My Dengue Fever and Wildly Unanticipated Life

I typed up this blog post and titled it almost a month ago during the final throws of Dengue fever. I decided to sit on it for a bit, knowing I might not be in the best state of mind to write this kind of thing. Looking at it now, I think it is safe to share. Interestingly, one of the final symptoms of Dengue is a few days of depression, so that might be the cause behind the genesis of this topic and the somber sounding ending. I assure you I am in a better state of mind today. Anyway, here you go:

November 2 will go down as the day I came down with Dengue Fever, a mosquito-borne virus that manifested itself in the following symptoms in no particular order of appearance: high fever, body ache, chronic low fever, upset stomach, diarrhea, rash, headache, pain behind eyes, fatigue, cold sweat, painful sensitivity on palms and soles of feet, dehydration, weight loss, nausea, and probably more…memory loss perhaps (that last one is a joke). I was in bed for about six days and am only now spending the whole day “up”. This ordeal has given me a lot of time “in my head” and one of the latest thoughts that got me thinking was, “How did I get here?” If I were to ask my 18 year old self there is no way I could have concocted the string of events that have unfolded over the last ten years of this unanticipated life that led to lying in Jamaica with a nasty illness.

Ohio farm where I was raised

I was going to raise pigs. That was my plan at one point. I was a true, blue 4-H and FFA kid who lived for the county fair. For example, my job shadowing experience in high school was at a large wean-to-finish hog barn in Knox County, Ohio. OK, swine farming was probably never going to be my primary occupation, but I definitely had a love for raising show quality pigs; Durocs specifically. The career I settled on out of high school was to be an agricultural science teacher at the high school level and I started as a freshman at the Agricultural and Technical Institute (ATI) branch of The Ohio State University. ATI was perfect: it was located in my hometown and was basically like an extra year of high school with nothing but farmers as classmates. ATI was affectionately referred to as the Alcohol and Tobacco Institute by students, probably because of all the farmhouse parties and so many Skoal rings in the back pocket of Wrangler jeans. My plan was to save money by starting at this branch before transferring down to main campus. Yup, I was living in hillbilly heaven and I was on my way.

Baquba, Iraq (probably 2004)

Or, so I thought. As the saying goes, “if you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.” At the end of 2002 and early 2003, George W. Bush was making a pretty darn good case for regime change in Iraq and just days after “shock and awe” commenced, I was proudly enlisted in the Army Reserve. So, after my first year of classes and bad grades, I completed the Army’s initial entry training and within a year I was off to Iraq, 20 years old and green.

There is an aptly named book called Fiasco about the first few years of the war. I would sum up the experiences of my first deployment as a bunch of military men and women doing what they could to make the best of a bad situation made worse by an administration that had no clear strategic vision or plan. This made coming home to the college setting…interesting. I wouldn’t call it PTSD, but I was definitely 21 and bitter, though fortunately a little more serious about my grades.

I was blessed to be able to start back to school at main campus by living with my best friend’s brother who was also a good friend. He was a couple years older and grounded, so I think that helped. However, after about a year, it became clear that I wasn’t cut out for high school teaching, so I changed majors to Animal Science with the intent of going into Extension education. That might have worked out, but in 2007 I met my future wife and also found out I had to go back to Iraq.

By January 2008 I was back in the Sunni triangle. The sequel to the aforementioned Fiasco is called The Gamble, which is about the surge and change in tactics that paid off so well. Current scandal notwithstanding, I feel I owe a great debt of gratitude to Gen. David Petraeus and guys like Amb. Ryan Crocker and Sec. Robert Gates for the much more purposeful experience I had the second go-round.

Bayji, Iraq (2008)

Iraq 2008 was where my career interests really started to shift. In addition to trying to keep al Qaeda out of Bayji, I had the privilege of working with civilian representatives from USDA and USAID (one of which sung the praises of his Peace Corps experience and how it helped him get his career going). I had heard about development work from Linnae, but this was the first time I saw it in action and appreciated the impact agricultural and economic development can have on peace and pacifying combatants. This was also the first time I had heard about Team Borlaug from Texas A&M University; a group of professors and specialists touring the country to do agriculture assessments. Significant acts (SIGACTS) of violence in our area of operations fell 80% while I was in country that year and I knew it wasn’t just because we had bigger guns and mine-resistant armor protected vehicles. Late that November I was back on American soil a newly minted Staff Sergeant with a new perspective.

