Matt and I are starting to find our place/role in the community although we're sure it'll change regularly. Our actual titles are “Community Developers”, so the possibilities are somewhat endless. We've been spending much of our time at the local school to get to know the children better. School let out July 2, so we really tried to take advantage of the opportunity to get to know the kids in some sort of structured setting.
Otherwise we've been spending much of our time integrating. Peace Corps Jamaica really pushes integration, and thus strongly recommends spending the first 4 months in your community focusing on this. Obviously, many PCVs would love to “hit the ground running”, but this is oftentimes where mistakes and misunderstandings happen. We're trying our best right now to develop relationships with the people, learn the lifestyle, live the lifestyle etc. Thus, we bought a goat, started a garden, hang out in the local shops, learn how to cook the food, go to church, etc. I personally strongly agree with this structure, as we are not here to implement our own ideas, but rather ideas that we come to through community members as we get to know their day-to-day lives.
Still, we both have our little array of projects that we have been working on developing. Some are further along than others. Some are not much more than ideas. Either way, Matt and I had a little family business meeting the other day to organize the different things we were working on. Here's the notes from our meeting. See if you can make sense of it...
Matt:
*Farmer's Co-op
-Greenhouse
-Hatchery
-Coffee
*Agricultural Teacher (@ Primary and Jr. High School) for the next school year
*Water, developing an independent system for the community
Waste Management, none currently exists unless you count throwing everything into the gully or burning it as “management”
*Original Trails of the Maroons (OTM)- Ecotoursim project
Cross Country running program
*Universal Access Fund- Organization that brings computers/internet to communities
*Hugh Kresser- Kingston grant consultant
*Misc. Funding Research
*Refurbishing the broken computers within Accompong
Playing field/parade grounds
Heritage Center/Museum
*Youth Summer Program
-Computer/Literacy
-Culture
-Sports
*Food for the Poor
-Housing
-Pit latrines @ school turned into toilets
-Summer school lunches
*Trail to Flagstaff
*Internet Cafe
Julie:
*Guidance Counselor @ Primary/Jr. High School
*Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning
*Internet Cafe
*Books
-Library Improvement
-Book Club
-Reading Mentors
Drama Club
*Summer Program
-Computers
-Environment
-Culture
-Summer School
Women's Club
Junior Council
Accompong Options for Guests
-Marketing
-Food, Souvenirs, Activities
*HEART
Herbal Garden
*Grad School
*Small Projects Assistance
Some of these projects are already underway, while others might not go beyond being written down once. Some of them are our own little pet projects, while others we collaborate on together. The starred (*) ones are the ones that are farthest along/most viable/what we've been spending most of our time on.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
JACOM
We know most of you are probably wondering what exactly we do in Accompong specifically. We're doing lots of different things, but we'll discuss one organization that we have been working with: JACOM or Jamaica Accompong Connection of Minnesota. JACOM is a Christian organization out of Minnesota that was established in 2004. Prior to this, a man named Harald Petersen felt led to build a vocational school in Accompong in the early 1990s. Many others from Minnesota have come alongside him in the process to help with Harald's mission in Accompong, and as a result, JACOM was formed. Since then, JACOM has undertaken a number of different projects in Accompong, and over the years many people have come to visit from Minnesota to help support these projects.
The school was completed and is now called the Petersen Center. It has 3 floors, the upper floor has an apartment, four dorm rooms, and a deck. The main floor has 2 large class rooms, a lunch room, 2 bathrooms, and an office. The lower level has 3 class rooms and a shower room.
As of this past Wednesday, Matt and I helped JACOM to open up an “internet cafe” at the Petesen Center. Come September, JACOM has hopes of opening the Petersen Center as a Lifelong Learning Center (an adult education program) and a HEART (vocational education organization) Training Center. Their long-term plans include having an Excel High School available for students so that teens do not have to travel long distances by taxi in order to attend high school.
Aside from the Center, JACOM has also established a farmer's co-op which is involved in growing organic coffee, a chicken hatchery, and also are in the process of building 3 greenhouses.
Matt and I have found that some of the ideas we had are already underway by JACOM, and we are doing what we can to help JACOM with their plans while also working on our other projects. We feel extremely lucky to have JACOM in Accompong, and it seems to be a nice partnership. As was said in our last blog, a huge problem for many PCVs is a lack of resources, and for JACOM, they struggle by not having someone in Accompong consistently to see some of the projects through. Although we won't be working solely with JACOM, we are excited about the possibilities of working with them.
