Zinc Alleys

Another week in which I have been involved in lots of things: the Burgher Boyz, Parents' Places, Global Implementation Conference, National Volunteer Centre and catching up with Mama Brown

One of the highlights of the week was time spent at the Eastern Peace Centre where I had the opportunity to meet the participants of the Burgher Gully project. The 22 young men had written, or drawn pictures, describing what they hope to achieve through their participation. The ambitions were not unreasonable. The focus was consistently about increased levels of skills in various things - literacy, mechanics, electrical work. Jobs are extremely hard to come by in Jamaica but many of the jobs to which the youth aspire would lend themselves to an entrepreneurial approach so I am hopeful the programme will help. In reviewing the intake forms I noticed that several of the participants had the same address. In exploring how this could be given these young people were clearly not related I was invited to visit the address on Mountainview Road. Just a little way up the road we arrived at a large church. We walked behind it to an open piece of land surrounded by zinc fences with a small alley leading off it. Behind the fences were the small, makeshift homes in which these young people live. Dividing the houses and the path into these communities are the 'zinc alleys' . The zinc alleys are formed by the 8 foot high zinc sheets that line the properties.The alleys are about 3 feet wide and wind through the community. Once in the alley one cannot see out, the fences are too high and the only holes in them are the holes left by bullets, or rusting disintegration that has not yet been patched. It is easy to imagine gunmen controlling these alleys and "protecting " the community defined by the don. The boundaries of the community are clear, the gully to the west, the church to the east and roads to the north and south. The alleys are poorly lit, with self-made lights holding weak light bulbs irregularly distributed down the alleys. Electricity comes from a spider web of fine wires running from a single pole out to the alleys and then into the yards and houses behind the zinc fences and water runs through hoses that branch out to the houses, some buried into the earth into the earth floor of the alley, some running down the side.
Kingston seems to have endless surprises and secrets, and the resiliency of those who live in such difficult circumstances continues to garner my enormous respect.

Mid-week Mama Brown, the woman who has taken the initiative for the Riverton women's project, came into Kingston and we had a chance to catch up. The barrels filled with donations arrived in Jamaica before Christmas but are awaiting the signature of the Minister to waive the import taxes on the goods donated. It is frustrating that the bureaucracy can move so slowly and apparently for no good reason as the forms have been at the Minister's office for a while. Mama Brown is extremely appreciative of the donations received to assist with the shipping, and sends thanks. Her trip to Ontario was a tremendous experience and she hopes to return there in the not too distant future. In the meantime she will continue to work with the women in Riverton. Riverton is a community that has developed beside the huge landfill in which Kingston's garbage is dumped and many of the women earn income from picking though the dump for scrap metal, this work is often controlled by the dons. Providing the women with a means to start small businesses will improve the quality of their lives enormously.

My other major activity during this week has been conference planning both at DRF and with colleagues in Washington. The two processes are quite a contrast given the different scale of the events. It has been delightful to see colleagues with whom most work is done through telephone conversations and email communication. The Global Implementation Conference 2011 is shaping up to be a very exciting prospect in the development of implementation science.

On my return to Kingston I look forward to facilitating a session that will help move the Parents' Places towards effective implementation.

"Blessed I have life."

Getting back to work after the new year has been interesting and busy. Putting on the ground the new programme recently funded by UNICEF, increasing the attention to planning the 5th Caribbean Conflict Resolution Conference in April, work on the 1st biennial Global Implementation Conference and addressing the lack of funding but commitment to delivering the youth programme have made for a challenging week . The week ended with a wonderfully relaxing weekend in Fort Lauderdale which is the reason for the delay in posting!

Implementing the Burgher Gully Project has given the opportunity to test out some of the new processes and systems that will help DRF in its planning and management development, as well as assist the Youth Peace Facilitator and Manager increase their skill level at programme development, implementation and evaluation. These are primary objectives for one area of my work here and it feels exciting to see the results begin to materialise. The assistant youth peace facilitator and cook joined our team meeting on Friday and are enthusiastic about the programme, and I should get an opportunity to meet the young men who will be participating in the programme early next week. One question posed by the assistant YPF was whether girls could be enrolled in the programme. To my question about would girls be carying guns his response was "why not?" It led to an interesting discussion as to "why not" and different environments. He found it very hard to fully understand that there are places in the world where guns are not a readilly available commodity for young people.