I’ll never forget the day on campus when I stepped into the coffee shop, embittered by the stress of another deployment, while some girl who had gone well beyond adding a “freshmen fifteen” pounds was bopping away in her stretchpants to some music on her MP3 player. Just knowing what a different world existed between those earphones was unforgettable. But I digress. Linnae was working in Washington, DC and I was struggling through chemistry, biology, and physics and applying to a competitive summer internship program in DC. Fortunately, I made it into the program on my military laurels because my GPA was only then breaking above the 2.5 mark. After six months of us commuting on weekends, I was finally in DC with Linnae for an internship at the Foreign Agricultural Service at the USDA. This is where I learned much more about the possibilities for work in international agricultural development. I also learned more about that faraway school I mentioned earlier, the one that had been doing the work in Iraq while I was there.

Wedding Day: Hippie marries Soldier ;)

That fall of 2009, Linnae and I got married and she started grad school in Development Economics at Ohio State while I completed my senior year. I spent my last two years of school firmly planted on the Dean’s List, which paid off with admission to a Master’s program at Texas A&M (TAMU) the autumn after graduation. I took a few online Master’s classes that fall and we both submitted applications to the Peace Corps. On December 30^th we were two Buckeyes and a dog U-Hauling it to College Station, Texas for my year of coursework as an Aggie. There are probably few campuses in America where a veteran feels as at ease as at TAMU. I really enjoyed my time there and volunteered often with the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture, even getting the opportunity to train some National Guard agriculture specialists before they deployed to Afghanistan. I helped train those Soldiers just a few months after my Army enlistment contract expired, so it was extra meaningful at the time.

Bor, South Sudan

Conversation with smallholders in South Sudan

Linnae and I were starting to get nervous as 2011 wore on and we weren’t getting an official Peace Corps invitation to serve. I was going to run out of courses and had no plans for doing my thesis research other than in Peace Corps. That is when I got a call from the director of the Borlaug Institute; the organization responsible for the Team Borlaug I had learned of three years prior in Iraq. The Borlaug Institute had just won an unsolicited bid for a USAID project in South Sudan and wanted me for a short-term gig as the project got started. What’s that you say? Post-conflict agricultural development and a bridge of employment before Peace Corps? Done! It was about a week later Linnae and I were pleasantly surprised with an invitation to serve in Jamaica. So, with a future more or less certain, for three months I worked the project in South Sudan and learned a lot about how projects in such environments evolve into order. I came home from Africa in mid-February, helped pack up the truck to move our things back to Ohio and we were in Jamaica by mid-March.

Wash time in Westmoreland, Jamaica

So, in a nutshell, I guess that is how I got “here” to the middle of the Caribbean with a tropical illness and a world completely different from anything I have ever known. The hardest things is not knowing if my life will be able to follow a path back to the things I loved before this string of events began to unfold. Will I again get to live a significant portion of my life in the quietude of rural life? Will I be able to give my children the opportunity to participate in 4-H and FFA or exhibit something at the county fair? How will I connect to our children if I must raise them in a place drastically different from what I was raised in? Some people look at rural Americans as backward or xenophobic, but I know differently. There is something special about life outside the rat race. Whatever that something special is may not be objectively better than where you come from, but from my subjective perspective it is and getting more of it back in my life has been on my mind.   

Just listening to a man about his goats

I don’t know if this is an early mid-life crisis or just what happens when a boy has been too long away from the farm. Maybe they just need to add homesick to the list of Dengue Fever symptoms.

First Hurricane Experience

During the weekend before last I was aware of a tropical system brewing in the south Caribbean Sea, but before we knew it the pesky little thing wound up strength and took a northerly course toward Jamaica. Original projections put landfall dead center on the south coast as a Category 1 hurricane, so we started to prepare for the worst. Containers were filled with water, the lantern dusted off and tested, phones charged, bags packed, etc. Fortunately for us, the hurricane ended up landing farther east, but while we were spared a direct hit many in the central and eastern parishes have taken significant damage.

Tuesday morning Linnae and I were down at the fishing beach for a meeting with the ladies of the farmers group who do home economics projects. While we were waiting for the ladies to show up, the fishermen were busy preparing for the storm. With team work and logs to roll the boats on, we were able to push the fishing vessels up on solid ground pretty easily. Eventually, the boats were ashore and the women were ready for a meeting. Sadly, the turnout was poor so we discussed ways to consistently get women to attend. With some gentle suggestion, Linnae and I may have planted the seed for a Rotating Savings & Credit scheme. This is a system where a set number of women agree to put a set amount of money in the pot every week and that pot goes to one person until every person has been able to get a lump sum. You might wonder why the women don’t just save on their own, but this is very difficult in low-income households. For more understanding of this phenomenon, I suggest reading “Portfolios of the Poor” or “Poor Economics”.