The school was completed and is now called the Petersen Center. It has 3 floors, the upper floor has an apartment, four dorm rooms, and a deck. The main floor has 2 large class rooms, a lunch room, 2 bathrooms, and an office. The lower level has 3 class rooms and a shower room.
As of this past Wednesday, Matt and I helped JACOM to open up an “internet cafe” at the Petesen Center. Come September, JACOM has hopes of opening the Petersen Center as a Lifelong Learning Center (an adult education program) and a HEART (vocational education organization) Training Center. Their long-term plans include having an Excel High School available for students so that teens do not have to travel long distances by taxi in order to attend high school.
Aside from the Center, JACOM has also established a farmer's co-op which is involved in growing organic coffee, a chicken hatchery, and also are in the process of building 3 greenhouses.
Matt and I have found that some of the ideas we had are already underway by JACOM, and we are doing what we can to help JACOM with their plans while also working on our other projects. We feel extremely lucky to have JACOM in Accompong, and it seems to be a nice partnership. As was said in our last blog, a huge problem for many PCVs is a lack of resources, and for JACOM, they struggle by not having someone in Accompong consistently to see some of the projects through. Although we won't be working solely with JACOM, we are excited about the possibilities of working with them.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
resources
As might be expected, access to resources is a major problem in many developing countries, and Jamaica is not any different. There are countless aid workers, community development organizations, community members, Peace Corps workers, etc. who have great and viable project ideas, but have been deadlocked because they have no funding and little resources to speak of.
We see this happen all the time in Jamaica, among non-profits, for-profits, and governmental organizations alike. The school system provides a perfect example of the a perpetual lack of resources. On a parental level, transportation is not provided for students, meaning they need to find and pay for their own way to school, even when their respective school is miles away. Of course, you must keep in mind that most Jamaicans do not own a vehicle. This often means that children have to take a taxi to school. We'll get more into transportation issues later, but for right now, let's focus on the fact that this can be very expensive for many families, and as a result, many children stay home from school regularly, simply because they are unable to pay for a ride to school. For teachers, they also struggle with lack of resources regularly. Schools are short on money, so how do you do find the money to buy poster-board or crayons or construction paper for the smallest class project or fun lesson idea? When you're constantly trying to find chalk for your classroom, how could you ever attempt to do an educational class field trip? Again, most parents struggle to pay transportation costs, much less cover school supplies. As a result, many Jamaican teachers and faculty are always trying to fund-raise. Primary school students get two breaks, including lunch every school day. You would think that this would also be a time for the teacher to plan, or rest, or regroup. Not so. Many Jamaican teachers end up spending breaks selling ice cream, cheese puffs, bag juice, and all sorts of things that the children will buy in order to raise some funds for the school.
For us, lack of resources affects us every day, and to be completely honest, what resources we do have available often dictates what projects we involve ourselves with. We're constantly trying to be creative with what we do have, and are searching for ways to provide the smallest amount of money to cover a project we're trying to launch (for example: $5US/week to cover the costs incurred to make the reading program successful.)
Okay, enough of our whining...and let's shift to some “beggin'” as they say here in Jamaica. Matt and I in the process of trying to get some books here in Accompong. Illiteracy is one of the social issues we're working on, and we have a few projects underway, but have hardly any books in our 'library' -a slight problem for our reading programs. There are almost no books for children 8 years old and younger, we literally have found 10 books for these emerging readers (and all of those adults, children, and teens who read at these levels). What we need are books that are appropriate for these young readers, picture books, primers, pre-primers, even old “Dick and Jane” type books would be fine... kindergarten through 3rd grade only.
So if you have any books, or know somebody who knows somebody, or whatever, please contact us, and we'll try to piece it together from there. Obviously shipping is the next step, and we have a few leads there, but first we need some books.
