Sunday in Jamaica

At breakfast each day I had been going to a very lonesome place in the buffet -- a place where Jamaican specialties could be found. One day I found bammy. Didn't know what it was until I got home and looked it up on the computer. Bammy is made from cassava; I think this is the first time I've ever had anything made with cassava and I liked it. Another morning I tried salt fish with akee. I knew akee was a Jamaican fruit, and found the salt fish was really salty. When home I did some research and found out salt fish is salted cod, the salt used as a means of preservation.

Our first morning session was about environmental health issues. Really learned a lot and enjoyed everything. This session included more about Zeman's work in a Roma village. I think many were amazed at the poor conditions found there, but since many were getting there first exposure to Roma culture did not realize there are wealthy Roma and also Roma who are very poor.

Then we adjourned to another room to view some videos. We started with a video about Dikembe Mutombo's work in building a hospital in his home city of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mr. Mutombo spoke about this effort. It became his dream to do this because his mother died because she could not leave home to go to a hospital when experiencing a heart attack -- due to a curfew associated with a war. Also this city of nearly 9 million people (do read about Kinshasa above with the link) had only one hospital before. Here in the Twin Cities another hospital was built a few years ago because people in one suburb were complaining they had to drive 20 minutes to get to a hospital. Many American simply don't know how good they have it.

We also saw a short video made a couple weeks ago about transferring some premature babies to the new hospital. Presently 6 -8 babies are in each incubator in the old facility. Others needing it are kept in a nearby box and transferred if their condition deteriorates.

It is hard to believe how tall this man is.

 Above is 7 feet, 2 inches Dikembe with 4 feet, 7 inches Dr. Ruth.They are each standing on the same floor!

At lunch one of the table mates was a family nurse practitioner who is doing research with gay men in Jamaica for his dissertation. The conversation turned to rather graphic details of safe sex and physical safety for gay men in Jamaica where there is indeed a great deal of homophobia and sometimes violence against gay men. Later one of the others observed I was quiet over lunch, saying"After all you are nurse too." I explained it wasn't really Minnesota culture to have such a graphic discussion over lunch!

The conference ended after the luncheon. I returned to my room to change clothes and found the maid had been busy.

I spent the afternoon at the beach. It had been a very long time since I had swum in the ocean. Very peaceful afternoon.

Then I changed clothes and met others for a dinner in the Luna de Mare restaurant. This one is very small and requires reservations. We had a lovely dinner of mahi-mahi. I chose an Italian dessert and my table mates from the East Coast laughed at me. I explained to them that Italian desserts were a bit hard to come by where I live.

We walked out of dinner just in time to see the end of a show session.

I really enjoyed the dance sessions during this evening's performances.

I thought the face of man who is dancing was quite unusual. The thought even went through my mind that he might be from Burma. At the end of the evening's performance we learned he was 85 years old! That is why is face was so weathered and gaunt.

The performers were very good about involving the children in activities. 

Then the dancing moved to limbo. I've only seen this done badly by North Americans at parties.

Here are couple of videos.

Another great day and evening in Jamaica.

Saturday in Jamaica

I was again up early, went to breakfast and then had a chance to take a walk around the resort before conference sessions began.

Here's some Jamaica eye candy!

The morning conference sessions centered first on emerging infectious diseases and the relationship to climate warming. The second session provided several sessions on dealing with diabetes in various countries.

We had lunch "on our own," I decided to try the Seaside Grill and simply had a hamburger -- not very exciting, except for eating it while watching the ocean. I so enjoyed seeing how the color changed during the day. During the time of high noon one sees dark blue, in the middle a beautiful aqua green, and along shore yet another color of blue.

I got dessert at the bar.

Really liked these icy strawberry drinks.

Back to conference for a session by Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Dr. Sanford Lopater.

Here are folks getting ready for the session. Much to my surprise Dr. Ruth is only 4 feet, 7 inches tall.The session centered primarily on what people really don't know about sex.

Dr. Lopater teaches a course to college students in the U.S. and listed what students don't know. One thing on the list was what is really sexual harassment. That reminded me of a time in Hungary when I was speaking to a young physician who was going to the United States on a Fulbright. He brought up how to avoid sexual harassment. Turns out he thought he could be accused of that if he allowed a woman to exit an elevator first or opened a door for woman. I explained if anyone yelled at him about those things they were indeed practicing rudeness, but then did explain how sexual harassment relates to issues of power and sex at the same time.