Tuesday afternoon, Linnae and I were making final preparations in the house to make sure we were ready to ride out the storm or evacuate should Peace Corps deem it necessary. Wednesday morning was relatively calm, though the sea was rough and dark clouds were overhead. Around 10:00am the winds were picking up. When we started to hear the tin on the roof creaking, I made a couple hasty trips up there to put more cinder blocks on the corners where the wind was catching it. By 11:00 we were catching enough wind to bring down banana and plantain trees and the awning over our side door was ripped off. By noon, the wind was blowing rain through our walls and door. So, while Linnae was making a lovely macaroni and cheese lunch, I was putting towels and buckets in the necessary places and getting the tarps positioned. Our dog, Dora, slept through most of it. Most of the storm had blown over by the time it got dark.

I am sure our rain gauge wasn’t completely accurate given the horizontal nature of the rain, but I was surprised to find only 0.7 inches in it Thursday morning. We were lucky not to get as much moisture as most places, otherwise we would have had a lot more trees down. We spent all morning cleaning up in the yard. I put my machete to good use hacking up limbs from the almond tree that fell and chopping down the broken banana and plantain trees and hauling them out. Linnae did a little machete work herself, which drew surprise from everyone in the yard and passers-by. By noon, the yard was basically back to normal, just with a lot less foliage. The jury is still out on our sweetsop tree that got blown over. We have it propped up and hope to be able to reinforce the roots and keep it going.

The power came back on Friday afternoon so we are back to enjoying the luxury of cool water and have already been to the grocery to replenish our stocks of perishables.

The overarching theme of this blog post is that Linnae and I weathered the hurricane and are doing just fine. However, many are not so fortunate. Some Peace Corps Volunteers were pulled from their communities for safety reasons and have yet to return to their homes. Still, this is just an inconvenience for PCVs compared to the hardships faced by many Jamaicans who don’t have the safety net of a U.S. government organization. I met with a few farmers Thursday night and I could see the consternation in their faces with so much work and investment ruined by Sandy. And THAT is the overarching theme of Jamaica in the aftermath of the hurricane.

 

Getting the Priorities Straight

Sunset from our porch (very corner of porch standing on
tippy-toes and holding camera above my head)

I have been an official Peace Corps Volunteer since mid-May and have lived in my little corner of Jamaica for a little over four months. My focus thus far has been integrating into my community and identifying needs and assets. The last few weeks, however, have been more specifically about getting the priorities straight.

I work with a great group of ambitious and optimistic producers and processors of organic food. Their aspirations inspire me and I am committed to doing what I can to empower them to realize their goals. The thing that I worry about most is the lack of systematic, long-term planning. I certainly do not blame them for this; there is a litany of socioeconomic causes for this that I cannot cover in a blog post. Thanks to an exercise in Participatory Analysis for Community Action (a.k.a. Participatory Rural Appraisal or Participatory Learning and Action) I facilitated with the farmers and recently completing Program Design & Management training with one of my counterparts, I think we are ready to move forward with a clearer purpose. 

Needs Assessment / Priority Ranking

The activity I facilitated with the Westmoreland Organic Farmers Society (WOFS) this month was a combination of needs assessment and priority ranking. It started as a typical meeting: a 4:00pm start time and people trickling in during the first hour. At about 4:30 we felt we had enough participants to begin. The society consists of two main cohorts, the producers and processors. So, I started by asking the group to divide itself into these groups. The processors (who call what they do “home economics”) were a group of about 10 women and the producers (farmers) were nine men and one woman. Using flip chart paper and markers, the groups were instructed to make a list of attainable needs that they would like the organization to focus on. The next step was to sort these needs into a four quadrant matrix based on urgency and profitability. None of the identified needs were viewed as unprofitable. In the final phase of the exercise, a pair-wise ranking matrix was drawn on a piece of flip chart for each group. The participants compared each need to another and voted by show of hands for which was a higher priority. When all items had been compared, a tally of the results was made and an example can be viewed below.

Pair-wise Ranking Matrix for Farmer Needs

Production Farmers’ Needs: In descending order, the most important needs for the production farmers were water, seeds, and fencing/sheds. What the farmers termed as water issues can also be described as a lack of irrigation. Given the humid tropical climate in Bluefields, the farmers recognize the potential to expand to two growing seasons per year. Currently, farmers are limited to a single “rainy season”; though they report these rains have become less dependable in recent years. Improved irrigation or water management could potentially double productivity and reduce risk against irregular rainfall. Farmers, especially organic farmers, struggle to acquire certified or improved seeds and currently rely on seed saving. Improved access to high value certified organic seeds would be a boon for the farmers in WOFS. The fencing/sheds issue is related to problems with praedial larceny, livestock management, and protecting equipment from theft. Farmers are aware of the long-term benefits of formalized land-tenure. However, many of the farmers occupy government owned land and feel no pressure to enter an agreement that would require paying rent when they can continue farming rent-free. The farmers do recognize that informal tenure reduces the availability of financing and disqualifies them from agricultural development grants from donors.