If you don't have any obvious connections or don't feel moved, please don't feel obligated to help us.... even if you're our closest friend or one of our mothers … This may be the first time we reach out, but it surely won't be our last. So maybe we'll catch you on our next 'beggin' call. Either way, thank you for any effort you may or may not make. :)
Here's some pictures of the school library and the community library. We were lucky enough to have Ashmael and Rianna model for us:
We see this happen all the time in Jamaica, among non-profits, for-profits, and governmental organizations alike. The school system provides a perfect example of the a perpetual lack of resources. On a parental level, transportation is not provided for students, meaning they need to find and pay for their own way to school, even when their respective school is miles away. Of course, you must keep in mind that most Jamaicans do not own a vehicle. This often means that children have to take a taxi to school. We'll get more into transportation issues later, but for right now, let's focus on the fact that this can be very expensive for many families, and as a result, many children stay home from school regularly, simply because they are unable to pay for a ride to school. For teachers, they also struggle with lack of resources regularly. Schools are short on money, so how do you do find the money to buy poster-board or crayons or construction paper for the smallest class project or fun lesson idea? When you're constantly trying to find chalk for your classroom, how could you ever attempt to do an educational class field trip? Again, most parents struggle to pay transportation costs, much less cover school supplies. As a result, many Jamaican teachers and faculty are always trying to fund-raise. Primary school students get two breaks, including lunch every school day. You would think that this would also be a time for the teacher to plan, or rest, or regroup. Not so. Many Jamaican teachers end up spending breaks selling ice cream, cheese puffs, bag juice, and all sorts of things that the children will buy in order to raise some funds for the school.
For us, lack of resources affects us every day, and to be completely honest, what resources we do have available often dictates what projects we involve ourselves with. We're constantly trying to be creative with what we do have, and are searching for ways to provide the smallest amount of money to cover a project we're trying to launch (for example: $5US/week to cover the costs incurred to make the reading program successful.)
Okay, enough of our whining...and let's shift to some “beggin'” as they say here in Jamaica. Matt and I in the process of trying to get some books here in Accompong. Illiteracy is one of the social issues we're working on, and we have a few projects underway, but have hardly any books in our 'library' -a slight problem for our reading programs. There are almost no books for children 8 years old and younger, we literally have found 10 books for these emerging readers (and all of those adults, children, and teens who read at these levels). What we need are books that are appropriate for these young readers, picture books, primers, pre-primers, even old “Dick and Jane” type books would be fine... kindergarten through 3rd grade only.
So if you have any books, or know somebody who knows somebody, or whatever, please contact us, and we'll try to piece it together from there. Obviously shipping is the next step, and we have a few leads there, but first we need some books.
If you don't have any obvious connections or don't feel moved, please don't feel obligated to help us.... even if you're our closest friend or one of our mothers … This may be the first time we reach out, but it surely won't be our last. So maybe we'll catch you on our next 'beggin' call. Either way, thank you for any effort you may or may not make. :)
Here's some pictures of the school library and the community library. We were lucky enough to have Ashmael and Rianna model for us:
Sunday, June 20, 2010
FAQs, Round 2
Q: Where are your dogs?
A: All of the dogs currently reside in or near Eagle, AK (the community that we were living close to before leaving). We had 10 dogs as of May 2009. Tonga was adopted by the Helmer's. Samoa, Moxie, and Typhoon are with Mike and Sonja's family. The rest: Hurricane, Cyclone, Djembe, Moby, Triton, and Gecko were all adopted by Wayne and Scarlett, and have continued to be used for the same guide work that Matt was doing before we left.
For those of you who don't know, we're planning on moving to Maine when we get back, and thus won't be able to take all the dogs with us. As a result, we will only be getting Moxie and Typhoon back when we come back to the States. We won't get into how heart-wrenching this whole process has been, as we're sure you'll be able to guess.
Q: Where's all your stuff?
A: First of all, we don't really have a lot of stuff -unless you ask Matt's mom because most of our things are at his parent's place. We don't really have any furniture or big items, as most of the furniture was incorporated into the structure of the cabin. Plus, we didn't have electricity or running water, so appliances were pretty much non-existent. In fact, most of our things can be put into three categories: books, Matt's tools, and clothes. Most of those things are currently at Matt's parents', unless Judy had a big garage sale and we just don't know it yet :). To further highlight their generosity, they offered to pay to store our truck while we're gone -probably out of fear of it also being stored in their garage. Either way, thanks again Ed and Judy!! Don't worry, one of these days we're going to live somewhere consistently for more than a couple of years. (Maybe you're asking how those things got from Alaska to Buffalo, NY. Short answer: Matt drove everything down in the truck and trailer...in late December...at -30...5 hours of daylight....16-20 hours of driving a day... sleeping in the truck along the way....you get the picture)
Q: How have you been adjusting to the heat?