The planning for the 5th Caribbean Conference is happening with earnest. It will be an international conference accommodating up to 350 participants and from my perspective the planning time left is frighteningly inadequate. I keep reminding myself that in Jamaica these events always seem to be left until the last minute and always seem to be a fine success!

The week was full of greetings after the holiday. By mid way through the week I was struck with how many people answered the question "Did you have a good holiday?" with "Iam blessed. I have life"! One evening after popping into the CUSO office and hearing this response from both the Security Guard and the Janitor my thoughts turned to how low an expectation this response reflects when uttered in a tone that does not resonate with joy. To expect more than merely life would be expecting too much seems to be the implicit message, by maintaining low expectations disappointment can be avoided. Life is still such a struggle for so many, and with the level of violence in certain quarters, is often threatened. It is understandable that continued life is seen as a reason to feel blessed, but it still strikes me as a lower bar than should be set for the quality of life that should be available.

The week ended in an entirely different place - Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Saturday was spent meandering along the beach and Ocean Drive in South Beach. The colours, simple lines and understated relief of the Art Deco buildings are immensely pleasing to the eye. The sky was blue, and although the air was cool the sun was strong and the shadows dramatic. It was a glorious afternoon. The miles and miles of highway, beaches, hotels and sunworshippers that constitute the south Atlantic coast of Florida felt so far removed from Kingston.

One of the greatest contrasts however was the point of entry! It took two and a half hours from leaving the plane to clearing Homeland Security and immigration in Fort Lauderdale, on my return, in Kingston, it took fifteen minutes! It was lovely to spend the weekend in comfort and in wonderful company.

The week ahead looks to be full of interesting activities, working with those trying to put Parent Places throughout the country, supporting the start of the programme in Burgher Gully, more work with the Violence Prevention Alliance and the week will end once again in the US meeting with colleagues about the Global Implementation Conference.

2011 - A New Year and a friendly welcome home

2010 proved to be a year full of surprises and changes and a year spent in a remarkable place getting to know remarkable people. At the beginning of the year, having settled into my year of volunteering, I had anticipated nine months of continued work with the youth progamme at DRF and my return to Kinark to rejoin the Clinical Transformation process. However the beginning of 2011 sees me in Jamaica working not only with the youth programme but more extensively with DRF; as well with a group of people highly committed to stopping the violence and establishing peace in Jamaica through the Violence Prevention Alliance; and making linkages with those working to establish Parent Places, resource centres that will increase support and access to parent education throughout Jamaica. This is a truly gratifying, challenging and engaging combination of activities.

The last week of 2010 was spent in Barbados enjoying a wonderful time with family. The differences I noted between the two islands raised a little anxiety in me about my return to Jamaica. The peace and reserve of Barbados was a pleasant respite from extrovert and chaotic Kingston. But arriving back felt like getting home! The immigration lines were long and there was much tutting and teeth kissing as people waited but despite this the Immigration Officer greeted me warmly and politely and told me that I could go through the "Jamaican and Caricom" line next time as I am an established resident of Jamaica. As she stamped my passport I heard a voice wishing me Happy New Year, a colleague and Board member of DRF who works at the Immigration Department was walking through the hall and we exchanged greetings and chatted about the holidays. The taxi driver who typically provides me with a drive when I am going somewhere impractical to walk to, didn't answer his phone when I tried to call him but immediately called me back when he saw my number as a missed call and was at the airport within 15 minutes to pick me up. Some Jamaicans home "from foreign" to visit family over the holidays at Mountainview could not find a taxi so we offered them a ride. Mountainview is a community of which I am quite familiar as it is the home of the Youth Peace Facilitators and a community in which we have a Peace Centre. All of these served to remind me quickly of the positive aspect of extrovert Kingston. People always watch out for others, a courteous greeting is always exchanged in passing and one is always acknowledged and assistance offered unconditionally.