Morning from the porch

Home Economics Needs: For home economics, the top two priorities were potable water and a kitchen space, with utensils, trainers, and a refrigerator all tying with one vote. Currently, WOFS rents kitchen space locally to produce jams. This rented space is adequate for the current production of a few hundred bottles of jam per year, but offers no opportunity for expansion and is a shared space. When processing the jams, the group borrows non-commercial grade blenders from its own members to puree many pounds of fresh sorrel, apple, and june plum. WOFS will need commercial-grade appliances to avoid the risk of breaking personal equipment and to increase efficiency. The group also recognizes the importance of training to improve the quality, consistency, and appearance of the products. Refrigeration will also allow for flexibility and longer storage times for inputs; the men and women who contribute to the processing have busy schedules.

Washing my clothes

The timing of this exercise worked well, because it came just two weeks before one of the WOFS members and I attended Project Design & Management (PDM) training through Peace Corps Jamaica. The training covered project life-cycle and the process of visioning, setting goals and objectives, establishing an action plan and tasks, budgeting, and proposal writing. It was probably too much for my counterpart to absorb in such a short time, but his exposure to the process will help him to help me introduce the method with WOFS.

I feel like I am having a “typical” Peace Corps experience. I devoted the first four months primarily to learning my community and culture. I avoided getting wrapped up in initiating projects or the temptation of jumping onto ongoing activities without fully understanding. My counterpart and I came to the PDM training with a project idea that is directly tied to the needs expressed by the group. The next 20 months will be devoted to the diffusion of innovation and behavior change for me and my counterparts. I don’t mean behavior change in a manipulative sense, but in the context of taking new approaches to problem solving and improving the capacity of WOFS through adopting new techniques.

Ahhh, the humor of a farmer

 It has been a rewarding first four months at my site. Having studied and practiced international development, I was wary of repeating here the mistakes of people and organizations in development around the world. Peace Corps is not an NGO, donor agency, or faith-based organization, which makes us unique in the context of international development organizations. This unique status sets PCVs apart from other development workers and provides the freedom to integrate with communities, incorporate and build upon indigenous knowledge, and provide grassroots capacity building based on locally identified needs. Living on similar wages and in similar conditions has made me more empathetic and hopefully more effective, despite the limited resources available. I look forward to whatever comes next and hope I will find the time to get a Master’s thesis written in the mean time.

We may live in a wooden cabin...but the internet works
great on football Saturday

Linnae checking out a bamboo stand

Jamaican Independence, Community Mapping, Farming, and 4-H

View from a farm

View from another farm

 Last month I wrote about preparing for a national agriculture show. Unfortunately, the show and tropical storm Ernesto had both booked that weekend. I was actually en route with the farmers to the show when I got the call from Peace Corps that I should return to my parish and stand fast as more information became available about the storm threat. So I guess I will just have to look forward to the 2013 Denbigh Agricultural Show.

That weekend was still fun and entertaining at home in Westmoreland parish as Jamaica celebrated the 50^th year of independence from Britain and the Jamaican sprinters were tearing up the track at the London games. One memorable experience actually came at the grocery store. In celebration of the weekend, all the employees were wearing green, black, and gold. Suddenly, there was an uproar of shouting and I could see people running in the same direction. At first, I thought something bad was going on, but then we could see everyone smiling. It turns out we were shopping while the women’s heats for the 100m dash were taking place and one of Jamaica’s track stars, Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce was sprinting to victory. Two more heats were run while we were in the check-out and again, all employees stopped what they were doing to watch the screen. I jokingly said to the cashier that it was a good thing we weren’t shopping during the marathon, but she didn’t get my joke.  

Flowering plainain

I have been spending some time working with the Community Development Committee (CDC). The CDC is an entity with an aim to promote synergy between the community-based organizations (CBO) in the area. These CBOs are the farmers group, the fishermen’s group, churches, youth clubs, artisans, etc. A couple weeks ago I facilitated a community mapping exercise that is one of the hallmarks of Participatory Rural Appraisal/Participatory Learning & Action. Ten members of the CDC participated in drawing a map of the community and labeling all the districts, areas of interest, and roads. After all this was complete I gave them stickers to rank the well-being of the communities and to vote on areas where development has been successful, where development should focus going forward, and areas where their own special interests lie. A day or two later I analyzed the map and put the data in an Excel spreadsheet. Then, voila, we had gone from coloring with markers and playing with stickers to generating data (shown below in the charts). The technique needs to be refined a little in order to produce truly valid and reliable information, but it is a start.