A: You would think we would be melting- and sometimes we almost do- but we haven't been doing too bad. We're approaching the hottest part of the year, and as long as we avoid being outside 3 hours straight at the hottest part of the day, we're okay. This may sound wimpy, but that's what Jamaicans do. And I guess that's how I judge how well we're adjusting, by comparing to the locals. If it's noon, and I'm walking down the street to my house, and I think I'm going to die any moment from being roasted alive...and then I look over and see a fellow Jamaican experiencing the same torture, I figure I'm not doing too bad. If Matt goes out for a hike at 11am, and none of the locals want to join him because it's just too dang hot...well, I guess we're alright.
Also, attempting not to discourage any potential visitors, we probably live in one of the coolest places on island. It's usually only from 10-3 that it's so bad. Last night, I was able to sleep comfortably with a blanket, no fan. Some other PCVs sweat sleeping naked, no blankets, with a fan on full blast.
Yet another reason we are loving Accompong.
A: All of the dogs currently reside in or near Eagle, AK (the community that we were living close to before leaving). We had 10 dogs as of May 2009. Tonga was adopted by the Helmer's. Samoa, Moxie, and Typhoon are with Mike and Sonja's family. The rest: Hurricane, Cyclone, Djembe, Moby, Triton, and Gecko were all adopted by Wayne and Scarlett, and have continued to be used for the same guide work that Matt was doing before we left.
For those of you who don't know, we're planning on moving to Maine when we get back, and thus won't be able to take all the dogs with us. As a result, we will only be getting Moxie and Typhoon back when we come back to the States. We won't get into how heart-wrenching this whole process has been, as we're sure you'll be able to guess.
Q: Where's all your stuff?
A: First of all, we don't really have a lot of stuff -unless you ask Matt's mom because most of our things are at his parent's place. We don't really have any furniture or big items, as most of the furniture was incorporated into the structure of the cabin. Plus, we didn't have electricity or running water, so appliances were pretty much non-existent. In fact, most of our things can be put into three categories: books, Matt's tools, and clothes. Most of those things are currently at Matt's parents', unless Judy had a big garage sale and we just don't know it yet :). To further highlight their generosity, they offered to pay to store our truck while we're gone -probably out of fear of it also being stored in their garage. Either way, thanks again Ed and Judy!! Don't worry, one of these days we're going to live somewhere consistently for more than a couple of years. (Maybe you're asking how those things got from Alaska to Buffalo, NY. Short answer: Matt drove everything down in the truck and trailer...in late December...at -30...5 hours of daylight....16-20 hours of driving a day... sleeping in the truck along the way....you get the picture)
Q: How have you been adjusting to the heat?
A: You would think we would be melting- and sometimes we almost do- but we haven't been doing too bad. We're approaching the hottest part of the year, and as long as we avoid being outside 3 hours straight at the hottest part of the day, we're okay. This may sound wimpy, but that's what Jamaicans do. And I guess that's how I judge how well we're adjusting, by comparing to the locals. If it's noon, and I'm walking down the street to my house, and I think I'm going to die any moment from being roasted alive...and then I look over and see a fellow Jamaican experiencing the same torture, I figure I'm not doing too bad. If Matt goes out for a hike at 11am, and none of the locals want to join him because it's just too dang hot...well, I guess we're alright.
Also, attempting not to discourage any potential visitors, we probably live in one of the coolest places on island. It's usually only from 10-3 that it's so bad. Last night, I was able to sleep comfortably with a blanket, no fan. Some other PCVs sweat sleeping naked, no blankets, with a fan on full blast.
Yet another reason we are loving Accompong.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Lucy
FYI: We did 2 blog posts again. Have fun.
Meet our goat Lucy, the newest addition to our clan. Someone please let Moxie and Typhoon know that she won't be coming back to America with us... so as not to worry about being replaced. We bought Lucy for $3500 Jamaican, about $40 US, seemed like a pretty good price although a couple of our local Jamaican friends here have commented that maybe the price was a little high. We may have payed a bit of a “white man's tax”. So be it.
