Timeline- 09/09 - 21/11/ 2012 (2.5 months/74 days)

Wed. 15/ 08/ 2012- Last Blog Post

Sun. 09/ 09/ 2012- Arrived in Jamaica!

Mon.-Thurs. 10-13/ 09/ 2012- First 4 days of training in Kingston.

Thurs.-Sun. 13-16/ 09/ 2012- Site Visit (Our house in White River, Birnamwood Primary School, Port Antonio for a wardens mtg., and Buff Bay Beach Cleanup)

Mon.-Wed. 17-19/ 09/ 2012- Final 3 days of training in Kingston.

Wed. 19/ 09/ 2012- Swearing In Ceremony at US Embassy by Deputy Chief of Mission Dr. Raymond L. Brown and then returned to site.

Wed.-Sun. 19-23/ 09/ 2012- Unpacking at Site and My 28th Birthday!

Mon.-Fri. 24-28/ 09/ 2012- Project Design and Management Workshop and Early Service Conference in Ocho Rios.

Fri.-Sat. 28-29/ 09/2012- Hanging in Oracabessa with some other Volunteers and travelling back to site.

Sun-Tues. 30/ 09-23/ 10/ 2012- Settling in at Site.

Wed.-Fri. 24-26/ 10/ 2012- Hurricane Sandy and Clean-up (Lost power and water 24/10)

Sat.-Mon. 27-29/ 10/2012-  Oracabessa for Halloween Party and showing Pat and his family/friends around the Buff Bay Valley on Monday.

Tues.-Mon. 29/ 10-05/ 11/ 2012- Still without power and water. Spent weekend with friends in Port Antonio.

Mon-Tues. 05-06/ 11/ 2012- Got power back Monday night and water back Tuesday afternoon. Also acquired a puppy we named Spot and Barack Obama was re-elected president of the USA!

Fri.-Sun. 09-11/ 11/ 2012- Spent Friday in Port Antonio and our friend Jackie came to spend the weekend with us. Our First Visitor and outside sampler of Tom's Deep Fry Friday tradition.

Fri.-Sat. 16-17/ 11/ 2012- Second visitor, our friend Kate came to check out Birnamwood Primary School and spent the night!

Sun.-Wed.(today) 18-21/ 11/ 2012- Writing my CASI (Community And Sector Inventory) and preparing for Thanksgiving/ the All Volunteer Meeting in Kingston starting tomorrow.


Its been a crazy last 74 days but I hope to post a more "fun" blog post soon. However this is the gist of the my last 2.5 months!

~ Chelsea

The Countdown Officially Began Monday 8/13

As the rays of sun flickered in my window Monday morning I awoke to the sound of screeching jake brakes from I-90 and thought..."Oh how I won't miss that sound if I ever get back to Jamaica." I groggily rolled over and turned on my iPod, hoping Tom would be online so we could Skype, and dozed while it booted up. No luck. Tom was already out and about for the day which wasn't a huge surprise since it was about 10:30am in Jamaica. I then checked my email and waited anxiously as that little spinning circle went around and around while data streamed through the interwebs to my little electronic friend.

Ding!

Oooh, I had mail. As I clicked on that little word INBOX I prayed to whatever deity felt like listening that either Jenny Mayo (my country desk officer) or Wes Moses (Director of Programming and Training in Jamaica) had emailed me with information detailing the specifics of my return. Well I guess somebody was listening because there it was! Jenny had emailed me! Wahoo!

So, September 9th is the date! Exactly 26 days from today.

In some ways Tom and I both feel worse. Maybe its because we thought it would be earlier than that and 26 days feel like such a long time.

I'm so anxious. I just want to wake up and be there already. But in the mean time, I'm helping my mom move into a new apartment (hopefully this weekend). Then next weekend is the River City Roots Festival and my cousin may come to visit too. We are hoping to travel to Absarokee for a visit over Labor Day weekend and then my Dad is coming on Sept. 4th. So if I'm lucky the time will pass super fast!

In other news. I had a lovely visit with Sarah and Crystal (2 of my closest friends from college) on Friday. We had a lovely meal, talked about boys and well boys, and sang a little karaoke too. Then on Saturday Tom and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. Not much of a celebration, we chatted on Skype and around noon Grandma Nancy Chandler arrived with a gorgeous bouquet of roses. Tom had been sneaky and had her pick up and deliver them for him. It was so sweet! They are gorgeous too. A lovely pale pink with some of the outer petals a darker fuchsia. He's such a great guy! I just can't wait to get back to him and hug him soooo tight!

