Week 12: Human Rights Art Exhibition, J-FLAG, Blue Mountain Night Hike!

I came back from my Negril trip and learned that CVC and Jamaicans for Justice decided to hold a cocktail, exhibition and forum for to review 2016 & priorities for 2017 to raise awareness for human rights. This was a bit sudden but a necessary event. We spent the week checking out the Spanish Court Hotel for the venue; planning the layout and ideas. On Monday, we ended up being at the venue late and I went out to Triple Z Century which was a pub owned by the famous Jamaican cricketer Chris Gayle where I drank a margarita that was as big as my face, ate amazing oxtail and listened to live music. My colleagues pretended I was some top notch singer in Canada and tried to nominate me for a slot to sing live. I was so embrassed because as I was leaving, the MC yelled at me to come back because it was time for me to sing! I ran out of there as fast as I could haha!

On Thursday, we were at the J-Flag Anniversary Event to celebrate 18 years of Activism in Service to Jamaica. It was so much fun! J-Flag is the Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays, and is the first human rights organization in the history of Jamaica to serve the needs of LGBT peoples (See more: http://jflag.org/). It is in the business of promoting social change in furtherance of the well-being of the members of the LGBT community, focusing on Public Education, Crisis Intervention and Empowerment; Research; Rights-based Advocacy; Legal Aid and Legal Reform. These individuals have overcome so much and have also been the dominant role towards producing change in Jamaica (in 2016, they had Actress Ellen Page attend their LGBT event!) They are aware of the nature of their work and the safety concerns in the community. They take the precautions of hiding their address of their organization, or developing social campaigns such as an advertisement on the bus that are considerate to the public: enough to make people think but not enough to make a riot. I am excited to see what they will do next year and see the response of the community as well. Afterwards, we went to Triple Z Century again and we spent it trying to convince the waitress it was my birthday. She ended up caving in and gave me a cupcake with a big sparker! Happy Early Birthday to Me!

As mentioned earlier, CVC and JFJ were holding an exhibition on human rights on Friday, December 9th for International Human Rights Day. It was very hectic because we were at the policy monitoring graduation just before at another location. During undergrad, I played a large role of executing events and essentially, it felt as if I was re-living the chaos. We were running around and trying to figure out where our art pieces were. I ran down the street to pick up some stuff at a colleague’s house. It was eventful. There was an amazing turnout though- with over a hundred individuals and the documentaries shown were instilling thoughts through the attendees. The public forum received many questions and individuals left thinking about the issues at hand. Although it was a successful event, there were many bumps along the way showcasing the importance of planning ahead of time.

After the event, my night was actually just beginning. I dragged a colleague of mine to climb Blue Mountain at midnight with a friend and local hiking group. I met a few expats from the USA, Germany and Beligum along with the locals that decided to partake in this crazy hike. We left at 10 PM and started climbing at 12 Midnight. Keep in mind- I had no sleep up to this point. It was pitch black as we went up , only having our head lamps as our source of light. I couldn’t see anything around me but as I gazed up, the view of the stars, moon and the lights from the city took my breath away. The Blue Mountain is the highest peak of the island. It is around a 5 hour climb passing through a number of hillside farms growing coffee, vegetables and Christmas trees. Only 4 wheel drive vehicles can go up the mountain because the roads are so unstable and difficult. I got up to the peak (2256 m/ 7402 ft) at around 5 AM, hoping to see the sunrise. It was really cold up there and I did not dress properly thinking that I would be okay. My tiredness overcame me at the peak, waiting for the others in our hike group and the sunrise. Apparently, I passed out and started snoring! When we woke up after a team nap, the sun had rose but the clouds were in the sky making it impossible to see anything. Although it was disappointing; it was still beautiful so we moved on and started trekking down the peak. On our way down, I cried in amazement. We didn’t see anything as we were going up but on the walk down, we saw everything. The nature, the trees, the flowers, the croaking sounds of insects, reptiles and chirping of the birds-It took my breath away. It was simply unreal. I felt so lucky to have experienced this. Our group met back at the camp and had mackeral rundung- a Jamaican local staple. It was too salty for me but the coffee was very well made. Blue Mountain is famous for the coffee and range in prices depending what peak the coffee is grown at. I have to remember to bring some back for my Daddy!

We got back to Kingston around 3PM and I took a quick nap. I left to go to Brooklyn in the evening and ran into my roommate and an intern at our office, Tyrek. We were talking on the streets and the street guys were hovering around us. Finally, my roommate asked them what they wanted. It turned out they were worried about us. They said, they knew me, they knew her but they didn’t know him. They weren’t sure if he was harassing us. Although at times the street guys are a bit annoying because they like to catcall, they really treat us well from crossing the street and making sure other people don’t harass us.

On Sunday, I went to a CUSO friend’s house to make Christmas decorations. What I love about being away from home is the community that you have abroad. Although I am not a CUSO volunteer, they embraced us into their circle because we are all Canadians. We each have our friends but having fellow Canadians during the time of the holidays really help make it feel like home. It was a lot of fun and we made a Christmas tree on their wall out of paper. Afterwards I went to the Christmas Market at Devon’s House and found some Christmas gifts for my family. My papa and I talked on the phone because I am heading home for the holidays! I am not ready to be away during Christmas and it will do me some good to have some cold :)

Tara