One Month Later

The temperature in NYC has dropped.

School is in full session.

We have been home for over a month.

Our experiences in Jamaica have helped both Everton and I transition into our new positions. Having spent three weeks in Kingtson has given me a taste of Jamaican culture, history and Jamaican children. Everton and I now both teach at new schools with a mostly Caribbean population. The three weeks in Jamaica has also made the transition more difficult in some ways.

The children here are different. The children here do not have to worry about not having money for school shoes, text books, and their parents do not have to pay for the school's utilities.

I see so many opportunities here that the children in Kingston do not have. I saw so much hope in Kingston that the children here do not have, or do not think they need to have.

In the last month, Everton and I have kept in touch with the happenings with Youth Crime Watch Jamaica, the Burgher Progressive Youths, and the McIntyre Villa Community Center.

Since we have been gone, this is a bit of what has happened in Kingston.

The Burgher Progessive Youths had their pageant. We were there on the night that the idea was proposed to the Youths, and it was put on hold for further discussion. The original date was to be the first week of September, but because many of the Youth leaders are in school, they decided to have it the week after. Everton wanted to get involved and sent US$100.00 to help the cause.

Within weeks, a beauty pageant was born!

The event was held on Sunday, September 12 2010 at the Eastern Peace Center,

The goal of the event was to change the image of Burgher, a community that experienced much violence three years ago. The leaders of the Burgher Progressive Youth Group wanted to change the perception of their community, the goal is to show unity in the community and to display the beauty and talents in and around the Burgher community.

In a couple of weeks, this is what was organized!

Minister Paulwell attended and was the event's main sponsor.

A former Miss Jamaica served as one of the guest judges.

Knife was the guest speaker.

LA Lewis and his crew provided entertainment along with the Burgher Progressive Dancers.

I received an email the day after the event, and could feel the pride and joy of Randi, the President of Burgher Progressive. They felt that it was a mission accomplished. They had fun, they entertained, were entertain and saw how the Burgher community gathered in peace.

In the first week of school, I was able to fundraise with some of my friends to send some funds to the children at the McIntyre Villa Community Center. The US$300.00 helped to pay for school supplies, books and school shoes.

From reading the Jamaican Observer, we see that Knife is Knife. Knife is giving lectures, meeting and connecting people, and inspiring us here in NYC.

Here is an article that he was recently featured in.

]http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business/Entrepreneur-offers-guidance-on-starting-a-business-in-Ja_7946031

Next steps for us:

We are in the process of working on our resumes, and personal statements and goals for next summer. We have gathered a group of interested teachers to go to Jamaica with next summer. We hope to 1. train teachers and social workers in the area of alternative education and 2. volunteer our time to the various community centers in Kingston.

We hope to raise some funds for this effort.

Little by little, penny by penny, we are trying to raise monies. At my school, we are collecting cans and bottles to redeem for cash, and this cash will go to Kingston to help pay for school supplies. So little can do so much in Jamaica, and we want to do as much as possible.

Reflections on Jamaica

Black, yellow and green adorn cars, buildings, notebooks...

Children recite their heroes and history.

Religion is everywhere, and a part of everything.

Everything grows. Plants grow on top of plants. Weeds grow on wires.

The powerful sun rise in the John Crow mountains, a full moon shines calmly infront of the Blue Mountains.

Wealth and poverty sit alongside each other.

Physical walls are put up. I caught a glimpse of what lies behind the gates, the tin fences and the wooden boards.

The people are the bridges that connect.

Potholes that are bigger than small children.

Art blooms in the jungles of Kingston.

Rampant political corruption.

People that come together to make a change.

Communities that come together in song and dance.

The power of mothers.

Scars on peoples' bodies.

Smiles on peoples' faces.

Children raising children.

Higglers on the corners.

Delicious ganapes for 50 JD.

A screeching pig being pulled into slaughter...he was going to be jerk pork.

Delicious fruits and vegetables off the trees.

Rastas dance the night away, and the spirit and the struggle of rastas in this country.

Slowing the breath to deal with the heat, cooling down in a stream in the bush.

Telling time by the appearance of mosquitoes, catching mosquitoes with wet hands.

Two sisters who begged for wood to rebuild homes that were destroyed by their government.

Everyday heroes of this country's past, present and future.

Spirit and resilience.

