (which we can’t really afford to do, especially with the prices in town). It was nice to finally take a shower and shave with hot water for the first time in a few months. The hotel even had a bar and a pool on site which allowed for some enjoyable nights and coffee to help wake up in the mornings.

The week in general was very relaxing. The only hard part was the final exam we had to pass in order to become volunteers. Talk about awkward, we had to sit down in front of a panel of six people and answer random questions about various PC policies, information regarding out assigned agencies, information about reports that we are required to fill out every few months and questions about Jamaican culture and Patios. The test was supposed to take about 30 minutes, but I just couldn’t talk that much about each topic, so I think mine only took about 20 minutes, including a lot of long, awkward pauses. I’m pretty sure that I answered every question wrong, but, just like most my tests in college, I got enough partial credit to pass. Other than that, there was only one day of lectures, a BBQ/pool party at a really nice apartment complex where most of the US Embassy workers live and a few late spent talking with the other trainees.

Finally, on Thursday morning, we all got dressed up in our jackets, shirts and ties (which will probably be the only time I where those things for the next 2 years) and went over to the Embassy to be sworn in by Ambassador. The Embassy itself was very impressive building to see (not to mention a little weird to actually see a bunch of other white people around) and we heard some good speeches from the Ambassador, the PC Country Director and the Jamaican Minister of Agriculture. The best speech, however, was one that one of our fellow trainees was required to give in Patios. It was hilarious to see him say “Big op tu di bassda!” (Give props to the Ambassador)

After the swearing in ceremony was over and we were all officially volunteers, we were supposed to have a few refreshments and then be taken back to our sites by our supervisors from the local agencies we are working with. However, due to the fact that Tropical Storm Gustav started to hit the island on Thursday morning and most businesses were shut down, only supervisors for 9 of the 49 trainees actually showed up. Therefore, the rest of us were loaded back onto the buses and taken back to the hotel to ride out the storm. Other than being let out to get groceries early Thursday afternoon, PC put us on lock down and did not let us leave the hotel for two days; not that we wanted to since the hotel had its own generator and water storage tanks. So while most of the rest of the island had no power and no water, we were enjoying watching movies on laptops and taking hot showers.

Other than the fact that it rained hard for two straight days, the winds were not very strong and there was limited damage around the island. The places worst hit were on the far eastern side of the island, in the parishes of St. Thomas and Portland (where I was originally posted in Port Antonio). One major bridge was cut in half and a few roads were blocked due to landslides. Most of the volunteers were finally sent back to site on Saturday except for those stationed in St. Thomas, Portland and a few other localized areas that had to spend an extra two days in the hotel before they were able to get back to their sites.

When I got back to my site there was no damage in the neighborhood, we had electricity but we had no water until late Sunday night. Fortunately, my host family had prepared by filling two large containers with about 150 gallons of water, so we never had to really go without anything.

The weirdest part about finally being done with training was that I was happy to finally be done with all the lectures and tests, however it a little scary finally being turned out on my own and PC basically saying that the next time I would have to see anyone would be in a few months when they have a large meeting in Kingston for all the volunteers. It finally hit that I would be a lot more on my own than I have been so far. Granted the fact that there is a PC support staff and there are a little under 100 volunteers around the island (two of which live a few blocks away from me) whom I’m sure I will be visiting throughout my service, but it is up to me to keep in touch, up to me to find out how to get around, and up to me get things done. It took a day or so (and a lot of sleep) to grasp this realization and come to terms with it.

The next big test comes next week when I no longer come into my agencies office on a daily basis and start setting my own schedule of traveling to job sites and trying to get work done at home. We’ll see how that works out.

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.

The Start of Training

I have been in training for about a week now and things are going very well. The two days in Miami seem like a blur now - all I really remember was spending a lot of time in a hotel conference room talking about logistics, trying to remember 51 new people's names and eating some good Cuban food.


Arriving in Kingston was interesting. It was only my second international flight, so I was not very used to going through immigration and customs. Some how I managed to make it out of the airport first in the group and met the director and a bunch of waiting volunteers outside. It was refreshing to see so many smiling faces with welcome posters as your first sight in a foreign country. The two things that were immediately noticeable were the heat - even with a strong wind I was pretty much drenched in sweat within a few minutes, and the landscape - seeing the city of Kingston across the bay with the mountains behind it is an impressive sight.


