The husbands arrive

We greeted Bobby & Ted at the airport Thursday afternoon. We decided to suprise them by having our driver hold a sign with their names on it while we waited adjacent to the lobby. The unsuspecting men were easy to detect coming out of the airport in their long sleeves!

Cindy & Christina staked out at the airport waiting...

YAY!!!

Ted & his first Jamaican patty :-)

Bobby approves too!!

We departed the airport and drove around downtown Kingston taking in the sites and sounds and smells! The husbands enjoyed patties, ting and cherry juice during the tour. That evening we went to Devon House, enjoying a lovely dinner on the terrace. Although their journey was long, our husbands stuck it out with us and shopped at the grocery store without falling asleep once! We are so glad to have them here and to be able to share with them what we have gained from our experience here in Jamaica and the University of the West Indies.

Last Week in Jamaica

We are coming to the end of our Synthesis here in Jamaica with mixed emotions. We have met so many wonderful people and our experiences have been vast and unforgettable. Yet, we have missed our families and the familiarity of home. Our husbands arrive tomorrow and we look forward to them experiencing a taste of what we have been doing over the last month.

This has been a short week thus far; today is a National Holiday for Ash Wednesday. This has given us an opportunity to complete some of our work and ready ourselves to finalize our experience here. We will meet this week to debrief with our mentors.

Monday was Christina's last lecture day. She prepared and presented a lecture in Pathophysiology which focused on Cardiology. She also assisted in the tutorial with the 2nd year students. The students feel very comfortable with her and seem to line up to ask questions just as they do with their instructor. Just as we are feeling more comfortable, its time to go.

Cindy was in the clinical setting on Monday and visited many students with her preceptor. She especially enjoyed working one on one with a student as the student reviewed her plan of care for the patient and Cindy was able to teach and coach the student in new procedures. The joy on the students face as she realized she had successfully and independently completed a new task gave Cindy even more joy.

Tuesday brought another new adventure. We accompanied two of the instructors to a High School career fair in Christiana. Christiana is in the middle of the country near Knox Community College where we were a couple weeks ago. The drive to Christiana was beautiful as we road in the valley between two mountain chains prior to ascending up the mountain to Christiana. The valley would remind you somewhat of driving in the Shenandoah Valley except the palm, mango, cashew and banana trees made the landscape unique.

Downtown Christiana

For our farmer friends & family, The Jamaican Livestock Association,

complete with a Ford pickup infront

Christiana High School: home to 2000 (!) students grades 7-12

School choir singing The Lord is my Shepherd

The career fair commenced outside under a large tent with school staff and local business' sharing their visions and hopes for the students and a speaker spoke about the students' holding the key to their future. The students preformed drama and songs. Our favorite part was the steel drum selections that the students played. We wish you all could have experienced this with us.

We then proceeded into the school where the classrooms were set up as booths for each exhibitor. We had many students, grades 7-12 plus some persons investigating job changes, stopping by to voice their interest in nursing and we shared some of our experiences, the curriculum plan at UWI and our LOVE for nursing. WE had a fantastic time. It would be interesting to see where these students are in 5-10 years.

The future of nursing!

Students learning about careers in the culinary arts

We returned to Kingston and left the cool mountain air behind. The stories of the area were we traveled, Jamaican history and information on local plants and food were a pleasure to listen to on our drive to and from Christiana. The instructors we traveled with will have an after retirement career as tour guides awaiting them.

Christina & Mrs. Bailey, mentor, expert nurse, friend, flora/fauna guru, with traditional Jamaican headwrap on

Reggie, We continue to learn of local remedies and alternative medications. We will have to share more with you in April at school.

Kingston & Port Royal Weekend

Saturday was a fun-filled day of seeing Kingston and Port Royal thanks to our WONDERFUL hosts (tour guides!) Tania & her husband Paul; and Frank & his wife Carmen. We are so lucky to know such friendly people who are so willing to show us around their country. We cannot wait to repay the favor!!

Tania (Mrs. Cuba) and Paul started our trip by taking us to the mountain tops so we could get a good aerial view of Kingston. What a treat! Kingston is a big, sprawling city surrounded by smaller communities such as Constant Spring, Cherry Gardens, Half Way Tree, etc etc. We could see everything from up there including the sea! The homes clung to the dirt mountainside and we were able to get a closer view of the fire damage from earlier in our trip. We winded down the mountain cautiously; some roads are in disrepair and the road makes sharp bends. We were able to see many of the neighborhoods and their respective shopping districts. It was interesting to hear the locals' view of their city and the direction it is heading. Much of downtown Kingston is abandoned and the shopping, businesses (money) have moved uptown. As we wound down towards the waterfront we were able to see what they meant. We did stop in Half Way Tree to go shopping for Jamaican goods prior to hitting the road again.

