It Irie! (It’s okay, its first class, or that is excellent).

Another good week! It’s been busy, but very good. It’s 8:30pm on a Friday night and I’m locked into the convent….sad day (hopefully these Friday nights won’t last much longer).

I, myself, have fully recovered from hurricane Wilma. However, many people in Jamaica are still displaced from their homes. Every night on “CVM” news (the only TV news source) there are new pictures of people using boats to move from place to place, and pictures of water up to the rooftops of houses. Many roads are still closed in more rural parts of the island. I believe that all streets are passable in Kingston, and I’ve even seen some men fixing a FEW of the huge potholes (a sight I never imagined to see).

Right now, I’m sitting at the computer in my nice two-story house listening to “Stand by Me” by Ben E. King play from the street a few blocks away. I can look at the window during the day and see tin roof buildings in all directions except for on the mountain hillside, also known as “Beverly Hills”. I have never realized until I came here how many resources I have had available to me. This really hit me this week when I was tutoring Collins. He is 18 yrs old and is in the Skills for Life program at St. Pius. He is a tall, slender, quiet boy that I tell everyday to tuck in his shirt (it’s part of the uniform requirement, I also figure that if I make sure they follow the rules on the little things, that my class will be a little more disciplined and they will take me more seriously). On the day of my placement test for English, I found out that Collins couldn’t read. He asked me to read the question and then he would answer it. I didn’t read the question (that was the point of the test). Anyway, I started to work one-on-one with Collins on Wednesday. We started by going over the alphabet, and our numbers from one to fifteen. I expected all of this, but when we worked on his phonics worksheet I’m amazed just how little exposure he, and many other Jamaicans have to the world. For example, we are working on matching letters to words, like that the word Lion begins with an “L”. The problem is that Collins, and many of my other students, have never seen a lion, and never been to a zoo. This surprises me because there is a zoo in Kingston, and it wasn’t just at a zoo that I discovered what a lion is. These students have no resources at their fingertips. They do not have books, or pictures to look at to discover, not only what’s on the other side of the island, but all over the world. Yesterday, when Collins finished the phonics worksheets that I prepared I wrote “good job!” at the top. Then we worked on sounding out the two words so he now has an idea what the strange characters on his page say to him. There was a real sense of accomplishment when he knew what I wrote. Collins asked me before the day ended if we could work on his English and math skills everyday. This makes everything worth it. His eagerness to learn makes me so grateful for what my parents and thus my education have given me. Sadly, I had to reply to Collins that I hoped we could work every day but I didn’t know if I would have the time. I have at least 7 more students that need one-on-one work in English alone. The task is so big, but the little work that I can do can mean so much.

Collins also taught me, or is a witness to the lack of a family system in Jamaica. When I was “reasoning” or chatting with him I asked him how many brothers and sisters he had. He told me he had three sisters (after counting their names on his fingers), and two brothers. Sure he has brothers and sisters, but what got me is that he couldn’t remember his third sister’s name. It’s not that he’s "slow", it’s just that it isn’t important. She lives with his dad, and who knows the last time he saw him.

My students taught me a lot this week, especially about how thankful I am for all my resources. I never came to school with an empty stomach, and never left school with an empty stomach. My students don’t have bus fair, don’t have food for lunch, don’t have money to see the doctor, but most of them have the desire to learn. I’m especially thankful to have had someone one to listen to me read at night, and to read back to me. That practice is priceless. When no one at home reads, how do you expect a child to learn (there are too many students one classroom to learn at school)?

On a lighter note, last Saturday, I was taught some basics of the ever-popular game of Cricket. A 9 yr old boy found me reading on the Dupont/Pius school ground last Saturday and began a game of Cricket with me. Not long after, to the 9 yrs old dismay, we had four other boys playing Cricket with us. They let me pitch the ball, probably because I was the best at it, haha. I had a lot of fun learning a few rules of the game.

I spent Saturday evening at Pius. Sofia was “working”, and Meaghan and I were “socializing”. Anywhere is better than the convent on a Saturday night (no offense all of you religious out there). There are many young men that come to the church for something to do. I think the church serves as a good place for them to get away from the violence of their communities and build friendships with people that aren’t in gangs. Sadly, there have yet to be any girls at Pius on a Saturday night. They are home taking care of their kids. This Saturday, I am going to take advantage of the free music lessons at 9am for guitar, 4pm Spanish lessons, and 5pm the youth choir practice.

Today, I went to the after school program for the School for the Blind. It is the only Blind school in Jamaica, and probably one of the few in the Caribbean, and it happens to be with in a five-minute walk from my house. At the School for the Blind, I am assigned to a student to help him/her with their homework. Almost all of the textbooks are not available in Braille. Therefore, I read the textbook to the student, and read the questions they need answered. Then I write the answer they give me on paper for them to turn in. I enjoyed being at the school today, and just being able to walk from my house to the school. I see so much more when I get out and walk. I would love to be able to ride my bike to work everyday, however, one, I don’t have a bike, and two; I would probably get hit by a car, as the roads are already overcrowded and too small for two lane traffic.

Last night, Meaghan and I met up with the Passionist volunteers. They live in Stony Hill, which is the mountainside that has all of the nice houses. They invited a 22 yr. Old Jamaican dancer/friend to their house to teach them some “moves”. Howard (don’t pronounce the “H”) is a professional dancer, and can be seen in a couple of the low-budget music videos (all of the videos are very low budget, one man even filmed his inside his current residence (the PRISON). Well, anyway, I’m going to have to practice my “dancehall” moves before going to a club sometime in the future. It is good to finally have made contact with the other volunteers.

Finally, and sadly, last night two seminarians of Fr. Holung (a very well-know priest in Jamaica) were shot and killed by one bullet while doing the evenings dishes in their house. They live in ghetto of ghettos, and believe that it was a stray bullet that entered the kitchen through the window that killed both of the young men, 22yrs and 31yrs, from the Philippines, and India. The violence is overwhelming, yet I feel loved and comfortable. Please pray for the Jamaican people.

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