At the close of session, Dr. Ruth asked one of the Jamaican presenters, Dr. Colette Cunningham-Myrie to sing again. Earlier in the day the computer technician was having difficulty loading her session, so Colette stood at the podium and sang a song.

Above is a bit of Day-O.

After the close of the session I went with two other professors to the Rose Hall Shops. We got a shuttle ride to the nearby shops.

Things here were definitely souvenirs and quite highly priced. I purchased only postcards that I plan to take to Poland in few weeks for an English teaching lesson.

While waiting for a ride back to the hotel, I was quite taken with the view of the flags against the afternoon stormy clouds.

We again had supper in the Fresh buffet restaurant. Then we went out on the terrace to enjoy the evening music. We joined Colette -- above -- and participated in the trivia game. We sent one of the group with the answers every time -- between us we did good. I could answer a question about the first and last states to join the U.S. and the Jamaican folks knew questions about Jamaican history. Diane, our answer person, won the trivia contest and was given a wooden carved turtle, a very beautiful piece of carving.

I was tired and hit the bed early. Another good day in Jamaica, meeting some very interesting people and hearing interesting presentations.

Jamaica Day 2

For once my travels had landed me in a place in the time zone in which I live. I woke up about 6 AM to bright sunshine. I grabbed my swim suit and headed out to the beach. I walked all along the beach, only just getting my feet wet in the ocean. Then back to my room for a quick shower and then down to breakfast.

I didn't know what to expect for breakfast in Jamaica, but found the buffet very large. It is obviously designed for tourists. I could have easily made myself a Polish breakfast, for example. The breakfast above is very American -- scrambled eggs, sausage, fruit, and French Toast. The only unique thing is that I found cranberry butter to put on the French Toast. Overall, I found this hotel, at least, serves cranberry things more often than I find in the states. For example, the selection of juices included varieties one might expect -- orange, pineapple, apple -- being Jamaica also mango, but also cranberry.

The conference did not begin until lunch time, so I had the morning to relax. I took my Kindle out to the terrace and enjoyed relaxing there with a great view.

Then off to the opening luncheon. The professor, Beverly from Simmons College joined me at a table and took the picture below.

I am shown seated with Dr. Gary Silverman, University of North Carolina- Charlotte. He has done Fulbrights in both Malaysia and Costa Rica.

Luncheon included two new foods for me. The first was pumpkin soup, very light flavor and color, nothing like what one might see in pumpkin used for pumpkin pies in the United States. The second treat was guava pudding for dessert. I know I've never before guava like that before. Also, in a country that produces some the finest coffee in the world, I am amazed at how hard it is to find a cup of coffee. Coffee is not available at session breaks, nor is it served with luncheon such as we had. 

One speaker at the luncheon was U.S. Ambassador Pamela Bridgewater.

My new colleague, Beverly, was excited to see Ambassador Bridgewater. Beverly had done a Fulbright in Ghana at the time Ambassador Bridgewater was stationed there.

We were also treated to a message from the Minister of Health in Jamaica. This message was read to us for the Minister was then in Europe at the World Health Organization meeting. In looking at my notes, I found one important take-away message, presented as a story:

Two apples were looking down at the world, noticing and commenting on all the violence. One apple said to the other, "Soon there will be nothing left in this world, but we two apples." The other apple replied, "But will it be me, the red apple, or you, the green apple?" The Minister's continuing message was that we need to stop seeing differences, and start to work together in unity.

The afternoon sessions began with a look at health status after Jamaicans immigrate to the United States. This work confirmed a trend that I already know: health declines as immigrates spend time in the United States. Probably much to the surprise of those who have never set foot outside of the U.S, -- we have some very unhealthy health and cultural practices in the U.S., largely centered around food and activity practices.

The obesity problem was demonstrated in the hotel gift shop. I'm not exactly a small person, but had difficulty finding a T-shirt small enough for me. There were no small sizes, but there was plenty of selection in XXL -- and looking about the lobby I could see why that size needed to be stocked in the hotel gift shop.

