Settling In

I've been here just over a week now but it feels much somehow. That's nothing to do with boredom, although admittedly I do have a lot of time to myself, particularly in the evenings - after the kids's curfew (7pm on school nights), there's nothing much to do but sit and read, and I guess it can feel a bit lonely at times. I think the reason I feel like I've been here much longer than a week is down to settling into a very different kind of life. Home feels a million miles away and thinking about what I'd be doing if I was there now seems strange - bar missing not seeing my daughter, I don't miss any of it. I'm happy here.



One of many, many games of cricket

 A big reason for this is how kind and welcoming people here have been. I was told right at the beginning of my stay that people who visit CCCD usually comment on how special a place is, and I can see why. The thing that strikes me most is the incredibly strong sense of community here - whether that's a reflection of the closeness of the deaf community at large or to do with so many of the students and staff living here and therefore effectively existing as one big extended family, I don't know, but coming from a world where people barely bother to get to know their neighbours anymore it is something I find very warming. I particularly like watching the way the kids interact, the way the older ones very obviously play a role almost in parenting the little ones (some of whom are as young as four), they way they are all encouraged to take responsibility for helping to cook, clean, tending the grounds, washing their own clothes, the girls spending hours doing eachothers' hair on a weekend, even running their own chapel services. And best of all they're still kids, they carry on and argue and laugh and fight and play like all kids do, and they're a lot of fun to be around.

I have no illusions about my role as an outsider, someone who is passing through and observing this tight-knit little commune high in the exotically lush breezy hills of Manchester parish, and that's fine. I'm most aware of my outsider status when it comes to sign language, as I've mentioned before, but while communication is still not ideal, I'm making do and learning new signs every day - and it seems the more I try, the more the kids want to help me to learn. To be fair my life and role here are very easy, and very comfortable - in return for three meals a day and a large apartment to myself, in effect all I'm required to do is help entertain the kids after school and on weekends through various sporting activities. Getting on with the kids has proved easy - the boys have been easily won over by the range of sports gear I have to offer them, while the girls are even easier to please, I just have to try talking to them to keep them happy.

So my routine is something like this. On school days, it's up at 6.30am for breakfast at 7, followed be Devotion, which takes me roughly to 8.30. After that, the rest of the morning and early afternoon is more or less my own, with lunch around 12/12.30. To get as involved as I can in school life, I've been going to the primary-age class's PE lessons at 11 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while the English teacher, Mrs Johnson, also runs regular 'Reading Labs' which I'm keen to attend, although they have been disrupted by end of year exams this week. The purpose isto help students with the translation of written English (which is extremely garrulous, i.e. there are always about ten different ways of saying the same thing) into sign language (which is by contrast very economical and depends largely on body language to convey context), and the one class I've been to so far was very helpful for my own signing.



Crab Football, an all-time classic

 Apart from that, my day really starts at 3.30pm, when I take after school sports clubs up until supper - older boys on Monday, older girls on Tuesday, younger boys Wednesday, younger girls Thursday, and then a 'free activities' session aimed at younger kids on Fridays. I've loved every minute of these, although I'm more or less learning as I go along. On Tuesday, for example, my worst fears about my ability to engage a group of teenage girls in sports looked like they were going to be realised when a group of perhaps 8 girls turned up, stood in a huddle for about a minute and then turned round and left, leaving maybe three of the more enthusiastic members of the group behind. I had, of course, made a rooky mistake - not having the session set up and ready to go the moment the walked through the door, I had failed to grab their attention immediately, heightening their feelings of self-conciousness and leaving them wondering what the hell they were doing there. Fortunately, I resisted the urge to just give up and carried on regardless with a game of 'HORSE' disguised as a netball shooting drill and then, lo and behold, when I invited a couple of lads who were hanging around if they wanted to join in a game of four square, the girls one-by-one started to drift back and reclaim their session, so we ended up with maybe 10 in the end taking part. Disaster averted.



Me and Alice strike a pose

 My job got about ten times easier on Thursday when it finally stopped raining and the sun came out. Although it didn't really make much difference to the small class of younger girls I was taking that day, who were quite content with a bit of gentle skipping and catch, which could have easily been done indoors, it did mean I could start playing out after supper, which has been the highlight of the weeks so far. I kind of feel like I'm back at school again myself, playing cricket, football, four-square, baseball, basketball or whatever else in the sunshine for hours on end. I can't remember when I was last this active, and it's pretty obvious the kids have way more energy than me. The only real issue I've got is ball trouble - the tennis balls I brought are simply not up to the task of being smashed around with a cricket bat and are falling apart at an average of one per game, while two footballs have also been punctured so far, no doubt due to the wide variety of thorny plants that seem to dominate the foilage around here. I must have spent a good couple of hours in the past few days battering down bamboo bushes, large broad-leaved plants that look a bit like rhubarb, and various spiny specimens in the fruitless pursuit of lost balls. Jamaica's lush greeneery might be pretty to look at, but it's a bugger for losing balls I can tell you.

Saturday was a brilliant day - real hot sunshine, a two-hour cricket game in the morning followed by baseball on the recently-mowed school field in the afternoon, and a film in the evening. I also squeezed in my first solo trip into Mandeville, heaving with Saturday shoppers, particulalry around the crowded and chaotic market. I'd only really gone into town for some super glue to mend a broken shoe, but ended up wandering around for about an hour and a half, lapping up the BBQ smells from the street vendors and the heavy bass lines booming from shop speakers all over town. As relaxing and calm as life at CCCD is, I felt I was due my first taste of the 'real' Jamaica.



Not sure what the cricket bat is doing....

 I guess the only other thing to report is I am now officially a lapsed vegan, as of my second morning here. Angela, the deaf cook, had been told I didn't eat meat, but not that I didn't eat fish, dairy or eggs either. She did try to ask me what I did eat before the hearing kitchen staff returned on Monday, but with my extremely limited sign language I think I just confused her more, and she seemed genuinely concerned about what she would be able to cook for me. Anyway, after not touching a plate of fried fish (which I hadn't even realised were meant for me as I was eating with two American visitors), I didn't have the heart to refuse the plate of cheesy scrambled egg I was served for breakfast the next day (and anyway, it tasted REALLY good). So I've had eggs for breakfast most days since then, and a couple of cheese toasties for supper too. It's not like my sense of self-worth and spiritual well-being depends on eing vegan or anything, so I'm not really bothered. On the other hand, I have eaten a serious amount of rice and peas since I've been here, which is just fine by me, as well as sample some proper Jamaican specialities - fried dumplings, yam, breadfruit, and, best of all, the mangoes, which are in season at the moment and simply blow the imported supermarket crap you get in the UK out of the water.