Second day of work. I took the coaster, leaving around 730, to get to work around 830. The bus stop is a five-minute walk from my apartment. So I get there and based on the advice of my colleagues, I’m supposed to identify the bus I need by guys yelling “Crossroads!”- my destination. Along comes a coaster- picture a minivan packed with people, music blaring and careening through rush hour traffic at about 60km/hour. On this particular morning, there is literally room to squeeze in one person, standing on the step up, with the door open. That person was me. I felt adventurous, so I hopped on, grasping the railing and praying I didn’t fly out and roll into traffic. I did get a couple of light elbows in the face but when some space opened up, the wranglers ushered me up onto the main floor and away from the open door. It was an experience. Then I had an uneventful 15-minute walk to work. Uneventful walks here are rare, it was nice and relatively peaceful, save for the constant beeping of horns. (Seriously, there is an extensive vocabulary of horn honks here.) 

This morning, we had a lovely young woman named Pamela come to sell us fresh fruit, straight from the trees and ground. I bought a papaya (called paw-paw here), a banana and two Jamaican apples. Yummy, and all for less than $2.00.

At YOU today (my workplace) there was a graduation ceremony for inner-city youth who have just completed a training program in new media. The program trains the youth with hard skills as well as the soft skills needed for the workplace. The staff was preparing for this event and I got to help out. The ceremony was incredible. Dozens of Jamaican youth, so energetic and dressed in their best clothes, beaming with pride. The master of ceremonies also singled me and a fellow volunteer Delphine out to the crowd, which was slightly mortifying. But it was all for a good cause, as she told the youth that people do care about them, including me and Delphine, who came from Canada to volunteer. It was a great way to learn more about what YOU actually does and that it is an organization that has a real impact.