Flowers from Tom for our 5 year Anniversary!

Till then....~ Chelsea

Soon Come...

Well...its been awhile...and I am still in the ole USA. Since I last wrote I began physical therapy in DC, went back to Montana on May 20 to continue PT there, was released to return to work from the orthopedist here in Missoula on July 6, and achieved the ever illusive medical clearance from OMS on July 27. Now I am just waiting for PC Jamaica to give the country desk at PC HQ in DC an exact date for my return and then I can begin the reinstatement paperwork. When I last spoke to my country desk officer she said that it was looking like the end of August or the 1st week of September. So I appear to be on the down slope of my hiatus at home but that doesn't make it any easier, especially with my and Tom's 5 year anniversary coming up this Saturday, August 11th.

Physically I am doing very well. I can do just about everything I could before the injury just not for the length of time I could before the injury. However, its all still very encouraging that I've regained so many of my normal abilities.

The time I've had at home without Tom has had its ups and downs but there have been blessings in disguise, some with thicker disguises than others.

Ups:

 1. Getting to attend Neil Lehner and Sarah Huguet's wedding at the end of June.
 2. A 3 day trip to Absarokee where I got to spend time with my inlaws, float the Yellowstone, and visit with my darling Abby.
3. Rector Family Reunion at my grandmas house and going bike riding and kayaking with my dad.
4. Having Emma and Hannes come to Missoula and getting to take them to the water park.
5. Many evenings and weekends with my mama.

Downs

1. My grandfather past away at the end of May. His funeral was sad and difficult but I did get to help my dad and grandma take care of things and I felt blessed to be able to do so. I even wrote the obituary with their help of course but doing so gave me some closure.

2. Boredom...excessive boredom.

3. Anxiety over when I'll ever get to go back...(though that is now much less).

Currently my days are spent exercising, reading, watching the Olympics, and catching up on reruns of my favorite '90s TV shows on Netflix.

This week I am looking forward to the Western Montana Fair. Mama and I shall be attending the PBR show on either Tuesday or Wednesday and then on Thursday I am making her go with me to adult night at the local water park. It shall be fantastic!

I hope all of you out there on the interwebs are doing well and since I have a new computer (wahoo!) I hope to be updating this much more regularly!

Cheers,

Chelsea!

Pictures of the Valley

             The waterfall in Balcarres where you can swim. Around noon everyday you can find bus loads of tourist on bus tours from Ocho Rios 

                     Balcarres

                  The Welcome sign going in to Balcarres

            The wall of fame for Balcarres

               The river in Balcarres

                   The waterfall you can take a shower in 

              Brenewood School

 
                    Meeting in Cascade

                 My office in White River

                Fish traps in Charelestown 

                   Pigs in the back yard

Our Site: Buff Bay Valley

The Buff Bay valley is a beautiful valley in the northwestern parish of Portland. We will be calling this valley our new home for the next two plus years. The valley is approximately 30 miles long stretching from the Caribbean Sea at Buff Bay to the highest peak in Jamaica, Blue Mountain. The valley is broken into two sections: lower and upper.

The lower valley consists of two towns, White River, where Chelsea and I call home and Charlestown. Both of these towns are good sized and have multiple side streets and shops. It gives you the feeling you are living in a small town in the states, minus the random goats and wild fowl.  The lower valley is a hot place due to its proximity to the coast. Because of the heat we are able to grow Mangos and Ackee in the lower valley.  The river is not much of a river in this stretch of the valley. In summer it will completely dry up and go underground. The lower valley has the majority of the people and could be considered a semi-urban area. The upper valley couldn’t be more different.

After you pass Charlestown proper you enter the rural part of the valley. This is where Chelsea and I will be doing the majority of our work. The upper valley consists of multiple little towns including Tranquility, Balcarres, Spring Hill, Cascade, and Section. All of these towns are basically wide spots in the road, with an established town square which consist of a shop or two and a church. Balcarres is where I have spent most of my time. It is where Peace Corps originally placed me and Chelsea.  The move was necessary due to space constraints but at the same time it is too bad because I really enjoy the Balcarres area. I plan on continuing working with the community regularly and especially the Community Development Committee (CDC). The CDC does community betterment projects and I worked with them for the last month cleaning up the community and building a new garbage bin, it has been extremely rewarding work.