The second session concerned how the University of West Indies staff are using all kinds of social media strategies to deliver answers to health questions from students.

I went to Fresh, the buffet restaurant again for dinner. Here I had the chance to speak more with Catherine Zeman, University of Northern Iowa. She did a Fulbright in Romania and for nine years now has taken students to Romania for a joint class with Romanian students and work in a Roma village. Since I've now been in Romania three times, we had a lot to talk about.

I also spent some time with Dr. Paul Brown from the University of West Indies. He did a Fulbright here in Minnesota and will be returning for about six weeks in September.


To my delight the evening show was a kettle drum band. I had never seen this "for real" before. I was amazed at the music that came out of the drums.  I was expected only percussion sounds.

Loved the show. And the weather was perfect. During the afternoon a storm blew in again, but we missed it all while in sessions. In the evening the temperature appeared to be in the low 80s with a gentle wind. Perfect!

Off to Jamaica

On Thursday morning, May 23, I was out the door at 6 AM -- with a temperature of only 46 degrees (7 C)-- to get a taxi ride to the airport. I was off on a 7:30 AM flight to Atlanta. One thing that didn't make the trip was the computer and  truly it was fun to travel a bit light!

Once in Atlanta I quickly found information about the gate for my flight to Montego Bay. The train that provides transit between concourses stopped a very long time at each concourse and since I had to travel from Concourse A to Concourse E, this train ride took a bit of time. I got to the gate for the flight to Montego Bay and got to sit down for one whole minute before boarding. Then I was off to Montego Bay.

Much to my surprise the line for passport control was very long. I thought that perhaps late May would be the start of the low tourist season. Once through passport I changed a bit of money into Jamaican currency, then found my bag and was off to the "Authorized Taxi" desk.

After days and days of rain I was ready for some sun. The cloudy view was discouraging.

Soon I arrived at the Hotel Rose Hall.

The entrance area has a charming fountain.

 

My purpose for going to Jamaica was to attend the Fulbright Academy Global Health Summit. Thus we had a conference rate for our hotel rooms. I wasn't expecting to get ocean view. When I entered my room the curtains were drawn over the window. Moving them aside I was pleased to see I had something other than parking lot view. 

 I wandered around the grounds trying to get oriented. 

Here's the view of the pool and the ocean from the second floor terrace. 

I found what I see from the room is the Wedding Chapel. 

The resort has an inclusive policy. Everyone wears a plastic bracelet to show they are registered guests. All food and most drinks are covered within the daily rate. This was my first experience with such a policy. It is most convenient to not have to pay for everything each time, and there are no tips. What made me somewhat uncomfortable is that there is also no rubbish bins. If one gets a drink in plastic glass, you simply leave it when you are done and someone picks up after you. 

The hotel has one large restaurant which serves meals buffet. That is where I headed for some supper. 

I had food on the plane so I was very hungry. Above is stuffed flounder and some sugar cane. I never could figure out how to eat the sugar cane. I couldn't cut it nor could I bite it. 

While eating a woman at the next table began talking to me. We discovered we were both there for the same conference and that's how I met a professor from Simmons College.

After eating I went out to the terrace and enjoyed the evening show. 

This was a nice jazz group. 

A great first day in Jamaica.

A Cold, Rainy Night on the River

The "tropical system" as the weather people call it has been providing rain every day, and today the temperature is quite cool, too. As I write the temperature is around 50 degrees (10C) and supposed to drop to the 40s in the morning.

For the past few days there have been quite a few barges moored outside.

I found some brave spring wild flowers. Most of the plantings around here are native plants which bring color in the mid and late summer.

Here's a view of the river on this evening.

The lights in the distance are street lights along Shepard Road as it curves along towards the Lower Landing.

The weather forecast is for rain until next Wednesday. I'm so very glad for many reasons to be going to Jamaica in the morning.

Funny thing -- Jamaica is on Eastern Standard Time, so since I'm living on Central Daylight Time, I'm not even making a time change. Been a long time since I've done a trip like that!

Breakfast Adventure

This morning I decided to try a new restaurant. It's the Daily Diner.

 It is part of a new building on the corner of University Avenue and Dale Street. This corner will be a stop on the light rail when it opens next year. The building has retail on the ground floor, including this restaurant, with affordable housing rate apartments on the upper floor.

