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Published: November 15th 2005
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Me and friends--They are the cutest girls around
Here is Me! The little girl in light blue is Tomalia, the baby i'm holding is her cousin, and the other girl (Kameisha?) is her aunt. Quite the family. You would get confused if i told you everyone else they are related to.:) I’ve seen more white people in three days than I have seen in my entire time in Jamaica this past week. This week, 30ish some Naples, Florida residents came to work at St. Pius. Most of them were retired and loved to play golf….you know the type. They did some good work. They ran an eye clinic, and saw over 350 patients in 3 days. It was quite the system. They provided glasses/medicine/eye exams for people, and charged them approximately $500 ($9US) for a new pair of glasses, custom fit, and custom made just for them. I lost my glasses while training for the program in Boston. Therefore, I was able to partake of the clinic, and my eyes were checked and fitted for a new pair of glasses in less than 15 minutes. Since I went with Sister Sofia to get my new pair I was not charged. I felt a little bit guilty receiving a new pair because I do not have a critical need for glasses, or at least not as much as a need as some of the others. Yet, I will be receiving my glasses in January. My frames alone would have cost me $279
dancers
The whole community was involved in the brunch. These are some dancers (the one in the yellow is Dexter's brother (Dexter is one of our good friends)). US if I were to buy them in the States. I was very grateful, yet I left feeling guilty.
The Naples volunteers also painted the church, did some random maintenance, and drank a lot of RedStripe. At one point, I saw one of the volunteers (an approximately 62yr old women) leading an aerobics/stretching session to all of the Jamaicans waiting to be seen at the clinic. This was humorous. She was standing in front of everyone trying to pump everyone up by doing stretches….what was she thinking? I’m not sure what led her to think that people would be really enthusiastic to do “old-lady aerobics” especially when they hear gun shots every week, if not every day.
On Friday the sisters left for Mo-Bay. Finally Meaghan and I had some freedom. We could go when we wanted, we go where we wanted, and we could eat and say what we wanted. It was fantastic. Since Sr. Paola doesn’t like any men to be in the house unless the have a collar around their neck we decided to have some of our friends over. We had three of our friends over for dinner. We had spaghetti with meat sauce---quite
breakdancers
There was quite the breakdancing as well. nice. We don’t eat much beef here. I miss my freedom.
Saturday was spent at St. Pius preparing for the huge annual brunch/festival. By Saturday night I was so exhausted that I was ready to fall asleep by 7pm. Not exactly the late nights we should’ve had since the sisters were gone. Nonetheless, it was still a good weekend.
Sunday, was the big brunch. I played the pivotal role of being the only white girl in the choir at Mass. I have been singing with the Junior Choir since I’ve been here and it’s been a lot of fun. The soprano section is all basically altos. I’m not sure sopranos exist in Jamaica. All of the music is sang with you chest voice, but also with a lot of passion and excitement. My voice gets tired quickly and I have amazed one musician with my abitily to sing large intervals (not something they do here). After Mass, the brunch began, there was food and entertainment. People, danced, and sang—all quality acts. There is so much talent here. The junior choir performed on stage. I sang and danced Jamaican. I was told later that I looked just like a Jamaican on the stage (by more than one person). I’m pretty proud of that. I even almost perfected the “willybonks”. I did it well enough for some Jamaicans to say look at her she is doing it correctly, do what she is doing (I was teaching Lesroy, the seminarian from St. Kitts (that’s another island in the Caribbean). Overall, I was most proud of myself for getting the dance moves correct.
The Marist Volunteer Program also keeps a travelblog. Meaghan has posted lots of pictures on the website if you are interested in hearing her stories, as well as more pictures. My stories are also posted there, but my stories are better here. So if you are interested search for “Marist Volunteer Program” under Bloggers at the top of this screen.
I hope to hear from all of you soon. I also must tell you, it sure doesn’t feel like thanksgiving is on its way. It’s august here.
Until next time.
Nancy Jo😊
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Kelsey
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Break dancer
Sry i messed up on the other comment i decided that you should learn how to break dance like that i am also really suprised about glasses that is great