We were able to see the downtown waterfront where the park meets the sea. What beauty, and such potential! Paul showed us a beautiful revival style theatre his uncle was involved with years ago. He tried to bring shows and productions to Kingston, but eventually the poverty conditions in the area took over and the theatre faded out. Its structure is still there and is boarded up. There are many highly unique buildings in downtown with gorgeous architecture. We wrapped up our driving tour at Devon House and had a lovely lunch of chicken curry patties and ice cream. This time Christina sampled the coconut (heaven) while Cindy had the fruit basket!

Tania, our lovely hostess, with us at Devon House

View of Kingston, and beyond!

That evening we departed with Frank and Carmen to Port Royal. Port Royal is across the bay from Kingston and is situated at the end of a cape. At one time it was known notoriously as sin city, a dangerous place, because of all of the pirates who called it home. Port Royal was once the capitol of Jamaica prior to an earthquake in which part of the town was lost in the sea. Below is the entrance to the park at Port Royal.

A very old church in downtown Port Royal (~1600s)

Our lovely dinner hosts! We dined at a local fish restaurant where the tables were literally on the end of the pier overlooking the sea and Kingston!

Port Royal: Local fishermen's boats just returned from catching our dinner :-) We enjoyed the freshest fish stew. Cindy had brown fish stew and Christina had steamed snapper for dinner. The entire fish was served on the plate, head on of course! The meal was accompanied with festival (a fried dough), bammy and salad. The freshness of the fish was incredible!

The view of Kingston and the Blue Mountains from Port Royal
Relaxing Carribbean sunset

Cindy with Morgan's Harbor behind, and more Blue Mountains in the distance

Amazing

Frank made sure Christina & Cindy were well taken care of by sending them home with plenty of bammy and festival! Thanks!!!!


Thanks again to our gracious hosts for sharing an unforgettable Saturday with us!

After work fun!

Amidst our busy week, we always find some time to have more fun! This past Wednesday we had a meeting slated with the Nurses Association of Jamaica's President. We were looking forward to seeing what the this highly influential office and its members was all about. We later learned the meeting had to be cancelled due as the President's attention was required due to the King and Queen of Spain's arrival at the Spanish Town Hospital where a ward was being dedicated. We joked that we hear 'that line' all the time :-)



So, with all of our new 'free time' we decided to wrap-up some last minute details at the office and head to Devon House. Devon house is in Kingston, and was build by the first African American millionaire in Jamaica (and the western world). Today Devon house is a museum and its ground a public park for the people to enjoy. They also have many shops and restaurants on premise!

Beautiful Cindy & Devon House





Close-up!

A landmark within the Devon house grounds is their ice creamery. They use local fruits and ingredients to churn out fabulous flavors including: grapenut, fruit basket, cocount, pineapple, strawberry, chocolate, and their famous Devon Stout. Christina sampled the Devon Stout at Cindy's recommendation. It was divine!

On premise is The Brick Oven. They make patties, loaves and pastries in the oven you see pictured. The staff wear traditional Jamaican headwear. Their curry chicken patties are delicious-and spicy! After our culinary tour, we shopped around the local stores for all things Jamaican!

Thursday the Phillip Sherlock International Center hosted an International Craft and Food Fair. After our clinical and classroom engagements, we headed off to see what we could find. All of the booths hosted Jamaican arts and crafts from jewelery to handbags. There was also an assortment of tasty treats including saltfish fritters and cassava pudding.

Cindy shopping for handbags and earrings

Learning as a nurse educator

Despite all of the pictures of food and fun on this blog, we would be lying if we said we were not also learning the role of the nurse educator.From clinical, classrooms, visiting hospitals, clinics and schools of nursing we are learning so much about nursing education and healthcare in Jamaica!

Christina works with a pathophysiology tutorial group on Monday mornings where the students apply their classroom knowledge of physiology (how the body works) and pathologies of the body (what can go wrong) to clinical scenarios. Christina enjoys the aspect of guiding students through the critical thinking process and helping them use the nursing process in analyzing situations. She has learned the challenges faced in working with a large group of 120 students in tutorial from crowd control (noise), to speaking loudly and slow enough for students to understand better, and how to facilitate meaningful discussion in such a large group (moderator role). After this past Monday, Christina is not convinced such a large group is conducive to meeting the objective of having meaningful group discussion! This is one of many examples encountered thus far and Christina continues to work hard as she crafts lectures for this week and next as well as work with faculty to design a better mode to present the tutorials!