Jamaica is adept at making welcome those that come to contribute to this country, and although, regardless of how long I am here I would remain a foreigner, there is a warmth and appreciation in the welcome that is truly humbling.

New Year's Eve celebrations could be heard and seen across the city on Friday night. As dusk fell the firecrackers started, and how nice it was to know the cracks and flashes were celebratory and harmless instead of the not unusual gunshot that would more typically be the reason for cracks and flashes. The view from my balcony at midnight offered myriad firework displays from the magnificence of the formal display at the waterfront that could be seen in the far distance, to the displays in parks and gardens throughout the city. Up into the hills and across the plain fireworks could be seen for half an hour into the New Year and the "night noise" that is usually somewhat irritating was joyful and full of hope and optimism.

Without the security and predicatablility of returning to Kinark I have also been provided with the opportunity to explore what paths I might like to forge for the next phase of my professional life and the combination I have discovered here is very appealing. Some work directly with people in communities, some development and implementation work at the system and community level, some design and innovation work that bring me into spheres of dedicated, intelligent and creative people. I think the only piece I would like to augment it with is the opportunity to do some teaching or academic work, perhaps that too will present itself! As the new year begins and the end of my commitment in Jamaica starts to loom, my energies will be devoted to effectively concluding my work here, establishing what my continuing relationship will be to Jamaica as I cannot imgagine it will disappear from my palette of activities, and establishing what I will be doing for the forseeable future. I look forward to exploring new horizons and learning from those I meet along the way.

Very Best Wishes for 2011, may it bring you joy and fulfillment!

A Very Different Island

This week I am not in Jamaica but in Barbados where Haley, Tasha and I are very comfortably settled for the holidays. It is wonderful to see family here and it is far too long since we have been here together. It has been a week of relaxing, visiting and celebrating Christmas with a difference. There is an easy going comfort amongst the family here and we have been welcomed into their traditional gatherings with warmth. We are staying in a lovely apartment in an old house, Camelot House, that has been renovated. It is on the beach on the south coast with the Caribbean, sunrises and sunsets being the uninterrupted view from the verandah.

Barbados has changed since the days of our annual holidays, with greater sophistication and showing off the well cared-for look of Christmas finery. Every street and road is trim and tidy, houses, trees, roundabouts and town squares are festooned with lighted decorations. Traffic is slow moving and polite, there are no grilles on the verandahs and balconies and the pace is slower and gentler than Jamaica. It feels as if it has embraced its visitors and treats those if us that come to visit as treasured guests with whom those who live here share generously the beauty and ease of this tiny island country. And those who live here are quietly and undemonstrably proud of their island, with a quiet complacency that suggests few think there could be a better place to live.

The variety of topography is different from Jamaica. Barbados is a small island with no mountains but it has glorious coastline and beaches from the placid and lush west coast where the resorts and private houses dominate to the wild and undeveloped north coast with rocky cliffs and caves carved out by the relentless crashing of the sea. The east coast is the Atlantic with no land between Barbados and Africa. The waves that break onto the east shore have travelled a long way and the beaches are long and wilder than the south or west coast, with sand-dunes and miles of open space. The south coast, on which we are staying, has a lived-in feel with holiday homes, hotels, residences and businesses sharing the coast and the roads. A cooling breeze reduces the humidity and the beaches and boardwalk provide a lovely environment in which to walk for miles.