We can't tell you much about Lucy. We don't know what kind of goat she is (probably some kind of mixed breed Caribbean goat), or what her bloodlines are. She's just a goat to us, but we love her just the same. Everybody already thinks we're a little crazy... “A whitey wid a goat, Lard, wat dis worl a comin to?!”, and then we gave her a name which of course nobody does here.
(Small side note: People here don't really name any animals, including pet dogs, cats, bird, whatever. We go for nightly walks through town, and invariably some pet/guard dog will bark at the new 'whities' in town. The owners will immediately come out to reign in their animal, while yelling “Dog! Dog! Come ya!” Or “Pup! Puppy! Stop dat! Shhh!” By the way, we can almost hear the dogs telling their masters in response, “No, trust me. Something's a little different about these guys. Haven't figured it out yet, but I know it's something.”
Part of it has to do with Jamaican culture's take on pets in general. The don't really talk to their dogs for any other reason than to call off their attacks on PCVs. So why name them?
So you can imagine what people think, when not only have we named our goat, but we pet her and talk to her when we walk by or get up in the morning.)
What we do know about Lucy is this... she is right about 12 months old and supposed to be pregnant, bred a couple of weeks ago to a nice big ram goat. This is part of the reason we didn't mind paying a little extra for her. You see, we have plans for Lucy and are glad that she is in the “family way”. Goats in Jamaica are almost exclusively bred for meat. Almost nobody, except the wealthy, eats any other kind of meat (other than fish and chicken). So when we heard that Lucy had already been bred we were actually excited because it'll speed up the process all the more. Gestation is about 5 months, although like every other bit of information here, we've had a hard time getting a precise answer, maybe it does really vary. If Lucy really is pregnant she should give birth sometime in late October. It's common for females to birth twins, and sometimes more. At about 6 months old, most ram goats are either sold for cash or slaughtered for meat, the does are usually kept for more breeding possibilities. Most likely we'll follow a similar plan. And if all goes right, maybe by the time we leave here in two years we will have a small flock of goats to sell or give away. We will also attempt to get some milk from Lucy when the time comes, although we've been told that the goats here are too small for that, not enough milk. However it works out, it'll sure to be a learning process.
In the meantime Lucy has become our alarm clock. Without fail at 5:30 every morning Lucy will begin to loudly proclaim (what is it that goats do... bray? neigh? Cry?....oh yeah, bleat!) her hunger and desire to be put out to new pasture. Pasture is the only thing that goats need here. No water, no supplemental feed, no housing. Incredible. So every morning we take her on a very short walk to a fresh area of grass and brush, tie her to a tree or post and let her graze for the day. In the evening we bring her back to the house and inside our gated area to deter anybody from stealing her. Several local people have made us aware of this possibility. Let's hope not as we're quickly becoming attached to her. Oh, she will need to be wormed 3 or 4 times a years, but not while she is pregnant. She is learning to like to be scratched behind the ears and gently stroked on her back.
So keep your fingers crossed for us and, maybe just maybe, soon we will be competent goat herders. Aren't you proud moms?
Meet our goat Lucy, the newest addition to our clan. Someone please let Moxie and Typhoon know that she won't be coming back to America with us... so as not to worry about being replaced. We bought Lucy for $3500 Jamaican, about $40 US, seemed like a pretty good price although a couple of our local Jamaican friends here have commented that maybe the price was a little high. We may have payed a bit of a “white man's tax”. So be it.
We can't tell you much about Lucy. We don't know what kind of goat she is (probably some kind of mixed breed Caribbean goat), or what her bloodlines are. She's just a goat to us, but we love her just the same. Everybody already thinks we're a little crazy... “A whitey wid a goat, Lard, wat dis worl a comin to?!”, and then we gave her a name which of course nobody does here.
(Small side note: People here don't really name any animals, including pet dogs, cats, bird, whatever. We go for nightly walks through town, and invariably some pet/guard dog will bark at the new 'whities' in town. The owners will immediately come out to reign in their animal, while yelling “Dog! Dog! Come ya!” Or “Pup! Puppy! Stop dat! Shhh!” By the way, we can almost hear the dogs telling their masters in response, “No, trust me. Something's a little different about these guys. Haven't figured it out yet, but I know it's something.”
Part of it has to do with Jamaican culture's take on pets in general. The don't really talk to their dogs for any other reason than to call off their attacks on PCVs. So why name them?
