Day 5 - Wednesday July 8

Wednesday the 8th of July, I woke up in so much pain. I could barely move myself. Every single muscle in my body hurt. It was then that I knew for sure I had worked a little too enthusiastic with the axe, the sledge hammer and the shovels. We got ready for the day, ate some cereals for breakfast and got picked up around 8:30 AM. Before we started working, we all sat down under the almond trees in front of the school. From then on, this was my favourite place at the placement. It was cool over there since there was some wind and you could sit in the shadow of the trees and you had a beautiful view on the hills and the road. It was nice sitting there with our building group, having a laugh and some good talks. Romario was with us as well and he told us that these trees were, in fact, almond trees. He showed us the fruits where the almonds could be found in and showed us how to open them to get to the almonds out. He laid the fruit on a flat stone and took another stone to smash it open. Right in the middle of the smashed fruit, the almond could be found. We searched for a few more fruits and of course I wanted to try to smash a few open myself haha. We found a couple of almonds and we all got to eat them, straight from the tree. You would probably think that it is nothing special, but to me it was quite an experience, a Jamaican experience to be more precisely. It was then time to start working. Again we began the day with digging in the holes. We all took turns on smashing the rocks and getting the smaller stones out of the holes. We did this for a little while until we all took a break somewhere around 11:30 AM. It was then that I got to talk with Nicaro. Nicaro was one of the local builders and he was a really nice guy. He asked me all kinds of questions to get to know me a little and I liked to listen to what he had to tell me. He also showed me pictures of a few drawing he had made and he even read aloud a love poem he had written. It was then soon time for lunch. Shelly had made us some salt mackerel, yams, dumplings, some veggies and we got a piece of watermelon. We got some icy lemonade too, which was just like the food, really good! After lunch, we relaxed a bit and sat down under the almond trees again. We wanted to get back to work, but they told us that there was no more work for us to do that day, so we could just relax a bit, get changed and wait for the taxi to pick us up. Then around 3 PM, our driver arrived and he took us back to the Projects Abroad office. We would have a karaoke section that day, but for some reason the microphones were not working. Since we had to wait anyways, we asked the staff if they could take us to the Supermarket (since we were not allowed to go on our own). After everyone had bought their drinks and snacks, we got back to the office where some new microphones had arrived.

It was then karaoke time! No one really dared to go first, but luckily there was Alix, who had the guts to go first. He sang “Grenate” by Bruno Mars, which was absolutely hilarious. Soon everyone followed, even me! I sang a song by Shakira together with some girls of the Care program, but no one really knew the lyrics, so we just play backed mostly. I was never a big fan of karaoke, but this was just so much fun. In the end we just left the singing for what it was and everyone started to dance on songs like the Cha Cha Cha, the Macarena and the Dollar Wine song. I had a really good time that afternoon and I have had such a big laugh. We were then picked up by Andre and brought back home to Unika. We made Ackee & Saltfish together, which is Jamaica’s national dish and then ate it together at the dinner table. The Ackee & Saltfish was really good. Ackee is a Jamaican fruit, which I thought tasted a bit like egg. In combination with the saltfish and the vegetables that are stir-fried with it, it makes a perfect combination.

After dinner, we took a walk to Mandeville town again. We visited the local market where we got ourselves some sugar canes. Sugar cane looks a bit like bamboo. The man selling the sugar cane first cut of the skin, then chopped it into small sticks which were divided in half or in quarters lengthwise. The way you eat it is as following: You break off a small piece (either with your hands or with your teeth) and you just chew on it to get the sugary juice out of it. You are then left with the rests of the sugar cane in your mouth, which you just have to spit out.

After we had bought the sugar cane, we continued our walk through the town. We reached a frozen yoghurt place where we tried some different kind of frozen yoghurt flavours and bought some as well. We took a taxi back home which was only 100 JMD, which is less than 1 euro and ate our frozen yogurt in front of the television. I got myself the strawberry cheesecake and the chocolate chip taste, which were both really nice. After I had finished my yoghurt, I took a shower and went to bed.

#Karaoke #Almonds #Nicaro #Dancing #Sugarcane #Placement