Amitabh Sharma | Erica David – Peace Corps Volunteer, writer … a superhero

For Erica David, memories of her four-year-old self growing up in Philadelphia, are still fresh as the aroma of pancakes from her visits to IHOP. So, what’s the correlation between pancakes and Erica?As it’s said, inspiration comes from unexpected places. For her, it was the pancakes ... or was it?

“My mother said that I wrote my first poem at age four. It was a bit of blank verse titled ‘On the way to the IHOP’” David said. “It was a spontaneous poem prompted by a love of pancakes that my mother jotted down on a scrap of paper ... . “That’s the myth, anyway,” she hastily added. “I think that what actually made me a writer was two parts boredom, one part jealousy.” Even if pancakes being the source of inspiration was a myth … she articulated as a chef.

David said, she used to get bored easily until one day her mother handed her a pencil (for the benefit of Gen Z and beyond folks, that is a writing instrument). She was jealous of her cool older cousin who used to write stories, and it looked like fun. “I was jealous of the fun she was having,” David said, adding. “You know, this is beginning to sound a bit like the origin story of a super villain … .

“But, hero or villain, I’ve always written since a young age, and it wasn’t until after university that I realised I could make a living as a writer, somehow.”

Erica worked in consumer products for Nickelodeon, she knew the publisher who produced books based on their children’s shows, and eventually she was offered several of those projects.

That was at the turn of the century – early 2000s … she hasn’t looked back since. “I have published 63 books at last count. All are based on existing characters, television shows and movies from Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants to Frozen and Spider Man.”

JOURNEY AS PEACECORPS VOLUNTEER

Fast forward, David was working as the director of a writing programme for non-native English speakers at a university. All were fluent in English but needed additional support in writing, particularly writing college research papers and the nuances of American academic English.

As the director, she taught first-year writing classes and held academic advising sessions with students, and that also began her journey into Peace Corps.

“My desire to join the Peace Corps was the product of one of these sessions. I had a student who was interested in eventually operating an orphanage in Haiti. In planning for her upcoming semester, we talked about possible experiences that would expose her to the world of aid organisations and development work.

“She had never heard of Peace Corps, so I promised to forward some information to her. As I researched, I became more and more interested in becoming a volunteer myself. At the time, I saw it as a way to honour the experiences of my current students, who were speaking a second, or even third, language, while navigating a culture that they hadn’t grown up with. I felt that this experience would make me a well-rounded educator and give me an opportunity to devote a year or two in service to others.”

She packed her bags and came to Jamaica as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). The thing that caught her eye and made an impression – well, every PCV has their own – was hangers.

“In booths and clothing stalls in markets and communities, the wire hangers were bent in the shape of a woman’s body,” she said. “The hangers create the shapes of ample hips, breasts, and butts. These “hanger women” are shapely, and the shock of this image being embraced is one of the many things I have come to appreciate about Jamaica.”

This was a first learning experience, as she was used to see rail-thin mannequins in American department stores or the underweight, oft-anorexic supermodels splashed on the covers of fashion magazines.

From a bustling city of 1.3 million, David, with images of hangers fresh in her mind, headed to St Mary’s Primary and Infant School in southeast St Elizabeth.

She got cracking, working with students in one-on-one or small group sessions outside of the classroom to improve their reading skills, using models like moulding letters out of Play-Doh with students to reinforce letter recognition or having students dribble a football over sight words to remember them.

She also ran the library at St Mary, where she observed something else.

“One of the neatest things to happen in the St Mary’s library was that I found one of my own children’s books there on the shelves,” David said. “I know it’s silly, but I took it as a sign that I was in the right place.”

ENRICHING

The experience was enriching, personally and professionally, for David. That’s something any PCV will agree to. Volunteers from a developed country, transitioning to a simpler lifestyle – from handwashing clothes, drying them on the line, no dishwashers, bathing from a bucketful of water and taking public transport (most times route taxis) … the list is exhaustive.

Back to David, who spent two years in the community, saw some gaps that she hopes will be filled. “I’ll admit that I was disappointed by my first visit to some of the libraries in my parish. I was expecting to find lots of books by Jamaican authors that I couldn’t access in the US.

“Imagine my surprise when I walked into the fiction section and saw titles by Danielle Steele, Colleen Hoover and Larry McMurtry instead,” she said, adding. “I’m hungry for stories about Jamaica by Jamaicans and I want to encourage the St Mary’s students to see themselves writers.”

For David, experiencing Jamaica has been life-changing. She said that she appreciated how her own preconceptions and ideas were bent into a new shape after being on island and regularly learning from the members of her community in Heathfield, St Elizabeth.

“Living with them and listening to their stories,” she said, “has helped me to adapt, to everything from the heat to the sense of time, which flows at a different pace from the one I am used to.”

It is a journey and part of life that has been inspiring for this prolific writer. She’s soaked them up, not only the warmth of the island, but some potent ideas which, she said, are embedded in her.

“Jamaica is definitely an inspiration for future writing projects, though I’m not sure exactly what form that will take yet,” David said. “Right now, I’m excited by the history that I’ve learned, particularly about the national heroes. Nanny of the Maroons is a striking historical figure who has sparked a lot of ideas for me. However, when it comes to books about Jamaica, I’m more excited to read the work of Jamaican authors and poets.”

David wrote a book as part of a Peace Corps climate project, focused on children. She, and a group of PCVs worked to produce three children’s books about the changing climate and how we can keep our environment healthy, protected, and safe.

Apart from writing, David is interested in the ways that language and narrative shape experience.

“Language contains its own history of harms; even today sometimes the most frequently used and casual of expressions has a dark past. By the same token, however, I find it exciting when language shifts and words are re-imagined and reclaimed.

“Learning Patwa,” she said, “has gone a long way to helping me think about the resilience of language and the people who speak it.”

Last year, David was contemplating how to celebrate 4th of July, United States’ Independence Day, this was the day after Hurricane Beryl struck Jamaica. As people were picking up the pieces in the aftermath of the storm, they found a reason for happiness. “There is sense of community and care which, for me, made 4th of July more memorable than any fireworks display.”

Now that she is back home, she would have enjoyed the 4th of July, as she did – going to barbecues and cookouts and fireworks displays, the parade and a free concert.

We hope she will pen her Jamaican experiences soon, and keep using her superpowers, that of writing.

“Writers are like superheroes,” she said,”in that they have origin stories.” ... maybe this time its the aroma of jerk sauce

Bless up yuhself, Erica!

Amitabh Sharma is the opinion editor and editor of Arts and Education. amitabh.sharma@gleanerjm.com; X, formerly Twitter @amitabhs.