rachelanna.com

Dear loved Friends and Family,

I did arrive safely and am having a good time… I was not charged at all
for my overweight luggage–everything went very smoothly.

DON’T BE ALARMED, but you should know that today there is a hurricane storm
passing about 150 miles below us in the ocean, but they still cancelled
training for the rest of today. I don’t see why since it is only rain and
wind and so far it has been very light and has supposedly already passed the
island, but oh well. I can use the time to catch up on reading.

For the next five weeks, I will be in what is called Community Based
Training, or CBT. Mail will be delivered to my training site once a week.
I think that we in Water San will be based in Old Harbor/Old Harbor Bay for
that time. then we will come back to Kingston for a week, which will
complete our 7 week training session. “Swearing in,” the event that
signifies that I am officially a PCV will take place on August 22. Then, I
will go to my site (having had seen it once or twice while in CBT) and stay
there for my service (providing that all goes well and it is a good match).

My address in Jamaica has changed to:

Rachel McVey
c/o Suchet Loois
United States Peace Corps
8 Worthington Ave
Kingston 5
Jamaica, West Indies

it is very, very, very important that every line reads EXACTLY as shown
above.
it is a long address for such seemingly little information. anyway, that is
the address for all mail and packages, at least for now. in six weeks time,
I may give you another address to send mail.

Some of the words or phrases they have taught us to say in Patois:

–”Marning!”
–”wa-goin”
–”nutin”
–”ire”
–”wa-yo-naa?”
–”mename-a-Rachel”

those are just some of them.
So today, I was walking to class and I decided that I would say “Marning!”
to every Jamaican that I met, and sing hymns along the way. it was so much
fun and even just saying hello impressed and made the people I met feel
good.

In training, we are learning that one of the most self defense mechanisms is
to integrate ourselves into Jamaican culture, learn the language.
Jamaican’s respect for an American goes way up when the American can speak
their language–and their respect is what I need to work with them and get
my job done. Sometime it may also come in handy to get my self out of a
situation that I don’t want to be in.

I love you all!

Hopefully, I will soon send (if you would like) a picture of the Kingston
Drummers. They were so much fun.

With much love,
Rachel

Dear Friends and Family,

I have arrived safely and am having a GREAT time!! last night, we had a
welcome dinner and the kingston drummers performed for us. they entered the
room singing “sho-la-zo-sha” or something like that–one of my favorite
African songs. that was so much fun for me. they were so good. !!!
Training is going very well. I am out of time.
I love you and will write again soon.
love rachel

dear loved friends and family,

Tomarrow at 6:30 am we will check out of the omni colonade hotel–all 77 of
us. At 11:00 our flight will be lifting off and at 11:48 am will will land
in our new home, Jamaica. I can’t write much now, but I love all of you!!!

Much love,
Rachel