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Update for the Website
Table of Contents
First Day
Portland
Hayfield
Kingston
Project Update
Hello everyone, it has been almost 2 weeks since Lance and I have been in Jamaica. Lance's time in Jamaica has come to an end, and on August 30, he flew back to America. It was too short and time flew by too fast. We had an absolute blast. I feel like this is a great time to update everyone with how the project is coming along. Well that, and the fact that I am at a hostel right now with internet.
First Day
The last two weeks have gone by in the blink of an eye. Lance and I met up in the Atlanta airport and flew down to Jamaica together. The first thing we did was get two coconuts. The water inside was so refreshing after a long day of travel. It was a welcome back to Jamaica for me, and a first taste of Jamaica for Lance.
We got a rental car to make traveling a little easier and it was awesome to drive around. It was my first time driving in Jamaica. Usually I take public transportation to get around the island. It was a little strange to drive on the right side of the car and the left side of the road. After a while I got used to it. Jamaica is known for having potholes in the road. It was rather difficult to see the condition of the road when we left the airport because it was so dark.
We were going to go to meet a friend of mine and a partner in this project, Malton Edwards. He is the president of The St. Thomas Renaissance Foundation. The foundation does great work and you should check them out. Malton was in Jamaica at the same time and had an Air Bnb with an open room. The plan was that we were going to drive over there to stay the night. We were told to go to Kensington Terrace and I put it in my phones GPS system. The phone directions took us to Kensington Ave, which is in the wrong part of Kingston. We were south of National Hero’s park in a random neighborhood at 10pm. It was dark and there wasn’t a lot of street lights. We called Malton and he helped us to get to the right location. He had some mackerel and rice made for dinner and we sat around talking about the project while we ate. Then Lance and I went to sleep because we were super tired.
In the Morning, Malton, Lance and I went to run some errands. Malton made sure we got everything we needed and then we all stopped to get lunch. We had Island Grill and it was fantastic. We said goodbye to Malton, packed up our things and then went north to Portland Parish. We were driving through junction road which is notorious for its winding and dangerous road condition. We would drive by oncoming traffic with mere inches between us and them. We were constantly swerving around, dodging potholes and other debris in the road. We once even had to navigate past an entire bamboo forest that fell into the road. It was the true test of driving in Jamaica. We were on our way to try and kayak down the top part of the Rio Grande river.
Portland
We were invited on this expedition by the former Country Director of Peace Corps Jamaica, Paul Sully. When I was a volunteer he was in charge and we have since kept in touch. He retired and stayed in Jamaica where he is working on a trail project in the Blue Mountains. He invited Lance and me to meet with him and some friends to see if we could kayak down the top part of the Rio Grande river. The bottom part of the river is wide and flat and is a casual float. There is already a way tourists can float down the river on bamboo rafts. But as far as I know, no one has tried to float down the more aggressive and unpredictable upper Rio Grande.
We met up with some other returned Peace Corps volunteers from different years. Paul arranged the whole thing. When we got there, we had a delicious dinner and some great conversation. We were hosted by Mr. Bernard and after diner we went to his house located on top of a very steep hill. Once we got to the top of the hill there was a breathtaking view.
There was an extra cabin with three beds in the room. It had no power, but we had a bathroom and kitchen with running water. We pretty much went right to sleep, but it was so hot and there were a lot of bugs that I didn’t sleep well.
Morning came fast. We all woke up before the sun. Paul had a little bit of cereal and milk he shared with Lance and me. We packed our bags for the day and went down the hill. There was a lot of moving parts for this day. The transportation of the kayaks and all of the people moving around was all thoughtfully arranged the day and even weeks before. We finally made it to Comfort Castle, where we were going to start the journey, a little after 9 am. We were about to get into the water when the rain started. It was the beginning of tropical storm Ida. We were going to float anyways then it started to thunder and lightning. The rain really began to fall down hard. We decided to retreat down river to Alligator Bridge. When we got there it was still raining on and off. The water had visibly risen at least a foot.
Around 11 we decided to go into the water. The rain had stopped enough that we felt comfortable getting in. It turned out to be an awesome adventure. We floated down some really fast water… in ocean kayaks (the difference between ocean and river kayaks.) Everyone made it home ok, but we did have a couple of boat flips. As we were floating, it would absolutely dump rain. So needless to say, everyone was soaking wet by the end of the day. It was overall a great experience.
It was announced that Jamaica would be under a no movement lockdown. This means that on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, there would be no non-essential traveling allowed. The same for the following week. This means that we would have to drive to Hayfield when we were finished rafting because we wouldn’t be able to travel on Sunday. After the rafting, we ate lunch with everyone and then we hit the road.
Hayfield
We made the trip from Port Antonio to Bath in about two hours. Bath is the small town at the bottom of the Blue Mountains and John Crow Mountains. We have to drive through it to get to Hayfield. I stopped at the bottom of the road to see if anyone else was waiting there. Usually people from Hayfield will wait at the bottom of the road for a taxi. When I pulled up, there were a lot of familiar faces looking back at me. A lot of them were smiling with a look of surprise on their face. I don’t think they were expecting me to show up, let alone drive a car. Since I had a rental car I offered to take some of them of the road to Hayfield. We filled the car up with three people in the back seat and began the drive up.
