Promoting Understanding

 Third Goal of the U.S. Peace Corps:
To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of all Americans.

IMPRESSIONS: Mountains! Trees,flowers,fruit,jungle and forestland ~ A valley surrounded by rolling green mountains,buried deep in coconut palms and bananas, ackee fruit and oranges, avocado and almond, cashew and limes, hibiscus and orchid, jasmine and starfruit...oh, and the glorious acres of sugarcane and bamboo taller than a house!
   Rough, winding narrow roads, disintegrating beneath heavy rains and traffic. Buildings both impressive and depressed. People greeting,colorful clothes and storefronts. Cars and more cars and taxis and trucks and semis and delivery vans..and always people walking bravely.
   "Jamaica is very beautiful, one of the most beautiful places in the world, but we don't take care of it."
 Thoughts of a Jamaican family. Sadly, it can be a harsh place to live, within such beauty. Jamaicans are a proud,strong people, often with unknown priorities. Independent, yet insecure. Dreamers lacking a real dream. Faithful, religious, hopeful on a Sunday ~ yet, where does the hope and faith truly serve?

We come to connect, to learn, to serve. We, from the orderly,prioritized,organized, regulated USA, come to wild, brilliant, relaxed and yearning Jamaica. The contrasts are many and huge ~ the need great. The similarities largest of all: We are all human beings, born on this planet, living as best we can with what we are given.
(Photos are school children in summer camp,sugarcane fields, a north coast public beach, me with my host family's daughter)