"1 Case of Malaria has been confirmed"

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Got up this morning, and had breakfast -- Keith and I decided that it is ground up corned beef and cabbage (it most closely resembles raw ground beef -- which I am a HUGE fan of) -- this is actually the second time we have had this meal, and its one of my top two favorites for breakfast! I try to focus on the flavor not what it looks like.

We eat breakfast with the other guest we have become friends with, Jeff (a late 50's American born in Pittsburg, PA that works IT and has spent the last 20 years living in Bermuda). I sit uncomfortably at the table while he recounts tales of the weekend that might include a night at the strip club(?)/lack of employment/history of depression/insomnia/and advice seeking on IT jobs in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

It's difficult to follow what he's saying as he leans on the table causing it to scoot every time he lurches forward, almost spilling the precious drops of Blue Mountain coffee that is the one of the high points of my day (it is the simple things after all that make life worth living).

Rocky, our new driver arrives 10 minutes early.
In a car without air-conditioning, or seatbelts, tinted windows rolled down.
He is the driver our supervisor at PAHO/WHO reccomended, we are told he's trustworthy.

He does not fully button his shirt.

Go to work.

Go to a meeting with our supervisors and the woman that was suppose to give Keith and I the document that we went down to Jamaica to review (except she never sent it to us, and we spent half of last week trying to track her down without success). Discuss our internship goals. Make a schedule for the rest of the week (which includes going to the ONLY psychiatric hospital in Jamaica on Wednesday, and Thursday driving out to see two small towns in the southwestern parishes and their mental health clinics).

The work-day passes by relatively quickly...Rocky calls to say he's downstairs ready to pick us up.

Come home.

Read up on the roof-top patio.
Eat dinner at the guesthouse.

Watch the local news (it has a charm all it's own). We find out that there are two cases of Malaria in Jamaica, one of which has been confirmed by the Ministry of Health. The malaria warning was lifted back in February of this year (I got into a fight with my doctor about that before I left, and I managed to get malaria medication from him anyway). I got bit by a mosquito this weekend up in Bath...and I was a day late on taking my malaria meds this week.

Keith and I joke about one of us getting malaria.

Norman, the staff we are friends with here at the guesthouse tells us about the corruption of the police in Jamaica. He says that most commonly people here say that they would rather cross paths with a criminal than with a police because they at least know what the criminal will do.

Finish eating dinner. Excuse myself.

Go online.

Keith jokes about the predictability that is our lives.

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