Inspiration to do more.

I lost my shoes but found a new purpose.

Our Final Day in Kingston

Two years ago, Everton and I sat down to plan this fellowship.

We saw that more and more of our students were experiencing crime and violence in their communities due to the struggling economy. We saw that our students were having more difficulties in their school work because of the increasing distractions in their communities. We saw the need to learn from what others are doing to reduce crime and violence and to increase youth involvement in these efforts.

We came to Jamaica to learn what is happening in the communities, and we are leaving Jamaica with so much. We have seen the power in the people here, we have seen grassroots organizations that work to sustain themselves, and we have met amazing individuals who make a difference in their communities.

We spent our final day together at UWI wrapping up our project, and setting up some plans for next summer.

This is what we hope to do.

In our immediate plan, we want to raise some funds to buy school supplies for Miss Pet/Miss Cookie's afterschool program. School begins in two weeks, and there is tension in Jamaica. School is not free for the children in Jamaica. Parents are struggling to send their children to school, to pay for the utilities in the school, to buy uniforms, supplies and textbooks in a terrible economy.

The children will be returning to school during the day, and will continue to go to the community groups in the afternoons and on the weekends.

Crime Youth Watch Jamaica works with the groups to develop self-sustainability through enterprise. Knife's students at UWI have developed a business plan for the McIntyre Villa Community Center. But...in the meantime, we want to give the children in the group a strong start to the school year.

In the longterm, we hope that we can gather a group of our colleagues in the areas of math, science, special education, English and the arts to come back to Jamaica next summer to do two things: train and teach.

Everton and I have both heard about the challenges in Jamaica's classrooms from both teachers and students, and we see that there is a need for different types of professional development for the teachers.

As teachers who have worked in NYC's alternative school settings, we can return to train the teachers and faciliators in Jamaica who are trained in a more traditional sense to work with all different kinds of learners.

In addition, this group of teachers will volunteer in the youth groups. Ideally, we would set up training sessions for the adults in the different subject areas while we run simultaneous sessions in the youth groups.

As an American, I knew very little about Jamaica beyond what is presented in the media. I knew of the beaches, the music, the dance, the jerk chicken, Bob Marley, and of course, the negative coverage of the crime and poverty. Lately, the coverage of Kingston has been terrible. But...what I have seen has been amazing.

As a Jamaican, Everton saw that he needed to return to his homeland to reconnect, to see what has been happening. He has said time and time again that there is something special about this generation, there is so much happening now, everyday people are doing so much on the grassroots level.

We both came to Jamaica as learners. We hope to come back next year to do more.

Miss Samantha's Class

Please note: we do not have pictures of this site visit, I will try to post a video later on.

While I was away in Port Antonio last weekend, Everton spent some time in Nannyville, close to the UWI campus.

Nannyville seems calm now but there was a war there about three years ago. The streets seem to be calmer, cleaner and generally nicer. Everton surmises that the war was bad enough to make the community come together to rebuild and to keep the peace.

Knife and Allan brought Everton to see Miss Samantha, another one of Jamaica's unsung heroes, another face that does not appear in the news, and another story that does not get any airtime.

I listen to the radio for about an hour each morning, and it makes me crazy paranoid. I want to run out and get a security gate, a guard dog and a can of pepperspray! The news is very biased, and reports only the crime and the grit. Incidentally, many of the media companies also invest heavily on security systems companies.

THIS blog is to celebrate the good things that are happening in Jamaica, and our fellowship here is to learn from all the good that is here, to learn from all the everyday people who despite the negative circumstances, are fighting the good fight- often times without proper funding and support.

Miss Samantha is a woman in her thirties who has her own story. She came into the world of youth groups and volunteerism years ago because of her own experiences. Like Miss Cookie, Miss Pet and the other volunteers, Samantha saw a need in her own experiences and in her community and decided to do something about it. She became a mother a a young age and did not receive support from her family. One of her goals in this group is to offer parenting classes to older and newer parents, to help families communicate better.

The group Everton visited is called Nannyville Uprising Youths in Action (I love these names!) and it meets in a shared public space. Because of this, sometimes the group cannot meet because someone else is occupying the space. In addition, the space is one that requires a fee, and this is also a problem for some members and groups in the community.