The Daily Diner is unique because it is a collaboration between Union Gospel Mission and the Twin Cities hospitality industry. It is designed to provide job training for jobless/homeless persons to help them gain employment within the restaurant industry.

The decor is very attractive.

As one can see from the first photo, the walls along the street are large windows. It is light and airy, and so clean that one could eat off the floors.

The photo above shows some of the detail in the ceiling. I didn't realize that the graphic on the wall said Frogtown until I took this photo. Sitting there looking at it, I didn't see the word jump out like that. This area of St. Paul is called Frogtown. I've heard several explanations for this and don't know which one to believe, so I'll not offer an explanation!

Here's my breakfast. I can't complain about the amount of food! The omelet would have been better had someone used just a bit of salt. The diner features Parmesan Hashbrowns. I found I really didn't like them, so it will be easy to diet during future visits to the diner. The toast was wonderful -- I'll go back for that alone. The bread is cranberry wild rice.
The coffee was good, the service was very good, and the price was right. I'll give this place other chances -- maybe try lunch sometime.

I'm off to Jamaica tomorrow for the Fulbright Academy Global Health Summit, so I expect to have a few more breakfast adventures during the next few days. Not taking my computer with me, so this blog will be silent for a few days.

Adventure with Sound of Music

Recently an e-mail from the Ordway Theater reached me, telling about upcoming events. One was the Sound of Music Sing-a-Long. I thought the Ordway was really working to get events to fill the house since the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra which normally plays there many times a month has been a long performers' strike.

I thought my older daughter and I might enjoy this event, so got tickets. Thankfully the rain disappeared in the afternoon, and we were able to walk.

Just before entering the theater I noticed how beautiful the nearby Landmark Center was looking in the late afternoon sun.

 The Ordway Theater is quite elegant, complete usually with a doormen to assist one's entry. I quickly found the Will Call window and picked up our tickets and then we were on our way our seats on the Mezzanine Level. We were given a program and yellow plastic bag with objects a bit mysterious as to their use.

The Ordway as seats were filling up for Sound of Music

 While waiting I read the program and learned that a sing-a-long such as this was originated by British nurses working in a retirement community who wanted good interactive fun for the clients. This has swept the UK and in fact the company who brought this show to St.Paul is from the UK.

At 6:30 the mistress of ceremonies appeared. She explained we had fabric in the goodie bags we could show Maria when she wanted to make new clothes for the children; we had a card that said flibberdegibit to hold up when that word appeared; we had white flowers to wave for Edelweiss, and most importantly we had a party popper to be used the first time that Maria and the Captain kiss.

We were also told to say "The hils, the hills" every time to saw the mountains, to make meow and hiss noises when the Baroness appeared, to make dog noises when we saw Rolf and do say Boo and show thumbs down for anything associated with the Nazis.

The film began and soon everyone was into their "parts." The words for each song were captioned on the screen.

Participants were encouraged to come in costume and after the intermission everyone in costume appeared on the stage.

There were a lot of women dressed like nuns, but the people in grocery bags stumped me until I discovered they were "brown paper packaged tied up with string." One group that simply amazed me were a group of children-- apparently sibs -- who had navy costumes like the children wear at the beginning of the film complete with a father with a whistle. The prizes went to little girl who was being Gretel, had to be a child
because the prize was admission to the Children's Museum, and to a woman who simply nailed the red dress the Baroness wears when she first appears in the film.

Then we were onto the second half of the film, and when Maria and Captain kissed, indeed the Party Poppers when off. I quickly discovered I had confetti in my hair.

It was 10:30 when we began to leave the theater and oh, what fun we had! I was surprised to see lighted trees in the window, thinking this only happened in the winter. To my surprise, one tree by the theater still looks glorious at night.

We walked over the Science Museum Plaza hoping we could still use the pedestrian walk there to get back home.

Got this great view of the University of Minnesota Showboat.

Had to walk the long way around since there was no way to go down the bluff from the Science Museum at this time of night. Got home a bit after 11:00. My daughter wanted to relax with a bit of TV, so it was nearly midnight when we went to bed -- and 11:15 AM this morning when I woke up and decided maybe it was time to make breakfast. What a fun evening we had!