Since our arrival, all of the trainees have been staying in a college in Kingston, having a pretty strict schedule of classes from 8 am to 6 pm and trying to get to know each other at night. One interesting thing is that all of the classroom buildings have open walls that let the wind blow through because there is no air conditioning here. Being in a computer lab on campus right now with air conditioning is a weird feeling. The heat along with all of the new information being thrown at us each day makes for long, draining days. I am happy that the showers only have cold water - it makes it much easier to cool off, even in the morning.


We were taken on a walk-about around the city of Kingston in small groups on Saturday to show us how the transportation system works, how the people interact and to start getting us ready to be on our own. The buses drive fast and full and the markets are loud and exciting. The people for the most part are warm and welcoming, but everyone has to be on guard for pick pockets and theft at all times.


The Patwa language is very interesting and fun to learn. We have been having some amazing teachers trying to help us learn the basics. They are very patient and willing to put up with our many mistakes and questions. I have started being able to pick up some parts of conversations here and there, but it is a very quick language and is not written very much, so it will be a real learning experience. Hopefully I will be able to write a post soon in Patwa and see if you can understand it.


I am excited for some field trips we have coming up soon around the city of Kingston and hopefully going to a beach soon as well. I am also very excited to learn next week were my assignment will be on the island and traveling to meet my host family the week after that.


Finally, on a sad note, I just received word from friends that a former co-worker of mine, Karan, has recently passed away. I am deeply saddened to hear this. Karan was a young man with a very bright future ahead of him. All who knew him knew that he was a funny, intelligent hard working person that made the world around him a better place. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

Saying My Goodbyes

It is a little hard to believe that I am leaving tomorrow for my staging event in Miami and then on to Jamaica on Thursday. I put my initial application in a year ago and its been a long, drawn out wait to this point. Its funny, I was nervous a few weeks ago, and then I got to the point where I was tired of being nervous and just wanted to get started. Now, in the past day or so, I've started to get nervous again. It's probably because I've started saying a few more goodbyes in the past couple of days.

It started at the wedding I went to for a college friend of mine, Jeremy Sample, this past weekend near Scranton, PA (and no, I didn't get a picture of the sign from The Office). The wedding was a lot of fun (hopefully someone will send me a picture that I can post here...). I got to see a bunch of the guys from Phi Psi, got to see Sample's family for the first time since graduation, and, obviously, got to see Sample and Aimee get married. I think that everyone that knows Sample knows that he, more than most people, truly deserves happiness in life. And after meeting his new wife and seeing that seeing that she can put up with the Phi Psi guys (Pauli most of all), I know he's found that. Congratulations buddy - I hope the honeymoon is like the table your brother described in his speech.....

To get back to what I was saying, it was good to be see a lot of friends from college and see how they are doing before I leave. It was interesting to see how each of us have taken pretty different paths in the four years since graduation and to see where these paths have lead so far. We are spread out from Boston to Indianapolis. Most of the guys seem to be in pretty good relationships at this point (which makes me think that I may be missing a lot of weddings over the next two years). There are some of the guys that have been working since graduation, have put in their time doing the grunt work and are starting their ascent up the corporate ladder. There are others that either went straight to graduate school after graduation or went back to school after a few years of work and are looking forward to doing the grunt work. And then there are others (or maybe just me) that have put in four years of work and extra schooling and are in the process of trying to change paths completely. I guess that is the benefit of being in my generation, I'm not expected to stay in the same job or in the same career my entire life - its acceptable to jump around a little. I sure have - this will be my 5th move and 4th job in four years.

Well, I guess it is time to pack my bags and say my final goodbye's. My next entry will hopefully be from Kingston.

Almost getting Kicked Out of the Peace Corps before I Start

To start off, let me say that I am not even a Met's fan....but we'll get to that part.

I woke up around 9:00 AM yesterday and finally got out of bed around 10 or so (yeah, its nice being unemployed). So after bumming around for a while, I finally started to pack up my apartment and prepare for my trip to Jamaica next week. After a few minutes of packing, I realized that I still needed to go through some of my paper work for my staging event. As I was going through the forms and booklets that I received, most of which I had already filled out, I stumble across a "Peace Corps Eligibility" form. I realize that this was not just a check list, as I originally thought, but a form that actually needed to be filled out. As I began to read it, I realize that the form was asking if I have been charged with any misdemeanors or received any citations since my original application and background check. Then I remember back to the end of May....(flash back)

John, a friend of mine at my old job invited me to a Met's game back on May 30th, saying that he had a few extra box seat tickets. Since I had never been to Shea Stadium and I am always looking for an excuse to leave work a few hours early on a Friday, I gladly accepted his offer. John also invited other coworkers of ours, Brian and Karan, with the remaining tickets he had. So we all left work around 2:00 PM and carpooled to Shea Stadium.

