August Break: Hellshire

They say it like "Elle-shur." It's a little fishing village about 30 minutes outside of Kingston, and this morning we all hopped in the Ministry of Education SUVs and went there for breakfast.

The photos will tell the story: it is beautiful, rustic, and unbelievably hot.

This is the "restaurant" we ate at.

The kitchen.



The cooks preparing the food.



The fish frying. Pretty much all Jamaican restaurants use wood fire.

A fish shack.

A little shop. "Jelly" is what they call coconut water.

A pretty awesome looking man selling conch.

Men scaling the fish.

A fish shack.

Me and my breakfast: fried parrot fish, festival (a fried dough), and bammy (a fried cake made of cassava root)

A man selling jelly. We bought some. It tasted very refreshing.

 That fish, caught fresh that morning, was probably the MOST delicious fish I've ever had in my entire life. Truth!


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I'm participating in the August Break.





August Break: Ghett'a Life

Guess what?!

This is my 100th post!

Anyway, that aside, here are today's pictures coming up soon. First, though, we went to a premiere of a Jamaican-made film today called Ghett'a Life. I would highly highly highly recommend you see this film if it comes to North America/the rest of the world. It was totally fantastic. It was pretty neat to be at the film premiere, too, because at the end they had a bit of a Q&A, and the film's stars stood up from the audience (we didn't know they were there) and just walked up and answered some questions! I was a little starstruck, to be honest!

So I'm going to throw the trailer here so you can get a quick glimpse. We are hoping to get a DVD of the movie next year during our school-twinning project so we can show our students a glimpse of what life is like in some of Kingston's inner city neighbourhoods.

After the movie, we went to Devon House, a national historic site for lunch, and then had their famous Devon ice cream!

Views from my hotel room

Those trees with orange flowers are in Emancipation Park.

Again from my hotel room.

I found a lizard in the bathroom. I think I scared him as much as he scared me!

The movie theatre.

Curry goat with rice and peas for lunch. It was really good!

Me and Lisa at the ice cream shop.

Devon House.

FYI, the story goes something like this: Devon House belonged to a wealthy black man named Mr. Devon just after slavery was abolished. He was a big philanthropist and the country made his house into a historic site.

I'm participating in the August Break.

August Break: Made it!

Made it to Jamaica in one piece... It's 10 to 11pm right now and I've been travelling since 1am yesterday, and I'm in pretty good shape, considering.

We walked over from our hotel to Emancipation Park today, a park that honours the emancipation of the slaves. There's a little pop up music fesitval going on there. The Jamaicans assumed it was because this is around the time of Jamaica's indepdence. Before that, we went for jerk chicken! It was quite an authentic experience. AND extremely, EXTREMELY delicious. I am glad I got a typhoid shot before I left (food-borne illness), that's for sure.

While I'm here, I'll try to post more than one picture per day if I have time.



Norman Manley Airport.



We arrived to torrential downpours.

People waiting at the airport to be picked up. You had to go outside.
There was no option to stay inside.

My hotel room.

The jerk stand.

Inside the jerk cookhouse. It was SO smokey in there!!!

Waiting in line for my jerk.

Jerk chicken and roasted breadfruit.



The music festival.

 I think they are wrapping up the festival right now. It was neat to go and hear reggae music, but I can hear it clear as day through my hotel window, so I am hoping they might let me have a bit of rest. Tomorrow's not a working day, and we are going to go see a movie called Ghett'a Life, which is a film about kids in some pretty rough neighbourhoods here in Kingston.

Okay, reggae's done! Time for bed!



I'm participating in the August Break.



August Break: Away I Go!

My bag's packed for Jamaica! One of our projects is about food sustainability, hence the Michael Pollan book.

I'm participating in the August Break.

August Break: Grow

My garden.

I'm participating in the August Break.

August Break: Pretty Toes

 

Went to get a pedicure today with some girlfriends. Pretty toes for Jamaica!




I'm participating in the August Break.

August Break

Big plans, guys. I had big plans. This summer, I wanted to paint my walls, clean out my basement in hopes of starting to develop it, and fit in some other creative projects along the way.

Then life got in the way. I got some really exciting news at the beginning of July. A colleague and I had applied for a grant through the federal government's international development brach, and we found out that we got it! The grant would twin our school with a school in Jamaica, with the aim of engaging more Canadians in international development. One of the perks of the grant was that my colleague and I would be going to Ottawa for a week at the end of July for training and planning. Then in August, we'd be going to Jamaica!

So my summer suddenly took a different turn.

I had also committed to going to visit my grandma in southern Ontario with my mom and sister the second last week in July. So the last two weeks in July were spent in Ontario.

Now I'm home for a week before we go to Jamaica. I am so so so excited for this!

To add another wrench, before I knew that we got the grant (by the end of the school year we just kind of assumed we didn't get it), I accepted a contract with Alberta Education to develop some lesson plans for them.

So suddenly, I have absolutely no free time to do the creative stuff I had wanted to do this summer. That's okay, though, as I am super thrilled to have gotten this grant and the opportunities it will bring my way. Still, I want to do something creative this summer...

Enter: the August Break!

I am going to try to post a photo per day as a part of the August Break, just to show a glimpse of what's going on in my life, and to allow myself a bit of creativity through the composition of the photograph. To start us off, I'll post a few photos I took in Ottawa, to make up for the first nine days in August.




The Parliament buildings.



Canadian geese, the Ottawa River, and Parliament Hill.

Parliament Hill has a Cat Sanctuary for stray cats! How cool is that?!

Inside the big tower, the Peace Tower, on the front of the main Parliament building.

We actually stayed right across the Ottawa River, in Gatineau, Quebec. This manhole cover translates to "One life, one city."

I went to the Canadian Museum of Civilization. This is part of the First Nations Hall.



Parliament Hill at sunset.



We went to this light and sound show called Mosaika, which was projected onto the Parliament Building. It was really neat.

As part of our training, we did a video conference with Mali.



My colleague Lisa, my "twin" from Jamaica, Rono, Anna from the feds, and me!


 There we go! Hopefully (fingers crossed!) I can keep up with this! One photo a day... I think I can do this.