In Keeping With Tradition As tradition in Jamaica cannot be disregarded, I had no choice but to treat Nancy to the best of birthday surprises on Wednesday: a thorough flouring. Yes, you read that correctly. No, your eyes are not deceiving you. A flouring. Birthday tradition in Jamaica holds that the birthday boy or girl must be floured. And so it was that at about 8:00 pm, I lured Nancy downstairs and outside with the promise of seeing a giant moth (which was true) and while she admired the peculiar species, I threw handfuls - and eventually a bucketful - of [View Full Entry]

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WELCOME TO CARNIVAL: WHERE MODESTY IS LIMITED AND CLOTHING IS OPTIONAL. ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK. Legend has it that you haven’t experienced Jamaica until you’ve experienced Carnival. The Adult Road Parade, to be more exact. Obviously, legend is vindictive, because the parade does not carry the label of Adult for fun and this is parade is not an experience for the faint of heart. In fact, it is barely an experience for the strong of heart. Carnival is the brainchild of one Mr. Byron Lee who, in 1989, was convinced that he could unite the people of Jamaica w [View Full Entry]

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Well hello fellow Marist Volunteers and fans of our travelblog! I haven't checked in for a while so I thought I would write a quick post. There hasn't been too much new and exciting here in San Francisco although things have been going very well. Just as it seems like I am finally getting settled and have comfortably aquainted myself with all the local customs its almost time to count the days left in my west coast adventure. Work is going very well at the shelter. One of my coworkers recently left on maternity leave which allowed me to pick up [View Full Entry]

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Come On In, Dear, The Water's Fine We finally did more traveling this past weekend, as it had been far too long since we’d left the convent for a good adventure. It was about 9:45 on Saturday morning when 3 of the 4 remaining Passionist Volunteers - Jess, Maggie, and Eric - arrived in their white station wagon to pick us up. Our destination: Port Antonio, home of the gorgeous inlet of water made famous by the movie Blue Lagoon. It took us just under 2 hours to get to Port Antonio, the drive alternating between towering mountain vistas and huge [View Full Entry]

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Only 12 weeks to go! With only twelve weeks left in Jamaica I really feel like I need to see everything here I possibly can. So, I’m hoping to have good trips for the rest of my time here. This past week I’ve been very lucky and made it out of the convent on a couple of nights. Last Sunday I had the pleasure of going to a jazz concert with my friend Dwight. Dwight was performing (he’s a musician). The music from the whole night was awesome. I really enjoyed listening. Probably one of my most exciting outings was this [View Full Entry]

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Step 1: It is 11:00 on Wednesday morning. You stand at the bus stop for 30 minutes and watch 15 minibuses drive by yelling "Spanishtown, brownie?" All the while the usually reliable #22 bus refuses to rear its ugly head. Instead, a strung-out rastaman rears his ugly (very ugly) head. When walking by the bus stop, the rastaman says "hey pretty baby" to one of the girls standing by you. The lady ignores his lude comment and instead of continuing on in his merry little stupor, the rasta decides to stop and holler for 10 minutes about how the rastas get [View Full Entry]

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“Backrub………Ganja?” The sign at the entrance looks so enticing, so inviting. WELCOME TO HELLSHIRE BEACH it says, in colorful, bold letters are make you think you’re arriving at one of the happiest places on earth. And I think it’s safe to say that one of mine and Nancy’s favorite spots on the island is, indeed, Hellshire. A beautiful stretch of beach where you can stare out across miles of uninterrupted ocean and nestle your feet in the warm, white sand. That is, of course, if you can manage to get the time to do so. See, [View Full Entry]

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OK, we're really sorry that it has taken this long for us to write...between travelling and our crazy lives, we've been a bit delayed. Anyways, this is our attempt to encapsulate the last two months in one entry. Take a deep breath and here we go.... . we celebrated the new year with much excitement. we made jellow shots, went dancing out in the streets with our peruvian friends and their families, and watched the traditional new year's dolls burn away. we had a really great time and felt very accustomed to our new surroundings, passing one beer among us all [View Full Entry]

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NOTE TO THE READER: Just so you know, this is a rant on the unfortunate cultural acceptance of homophobic attitudes in Jamaica, because I've seen a whole lot of it lately. You've been warned, so don't be angry if you get offended. Now, that said....on with the story. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was directly after mass last Sunday and I was standing talking to Damien, Sheldon, and Tommy. I told Sheldon I liked his black shirt and he said that I was more than welcome to send him another one from foreign when I went home, because he originally got it in the [View Full Entry]

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Happy Valentine’s Day! Love is in the air in Jamaica (don’t worry Mom I’m not running off to Vegas;) haha). I can tell that it’s soon to be Valentine ’s Day here in Jamaica because there are an abundance of horribly ugly fake flowers lining the streets for loving buyers. Who ever thought fake flowers could be popular? I’m really looking forward to this Tuesday. I’m taking Meaghan out to eat. We are both really excited to be visiting our local Subway (yes, we have the sandwich shop in the city of Kingston). We haven’t been to Subway ye [View Full Entry]

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