The last two weeks have been some of my busiest since arriving in Jamaica, but they have also been some of my best. From an overnight to Dunn's River Falls for our first house trip, to my new weekly routine of spending Sunday afternoons playing football at the Bosco Boys' Home, to the several days where I have been the substitute teacher and had my own class, it has been a whirlwind that I have thoroughly enjoyed, despite the fact that I have been out of energy and have a new habit of falling asleep in my taxis.
Having been in schools for over two months now, it is amazing to see the amount of progress that the students have made in such a short time. For example, yesterday morning I took taxi out to Holy Cross Basic School in Pratville, and the taxi driver was the father of one of the students from the class in which I usually work. We picked the boy up for school along the way (making him the 4th person in the front seat, sitting between me on a pillow on the center console and his father in the driver's seat). At the beginning of the year Tavary was basically a zombie; he would wander into school at a very slow pace, only when coaxed, and for at least the first month I had not heard him utter a single word, not even his name. The past two weeks he has started to give trouble in class. Most teachers (if I can group myself in that) would be annoyed by a problem student, but I've just been so happy that he's been coming out of his shell. His father didn't believe me when I told him of Tavary's newfound personality, as he claims he barely talks at home either, but when Tavary got in the taxi yesterday morning and saw me, he became animated and even answered my questions (which impressed his father). The best part was that since I was filling in for another teacher yesterday, I was not in Tavary's classroom as I usually am, yet Tavary spent the entire day sneaking out of his room and down to the four year old class where I was, content to just stand there holding my hand while I taught the letter "Hh." Every once in a while he would tell the class "Mi daddy carry Auntie Danielle a school today!" Tavary is quickly becoming one of my favorites (as is half the school), but it really is great to see the little ones becoming little people with big personalities.
Anyway, I really do want to make an effort to post more frequently (not just 'cause my father has been pestering me to do so). I feel like there are so many interesting and wonderful nuances about Jamaica that I miss when trying to post solely on big events, so I want to try to post more often and work in the small details that I think are the most important in understanding what my life here in Jamaica really is like.
Happy belated Halloween to all of you who were in a country that celebrated it! My favorite answer that I got for why Jamaica doesn't celebrate Halloween was from one of my Jamaican friends who stated that "Jamaica 'ave nuff scary people dat we don't need a 'oliday fi dem good ones a be actin' scary too!"
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