Hayfield road is bad. It is a compliment to even call that 7km stretch of dirt and rocks a road. It has been patched up over the years, but the water continues to erode the road every time it rains, and when it rains, it pours. What is left over is the equivalent of a dry river bed - full of rocks and dirt - with patches of road. Granted, there are some good sections that resemble something of a road. But way too much of it is actually enlarged potholes and what is the beginnings of a canyon. A couple times I would hit a pothole or a rock too hard and the Jamaicans in the back seat would tell me to "take time."
We finally made it to the start of the community. We turned the corner and there were some community members hanging out in the street. The community is basically one long stretch of road with houses along both sides. I honked my horn at them and stopped to talk. It was pretty late so we didn’t stop long. We continued up towards the house that we are going to stay at, but all the way up the road I stopped to talk to people and tell them that I’m back. I dropped off my passengers off at their houses. They all seemed relieved to make it home safely.
We finally made it in view of the house that we are staying at, but first we stopped over at the neighbors house. Tina, Audree, and Mas Dudley are all hanging out on the porch. They were so excited to see me. I introduced Lance and we all chatted for a while. Lance tells me later that he had a hard time understanding everyone speaking Patwa, which turns out to be a lot of people in the community. Tina gave us the keys to the house and we went up to drop our stuff off.
We made it into the Dean's house and unpacked all of our stuff. It felt so great to be back to the house that I lived as a Peace Corps volunteer for 2 years. The ironic part was that we were staying at the Dean's house, but Mr. and Mrs. Dean were not home. They were in the United States visiting their daughter and they were nice enough to let us stay at their house. The even more ironic part, was that they left on the 19th - the same day Lance and I flew to Jamaica. But no worries, because they will return before I leave and I’m excited to see them again.
Tina came up to the house and made us a quick dinner of bully beef and rice. It’s basically canned corned beef that is cooked up with tomatoes onions and sometimes other veggies. It’s a quick and easy meal and it tastes alright. I think Lance really enjoyed it. We ate it up fast and then went to bed. It was exhausting to travel so much the last few days.
Sunday morning, our first full day in Hayfield, Lance and I ate breakfast and slowly moved around. We spent this morning like most of our mornings - waking up around 9 and then slowly getting ready for the day. It can be pretty casual in Jamaica. The farmers in the community, however, wake up with the sun and get to work before the rooster crows.
After breakfast, we went grocery shopping. Because there was a “lockdown” with the no movement days, the person who usually goes to the market, his nickname is Mango, drove his car down the road selling produce to people. It was great for us because we didn’t have very much food in the house. So we met with Tina, who was cooking our meals, and she helped us buy some onions, tomatoes, peppers, and other stuff. Mango gave Lance and me each a piece of the watermelon. We also bought a chicken from someone down the road and some of my friends gave us some callaloo, ackee, honey, and scotch bonnet peppers. We were set for the next couple of days in Hayfield and Tina cooked up some fantastic meals for the two of us.
After that, Lance and I walked up to the Cunna Cunna trail head, which is the end of Hayfield road. Then we turned around and walked to the last house on the other side of the road. While we were walking we stopped and talked with everyone. I told Lance to bring some candy so he brought a few pounds of “sweeties”. We handed them out to everyone while we were walking. It took us a few hours to do this even though the community is not very long. It was so cool to see everyone again. It has been over a year since I was last in Hayfield.
Then in the evening, we played football (soccer) with the guys in the community. There was about 9 a side on this small field. A lot of people were out, sitting down and hanging out as they watched us play. We played every night for the first three nights, with more or less the same teams. Lance and I were on separate teams (and my side won the three game series). We were so sore at the end of the series. I brought a brand new yellow soccer ball with me from the States, and at the end of the three game series that ball was almost destroyed. It was a blast playing with everyone.
The next day, Lance and I went to the school. We decided to do some rough measurements while we were waiting for the architect to come up to hayfield. We borrowed a measuring tape and went to the school. The school was a little overgrown because it was summer break. The over ripe mangos dropped out of the tree, spoiling on the ground in a delicious mess. We got the measurements for the school and went back to the house. The mosquitos started swarming us.
Lance took the measurements and did some of his engineering math and figured out the slope that the ramp would be and all of that. If our crude measurements are close, then we are in a good spot. The slope ranges from 5 to 8 degrees, which is a good slope for an accessibility ramp.
On Wednesday, the principal and a teacher came up to the school to work on cleaning it up. We talked with the principal, Mrs. Ramocan, for a while. I was able to do a video chat with her while I was still in the US and she is featured on our first video about the project. She is excited for the start of the school year in a few weeks. The Covid situation in Jamaica is always changing so we will see if there will be in person classes or some hybrid system or even online classes. It is difficult to do online classes in Hayfield due to the lack of internet connectivity in the community. They hired someone to clean up the play area and cut the grass. It looks a lot better now.