We finally arrived at Shea Stadium after sitting in about 4 hours of horrible New York City traffic and had about an hour before the game started. After parking the car, Brian and Karan went off to find a restroom and John and I sat on the bumper of his car and each opened up a beer to do a little tailgating. There were lots of other people in the parking lot drinking their beverages, so we didn't think there was anything wrong until a police car pulled up next to us. Two NYPD officers stepped out and informed us that we were in violation of a public drinking ordinance and were going to issue us $25.00 citations. They also informed us that all we needed to do to avoid these citations was to pour our drinks into plastic cups rather than drink them directly from the can! Somehow drinking out of a plastic cup makes drinking in public legal!?!? So, a few days later I mailed in my guilty plea along with $25.00 and thought the situation was over....(back to the present)

I immediately called the phone number on the eligibility form to get in touch with a Peace Corps Eligibility officer. The person on the other end of the phone was not happy and informed me that the PC has a pretty strict policy when it comes to any drugs and alcohol convictions, even misdemeanors like this. Their policy usually caries a minimum 1 year period from the date of the incident where you become ineligible to serve. This wouldn't have been the end of the world, but considering that I had just recently quit my job, was in the process of packing up my apartment, and was planning on flying to Miami NEXT WEEK for my staging event, I was a little freaked out. I sent in some additional information, filled out some additional paperwork, and spent the next six hours convinced that I was going to have to find a new job and new place to live for the next year.

Fortunately the PC has some very diligent, compassionate people working for them who understood that this was not a major incident that warranted such harsh repercussions. At the end of the day, I received an e-mail saying that I was still eligible for PC service and was allowed to join my training class next week. Looking back, I probably over reacted a bit and shouldn't have gotten so worked up. What was the worst that could have happened - I delay my service a year? Life could be a lot worse. But a lesson for future volunteers - to avoid any hastles like this, be extra careful to stay out of these types of situations.

Weekend with the Payne Family

So I just finished hosting my family in Philly for the weekend and I'm thankful that I'm unemployed right now so I can sleep in and watch movies all day to try and recover. My sister Kelly and her boyfriend Tim flew in from Chicago early Friday morning and the weekend was non-stop until I dropped them off at the airport this morning a little before 5 am. I have to hand it to Kelly and Tim though - they were real troopers and hung out all weekend.

We started off on Friday doing a tour of most of Old City (Liberty Bell, Christ Church, etc.), parts of South Philly (Italian Market) and a little of the Art Museum, walking most of the way... My older sister Susan arrived a bit later - in time for dinner at the World Cafe and seeing a performance by Cas Halley - which by the way I highly recommend.

On Saturday we got a pretty early start so that we could get tickets for the tour of Independence Hall which we missed out on, on Friday. After spending most of the morning walking around Old City and Center City, it was back to the apartment to prepare for the big event - the arrival of my grandparents, my parents and my brother Adam with his wife and baby for dinner. Again - my hat goes off to Tim, seeing that this was his first encounter with the rest of the Payne family, and he took it all in stride. With the help of a few drinks, there was only a small amount of tension and drama that goes along with any family gathering. After dinner, everyone went back to their respective homes except Kelly, Tim and Adam. Saturday night was a good time with a few drinks at my place, going to a few bars in Center City, a stop at Geno's for a cheese steak, a few stops in University City and capping the night off on the balcony of my apartment with a few more drinks - a few "caucasians" Lebowski style.

Needless to say, we were all feeling pretty good on Sunday morning, but managed to rally in time for the Philly's game that started at 1:30 in the afternoon. My parents came back down along with Adam's wife and baby for the game. Unfortunately the Philly's finished up their series with the Angels by getting swept, but it was still a good afternoon for a game. Luckily, after dinner, Kelly, Tim and I went to a bar down the street from my apartment and watched the Cubs finish a sweep of the White Sox, so it all seemed to balance out somehow.

In the end, the weekend had good food, good drinks and good company. I'm happy that everyone was able to get together one last time before I take off next week.