As a visitor, even with family here, I realise my view is limited and I am not privy to the depth of understanding that my stay in Jamaica has provided. Unemployment and underemployment plague Barbados as they do many of the islands. The opportunities are limited but with one of the best education systems in the world, and with a literacy rate in the top five, it does provide for its people to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves. As well, Barbados feels to have a comfort with itself and does not seem subject to the highly competitive and aggressive nature of Jamaica. Both history and politics seem to have been kinder to Barbados, with no garrisons (other than that built appropriately for its Defence Force), no Dons and a still largely unarmed police force Barbados is a wonderful island to visit and a lovely place to relax and soak up the sun and the warmth of a gentle Caribbean culture. However, I will return happily to the layers, complexity and challenge of Jamaica where my view includes the Blue Mountains and the Caribbean and where I will usher in the beginning of a new year and all it has to offer.

Happy Christmas and Best Wishes for 2011!

It is Christmas Eve and as the sun rises and I sit and look out at the Caribbean Sea, I think back on the year and appreciate how generous the world has been to me.

Through both gratifying and difficult events I have experienced a year in which family, friends, colleagues and new acquaintances have provided me with warmth and support.

Thank you all!

I wish for you a Holiday filled with joy and love.

May 2011 bring you wonder and fulfilment.

Happy Christmas and Best wishes for 2011!

The Holidays Begin!

It has been week full of indications of the holidays and preparations for new work in the new year. Final days with the students, developing a workplan for a new project and hiring for another, shopping bonanza days throughout Kingston, Tasha arriving from Halifax via Toronto, Haley returning to Toronto from her annual US road trip and by tonight the three of us will be together in Barbados!

The Youth Programme was busy for the first three days of the week but on Thursday an eerie quiet set in as the school holidays began and no students were at the programme. This is a time for the Youth Peace Facilitators to catch up on the neglected paper work and get organised for the new year but this week had an added and uncomfortable dimension as the funding base for January is still uncertain. UNICEF staff had previously committed to continuing funding until it has completed the evaluation, which they have not yet completed, so we are hopeful they will honour this commitment which may provide another month of reprieve. Letters were sent to the MPs to see if they can offer some interim funding from their discretionary Community Development Funds but there are no certainties and in a climate of debt and cutbacks things feel very tenuous.

Given the reputation of the programme and the value the schools feel it has for them and their students it seems unconscionable that C$1000 a month per parish cannot be found to serve these students.

On a more optimistic note, the Burgher Gully Boyz - We Can Be the Change Project is getting underway. Budgets are finalised, equipment being purchased and the workplan created. The work will start proper in the new year and it will be a very interesting process to explore if this short-term, intensive intervention can interfere with the vulnerability of young men who are beginning to attach themselves to gangs.

UNIFEM also finalised the contract for The Way Out project and hiring will be completed before the Christmas break. I was included as part of the interview team for the Knowledge Management/Communications position and was impressed with the thoroughness of the process developed for hiring. Competition for jobs is fierce and a great deal is demanded from candidates through the recruitment process. The quality of the candidates available is enviable and the team that will emerge will undoubtedly be a dynamic and well-qualified group of five. One of the most interesting elements was as we rated the candidates there was without question a different cultural bias. My perceptions were focussed very much on attributes such as organising ability, task focus, clarity and others in the team much more focussed on storytelling and personal connections. One element that was particularly interesting was the difference in terms of expectations; the candidate whose resume had not raised high expectations exceeded those expectations and the one whose resume had generated high expectations was clearly at a disadvantage in terms of meeting expectations. It was evident that exceeding expectations definitely led to a more positive view at interview, obscuring whether the performance of the candidate was comparitively better or worse than the candidate for whom expectations were higher.

The week has seen shopping bonanza days in downtown Kingston and many of the plazas, though I must admit that I did not take advantage of them. The effort to re-establish downtown as a destination of greater draw and variety continues but the throngs of street vendors and density of people moving through the narrow streets is not an appealing challenge for me!

Tasha arrived on Monday and although the weather was disappointing for much of the week she has had an opportunity to relax and recoup after a very busy term. It is lovely to have her here and she settles very easily into the Kingston adventure, though the pounding music and screaming DJ that went on until 4:30 this morning was not a welcome experience!
"Night Noise" is a significant feature of Kingston and can be excessive. To those of us from places where decibels are measured and monitored and disturbing one's neighbours is unacceptable it is very difficult to tolerate the Jamaican propensity for huge banks of speakers and apparent oblivion to the impact of the volume for those who live within the 5 kilometres across which the sound travels! There is no way to eliminate the sound as windows and shutters are designed for air flow not sound obstruction. It seems, as the holiday season begins, that the noise levels and frequency of street dances increases. As I recall there is not quite the same propensity in Barbados!