Spring Hill is the next community up the road. It is home to Birnamwood Primary school where Chelsea will be working. I have worked with the school off and on for the last month. Working with the schools can be very rewarding and very difficult at the same time. We will be spending more time at the school when school starts back up in September.

Cascade and Section are at the top of the valley and they are deep in the heart of the Blue Mountains. Cascade and Section are very vulnerable communities. They are located on steep hillsides that are prone to landslides due to deforestation. The group I work with is the Buff Bay Local Forest Management Committee (BBLFMC). The BBLFMC is in charge of the multi-agency initiative to reforest Cascade and Section. So I will be working with these communities on a regular basis over the next two years.

Overall I am enjoying my new home and can't wait for Chelsea to arrive!

04-08-2012: St. Thomas There and Back

This is a brief story about my mango picking trip. On Saturday evening my host mom, Lurline and her friend, (we’ll call her Sue for fun) decided to go to St. Thomas to pick East Indian mangoes and they invited me to come along for the trip. 

We left on Sunday morning about 9:30 am for St. Thomas. Being new to the area I assumed either Lurline or Sue would know how to get from St. Andrew to St. Thomas. I soon realized that this was a false assumption as we proceeded to get lost in Kingston. Finally, after much driving around and asking for directions, we made it out of Kingston and on our way to the parish of St. Thomas.

Lurline then asked Sue if she knew where in St. Thomas we were going to pick the mangoes. Sue simply responded, “By the school.”  Now mind you every wide spot in the road has a school and this woman didn’t know which school it was or which town this school was in.  We came upon a small town and asked a local if there were any East Indian mango trees around with ripe mangoes and he pointed up the road. We followed his directions and found a mango farm with a man harvesting mangoes for export to the USA and Canada. Lurline negotiated a price with him and we proceeded to pick some mangoes. The farm had two types of mangoes: East Indian and Julie. The Julie mango is what is most commonly found at the supermarket back in the states.  The man was very kind and allowed us to try the mangoes and explained the differences between them.

Since the ones we bought were a little green, we proceeded to drive around some more looking for super ripe mangoes. After much contemplation my host mom, Lurline, decides to try to find her pastors house. This involved more driving along the back roads of St. Thomas. We finally found the pastors house but he was gone. So we backed tracked to a neighbor’s house and bought some East Indian mangoes from him. He was also very nice and gave us some Common mangoes and Black mangoes for free. I will say that out of all the varieties of mangoes I’ve tried thus far the Black mango is my favorite.

The return trip was pretty uneventful until we reached Kingston. Now for all of my family that doesn’t know anything about Kingston just imagine a poorly designed Los Angles in a third world country.  When we arrived in Kingston Lurline was asleep in the back seat of the car and Sue (who was from Montego Bay, the complete opposite side of the island from Kingston) was driving. I noticed we had past the road we took when we left Kingston that morning and asked Sue if we needed turn around to take that road to get home. She said she didn’t know. Luckily at this point Lurline woke up and was telling Sue to turn around but Sue proceeded to ignore the request.

Needless to say we ended up in the slums/shanty town/ squatter settlement area of Kingston. Now you can imagine the looks we got. Two older black women and me, the only white guy around, on this street so narrow one car could barely fit. The slums of Kingston are a sight I will never forget. The houses made out 4 pieces of roofing metal. No water.  No power. Definitely NO bathroom. The stench was unreal in spots. Luckily a few turns later we found a main street and proceeded home to Woodford (about 30 minutes north of Kingston) amazingly unscathed and no worse for wear. It was a very eventful day and I can say that I definitely won’t be travelling anywhere with Miss Sue driving ever again.

~Tom

Oops I got a boo boo. (Insert very sad face here.)

So...after going the past 5 years without comprehensive medical insurance and not getting sick or injured in any way...I went and ruptured my Achilles tendon on March 30th. Technically we were playing soccer but I was actually down at the other end of the field standing still all by myself awaiting a pass (which I totally would have dribbled in for a goal) when I pushed off to run and ka pow! I snapped my Achilles.