Over the next three days there was pure rain. Jamaica experienced heavy rains due to tropical storm Ida (later upgraded to a hurricane). It rained harder than I have ever seen it rain. And it fell all day too. There were short periods when it stopped. When this happened, people would come out and resume everyday life. For Lance and I, it was a reason to stay home. We worked as much as we could on the project, talked to each other, and watched movies on the computer. It was relaxing, but a little frustrating because we wanted to work on the project with the architect.
We planned to meet with the architect on Thursday the 26th, but he wasn’t able to come out that week. Due to the lockdown, there is only a few days that people can travel around and do work and run errands, so he was busy. It was ok though because I think it rained a lot that day anyways and not much gets done in Jamaica when it rains heavily.
Kingston
On Friday, Lance and I left Hayfield. We drove some community members to Morant Bay. Lance and I continued on the road to Kingston. There was road improvements the whole way from Morant Bay to Kingston, so it was slow traveling. We decided that we should head to Kingston to prepare for Lance's departure. Lance's flight was early on a Monday, but he needed a Covid test to enter America. Once again, the lockdown on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday made things difficult. We checked into a real cool place called Ragamuffin Hostel for the next few days.
A quick plug for Ragamuffin Hostel - if you are ever staying a night or a few nights in Kingston, I highly recommend this hostel. It’s fairly clean and it has two big rooms for people to sleep in. There is a bathroom with showers and it even has AC and WiFi! There is a coffee shop attached to the hostel called Ragamuffin Cafe. It serves Deaf C.A.N.! coffee which is a local company that make delicious coffee. A few of the employees here are deaf and there are signs in the cafe with sign language on them to help customers order coffee and food. Around the side of the hostel, there is a vegan restaurant called Veggie Campus. The restaurant was open during the lockdown and I had many delicious meals there.
We went out early Saturday morning to get the Covid test for Lance, and thankfully his results were negative (he did not have Covid). Then we went to stand in line for the bank to get some more Jamaican currency. We stood in line for 45 minutes, and when we got to the front, they told us that they didn’t accept credit cards and we would have to use the ATM. So we waited another 15 minutes for the ATM line and got cash. We did some grocery shopping for the next few days of the lockdown. The line in the grocery store was also very long. Saturday was the last day before the three day lockdown and it was a weekend, so everyone was out doing last minute errands.
We dropped everything off at the hostel and then went to Devon House. It was only a 15 minute walk down the road. It was a really hot and dry day and I was so relived when we finally made it there. We got some Jamaican patty and some of the best ice cream in the world. Lance and I were going to take a selfie with the ice cream but it was melting so fast. We quickly ate it and then went back to the hostel before the curfew.
We spent Sunday just hanging out at the hostel. We weren’t allowed to leave the building because we were non essential. But it was ok because we had everything we needed. There were a few other guests here. One from The UK and the other two from around the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida area. We played monopoly with them and ate food from Veggie Campus. I think that this was the first time I ever finished a game of Monopoly to the end.
Early on Monday morning, around 6am, I took Lance to the airport. There were only a few other cars on the roads, which was a stark contrast to the Saturday before lockdown with bumper to bumper traffic. We said our goodbyes as he got out of the car and went through the airport (update he made it safely back to the US.) I got really emotional when I had to return the rental car because it was so convenient to drive a car around. Now it’s back to taking taxis for me. I waived down a taxi leaving the airport and got a decent price back to the hostel. It was still early so I went back to sleep.
I spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at Ragamuffin Hostel. I haven’t been able to leave because of the lockdown (I was able to leave on Wednesday but I decided to stay and extra day.) The only reason I was able to leave on Monday with Lance is because I was taking him to the airport. I spent the rest of my time in lockdown talking with the other guests, enjoying the WiFi and AC, and working on the project. Thursday afternoon I will head back up to Hayfield for the rest of the trip.
Project Update
We hope to meet with Phil, the architect, next week. It was just announced that the lockdown will be extended until September 14th. This continues to be a challenge to coordinate a time for him to come visit us as Jamaica is battling coronavirus. Hopefully Travis and Phil will come out next week on Wednesday or Thursday. I will be posting updates as new information comes in.
Once we have the design from the architect, we can turn it in to the Ministry of Education for approval. We are in communication with with Mr. Gutzmore, the Regional Building Officer for the Ministry of Education. We will turn in the design with a project proposal letter and hopefully it will go through the government quickly.
Once we get the design we can create a budget for the project. We can't start our fundraising campaign until we have a good idea on how much the project will cost. We hope to get the budget by mid-September so we can start the fundraising.
If you read the blog this far and you are interested in donating to the GoFundMe campaign, register with your email and we will send out a notification when we are at the fundraising phase of this project. You can also share the website and social media with friends and family and get the word out there so that when we are ready to fundraise, we will already have a large community of people informed and willing to participate. We appreciate it!
Thanks,
Joel Matheson