#jrdc

www.rocknrollvintage.com

their cunty matching B&E outfits natch

Thankful for @joeyval28 and his #Italian contribution to the #unitedbrunches menu. #rehabsunday #damenzo #judyragerdaychan #jrdc #cantwalkwontstop (at Modern Day Three's Company)

Mic Drop. #rehabsunday #unitedbrunches #vscocam #cantwalkwontstop #jrdc (at Modern Day Three's Company)

Scott and I woke up with little sleep and an urge to find out just how far away from Shashamane the driver had dropped us. We packed our things before we left so if we found another hotel, we could "downgrade" easily. But the first order of business really was to find some food. We found a little shop that served fresh-squeezed orange juice. The fruit definitely tastes different in Ethiopia. The oranges are more tangy. It was still an early 8:00 am (2:00 Ethiopian time) at this point. We crossed a park learning that when tourist maps mark a "park", they really mean a dirt field where football (soccer) is played. A young man Natty Levi joined our walk. Scott wanted to meet Mark Joseph - one of the teachers at the JRDC school - and had a hunch that Natty might be a student there. It's hard to know whether Natty really was a student; he told us he was in high school but it was days away and he wasn't having his uniform made. It's a classic tourist scam for children to tell tourists that they need money for exercise books and uniforms as it tugs at the heartstrings knowing a child needs the means to access an education. And really, this was part and parcel of why we wanted to visit the JRDC directly. I had brought a large bag full of crayons and pencils so I could make a direct donation to their efforts. And Scott has a friend Willow who works hard to sell Ethiopian goods at a higher cost in the US so she can send money back to sponsor children there. Natty took us straight to Mark Joseph's house. He is a tall lanky Rasta from Barbados with the widest smile, a humble yard, and a beautiful young family. He invited us into his home purely on the basis of Scott knowing his brother Mario Joseph and us having a mutual friend, Hatha. Mark Joseph mentioned that he would be taking some time off from the JRDC to pursue other efforts. He got right into his personal struggles of repatriating to Shashamane. (It was the first conversation we had on this subject with a local and although we had intended on videotaping interviews on this very subject, it didn't seem appropriate to go into someone's home and shove a camera in his/her face.) Mark's wife is the daughter of Noel Dyer - a Rasta legend who walked from England to Ethiopia. They have two young daughters and one thing Mark Joseph reiterated was that someone always needed to be home to protect the youth, the yard, and everything in the house. He hadn't been able to buy land (and in years past, Haile Selassie had granted essentially free land to those who chose to repatriate to Ethiopia if they'd live in Shashamane.) He didn't seem to mind renting. He'd had a bout of typhoid last year. All the struggles he spoke of, he also spoke of being surmountable. There was a tone in his voice that he welcomed those tribulations because it felt like home in a way that no other place had. Scott brought up an article about the Ethiopian Millenium that had been published in the Seattle Times. It had claimed that in Shashamane, Ethiopians had stopped growing food products so they could grow acres of marijuana. When we told Mark Joseph this, he laughed and laughed. He said that there was a bounty of food - sometimes too much food! We bid Mark Joseph and his family goodbye and walked over to the Rift Valley Hotel. It was a fraction of the cost of the one we had stayed at the night before. The room itself was much more modest but the land was beautiful - flowers, birds, a stream below the rooms. After we settled our things, we zipped back to the JRDC school where Mark Joseph had been teaching. The JRDC School had several buildings in the process of being painted. It took some snooping to fnd someone that I could give the school supplies to but we finally found the art teacher painting the inside of a classroom. She told us that the school could benefit from more international teachers since it would lend more legitimacy to their operations. The school is impressive in that it has individual desks and several different buildings. We saw children hanging around outside but school was going to start several days from then. Scott wanted to check in at the JRDC (which I think stands for "Jamaican Rastafari Development Coalition") Office to see how things were run. It was quite frantic inside. I understand that they were preparing sponsorships for children to see which children could start in a few days, but there seemed to be a real lack of proper record-keeping. I stress this because colleagues of Scott are working hard to send funds to this school; someone in the office should thoroughly understand who supports the organization and which specific outside organizations are their partners. One thing I should clarify is that Shashamane and Ethiopia