Touching base

Hello all! First a call out to Salli and to hope her finger heals well...you still rate a 10 finger salute Salli!

We are again making a housing transition in our home arrangement. I suppose, as banal as it sounds, it isn't MUCH different in trying on jeans until you get one that fits your particular shape. The apartment we now have and will be surrendering was a step up in that it was our own place. The downside is that it was basically a concrete box and no way to get outside without standing in the street. In addition, the deal struck was not the deal held to by the landlady so we quickly were going to have to be using our own money to maintain our situation. We have found, due to the efforts of our former host mother who has remained a key person in our lives here, a second floor place with a large outside deck. A tad smaller in some ways but a LOT brighter and airy and it even has it's own water tank so we might have water more than 3 days a week. The 'current' place promised a water tank but it became clear that was not going to happen.

So within a few weeks we will move on again to a place nearby. This constant moving about is getting old to be sure and we truly hope this is our last move.

Project wise the work remains slow to start which we are constantly reminded by other more experienced PCV's is the NORM. A number of possibilities are hanging out there with any one of them being a FULL project or work load. Many ofthe PCV's [especially the older ones] have left because the work was NOT defined upon their arrival and at 55+, the two year committment is a greater percentage of the time one has remaining on this Earth. They were basically told to go make something happen which is what we are attempting to do as well. We have hopes though and will work hard to get something rolling. Kare has a beginning spate of work with the schools after waiting nearly 2 months to make a contact with her community partner. She has kept herself busy and I am impressed by her generally unflagging attitude in this. She has helped the clinic out with her long and deep clinical skills and is making a good transition into their clinic environment. I've made some good contacts and working relationships with some key players [Mayor, Jamaican Safety Director, the Chairman of the UDC, the board of the fishermans cooperative]. Now to get them all lined up and agreeing on what it is they want me to actually do is the challenge. For those who know me well, this is hugely taxing...hurry up and do nothing....or at least it feels like nothing at this point.

We are headed out to Falmouth to see more of the country this weekend and to visit with our former 'roomies' from training. The approximately 100 trip will take nearly 4 hours to accomplish but the scenery will be different and what the heck, it isn't like I need to hurry home to stack wood before the snow flies right?

Love to all and for those of you that write...thank you!

Love to all,
Matt