Just a quick note today. Since Thursday I have been in Kingston meeting with people at the CUSO-VSO office and doing necessary things to establish a life in Jamaica. For instance, I have acquired a Jamaican bank account, which took two trips to the bank and several hours of waiting. Thanks to Bill Bruce for the nice character reference!
On Friday night, there was a large dinner for the new group of volunteers to meet the ones who have already been hear for a while. It was lovely to meet so many people who come from all walks of life. The volunteers largely fit into two camps, those who are at the beginning of their careers like me, and those that are retired or transitioning to be retired. Here in Jamaica, the majority of volunteers are from Canada, but there are a few from some of the other Caribbean islands as well. I think there are now more than 15 volunteers in Jamaica, but I am the only one not in Kingston. However, many of them promised they would come to visit me :)
On another note, I need to correct myself. In an earlier post, I said that Jamaica is in the central time zone. I was wrong; it is actually in the eastern time zone, but it does not observe daylight savings time.
Today I go back up to Montego Bay and will be working on getting myself and my place ready to start work on Monday. I am working on having internet at home, but I am not sure about my access for the upcoming days and my blogging may suffer temporarily, but I will post again as soon as I can.
Congrats to Jamaica for the medals at the IAAF track and field world championships. And to the Canadians as well!
