Yahman! (part 1)

I got back into CT yesterday, and it is fucking freezing here. Well, no. It's hovering around the freezing point, which usually is not a problem. But approximately since St. Patrick's Day we have had 65+ every day! Thursday and Friday in CT were warm, Boston on Saturday was a good 70, and then Jamaica has averaged somewhere in the 300,000 range I think.

Nuvel.

I have decided to try and recap the trip with a few words and a few pictures. Bear with me please, this might be a long one (note: pictures have been shot at an infrequent rate at no particular point in time every day. Whatever was found interesting or not interesting is documented. What you are about to see is merely a fraction of the 400+ photos taken. Enjoy).

After landing in Montego Bay Sunday afternoon, we shuttled to Toby's Resort, not 5 minutes from the airport. After some beach time where Iggy was the designated shooter, we ventured back for some dinner. Before chow however, we did some rinsing off in the pool and some shots at the pool bar. Already a good trip.

Two of the energy kids that came with us, Alicia and Jeff:


Our teachers did not want us to post any pictures of us drinking alcohol, but I doubt any of them are reading. And if they are, I don't care!

After two rounds of pool in which Jeff beat me pretty badly, we wandered off into the night to check out what kind of nightlife Montego Bay had to offer. Instead, people kept running back and forth, some buying "shoes" and others buying alcohol for the next day. This led to Iggy being very unhappy:

After a short stint out and about followed by a rum-drinking session on Jeff and Justin's balcony, we went to bed around 2.30.

Next morning, early breakfast and it's time to learn! We were scheduled to visit the Western Society for the Upliftment of Children. This is a non-profit organization that works with street kids or kids that are in danger of becoming one. They school them, let them access computers, engage in theatre and put them in a safe environment during the day. We were visiting both of their campuses, the second one is still under construction:

After finishing with the WSUC, we hopped on another bus and drove to Global Villa, which is a small guest house outside of Lucea. In keeping with the theme, we hit the beach promptly, Red Stripe and rum in hand. After a shower, some food and more red stripe, things escalated, and the second night of shenanigans was a fact.

Tuesday was one of the days I had most looked forward to; we were putting up a wind turbine at a nearby high school. Arriving at the school at 8.30am, everyone was happy and lively:

After a lot of delays, some inaccurate measurements and, finally, logical reasoning by a few of us, we got to digging the holes for the cable anchors. After Clive Brown (the school janitor) dug up alpha almost all by himself, I decided to do a little work on both Bravo and Delta (I was in a good mood, so I decided to name the dig sites A, B, D, E, with the location of the turbine in the middle would be Z). After a short while, Councilman Edwards showed up, and he was eager to give me a breather from swinging the pick axe:

After lunch, me, Alicia and Veronica decided we should start assembling the turbine itself, becasue most of us were just standing around anyways:

Base of the assembly:

Top of the assembly, without the turbine. Note the cable hook-up point:


Instead of posting 60 pictures of yet another night of partying, here's a closeup of the upright and completed turbine from the morning after:


The turbine generates about 400w max, and it is hooked up to 4 6v batteries that are placed at the base of the assembly. The idea is that the wind energy will be used to power one of the schools buildings.

This was part one of the trip, rest will come shortly!