So you can imagine what people think, when not only have we named our goat, but we pet her and talk to her when we walk by or get up in the morning.)
What we do know about Lucy is this... she is right about 12 months old and supposed to be pregnant, bred a couple of weeks ago to a nice big ram goat. This is part of the reason we didn't mind paying a little extra for her. You see, we have plans for Lucy and are glad that she is in the “family way”. Goats in Jamaica are almost exclusively bred for meat. Almost nobody, except the wealthy, eats any other kind of meat (other than fish and chicken). So when we heard that Lucy had already been bred we were actually excited because it'll speed up the process all the more. Gestation is about 5 months, although like every other bit of information here, we've had a hard time getting a precise answer, maybe it does really vary. If Lucy really is pregnant she should give birth sometime in late October. It's common for females to birth twins, and sometimes more. At about 6 months old, most ram goats are either sold for cash or slaughtered for meat, the does are usually kept for more breeding possibilities. Most likely we'll follow a similar plan. And if all goes right, maybe by the time we leave here in two years we will have a small flock of goats to sell or give away. We will also attempt to get some milk from Lucy when the time comes, although we've been told that the goats here are too small for that, not enough milk. However it works out, it'll sure to be a learning process.
In the meantime Lucy has become our alarm clock. Without fail at 5:30 every morning Lucy will begin to loudly proclaim (what is it that goats do... bray? neigh? Cry?....oh yeah, bleat!) her hunger and desire to be put out to new pasture. Pasture is the only thing that goats need here. No water, no supplemental feed, no housing. Incredible. So every morning we take her on a very short walk to a fresh area of grass and brush, tie her to a tree or post and let her graze for the day. In the evening we bring her back to the house and inside our gated area to deter anybody from stealing her. Several local people have made us aware of this possibility. Let's hope not as we're quickly becoming attached to her. Oh, she will need to be wormed 3 or 4 times a years, but not while she is pregnant. She is learning to like to be scratched behind the ears and gently stroked on her back.
So keep your fingers crossed for us and, maybe just maybe, soon we will be competent goat herders. Aren't you proud moms?
hodgepodge
We couldn't decide what to write because there's so many new things going on every day that it's hard to capture it all. At some point things will stop being new, different, and exciting and will turn to old, ordinary, and boring, and then we'll really struggle to know what to write about....
Anyway, back to my original point, we figured we'd just give you a slideshow of images that touches on a few insights into our life in Accompong:
pic 1-6: Dowdy. To use his own words, he's “a likkle rastaman”. Dowdy's our closest Jamaicann friend, our homie, our bredren. Dowdy's like family to us already. Dowdy's great...until we get annoyed enough with each other that we need a break, you know, just like all good friends do.
Pic 7-9: 40-legger. Big bug. You DO NOT want to get stung by this bug. We've yet to get the exact straight facts, but we've heard everything from this bug can kill you, you'll lose a limb, it feels similar to a gunshot wound, it'll paralyze you, all the way to the only way to deal with the pain is to get drunk off of rum for 3 days (and apparently doctors will confirm this). Well, as you can tell by the pictures, one crawled right into our house, into our bedroom, right before we were getting ready to go to bed. Matt had to hit it about 20 times with his shoe to kill it. We now shove a doormat underneath the door every night.
Pic 10-16: Cocoa. This is one of Matt's new little pet projects. He's trying to make chocolate from scratch, scratch meaning harvesting the cocoa pods from the trees, pulling out the cocoa seeds, fermenting them, etc. You know, how Matt likes to do most things: why build a house of other materials when you can bring in the lumber for your house on your own back? Why buy beer from the store when you can brew it yourself? And buy a boat when you can build it with your own two hands?
It is not uncommon for Jamaicans to make their our chocolate, many people in Accompong do this. However, Matt is attempting to introduce the fermentation process; apparently this is what makes good chocolate great. Or at least that's what his research says.
Pic 17-18: Roba. Roba's another one of our good friends here in Accompong, except that Roba's 64. So he's more of a mentor than a buddy we invite over for movies, although he'd probably be game for that too. Roba and Matt have spent a lot of time hiking around. Roba's humoring Matt's interest in the cocoa project. The two of them have been working on it together. Roba's in great shape too; the other day he was climbing around in one of the cocoa trees like an 8 year old boy. He also helped to put up our hammock. Roba also farms coffee trees, and he and Matt have worked out an agreement on future coffee beans. Some of you can expect fresh roasted coffee beans for Christmas.