During his visit, Everton saw the portion of the day that focuses on the 6-8 years olds. Two other groups use the space, and they are broken into 8-9 year olds and 9-12 year olds. This is different from other groups that we have visited, and the only reason the children are broken up is because the space cannot hold the entire group of kids together. It is a big group.

Attendance in this group is also voluntary, and Samantha also is a volunteer.

Everton saw that even though the children were so young, they were well-versed in Jamaican history and culture. The children talked about heroes like Marcus Garvey (whose birthday was celebrated last week), Bob Marley, Olympian Bolt. This is something that I see everywhere, the people young and old are proud of their country. Jamaican flags are everywhere, from cars to food labels. Green, yellow and black decorate this beautiful nation.

Nannyville Uprising Youths in Action offers services like speech, dance, theatre, academic skills, community events and food drives. It meets during the summer, and on the weekends.

Like the other groups we have visited, the children struggle with their math education. This is something quite pervasive in this country. Class sizes range from 40-50 children, and this has a seriously negative impact on the learning environment. On top of that, in the 1990s, teachers in the areas of math and science have been heavily recruited in the states, particularly in NYC and this brain drain has had a ripple effect in this generation of students.

This of course makes us want to return next summer with our team of teachers to train the teachers and facilitators, to share our experiences as alternative school teachers, and as educators in an urban environment.

Everton spent the latter part of his day with a youth who was recently accepted to UWI's medical program but he cannot attend because he cannot afford the tuition. This young man, Doneilo Thomas grew up in this program, and returns to work with the babies.

Doneilo's situation is another example of the nation's educational crisis. Not only do the children lack proper teaching in the lower grades, but tuition for higher education is too expensive. Unlike the states, the children do not have a free education here. It is a struggle in this economy for families to send their children to school. Parents pay for things like uniforms, textbooks, and utilities. Many of the students are not being properly taught. For the students who do excel, tuition at the colleges is too high.

In the evenings, we spend some time with the teens from Portmore and talk about the educational system. These are youths from a more middle class working neighborhood, and though they excel in schools and in their standards (exams), there are no scholarships available to them. Students who work hard to excel receive no support. What about the struggling students? By the way, there is no special educational system here to support struggling learners.

What happens to a generation that is not given the right to an education? How does this affect the crime rate? The unemployment rate? The murder rates? The nation?

People like Miss Samantha, Miss Cookie, Miss Pet, Youth Crime Watch in Jamaica are trying to (and from what I see, doing a great job at) help the community, one youngster at a time, one family at a time through educational empowerment and enterprise.

Port Antonio, Portland (Trip outside of Kingston)

I just returned from three days in Portland, 90 miles and 2 hours away from the hustle and bustle of Kingston.

Portland is a rural parish, and one of the safest. It was the one of the first major tourist sites in Jamaica, and over the years places like Negril, Mo'Bay and Ocho Rios have overshadowed Portland's tourism industry. PLEASE,VISIT THIS GORGEOUS PARISH! HELP REBUILD THE ECONOMY AND SUPPORT THE PEOPLE.

You can see ghosts of great hotels past all over the place. British novelist Ian Fleming wrote his James Bond series there and American actor Errol Flynn purchased much of the area. It's abundantly green and lush, mountainous and along the coast.

Because of the recession, the tourism industry has suffered, and because of the hurricane five years ago, most of the roads are in terrible condition. It was a rough ride there, but once I got there, I was amazed by everything.

I visited and stayed at a place called Great Huts. I had read about it on line, and in the guide book as a unique spot for ecotourism and decided to check it out. http://www.greathuts.com/

I arrived on Friday, and there was a conference on homelessness and mental illness for the next two days.

The owner of Great Huts is Dr. Paul Rhodes, a doctor from Brooklyn who did his medical residency in Jamaica in the 70s. He returned in 1994 and continued to form his connections in Portland. Currently, he operates the Portland Rehabilitation Center and works with the homeless people in the community, people who are often ostracized for being mentally ill, unemployable, and for of course being homeless.

The center opened last year www.prmhomeless.org and it serves to feed, house, clean, clothe, nourish, and educate the homeless in Portland. Lloyda McIntyre lloydamcintyre@yahoo.com runs the center. Dr. Paul is the medical doctor on staff, and volunteers from all over the world are invited to work at the center. I met Peace Corps volunteers, and everyday activists at the conference, as well as doctors, nurses, social workers, health care workers from Jamaica, and from abroad.

