Sunday 28 August 2011

Tropical Thunderstorms

I am writing this in the midst of my second tropical thunderstorm in a week.  It is nowhere near as bad as the east coast of North America is experiencing with Hurricane Irene, but it still freaks me out.  In spite of that, I still sat on the balcony of my hotel in Montego Bay and watched it roll in.
Rain coming in...

Saturday we (myself and Shawn, the CUSO staff person who has come with me to help me get settled) took the bus up from Kingston and arrived in Montego Bay after four and a half hours.  It was only about 150 km that we travelled, but it was through windy mountain roads in the center of Jamaica and we also had a couple of stops along the way. Once we arrived, we were met by the aunt of my friend Alydia in Toronto, who took us to see a couple of apartments that I might rent. One of them was quite good, but not very central, so I have been working on finding a few more to see on Monday.

View when it was sunny
 So far I think it will be very nice to live in Montego Bay.  It is much smaller then Kingston, both geographically and population wise, but has stunning scenery and a lovely sea breeze that keeps the town cool. I've been watching sailboats in the harbour and have plans to visit the local yacht club to see if anyone needs a novice sailor on their boat!

Today we went to see the Peace and Reconciliation Centre, which is the Montego Bay branch of the Dispute Resolution Foundation, where I will be working. One of the staff kindly gave us a quick tour of the building, even though no one works on Sunday.  It is well known in the community and seems to have several outreach activities.  I don't start work until September 5th, so more on that later.

Cross your fingers for me in hopes that I find a great place in a great location in the next couple of days!

Below are some more pictures of Kingston that I took on our driving tour on our last day of in-country training on Friday.  The downtown neighbourhood is older and more run down but has some great architectural gems, and then we also visited Devon House, the home of the first Jamaican millionaire, which is now restored and in a lovely park in the uptown area.

View of downtown Kingston from the Marcus Garvey Museum

More downtown

Ditto - I had fun taking pictures from the roof!

Saturday is market day in Jamaica - this was near the central market

Ballroom at Devon House
Garden at Devon House