Run! Run! As Fast As You Can!

And just that we did!

Our apartment has been full of visitors this week, so we made sure to hit up some our favorite spots.  We recently discovered that Bravo, our favorite Rastafarian Ital restaurant (or as they call it, "Rastarant"), has a bar above it where people get together to play dominoes!  So of course, we have started to partake in this... in hopes to improve our skills :)  We also went to Cuddyz Sports Bar this week, where we met up with Ashley's acquaintances who also do development work in the Caribbean.  Through their organization, Catholic Relief Services, they have been heavily involved in natural disaster management (i.e. earthquakes, floods, etc) and work particularly with youth in terms of training them for preventing and repairing damage from such events.  One of the workers told us that he is actually moving to Haiti to continue his work, and described to us the utter chaos in the devastated country.  I was very impressed with the projects they are undertaking, and it was great to learn about experiences that other American professionals have had in the Caribbean.

As the girls stated, "Wii is for the Wii-kends"

Friday and Saturday were pretty relaxed, in preparation for a fun-packed Sunday!  Friday night, I went out to Fiction Night Club - the first club I had ever visited in Jamaica.  It is definitely a more classy/"uptown" scene than places like the Building (which are regarded as more "downtown").  I was so excited when I realized that I knew many people there, and spent the evening meeting tons of friends of my friends, all around my age!  On Saturday, I spent the afternoon/evening babysitting for my favorite Genzer girls!  We played lots of Wii (at which they beat me pretty badly), practiced their ballet routines, and read some Shel Silverstein favorites :)

Pre-Race... We are #1

And now the highlight of my week... Sunday!  Erica, Ashley and I woke up at 6am as the sun rose to get ready for the Sigma Charity Race!  This annual race is apparently the biggest charity race in the Caribbean, let alone Jamaica.  This year, over 15,000 people participated (which is huge when you think about the population of the little island).  Also, the "charity" this year was Victoria Jubilee Hospital's (VJH) Neonatal Unit.  Considering that I have been working very closely with this Maternity Hospital for my Fulbright project, I HAD to participate of course!  The senior medical officer at the hospital, Dr Rudolph Stevens, who has been integral in making my project happen, was one of the distinguished guests at the event.  Later, he said in the paper (about the charity gesture):

"It will enable us to buy the right biomedical equipment so we can continue to improve and save more lives. What we have already and with what to come we are moving that we will reduce the prenatal mortality even further and in a short time in terms of equipment and the facility that we have we will be able to reach first-world standard."  

I am so so happy to report that the race raised over J$15.2 million (~$180,000) to donate to VJH!


The event surpassed all my expectations.  First of all, I loved that so many people I know participated.  The Ministry of Health, including many of my direct coworkers, had a huge showing, making their support for VJH clear!  There were also students I knew, professionals I'd met, and, of course... so many of the runners I see in the evenings in the park.  There was music along the race course, balloons everywhere, and tons of tents set up at the end with Jamaican breakfast foods and fresh fruit.

This race was exactly what we have been training for!  It was only 3.5 miles (little over a 5k), but I'd like to think that we were especially ready for it!  First off, we knew the race course because it was in our neighborhood.  Running, we passed our cell phone store, our bus stop for work, our bus stop for school, our favorite dinner spot, the grocery store, etc etc... in fact, I guess we "walk" the race course on a regular basis!  One of the few upsides of not having a car, I suppose :)  Also, the race was so crowded that it involved lots of dodging of people, which we have had do daily in the park... yes, we were definitely ready for this.

Our performance reflected that we've been training :)  Erica "the rockstar" placed 5th in our age group (there were around 350 in the 20-24 female group) and around 40th of the 2500+ women who participated... so amazing!  And Ashley, who doesn't run too often, ran the entire thing without stopping and at a really, really great pace!  Seriously, I am soo proud of her... that girl has really shown me that you can do whatever you put your mind to!  As for me, I am proud to say that I came in 9th for our age group (and 110 of all the women)!  My co-workers and I have already decided to have a rematch in the next month or two, since I seem to have beaten out my supervisor ;)  Whoops! As my wise and avid-runner friend Katie said, I guess I have officially moved up in the world from "fogging" it (translation: fake jogging)!

We did it (and in neon)!!

Keeping our endorphins high, we followed the race with a prolonged dance lesson in our apartment run by our friend Case.  He is a dance machine (and reminds me of the energizer bunny!).  We practiced tons of the "hot new dance steps" as he broke it down clearly for us to learn.  He also "tested" each of us, making us do the dance steps on our own for the group.  So fun!

Case - Model/Dancer/Energizer Bunny

Next stop: the beach!  Driving around in Ashley's rental car, we took all our visitors (yes: 7 American girls + Case) to Hellshire.  The day was absolutely perfect... sunny and clear!  We enjoyed tender coconuts, free massages, and of course, the best fish in all of Jamaica :)

E and Case in the Wata!

Erica lovesss holding my hand :)

Good friends... good food... good weather... what a perfect day!

 

All laughter :)

Sadly, I had to leave this fun and re-enter reality on Monday.  Work at the Ministry was extremely busy as we are preparing for our huge meeting next week with representatives from PAHO.  Professionals from the field are flying into Jamaica for 3 days to discuss... my project!  Eek!  It is a little nerve-racking, but I feel like it will be an amazing learning experience.  Stay tuned!

Monday, I also had my international business class.  The topic was international business strategy and was based largely on Michael Porter's Value Chain framework.  Porter argues that good "strategy" involves more than being just operationally efficient; rather, good strategy rests on being different and making a deliberate choice to deliver a unique set of goods/services that provides superior value.  The example we talked about was the Jamaican all-inclusive resorts.  Jamaica was the first country to produce this type of model (where everything - food, drinks, etc. - is all part of your hotel rate), first at the "Superclubs" resort.  The concept of an all-inclusive clearly impacted the company's value chain (the process of manufacturing materials to produce an end-good), since they had to buy more things in bulk etc..  Though Sandals Resort eventually came around and bettered the all-inclusive concept, they just made it more "efficient" by changing their value chain; they didn't really create something different.  So according to Porter, Sandals didn't take on a new strategy.  I really enjoyed the lecture, since it felt like the first time we went from theoretical to a little more practical!

I wanted to end this post by discussing a really interesting recent event in Jamaica that everyone seems to be talking about.  Last week, the Under-17 football team from Haiti came to Jamaica to play in some sort of qualifying match for the 2011 World Cup.  However, the Haitian players were given a blood test and when 4 of them came up positive for malaria, the entire team was quarantined.  In fact, one article talks about the coach leaving the hospital to go back to the hotel and, in turn, being handcuffed and escorted out by Ministry of Health officials.  The Jamaicans have been arguing that the quarantine/overall reaction is just part of their health protocol and desire to keep all the international players safe - a precautionary measure in the interest of everyone.  However, the Haitians feel like they were severely mistreated, stemming from poor diplomatic relations.  Haitians are being urged to boycott Jamaican goods and protest loudly.  One organizer of the protests even said “We won’t allow Jamaica to humiliate us and especially our children.  It’s a matter of the stigmatisation of Haiti.”  The president of Haiti's Football Federation even went as far as to state “This is an outrage. They think that all Haitians are diseased."  I believe that the Foreign Ministers from both countries are meeting soon, but I just think it is crazy how this got so out of control, into a national issue!  I guess I personally can understand both sides, so it's sad that there has been such an uprising on either... I hope any misunderstanding is sorted out soon enough... for the love of football!