Two Years Later

I can't believe it has been 2 years since we left of beloved Jamaica. There is not a day that goes by that I do not think about it or am not reminded of it in some way. I miss Jamaica dearly.

I will always be indebted to the Fulbright Program for this experience.

The kids have gotten so much bigger and are simply amazing.  They continue to wow me each and every day.

My mom, however, was diagnosed with frontal temporal dementia and has not been doing so great. I ask her about Jamaica and she still remembers bits and pieces of it. I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am for that chance to spend that time with her. She may not remember but the kids and I have and will hold onto to those memories for her.

We are about to start our next journey... an RV road trip around this great country of ours. Here's the link in case you want to join us on this next adventure too :-) 

http://brooksfamilyrving.blogspot.com/

Since this will be my last and final post on this blog, I won't say good by just until next time. 

Peace, Love and Blessings!!!

Not Goodbye but Until Next Time

I'm sitting on my wonderful porch staring at my favorite mango tree watching my mom walk around the yard one last time. This is my last blog post from Jamaica (until next time) and it is extremely hard to write. I hate saying Goodbye so I will not... I will say Until Next Time Jamaica. Unfortunately I have already packed my computer so I cannot include photos in this post, but I will be sure to update it with many photos later. The last couple of days have been a blur. Kenric and his mom arrived on Thursday and it has been nonstop ever sense. On Friday the department hosted a farewell party for us and it was wonderful. They had a full lunch of chicken in pineapple sauce, fish, rice and peas, cabbage salad and fruit. The department chair thanked me for my work this term and invited me to return which I was most a appreciative of and will certainly take her up on. After the luncheon we headed to the Market and craft market for souvenirs, art, and spices to take home. As usual that was an experience but I am so glad my mom-in-law got to experience it. Today we made our last journey to the mall so that I could have the cable disconnected and just made a day of it. We shopped and ate lunch there before heading to the Devon House for ice cream one last time. This morning didn't start off so great as Kenric, Joshua, and I witnessed a dog get hit by a van. That was the most horrifying thing I have ever seen and I feel like I've seen a lot. Joshua, of course took it so hard and we have been consoling him most of the day. It has been hard day of goodbyes...oops I mean until next time.... and I have choked back a lot of tears. I'm sure the water works will come tomorrow. So, as I am typing this last blog post of my Fulbright experience, we are finishing out our stay in Jamaica with a bonfire built by our good friend Adrian. He is roasting us a breadfruit, the one fruit we had not tried here in Jamaica. So I will leave this post and go enjoy my last night in Jamaica with my family and friends. Not goodbye Jamaica but until next time...

What another spectacular day here in Jamaica.  Early this morning we loaded up the  car and headed to Portland to visit a friend and his families coffee farm.  I didn't think I would get to travel through my beloved Blue Mountains again, but I did today!  

Just like last time we had to drive through New Castle, the military training base, except this time I stopped to get a couple of photos:

New Castle

Of course I had to take a picture of the military burial grounds

We met Adrian at Holywell (the place we stayed in the cabins... read a few blog posts back for a refresher on that amazing experience).  He hoped in the car and off he guided us to Portland.

Our view on the way to Portland

Another view on our way to Portland

About 20 minutes into Portland from Holywell we arrived at Adrian's family coffee farm.  What an amazing place.  It was wonderful to get a tour to see how coffee goes from the tree to in my cup.  

In the blue mountains just outside of the coffee farm

James Dennis Coffee Farm (true Blue Mountain Coffee)

A Coffee tree (who new coffee beans grew on trees... I didn't)

Coffee beans just picked from the tree

Beans drying (it takes about 3 weeks to dry)

After using the mortle and pestle to break the beans out of their shell beans are then "sorted" to have the bad ones picked out

Beans Roasting

A cute little tray they had to shoe the process of making coffee

See that grove of trees on the dirt patch over there?  That is a coffee plantation (those small tree specks are actually groves of coffee trees).  See? It truly is Blue Mountain

 After we toured the coffee farm we made another treacherous journey to the river.  The roads were so narrow with no rail so one wrong turn and tumbling down the mountain you go. I was unable to get a picture of that view as I was to busy praying for survival.

Once we made it to the river we had a long walk down some rough terrain.  The kids cried and I was a bit nervous but it was SSSOOO worth it.

Arriving at the river... This part was sectioned off with rocks to make a swimming hole

Mama relaxing as we get ready to swim

The swimming hole

Us in the FREEZING water admiring the view... colder than any pool or ocean I have ever been in

The hill we walked down coming and had to walk back up to go

We noticed a cocoa tree on the way up

Nay refused to walk because of the steep hill and even steeper cliffs  next to us... I was slipping in my flip flops so I had to go barefoot.   This must be what it feels like to be...

On the way out we go stuck on a very steep hill on a very narrow road with no guard rails.  The car kept sliding back and we just could not make it up that hill.  Needless to say we were all a little scared.  

