Last night brought a light thunderstorm to Kingston. According to many I talked with, this had been the first rain in months. The weather had called for light thunderstorms. At around ten o clock at night, I heard the steady sound of patter. Off in the distance, a quiet rumble. A light thunderstorm.
All of a sudden the rain intensified as if a hand had turned a tap to full blast, thunder boomed overhead and fork lightning began raining down from the skies. The wind picked up intensity and within minutes hard driving rain was being thrown parallel to the ground. Don, my Cap colleague who shares the apartment with me had gone to bed an hour earlier, and sleeps with his windows open. I toyed with the idea of waking him up to close his windows. All of a sudden the door opened and Don emerged from his room. He had a towel on his floor and had managed to get the window closed. Walking into the kitchen, I saw water streaming under the door flooding the kitchen. I wanted to capture some video footage of this event, and tried to force the back door open. No doing. The wind threw the door back at me with a bucket of rain to boot, and slammed it in my face. I gave up on that idea pretty quickly. The storm raged for 2 hours before finally blowing out. In the morning, trees were knocked down, and even better, the smog / sand from the sahara that has shrouded Kingston since I arrived had disappeared. For the first time, I can see the Ocean from our apartment up in the hills.
Light Thunderstorms indeed.
Today after class, I was supposed to meet up with some runners from VTDI to jog up Jacks Hill to the Marley residence and back. I measured it to be 1.8 KM straight up. At 5:30 I still couldn't find anyone, so decided to strike out on my own. I had to pass Mud Town on the way, a very poor area of Kingston, and home to the remnants of the Joel Andem gang. I realized that in Mudtown, the mechanic is at the foot of the turn off to Jacks Hill Road, the resting spot of many cars that died trying to make the ascent. It's a little shack tucked into the side of the mountain with a dozen or so cars haphazardly parked outside It is a twisty, steep, ascent with a lot of switchbacks. The fast gain in elevation is astonishing. It was a good challenge, and one I will definitely try again. I would like to link up with the running group the next time to pace them.
Training s going very well. The trainers are all fantastic individuals, and its wonderful to see how quickly they are progressing. It's nice for them to see that there are many potential career paths in animation. Even though this is primarily an animation workshop, I always try to throw a little something else into the mix.
Lunch is served hot every day. I am in heaven. Rice and Peas, Curry Goat, Jerk Pork, Jerk Chicken, Festival, Bammy. Yum.
We are fed breakfast in the mornings, usually some coffee and light sandwiches. I go for the tuna, which has pickapeppa sauce.
This weekend, we are going to the Jamaican Film Festival's closing day.
Really enjoying myself down here.