As I write this Haley is on the plane to Barbados and Tasha and I will leave here in a few hours. It will be lovely to have time with them and with family there and I am very much looking forward to it.

Given I will not be "In Jamaica" my blog entries may be interrupted and in case this is so I wish everyone a very Happy Holiday Season in which you too enjoy time with family and friends!

A cold front moving in....

The feel this week has definitely been one of the ending of the current year and the beginning of a new one. DRF was a hive of activity getting ready for the AGM, there were meetings and conference calls throughout the week to get a flurry of work completed before the holiday slow down (despite the cold front this is the only "flurry" I am likely to experience I am happy to say!) I attended the launch of a powerful video. From Canada, what is becoming a family harbinger of Christmas, Haley headed south for a ten day road trip through the States.

The DRF Annual General Meeting, the second I have attended, went well. It is always good to pause and take stock. In the busy-ness of the day-to-day one may not appreciate the people with whom one works and the achievements that are accomplished. Accounting for the year provides that moment of pause and allows for the appreciation of what has been and what is to come. The DRF AGM was this opportunity. There are, of course, significant challenges ahead but probably no greater than those that have already been faced and overcome and it will be a pleasure to continue on into the new year to assist with these challenges. The meeting ended with lunch and the joking and conversations over lunch reminded me how warmly I have been welcomed by this wonderful and diverse group of people.

The flow of students to the programme has diminished as exams are in full swing. Those that have not been allowed back to sit their exams are experiencing the real-life consequence of the impact of their behaviour and poor decisions, as their marks will reflect their absence and thus be much lower than they had wanted.
The youth peace facilitators are catching up on paper work and have decorated our office which now looks extremely festive!

On Friday night Jamaicans for Justice, the human rights organisation at which I recently received training, launched a documentary "Victims' Voices" funded, in part, by the EU. http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/JFJ-documents-Victims--Voices-_8228597It reports the stories of three mothers who have each lost a son to police extrajudicial killing. The stories told of three very different young men but all quite unconnected to criminal activity or gangs. One, a fifteen year old cycling back from the store with banana chips and juice. Another, a young man with cognitive challenges, walking home and the third, a young man tidying his room at his home in West Kingston when police moved in during the declared State of Emergency, but after the incursion, and took him because "he looks like a gunman". The stories are heart-wrenching and the documentary, made by a young woman engaged in completing her Master's at UCLA Berkley and a journalist, Madeleine Bair, carefully chronicles the stories without gratuitous emotion. As a result the video is powerful and thought provoking. The three mothers are tenacious about telling their stories so that the police force here becomes accountable, and the killing is stopped. Madeleine and JFJ are to be congratulated for their courage and commitment. The video will soon be posted on YouTube.

Today I heard the weather forecast (something I rarely pay attention to given the constancy. What fun are weather forecasts when they are always the same and always right?) but today's grabbed my attention with the ominous phrase " a cold front moving in from the east" . With trepidation I listened. I was informed that I should anticipate a three degree Celsius drop in the temperature. I am prepared, I borrowed a quilt for the bed, pulled out my 2 long- sleeved shirts and calculated the temperatures that are going to assault me. Apparently, over the next three days it will be a chilly 23C, except during the afternoon when there will be some relief and temperatures will achieve 26C. Cold weather warnings are a little different here, and this is winter even I can manage!

As the week draws to a close, Haley will reach her good friend in California, Tasha will reach her good friends in Toronto and I will spend the rest of the day making preparations for our Christmas visit to Barbados. Tomorrow I pick Tasha up at Kingston airport (I don't think the cold front will trouble her too much given what she is leaving behind!) and "it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!"