Day 2 - Sunday July 5

Sunday July 5, I woke up around 7:30 AM. I heard some yawning and coughing, but other than that it was really quiet in the house. I decided to stay in bed for a little longer and read through my Induction Manual, which was given to me by the driver the day before. There was a map of Mandeville town in it (the place I stayed in), some guidelines for staying at a host family, some information about safety, security, insurance, medical claims and our weekend trips and furthermore I could read about the expectations from us at the placement and some of the cultural norms. It was really useful that Projects Abroad made that for us and we could just read it through whenever we liked, so that we wouldn't be thrown into the deep or had to ask lots of questions. They also put a briefing schedule with the manual on which we could read some general information about our arrival, the host family and the placement at the Old England Primary School and with the schedule for the Introduction day which would take place on Monday.

As I had almost finished reading, Javier (Unika's 8 years-old sun) walked passed my room to go to the bathroom. I had not yet got the chance to say hi to him, since I arrived after 12 in the night, when he was long sleeping. He waved at me wit his sleepy head, but didn't say anything and continued his way to the bathroom, it was so sweet. A few minutes later Russhanya (a 4 years-old girl) also woke up and started a fight with her brother. Luckily this didn't last long and a little while later she came to my room to say hi. Unika was still in bed, so I decided to turn around once more and I fell back asleep until 10:30 AM. Unika had gotten out of bed by then and was cooking oatmeal in the kitchen. I got out of bed and was walking over to the kitchen but got stopped by the children. They were really enthusiastic and wanted to touch my hair and asked me if I had brought any presents. I told them I did and they immediately ran to my room. I got the presents out of my suitcases, as I tried to keep the children out of my suitcases but they were so curious and wanted to touch and see everything. I gave them there presents (for Javier I had some toy cars, a helicopter and a boat and for Russhanya I had colouring markers and some huge sheets of colouring paper). They both really liked there presents and started to play with it immediately.

I took the presents I had brought for Unika and continued my way to the kitchen. She was talking to two of her friends who would be joining us for breakfast. It was usual that her friends came over, especially on Sundays (which is a true rest day for Jamaicans) and when she is making food, haha. I greated the two man and gave Unika her presents. I had bought her some Dutch "Stroopwafels", some Dutch liquorice and a Delfts blue napkin, she truly loved them and she told me she has had a Dutch volunteer before who also brought her the "Stroopwafels" and she really liked them then.

We then all ate Oatmeal together and I got to know Unika's friends a little more. However, as all Jamaicans do, they talked in Patois to each other, which I did not really understand. So then Unika reminded them of speaking English which made it a lot easier for me to follow what they were saying and they turned out to be really nice and funny guys.

I liked the oatmeal Unika had made, but for some reason it was kind of heavy on my stomach, so I couldn't finish it all. After breakfast, I decided to unpack my suitcases and the children came into my room to discover all of my stuff. After I had finished, we played some games on my phone together and I played hide-and-seek with them. As the children played on, I helped Unika with the dishes. Her friends had left by then, so we had some time to get to know each other a little more. After the dishes were finished, Unika gave me the password to the wifi and I had some time to Skype with my parents. I was glad I could talk to them for a little while and they were happy to see that I was doing just fine. After Skyping with my parents, telling them all about my long trip to Jamaica and my first experience of the country and my host family, Unika was cleaning the living room and Russhanya invited me to her "party". Unika had put on some music and had turned the volume up. While she was wiping the floor she danced and sang to the music, and Russhanya cut it loose big time, especially when "her song" came on. I danced and sang along with them, it was so much fun. After that I rested a bit in my room with the children and it was soon time for dinner. Unika had made us some Curry Chicken, fried plantains and Rice & Peas. I had never had Curry chicken or fried plantains before, but they were sooooo good. We had a really good conversation and I felt like we could get along pretty well, I felt really comfortable being there. The portion she gave me however, was way too big so I couldn't finish it all. I felt really bad about it, but luckily she understood and she told me that I could tell her next time how much food I wanted. After we had all finished, I helped out with the dishes and sat down with Unika once more. She then had a talk with me about some of the rules, just to make sure that this two week stay would be as pleasant for both of us. She told me that I was free to use the bathroom whenever I liked, as long as I kept it a little clean. I was free to use the refrigerator and the washing machine whenever I needed them. We made an agreement about the drinking water and wifi. We decided that we would buy a huge (HUGE) bottle of water and split the bill (luckily it was not that expensive, it was only 600 JMD, which is less than 6 Euros) and we agreed that we would both pay for the wifi (together with Robyn, my roommate, once she arrived). Once all of that was settled, Russhanya wanted to show me her school work. I then got to know that in Jamaica the children go to school from the age of 3 and Russhanya was only four years old, but she could already spell her name (Russhanya, that's not the easiest name to spell at the age of 4!), she could read a little and she learned 3 and four letter-words in school. I was absolutely amazed by this! When I first went to school (at the age of 4), I was playing with blocks and learned how to draw between the lines. Then somewhere after 9 PM I decided to go to bed, since I was still having a bit of a jet lag. A little after 10 PM, Robyn my roommate arrived. I had already fallen asleep by then but I was woken by her arrival. We had already talked to each other via Email and Facebook before we got to Jamaica, but we could now finally meet each other in person. Unika showed her around in the house and Robyn then went to bed too. We decided that we would talk in the morning, since we were both really tired.

#Javier #Russhanya #Unika #Robyn