in general has a complicated relationship with Rastafarians. For one, there are a number of different "houses" within the movement. From what I gather, there isn't necessarily collective action happening between the houses in Shashamane so the Bobos are west of the road into town, the Nyabinghis are east, and the 12 Tribes are in yet another area of town. 12 Tribes are largely responsible for the works done by the JRDC. Repatriated Rastas are taking on a tough mission to acculturate and develop community when there are issues of health, legal status, and education to resolve along with day-today living. The school itself serves 95% Ethiopian children and 5% Rasta. We met some individuals who said they wouldn't send their children to this school because it had to set the educational bar higher. And yet, this school won't necessarily get better unless the community is supporting it and helping to make that change happen. From the office, we walked next door to visit a souvenir shop and Natty's friend. Natty must have been an orphan because he said that he stayed with the owner's partner - a man who went by an Amharic work that translates to "Popcorn" and had previously lived in Toronto, Canada. Anyway, a German woman by the name of Sister Waleti runs a small store filled with fabrics, hand-crocheted dresses, reggae music, and trinkets. She had been living in Shashamane for eight years and was adamant on not focusing on the challenges of living in Shashamane because as she said, "They are everywhere!" She was very positive and warm and I personally found it illuminating to talk to a woman about her experiences in Ethiopia. Scott, Natty, and I were all getting hungry so we took a "bajaj" - a small mini-taxi frame outfitted over a motorbike - to the Shashamane town. The "downtown" area has a much less relaxed vibe and in fact, made me feel outright uncomfortable at times. But we made our way into a juice bar. We were to find that cafes serve juice and cake (and in areas like Addis, you'll have more coffee shops) but that it was hard to find a snack more substantial than the fluffy airy cakes. It was the only place where Scott managed to find mango juice since the fruit was out of season. The next stop was Ras Ibi's. He is a Rasta hailing originally from Sweden and now he lives high up in the hills of Shashamane. Scott knew of him since Ibi was in the Itations books that chronicle the worldwide Rastafari movement; Ibi was but a youth when the book was published. Raija (our friend from Eugene) had also met Ibi and his wife last year when she was visiting her son in Addis Ababa last year. Ibi's house and yard is beautiful! He uses the local cheka style architecture that resembles cob construction. Apparently, Ibi covered his straw and mud walls with cement to fortify them. He has built up his yard with a sustainable garden and healing herbs. His face glowed and he radiated a sense of peace; it was calming to just simply be in his presence. Ibi spoke to the three main challenges to Rastas in Shashamane: 1) Security; 2) Legality; and 3) Land. He told us that his children had a toughest time adjusting since they were so different, speaking another language and being white. We left his place feeling like we had made a connection with a very genuine man. We gave Natty 100 birr and told him that he could meet us at the hotel gates at 8:00 am the following day to guide us around town. After this busy day, we needed a meal and an afternoon nap. He and she who vacation without scheduling siestas really aren't traveling at all! I got pretty irate because the restaurant staff in the hotel were slow and rude. I expected that people were going to talk about us but I also assumed that people would be somewhat discreet about it. Then when the change for the bill was returned, it came up short. It probably coverted to $0.20 but I was steaming that these workers who really hadn't gone out of their way to make our meal in any way enjoyable thought that they could skim off the top. There are bigger fish to fry when traveling and I knew that it would be best to just get some rest. Scott planned to go to a Nyabinghi Ises - a celebration of drumming, singing traditional songs, as well as a chance to reason about different issues. It was the first night that we'd planned to do anything apart, so I let him take the key and just stayed inside the hotel room catching up on reruns of old American sitcoms.

#DynoBox at em!!! Just a look behind the scenes with @paolofrasies grabbing some great shots from The #JRDC Caribbean Champions #CRMC event at Dover Raceway today. Check back our Facebook page later today for the Hi-Res album featurings todays pics. #Jamaica #2013 #Dover #Raceways #Motor #Racing #Cars #Audi #TT (at Dover Raceway)

#DynoBox caught up with Matthew #TeamMagnet Gore just ahead of the next #JRDC where he discussed with us his expectations of the #Yellow #EvoX after overcoming issues with his cooling system. Battling for podium is his number one priority at this event at the end of May #2013 #Dover (at Palisadoes Go Cart Track)