Yes, it was extremely painful.

No, none of us heard the tell tale "POP".

After this I  remained in Jamaica until April 5th when I was flown to DC on "medevac". I had surgery Friday, April 6th and am currently here in DC until who knows when. I had a follow up appt Wed. April 18th with my orthopedist, Dr. Lutton, to remove the cast that was put on in the hospital and place me in a hard cast. I have another doctors appt on Wed. April 25th where they will remove the hard cast and my sutures and place me in final hard cast until around May 3rd. At that time I will begin physical therapy and be placed in a walking boot for hopefully only two weeks taking us to May 18th (our swearing in date). Physical therapy should last for around 4 weeks total.  The first 2, while I'm in the walking boot and hopefully the last 2 can be done on my own doing exercises at home (hopefully at home in Jamaica!).

However, everything remains uncertain because each person heals differently. Furthermore, medevac only lasts 45 days from when you arrive in DC so that is May 20th and the official end of my physical therapy would be around June 1st if all goes well. So this would mean that I may get "Medically Separated" from PC and be sent back to my home of record, which is either Missoula or Absarokee....Tom and I can't remember what we put on the form. From here I would have to be re-instated as a trainee to depart for Jamaica once the Office of Medical Services (OMS) has declared me physically sound for return.

Frankly its all a big mess and I am having digestive issues and extreme teeth grinding because of the stress. Tom is still in Jamaica and will continue with training and be sworn in with the rest of the group which hopefully bodes well for my swift return but really no one can tell. It all depends on my healing and how my Country Director and her staff feel about my missing 6 out of 9 weeks of training. I have been keeping up on training in my own time but its easily recognized that it is not the same as being in country so we'll shall have to wait and see what comes of all of this.

I am of course doing everything I can to advocate for myself and know that my Program Manager, Dan, is doing the same on my behalf. (He really is an awesome guy! I feel like we really lucked out with our training team, Dan and Anika! Kudos to them!) But all in all, we will just have to see how my recovery goes and try to stay positive that I will return to Jamaica when the time is right.


First cast from when I returned from the George Washington University Hospital

Second cast put on Wed. April 18th, slated to come off April 25th when they remove my sutures.


~Chelsea

Next up...a synopsis of Tom's recent trip to St. Thomas in search of some delicious mangoes!

Technical Difficulties

Well it appears we have been having some technical difficulties in viewing our blog. I have attempted to address the problem and hope it is now fixed. However in that process I was forced to remove a previous post entitled The Beginning. I am hoping to have Tom email it to me and re-post it as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and continued viewership.

~Chelsea

Washington Trip Part 2

Okay...so where were we again....right...

Tuesday (1/17) we were going to take the ferry across the peninsula and drive down 101 to Montesano but there was snow everywhere so we just headed home down I-5. Stopped by Monte and saw Kathryn and Drew and then headed out the Wynoochee. We just hung out with my Dad the next couple of days but did get a chance to go over and see Rebecca (Kathryn and Lindsay's mom) who was babysitting Kathryn's son Kellan. Kellan is such a cutie and I hadn't seen him since the week he was born in September of 2010. We took a little video of him playing with the kitty cat!

 The entire coast of WA was hammered with more snow than I’ve ever seen so we couldn’t really do anything or go anywhere. We watched a lot of movies and just hung out. Thursday we tried to go skiing at Crystal but the weather had transitioned into a massive ice storm and the roads were all closed. Friday we finally got my mom’s car out of the driveway and made our way to White Pass for the final days of our trip.

Skiing was sloppy Friday (1/20). It was only our second day out all season and the snow was more like glue than powder. It was nice to be able to ski with Dad all day though. Saturday was fun, the base had hardened up a little and there was just a little fresh powder over the top.