Again, here is an example of an everyday person (a foreigner at that!) filling the void in the infrastructure of health care in this country.

I attended the conference on Saturday 8.23. This conference addressed the issue of mental illness, specifically schizophrenia in Jamaica, and the mistreatment (both socially and medically) and treatment of those with the illness. The keynote speaker Dr. Bernard spoke of the connection between mental illness and homelessness, and the need for the creation of social services to help the mentally ill, and not just medicate the mentally ill.

I visited the Portland Rehabilitation Center the next day. The center is nestled on top of a hill. There is green all around, and must of the center is painted green. It has a soothing and calming feel to it.

The center can house up to 16 people, male and female, young and old. During the day, clients are out and about, many of them are working or trying to work. The clients sleep in a dorm on one side, and share a common area on the other side. The center hopes to build a chicken coop and develop a farm on site to develop skills for the clients, and to also feed the community.

Because of the potential employment opportunities in Kingston, it has nearly half of the country's population. In addition, half of Jamaica's homeless population live in Kingston, and from talking to some health care workers at the conference, there is also a lack of support systems in Kingston for these individuals. The ghettos of Kingston are crowded, hot and there is much poverty there. Homelessness and mental illnesses exacerbate these problems.

Everyday people that I have met are the true heroes, taking a stand, and making a change. I feel inspired and invigorated by the people I have met.

As our trip here to Kingston is winding down, Everton and I are dreaming about our next steps.
He plans to return this December to continue to form connections and to strengthen our current ones.

We plan to gather a group of our colleagues, teachers in the areas of English/literacy, math, science/health and arts. We hope to return for two weeks to volunteer at the various centers that we have visited and learned so much from.

This is really an inspirational beginning to something special.

Rastaman Vibration

For the past two days, we have been at the University of the West Indies (UWI) attending the RastafariConference. http://myspot.mona.uwi.edu/proffice/uwinotebook/entry/3878

Knife, our colleague has played a major part in this event, and has been apart of several panels and lectures.

The opening day began and ended with a Nyabinghi Chant, which was amazing. Drumming, singing, dancing...these chants are a way for the Rastas to gather and share in a sacred space.

During the conference, I learned a lot about the history of Rastafarians, the brutality and oppression that they faced in Jamaica, and the role that Rastafarians play in the country's history, culture and economy. Ironic that the Jamaican ministry of tourism promotes the smiling Rastaman on the beach, while the reality is so different, while the history was so brutal.

One major theme of the lectures was to promote political and economic freedom by living a life that is similar to how the 'ancients' did years ago. The idea is to go back to the land, to grow the food, to save the environment and to live a life that is more sustainable.

This is something that we are also pushing in the states. For example, we in the states are reminding ourselves to eat what our grandparents ate. We are encouraging our schoolchildren to read labels, to eat better and to move their bodies. We are trying to turn NYC spaces into greenspaces, and more and more people are growing their own food, and reducing the carbon foodprint, and waste.

One lecture was about making agriculture into a pop culture, where even the teens and youth in Jamaica will do it because it is promoted as a part of theri every pop culture.

I wonder why we had to get so far away from nature and its simplicity and beauty to go back to it. I hope more and more people can eat better, to live better...just like our 'elders' did.

The idea of self sustainability ties directly into what Youth Crime Watch is promoting to the youth. YCWJ is encouraging the youth to start their own businesses, often through agricultural production since Jamaica is such a fertile and rich place to grow things. Plants grow on the tree stems and branches here!

YCWJ urges the youth to start businesses, to then link up and form companies, and to employ the people in the communities. In addition, the message to these youth groups is not to depend on charity and contributions that may or may not be consistent, but to earn money to support themselves, the members of the community, and their organizations too.

At the end of the evening, representatives from the Burgher Progressive Youth Club came to UWI's campus to meet Knife. BPYC is already a registered part of YCWJ, but the President and Vice President of the Youth Group wanted the opportunity to meet Knife, and to invite him to a future meeting.

We had a chance to check in with Randy and Fitzroy. They have decided to proceed with the Miss Burgher and Mr. Burgher fundraiser, and the date will be in the middle of September, after classes have started.

Everton will be attending the meeting at BPYC this Saturday.

