April 8, 2024 - Week 11

Wow, what a week!

During Sunday, the whole of Kingston was on pause as three Carnival bands marched on separate routes around the city - the Jamaicans have been looking foward to this eagerly following the Trinidad & Tobago Carnival in February. The week was filled with early morning and late night music festivals - every single day leading up to Sunday. I rallied a friend to attend one music festival and was very impressed that inspite of the all-inclusive drinks, no one was rowdy drunk or heaving their guts out as I would find on a Thursday - Sunday night on King Street West.

I lived opposite the starting point (Devon House) for one band (Xodus) and was able to easily navigate my way to join as a spectator and then slip through the road blockages back home as the rest of the carnival goers battled impossible traffic (and by that I mean more impossible than the routine crazy Kingston traffic). The march was filled with colorful and feathery winged costumes, jewels, glitter and loud music - kudos to those who marched as it was so hot the label on my drink melted off.

For the rest of the week, I assisted with Abilities Foundation's inaugural workshop on "Advocacy Training and Development". Around 25 individuals attended both days and discussed the rights of People with Disability, a case study in Japan, learning about the Disability Act and Tribunal itself and listened to a motivating speech from the former president of the Senate who is now on the UN Committee on the rights of People with Disability: Dr Floyd Morris.

The students were all very excited about the workshop and generously shared life experiences. Some of the more humbling experiences which stood out to me included: one youth with mobility issues expressed how his mum and siblings relied on him so he had to sell sweets for financing, one youth with visual impairment recalls how the National Bank of Jamaica refused to open an account for her cautioning that people will steal from her because she's visually impaired, one youth with slow learning wrote about how other students said she could not read or write and was ugly, and one youth is being cyber bullied on her social accounts. Despite these experiences, most students admiringly have an unshakeable believe in themselves, their worth, their talent and abilities and their rights as humans. One student was insulted for being visually impaired and his response was "I may be blind but I have a vision for my future".

As one facilitator concluded with a chant "We have a right, we are ambassadors, we are committed, we are successful, we are going to change the world, but first we have to love ourselves."