Tom and I spent the entire morning skiing the steeps until he ducked into some trees and found himself above a pretty decent cliff. I skied down and after realizing he was nowhere in sight went to the chair lift and waited another 15 minutes. He didn’t show up and it had been at least a half hour since I had seen him so I apprehensively went in to ski patrol, scared and a bit embarrassed. After giving them his last known location and full description, one of the patrollers and I headed out to check the lift line again. As luck would have it, there he was covered in snow but completely unharmed. I thanked the patroller and then went over to Tom and bust into tears. I was a mess, I hadn’t even realized how freaked out I was until I saw he was safe. I don’t think I would have been as worried if HE hadn’t had the “Don’t ski off without me, it freaks me out and makes me worry” talk with ME the day before. I figured there was no way he would go and do that after scolding me less than 24 hours prior. He was super cool about it though and didn’t make too much fun of me for going to the Patrollers… J

That evening I got to ski “Sweep” with my dad and the other Patrollers and Patroller Candidates after closing which was fun. I at least got a couple of runs in with Dad that way. Saturday evening was spent drinking beer and eating dinner in the bar at the lodge and then hanging out with everyone over at the Olympia Ski Club. I seriously love that place, even if some of the newer members are anal retentive yuppie types.

We got up Sunday morning to a foot of new snow and though we had intended to go to my Uncle Del’s surprise Birthday party, decided that wasn’t a smart idea in my mom’s little PT Cruiser and just headed home to Zoo town. So wish we could have made it! It would have been so nice to see everyone before we left on our PC adventure. It was kind of like the weather said, “Oh, you came to WA to ski? You want snow, do you? Well here’s your snow!”  and bitch slapped us with the worst winter weather the WA coast had seen in 10 years or more.

Oh well, we still had a great trip and got to see our closest friends and family, which was the number one goal!

Hope you are all enjoying reading this because I seriously feel weird writing it. I’m always wondering if anyone is reading it anyways…

Will post an updated time line soon! Laterz!

~Chelsea

Washington Trip Part 1

Hello again! Our timeline changed a little, we actually left for Wenatchee to visit my bestie Lindsay and her boyfriend David on Friday, January 13 after a trying day subbing in a high school Title 1 classroom. We went straight to Wenatchee that night and woke up early Saturday to a very quiet, crisp, blue bird sky, eastern WA morning. Tom and I snuck out for a run and came back to Lindsay and David making a batch of oatmeal waffles from Lindsay’s mom’s special recipe. They were fabulous, and sooo easy to make and even better with REAL maple syrup. Tom and David would argue that the ooey-gooey HFC laden “pancake syrup” is better. Blechk, those boys are crazy…



After breakfast, Lins and I played my guitar a little. I had just started taking lessons and was working on playing John Denver’s Country Roads. I think I spent most of the hour in awe of her awesomeness; I am a much slower learner and spent most of the time singing while she played.  Later that afternoon we went ice skating and had a beer at the local Columbia Valley Brewery. Tom and I had brought over some beef from a 4H steer that had been given to us so we made some fabulous burgers with all the fixin’s including caramelized onions and sweet potato fries for dinner and then just hung out and talked the rest of the night till like 1am.



Lindsay and I on the ride to the brewery.



Sunday was another slow day of just hanging out and talking…so much to catch up on. That afternoon we went to Leavenworth to see Carol and Matt (Tom’s aunt and uncle) and watch some fireworks. They served us a feast of white chili with all an array of delicious toppings and brownies! We then went down to town to see the fireworks, part of Leavenworth’s Icicle Festival. Lindsay and David were both recovering from a nasty head cold so we didn’t stay for the ski movie but headed back to Wenatchee for a round of this game called…_________(I currently can’t remember), which was by far one of the most fun games I have ever played.  

One of the Bavarian themed buildings in Leavenworth



Lights of the Icicle Festival.

 Monday (1/16) morning was a teary goodbye. After all of Lindsay’s traveling and now Tom and I heading overseas, it’s a miracle we ever see each other.  



After a rainy drive to Seattle, Tom and I finally found free parking and wandered around Pike Place until it was time for lunch with my auntie Anne and uncle Del at this cute little Mexican restaurant in Shoreline. We then all headed down to Green Lake for a very cold walk…fun but frigid! To warm up before we said goodbye we ducked into Duke’s Chowder House for a cup of hot cider and fireball! We then parted ways and made our way to Carol and Matt’s condo in SeaTac for the night.

Market sign...Tom likes the flag in the background...I like the fish!

Me with the first pig we saw, there are a few scattered around the market.

  

You can purchase a tile and have your name
and birthdate carved into it.



These are my two first cousins.
My aunt got them for them.

   

Slug Pop, in true WA fashion.



Seattle harbor on a very cold foggy day.



Another Pike Place Market Sign!



Part 2 swiftly on its way...

~ Chelsea