So, after nearly 10 weeks, I'm finally fulfilling (at least what I imagine to be) the blogger/traveller stereotype and updating this blog from an internet cafe. The primary reason for this is what's going to take up the majority of this post.
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| The smallest lizard I have ever seen (although it's not the reason I'm writing from an internet cafe) |
I'm no longer staying at Great Huts.
I'd love to be able to give some sort of scandalous reason as to why this may the case, elicit love affairs, crazy parties or wanton nudity for example, however I'm afraid I must disappoint you. The reason for this is not a scandal, however it does contain scandalous elements. Basically the resort has been fully booked by a group that is composed of university students who practice music as therapy for people with mental illnesses and other issues.
They've been visiting Great Huts for about six years apparently, and it's within the reports of these earlier years that I heard from the staff that is where the story gets scandalous. Most years the group is supposedly composed almost entirely of 18-24 year old female university students. This year for example, the group of fifty contains only two guys. Now, as you can imagine with a group of young university students (who all of sudden can drink legally as well I'll point out), shit gets crazy loose.
I'm not joking when I say crazily loose either, apparently last year girls were climbing the resort's fences to go out and drink and see guys because they were padlocking the gates at 7pm. Also apparently a whole bunch went home pregnant!!! Staff at the resort apparently aren't even allowed to talk to the group members, much less hang out with them. So on the whole it sounds like some sort of musical prison camp.
As a result, as the only male volunteer, my presence at the huts is entirely unwelcome. I'm told as well that even the presence of the other volunteers is only just being tolerated by the people running the group. There is something of a bright side however, I've been given my own house to stay in! No more crabs, no more lizard poo on my clothes, and tiles on the floor instead of sand!!
There are some drawbacks, notably that getting my meals becomes a bit more of an effort, requiring taxi trips and such. That said, I found a really good cook-shop up the road that will actually sell me a meal for less than the price of my taxi fares to and from Great Huts so I may just go there. The other downside is the lack of internet. It's not the biggest loss in the world, but the inconvenience of now having to go to internet cafes and plan my internet time is a bit less appealing.
Other than that, things are going well, I'm busily planning my travels here in Jamaica, with all my accommodation booked for the places I'm going. The plan is to head to Negril on the 15th with Lindsay, Danielle and Imani, where I'll stay until the 19th, before going to Montego Bay for a couple of days, then on to an eco/spiritual retreat run by a girl I met in Kingston, before one last night in Boston, then Kingston for my flight home.
Shelter-wise we have a big excursion planned for the clients using some of the funds raised by the cake sale which will also be on my last day at the shelter so that should be a really nice send-off I think. We're going to go and check out Reach Falls, which are a really impressive set of waterfalls about an hour out of Port Antonio.
An on that note I'll finish, however, in an attempt to establish a kind of regular thing, I'll leave you guys with some more music. This one is a really nice track by an artist called Chronixx, who is supposedly being touted as the next Bob Marley. I was introduced to him at my friend Thea's bar, by the leader of the local community group, who bought me a drink before insisting I watch his dance moves which, he claimed, he 'didn't need to go to university to get.' I hope you enjoy.
They've been visiting Great Huts for about six years apparently, and it's within the reports of these earlier years that I heard from the staff that is where the story gets scandalous. Most years the group is supposedly composed almost entirely of 18-24 year old female university students. This year for example, the group of fifty contains only two guys. Now, as you can imagine with a group of young university students (who all of sudden can drink legally as well I'll point out), shit gets crazy loose.
I'm not joking when I say crazily loose either, apparently last year girls were climbing the resort's fences to go out and drink and see guys because they were padlocking the gates at 7pm. Also apparently a whole bunch went home pregnant!!! Staff at the resort apparently aren't even allowed to talk to the group members, much less hang out with them. So on the whole it sounds like some sort of musical prison camp.
As a result, as the only male volunteer, my presence at the huts is entirely unwelcome. I'm told as well that even the presence of the other volunteers is only just being tolerated by the people running the group. There is something of a bright side however, I've been given my own house to stay in! No more crabs, no more lizard poo on my clothes, and tiles on the floor instead of sand!!
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| My new home |
Other than that, things are going well, I'm busily planning my travels here in Jamaica, with all my accommodation booked for the places I'm going. The plan is to head to Negril on the 15th with Lindsay, Danielle and Imani, where I'll stay until the 19th, before going to Montego Bay for a couple of days, then on to an eco/spiritual retreat run by a girl I met in Kingston, before one last night in Boston, then Kingston for my flight home.
Shelter-wise we have a big excursion planned for the clients using some of the funds raised by the cake sale which will also be on my last day at the shelter so that should be a really nice send-off I think. We're going to go and check out Reach Falls, which are a really impressive set of waterfalls about an hour out of Port Antonio.
An on that note I'll finish, however, in an attempt to establish a kind of regular thing, I'll leave you guys with some more music. This one is a really nice track by an artist called Chronixx, who is supposedly being touted as the next Bob Marley. I was introduced to him at my friend Thea's bar, by the leader of the local community group, who bought me a drink before insisting I watch his dance moves which, he claimed, he 'didn't need to go to university to get.' I hope you enjoy.
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