Pic: 19-28: Baboo's Garden. This is Tony's place. Tony is an American that now lives in Accompong. He's also part of our new family. I'm sure we'll share more about him later. Baboo's Garden is a primitive Eco-lodge. We hang out here a lot, partly because this is where Tony and Dowdy live, and partly because it's a great place to hang out.
Pic 29-32: Lucy. Lucy's our new goat. Matt will share more about her in another post.
Pic 33: Friends. From left to right: Sammi, Ikamellia, me, Chris. Sammi and Chris are volunteers who are also stationed in our parish. Some more new additions to the Emslie family. They're the closest to where we're located, and by default we'll be spending lots of time with them. Lucky for us, they're pretty cool people. Ikamellia (also known as Kam) is our closest Jamaican female friend. Dowdy and Kam are like brother and sister to us. I'm sure you'll hear more about her later as well.
Pic 34-37: Grasscut. This is Bill cutting our grass with a machete. Enough said.
Anyway, back to my original point, we figured we'd just give you a slideshow of images that touches on a few insights into our life in Accompong:
pic 1-6: Dowdy. To use his own words, he's “a likkle rastaman”. Dowdy's our closest Jamaicann friend, our homie, our bredren. Dowdy's like family to us already. Dowdy's great...until we get annoyed enough with each other that we need a break, you know, just like all good friends do.
Pic 7-9: 40-legger. Big bug. You DO NOT want to get stung by this bug. We've yet to get the exact straight facts, but we've heard everything from this bug can kill you, you'll lose a limb, it feels similar to a gunshot wound, it'll paralyze you, all the way to the only way to deal with the pain is to get drunk off of rum for 3 days (and apparently doctors will confirm this). Well, as you can tell by the pictures, one crawled right into our house, into our bedroom, right before we were getting ready to go to bed. Matt had to hit it about 20 times with his shoe to kill it. We now shove a doormat underneath the door every night.
Pic 10-16: Cocoa. This is one of Matt's new little pet projects. He's trying to make chocolate from scratch, scratch meaning harvesting the cocoa pods from the trees, pulling out the cocoa seeds, fermenting them, etc. You know, how Matt likes to do most things: why build a house of other materials when you can bring in the lumber for your house on your own back? Why buy beer from the store when you can brew it yourself? And buy a boat when you can build it with your own two hands?
It is not uncommon for Jamaicans to make their our chocolate, many people in Accompong do this. However, Matt is attempting to introduce the fermentation process; apparently this is what makes good chocolate great. Or at least that's what his research says.
Pic 17-18: Roba. Roba's another one of our good friends here in Accompong, except that Roba's 64. So he's more of a mentor than a buddy we invite over for movies, although he'd probably be game for that too. Roba and Matt have spent a lot of time hiking around. Roba's humoring Matt's interest in the cocoa project. The two of them have been working on it together. Roba's in great shape too; the other day he was climbing around in one of the cocoa trees like an 8 year old boy. He also helped to put up our hammock. Roba also farms coffee trees, and he and Matt have worked out an agreement on future coffee beans. Some of you can expect fresh roasted coffee beans for Christmas.
Pic: 19-28: Baboo's Garden. This is Tony's place. Tony is an American that now lives in Accompong. He's also part of our new family. I'm sure we'll share more about him later. Baboo's Garden is a primitive Eco-lodge. We hang out here a lot, partly because this is where Tony and Dowdy live, and partly because it's a great place to hang out.
Pic 29-32: Lucy. Lucy's our new goat. Matt will share more about her in another post.
Pic 33: Friends. From left to right: Sammi, Ikamellia, me, Chris. Sammi and Chris are volunteers who are also stationed in our parish. Some more new additions to the Emslie family. They're the closest to where we're located, and by default we'll be spending lots of time with them. Lucky for us, they're pretty cool people. Ikamellia (also known as Kam) is our closest Jamaican female friend. Dowdy and Kam are like brother and sister to us. I'm sure you'll hear more about her later as well.
Pic 34-37: Grasscut. This is Bill cutting our grass with a machete. Enough said.
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