Cindy is working with the third year students who are studying Speciality Care such as ENT, Orthopedics and Neurology. Cindy has been in the classroom and clinical setting. She has been at both the University and Public Hospitals. She also spent a day in a local clinic. She especially enjoys working with students in the clinical setting and is learning more from the students than she is sharing with them. They are such bright students with so much potential.

Third Year Students-Smiling even when they are stressed out!

Always into something...

Even Sundays in Jamaica are busy!! This is by choice of course as we are trying to see and do as much as we can during our visit here. Sunday morning we attended the Commemoration Service for the University at the UWI chapel. This week has been one of celebration for UWI in that it is Alumni Week. The church was the most packed we have seen it in the past three weeks and all five pastors who serve were present. After the service we met Dr. Chen who is a Nobel Laureate and Professor of Climatology here at UWI. He won the Nobel Prize with Al Gore for their work on global warming. After church we headed off for a walk around Mona Heights and Papine. A botanical garden is within walking distance to the campus and is said to be around 500 acres. Adjacent to the botanical garden is a small zoo which we paid an entrance fee ($1USd, $80JD). Cindy got to see her first mongoose and both of us really enjoyed the flamingos although none would pose on one leg for us.

A view of an archway in the gardens. A volunteer informed us that the garden does not have as much variety as they would like to see as funding is not a priority, thus much of the grounds is maintained as a greenspace. We still thought it was gorgeous!

On site there was an African vegetarian restaurant, this is Cindy inside of the dining area which was complete with a rock waterfall and bridge.

Christina with true Jamaican colors!

Cindy poses with what we called "pineapple plant"

On our walk home we passed the medical center and Christina posed with an ambulance. They are so eager and wanting to be in photos here. Christina was stunned when a person in the back wanted to be part of the photo op and stuck his head out

Powder Puff Tree

Finding our way around.

Happy Valentine's Day

Friday evening came very quickly! We ended a productive week by shopping at the bookstore on campus, picking up our favorite UWI gear. The temperature dipped down to the chilly 60's thus we needed to bundle up!!! We finished the evening reading and logging the activities of the week.

The sky Saturday morning was crystal clear and blue; it is impossible to sleep in past 0730 here in Jamaica because it gets so warm and you feel like you might miss out on something! We did laundry and tidied up the flat prior to heading out for a day of shopping and discovering more of Liguanea. On the way to meet the bus we saw a wedding party posing for pictures at the famous UWI chapel. The bridal party had beautiful orange dresses that were complimented by orange umbrellas for shade. The bride strode effortlessly across the grass in her long gown despite the blazing hot sun! What a perfect day to get married and be in love :-)

After the bus ride to Liguanea, we shopped at the Post Mall which is a mall anchored by the Jamaican post office. There is an assortment of small shops inside including a men's clothing store, women's store, bookshop, pharmacy, chinese restaurant and salon. The pharmacies in Jamaica have just about everything you could want from snacks to shampoo to china. We picked up candies including peanut brittle, tamarind candy, plantain chips and pepper shrimps. Pepper shrimps are an equivalent to shrimp jerky! Adidas shoes sell for about $4500 and come in every color here, including green/black/yellow for Jamaicans!

Arguably our favorite part of the shopping trip was the Liguanea Drug and Garden Center. The Center is tucked away in the storefronts pictured above. Within the store there are multiple sections. The entire store was a combination of Micheal's, Bed Bath & Beyond, Hallmark, Wetsel's Seed, and CVS all under one happy roof. We spent at least an hour in this store! ESPN was on in the pharmacy waiting area, reminding us of home!

We checked out the local pastry store and bought snacks for later in the evening. We continued on to a Chinese Restaurant in the next shopping mall. Jamaica's motto is "of many, one people" which is so very true. There is a large Chinese contigent here on this small island, among many other nationalities. The Chinese restaurant is on the 3rd floor of the mall and is boasted by many Jamaicans as the best in the area. We are not disappointed as we arrive to a large dining room with a great view of the mountains and northwest St Andrew's parrish. We treat ourselves to Dim Sun, spring rolls, shrimp cane and beef satay. The Jamaicans are right, the restaurant makes delicious food. We most enjoyed the local flavor that presents itself in the scotch bonnet peppers in soy sauce and allspice (pimento) in the spring rolls. Cindy was most generous in tipping our waiter $600 JD :-)





Spring Rolls anyone?

Shrimp cane: Tempura fried shrimp with a sugar cane for a handle

We wish you faithful blog followers, especially our husbands-Happy Valentine's Day!