I will be visiting a youth club that is financed by UNICEF and the Jamaican government in Portland this week.

The trip ends in a week, and so much needs to be done.

We are already planning to return next summer. Our goal is to spend two weeks in Kingston, with a larger group of teachers from NYC who can volunteer their services/talents/skills and time to youth groups.

Interested?

Stay tuned.

Burgher Kings and Queens...

What do inner city kids in Kingston do on Saturday nights? Go to the movies? Parties?

Well...not quite.

There is a group of kids in Burgher Gardens, Kingston that meet every Saturday, from 7-9 in a church classroom.

These are not just ordinary high school and college kids, these kids are a part of the Burgher Progressive Youth Club where young people from the ages of 5 and up meet throughout the week.

This club started under a tree two years ago, the group celebrates its second anniversary this October. Group members: Randy, the President/Commandante, Fitzroy, the VP, Kethania, the Secretary, Avonda, the Assistant Secretary, Robert, the Treasurer, Renny and Kenny, PRO, and Shawn and Conrad, the Sports Coordinators.

Burgher Gardens experienced a 'war' in the community three years ago, and many of the group leaders grew up in this environment. As a result of this, they formed the Burgher Progressive Youth Club. The clubis a registered part of Youth Crime Watch, and because of this, it has a bank account set up, and links to a network of resources and is featured in their latest newsletter http://www.ycwa.org/world/jamaica/watchmanv1n2.pdf

This group aims to address several things. It aims to reduce the negative stigma of Burgher. Because of the community violence, many people do not want to be associated with it, and don't want to admit that they are from this area. The group aims to reinforce the sense of self-identity, discipline, and self-respect. It offers homework support, tutoring, travel and recreational activities and mentoring.

Like many other inner city areas of Kingston, the youth face dire futures. They cannot get jobs, they drop out of schools and they cannot afford the ever increasing tuition of Jamaica's colleges. These problems are especially prevalent among the males of the inner city.

Males make up about half of the leaders of this youth group, and two of them are college students. One is a college graduate who cannot get a job. What are young, talented, intelligent, passionate youth to do with no jobs, no support? They can either turn to the streets OR they can dedicate their time, and volunteer their energy to create a youth group.

The members of this group have board meetings to discuss the needs of the group, and the group's mission and vision.

Each meeting begins with introductions of visitors, and ends with a prayer circle, giving thanks for the meeting.

The group was told that we were coming to visit so they spent some time tidying up the space. The space is a nursery school by day and a community center by night, and all the meetings are lit by one single light bulb that dims occasionally. The pictures are very dark, again because of the lack of artificial light. Outside of the school house, there is a tremendous field where the neighborhood children and stray dogs hang out and patronize a teeny tiny store front, also lit with a single light bulb. There is a tree in the field, and this is where this project all began...under a tree.

Saturday (8/14) was Talent Night and members were asked to share their talents. Young and old, male and female got up and sang, danced, and recited poetry. A little girl named Rambo danced her heart out to every song.

We sat in a room with about 30 young people. The babies were in the very front, carefully looked after by the older members of the group.

After the Talent Show, it was announced that there was a trip to Mo Bay at the end of the month. The babies went home and the older group members debated on whether or not they would hold a Burgher King/Queen competition to improve the reputation of the community. They debated on whether or not they would use this event to raise money. The item was tabled to be discussed at their next board meeting.

So...what were we thinking after we left?

These kids are AWESOME!

1. They have an executive model which is excellent practice for the 'real world'
2. They are super organized and articulate
3. They have entrepreneurial potential. They wanted to fundraise, and Everton emphasized the importance of setting up small businesses as a way to 1. employ people 2. set up capital for themselves and for the group
4. They emphasize education, and they are an academically mixed group that will influence each other
5. They operate in a mixed age group setting. These groups that we are seeing are really on to something with the kids of different ages together
6. They are all taking part in the raising of each other. They are each others' role models, and parent/adult figures. They see that there is a lack of leadership in the adults in their community and they are stepping up to fill this void.

We plan to make one more visit to the Burgher Youth Progressive Center. We have much to learn from these powerful youth!

facebook_burgherprogressiveyouthclub

This group is also featured in the Jamaica Gleaner. Check it out! Very impressive.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100517/business/business1.html