Adrian to the rescue... He jumped out to go find something to give the wheels some traction

Thank goodness he found something... we were out of there just a few minutes later.  His comment when he got back in the car "you just have to know the hills" .  Hill my foot... half a foot to the left and we would have tumbled  down a MOUNTAIN

 By the time we were almost down the mountain we were starving. On the way up we pasted a vendor who was cooking up something special.  It smelled so good.  Mr Taylor remembered my mouth watering over that smell and he stopped us by that vendor on the way down.  His Jerk chicken and festival were amazing.

Vendor who sold us some awesome jerk chicken and festival

As usual, we enjoyed another fabulous day!  Days like this will make it hard to leave next week.

Exhaling

Wow! It's hard to believe that we are at the tale end of our Fulbright experience.  It doesn't feel like we have been here 3 months already (and at the same time it feels like we have been here forever). I have spent this weekend exhaling as last week was spent stressing out over the culmination of this entire experience.  On Thursday I presented a paper on my research here in Jamaica at the 10th Annual Archaeological Symposium sponsored by the Archaeological Society of Jamaica. The days before this presentation were extremely stressful as I struggled to get this paper together.  I rewrote it numerous times and just didn't feel comfortable with the results.  I finally resolved to just present that I have no conclusive results but could offer some preliminary observations based on what I have.  I didn't know how that was going to go over, but it went surprisingly well.  Once that was over I felt like a huge weight was lifted and I was able to breathe again.

Friday and Saturday were spent in the house just vegging out and now I am up trying to be somewhat productive.  Classes at Winthrop end next week so I am gearing up for that as I want to have everything graded and grades submitted prior to me leaving Jamaica.  When I get home I probably won't be able to move for a couple of days so I want to make sure all of my responsibilities are taken care of.

I won't be down for long though... when I return (and have rested a few days) we are off to Tennessee to see my great Aunt Ann who will have just turned 94 and to celebrate the 4th Birthday of my BFF's son Jaden.  After that we are headed up to Williamsburg to see friends we made last summer and to use our Williamsburg passes before they finally expire in June.  After that we are off on the train for a mini trip to a destination unknown at this time. In addition, Kenric and I will be taking our first solo trip (without all the kids) in June as we celebrate our 11th anniversary.  Then there's camps for the kids (my baby's first sleep away camp... that I am completely freaking out about) and a week long trip to stay with the grandparents (who they miss so much).  All while we finish renovations on a house project we have going on.  

Whew!  That sounds crazy just typing it, but I am excited and ready to go.  More Brooks family adventures ahead!!! :-) 

Happy Easter

7 April

Today was a great day.  We were able to mark another place off of our list of things we want to do before we go home.  We headed to the Rockfort Mineral Bath this afternoon.  Supposedly this spring opened in in the Great Earthquake of 1907 and offers healing qualities (which explains why there were so many senior citizens there I guess :-} ).  The only downfall is that you are only allowed one hour in the water.  The water was amazing... it wasn't full of chlorine or salt.  The kids could swim without their eyes or nose burning.  The water felt smooth... I know that sounds strange but that is the best way for me to describe it.  It felt like how I would imagine bathing in a tub full of water and fabric softener.

After our swim I tried to stop and get the kids some lunch... they were starving after our swim.  I went to the ATM only to learn that my card would not work.  Uh oh!  I had just enough cash to pay the taxi to get home. Once home I headed out to the ATM machine on campus and then to Juici Patties to get the kids some lunch.  After a two mile walk to return with what little food could get (the patti place, the only food place open, had only 3 patties left in the whole restaurant... I was able to get two of them) I was exhausted.

I spent the rest of the evening trying to work on a paper that I have to give at a conference next week.

All-in-all it was a great day!

Joshua and Averie about to jump in

Getting the baby used to the water

The kids and I in the Mineral Bath

Joshua and Mama dancing to a Michael Jackson song in the yard of the mineral bath

Still dancing and Mama singing :-)

 8 April

Happy Easter Everyone!!! Today has been a great day here in Jamaica.  We woke this morning and had Bun and Cheese for breakfast.  Bun is a spiced fruit bread and the cheese is a processed cheese in "tin".  The thought of eating both together (I try to limit my processed food intake ;-} ) did not sit well with me.  To my surprise it actually tasted pretty good.  The kids really liked it. It was exciting being able to celebrate the holiday the way everyone in this country does.

Bun and Cheese! An Easter tradition here in Jamaica

It was actually pretty good... the kids really like it!

 After breakfast we headed to the Chinese Cemetery to witness Gah San.  Gah San is an annual celebration in the cemetery where people come out and clean the burial sites of their loved ones and leave food offerings and burn incense.  We are obviously not Chinese but no one seemed to mind that we were there.  It was really exciting for me to see such a process.  In my research I usually see the aftermath of burial and never get to witness any rituals associated with it.

