July 30, 2024 - Week 27

The most exciting event this week was the Olympics. It was lovely to see the teams from Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, and Jamaica grace the screen for their moment. From Lulus to Sportscraft, Fila, and Puma, many clothing Brands also had a field day.

I've been told that when Athletics starts, Jamaica will be blowing their Vuvuzela horns - these plastic horns are my arch nemesis at sports days. I plan to go to Usain Bolt's Tracks & Records Sports Restaurant to watch a final or two, hopefully without any Vuvuzela horns.

At School, we held a farewell for the other volunteer who ended her CUSO stint on Sunday. This ended with a student teaching us how to dance to dancehall and a teacher challenging me to learn how to whine by the time it's my farewell...

In other news, in my ever-changing role, I put on a paint jacket and got my hands dirty (very literally when I realised you cannot wash off oil paint) to finish painting two Domino tables for the teachers/students. The school received food relief packages for students affected by the hurricane and the rest of the week was spent distributing them.

On the weekend, I attended my first Jamaican rave. Raves are rare in Jamaica, i.e. this was the only rave festival the entire year. However, there was Jungle Drum & Bass and the DJ had a DJ - if you've ever heard a Jamaican DJ, they specialize in interrupting the flow of the music...

To close off the week, I attended an EU film festival and by chance caught the end of a panel discussion on Human Trafficking in Jamaica as part of the "Movies that Matter" festival. I was reminded that no matter the country, vulnerable people continue to be targeted but in this country, people don't trust the police or the government, this made me wonder who victims can trust to bring justice...