A man having a burial site cleaned and burning incense and some kind of paper I didn't recognize

A view of some burials in the cemetery

Another view of the cemetery (this is the older section)

 When we got home I decided to cook a traditional Jamaican Easter dinner.  I cook Fried fish, brown stewed fish (with a little to much browning) rice and peas, and cabbage salad.  It was delicious.  I thought we would have enough in case we get hungry later but the food was devoured.

Fried fish, brown stewed fish, rice and peas and cabbage salad

Bitter Sweet

Well today was a bitter sweet day.  I taught my last lecture at the University of the West Indies, Mona. It is always hard for me to say goodbye at the end of the term because i form such a bond with my students, but this time it was exceptionally hard knowing that I will be returning to the states soon.  

I am so truly thankful for this opportunity to be a Fulbright Scholar and for this experience to teach in another country. For those of you considering applying to Fulbright, I highly courage you to do so.

Learning the ins and outs of the university system, the students and faculty and the culture as a whole was a bit of a challenge in the beginning but once all of that was figured out classes went smoothly. I learned just so much from my students here and I hope that they learned something from me in addition to methods and theory in archaeology.

I will truly miss Kingston Jamaica.  I can tell already that I am going to have to adjust being back home as I will long for the comforts, the sounds, the sights, the smells (of the food anyway) of this place.  UWI in particular and Jamaica overall has captured a piece of me... a piece that I plan to leave here to ensure that I return someday. This place has changed me in ways that  I couldn't have imagined before I came.  A new or should I say renewed Christina will be returning to South Carlina in a few short weeks.

Until I return Jamaica, stay blessed.

SURPRISE!!!

What a wonderfully spectacular weekend! On Friday as we were shutting down the house and preparing for bed a car pulled up.  My first thought was that it was Fedex (my hubby was supposed to be shipping me something) but then I realized it was a bit to late for a delivery.  My next thought was that it was a lost shuttle (there has been a shuttle circling the neighborhood dropping off visiting international sports players the last couple of days). As I was opening the gate to tell them that they have the wrong house Kenric walked around the van.  It took my brain several seconds (which felt like minutes) to register who it was.  I couldn't grasp that this was real and he was really standing in front of me. Once it all came together I leaped into his arms and didn't want to let him go. He really surprised me (which he can't normally do... he always ends up telling me or giving away all surprises before he actually carries them out).  Score now: Kenric 1 Christina...

The kids were really happy to see him.  Nathaniel couldn't believe it was real either... he said "daddy daddy" more times than I can count and he keep a huge grin plastered on his face.  He wouldn't let daddy out of his sight the rest of the night... even slept snuggled up with him.

Kenric and the happiest baby ever to see daddy (even though it's hard to tell here lol)

We didn't do much the rest of the weekend as we were just happy that Kenric was here with us.  We ran little errands like running to the grocery store, getting the boys haircuts and salvaging our fruit trees.

On Saturday we happened to look out the window and noticed that our banana tree had fallen over.  Kenric chopped off the bushel (is it a bushel of bananas?) to salvage the fruit and we spent the rest of the weekend eating the most deliciously sweet bananas.  It's hard to explain but eating bananas right off the tree is extraordinarily better than any banana that can be bought at the grocery story. We've been eating fruit salad, bananas and mangos with whipped cream, and frozen bananas. I tried to find pudding and vanilla wafers to make banana pudding but I could not find pudding :-(  If anyone can think of any other recipes that involve bananas we would love to have them.

Fallen banana tree

Salvaged bananas

As far as recipes go I have been learning to cook traditional Jamaican dishes.  Today Ms Cicelin taught me a Jamaican staple of rice and peas (well actually just the peas because I didn't have the rice). It's basically like cooking beans as we all know how, slowly cooking for hours on the stove.  The secret ingredient is that the beans are cooking in coconut milk.  Once the beans are nearly finished fresh thyme and scallops are added and then salted to taste.  Oh my goodness.  No more canned beans for me lol.  When I get home I am going to make a ton of beans like this and just freeze them.  Since I didn't have any rice I chopped up a jerk chicken and let the chicken cook down with the beans.  I threw it on a tortilla shell added some cheese and the kids devoured their "burrito".  My Jamaica fruit man, as I call him, happened to stopped by and gave me many more recipes to try.  I learned today that he is actually a chef and not just a chef but the personal chef of  a Jamaican entertainer (whose name I cannot remember right now).  He promised to come back on Sunday to cook for us and I am thrilled at the possibility.  Ms Cicelin promised to bake us one of her famous coconut cakes.  At least we will eat well the rest of our visit.

Kenric left this morning.  It wasn't as devastating as it was the last time.  Maybe it's because I know that the next time he comes in just 4 short weeks (3 weeks and 3 days to be exact) that he will be coming to pick us up to take us home. Until then...

Averie wanted everyone to see that she lost her two front teeth... look like we know what she wants for Christmas