Finished product

Map in progress

Kid goat

 Now that I have a bicycle, I have been making more trips into the hills to visit farms. Between the humidity and my being out of shape (or at least out of my former “Army shape”), I usually have to sit under a tree and drink water for a little while before doing much work when I get there. In fact, a couple days ago I went to the farthest farm and packed a change of clothes because I knew after pedaling just four miles but climbing 1000ft I would be drenched; I was right. This effort is worth it when you take in the view of the Caribbean Sea with farmland under your feet. In the time I have spent with the farmers I have identified three major challenges they face, 1) informal land tenure and no clear path for formalization, 2) changing rainfall patterns and inadequate irrigation, and 3) the need for business acumen and capacity building toward value-added processing of their crops. There is a demand for the jellies the farmers group has been making out of sorrel, apple, and june plum, but they just haven’t been able to make the leap into producing these with regularity. Accomplishing this takes lot of time and money, two things the farmers don’t have and two things that are required to get things done with the government.

Sorrel flower

Other activities I have been tackling are computer training and assisting with business plans for the farmers. They have some great ideas, but just aren’t familiar with putting those ideas on paper in a way that garners donor attention. I say donor because many are loathe to take on the risk of a loan nor have the collateral to back up much capital.

Intercropped corn, peanuts, sorrel

The farmers group is also gearing up the planning and preparations for the second annual Organic Expo & Sorrel Festival in December. This is an activity that seems to have breathed new life into the organization. I just hope holding the event doesn’t take too much energy away from capacity building activities. I know we need to build public awareness for the group and recognition for the brand, but the farmers also need to improve recordkeeping, achieve certified organic status, and establish a management system for the business operations of the organization. I guess that means we will be busy for a while.

Old Anglican Church

Lastly, school will be starting again soon which means my work with the 4-H club will begin. I am eager to start working with some budding agriculturalists and expect to work mainly with livestock projects and public speaking. I feel very strongly in the benefits of learning oral communication skills at a young age. I truly believe my public speaking experience in 4-H and FFA gave me the skills and confidence to take on challenges and to be a leader when necessary. I hope I can create that same kind of experience for some youth that dearly need it.

Pickin' peanuts

That’s all for now. Feel free to leave a comment or question.

A Unique Experience

Trying to find buoy moorings

Living and working in a developing country is such a unique experience and Jamaica is no exception. After two years working in places like Iraq and South Sudan, I felt especially prepared for the Peace Corps experience. Now that I have been at my site for 2 ½ months, I would say my previous experience made me more resilient, but I am still challenged in myriad ways and still have much to learn.

One of the downsides to this uniqueness is over the last ten weeks I have spent more time sitting in front of a fan and sipping ice-water than ever before; the month of July brought heat indices in the upper 90s almost every day. The mosquitos are relentless inside and outside of our cabin. Fortunately, my body has gotten accustomed to the bites enough that they only itch for an hour or so. Most recently, we have also been challenged by seeing a mystery illness kill six puppies in our yard while not having the access or ability to pay for professional veterinary care. We are also continuing to try and catch on to the local Patwa language and the strong Westmoreland accent it is spoken in. All things considered, we are not suffering from drought, the mosquitoes are malaria-free, we eat three square meals a day, and Jamaica is not in conflict, so we are better off than a couple billion people on the planet.

Boiling some sorrel jam with the organic farmers

The focus of the last ten weeks has been to learn about the people in my community and those in my organization. There are definitely differences between levels of education, affluence, motivation, personality among the folks in our part of Westmoreland. While learning about the people, I have also been paying attention to the assets available, the geography, and legal framework that affect farmers. Focusing on these things first helps me to understand the best role for me to play going forward. Rather than making the people and conditions fit into a project, I have the freedom to make a project fit the environment; this is the beauty of the liberty Peace Corps affords to a budding agricultural development professional.

Over the last month I have been working with the farmers to prepare for the Denbigh Agricultural Show. This is a national event that showcases the industry in grand scale. I’m looking forward to being there all three days. The only point of reference I have is the Farm Science Review back in my home state of Ohio, so this should be a fun adventure. Especially so with the event taking place during the Olympic track events and the 50^th anniversary of Jamaica’s independence. I will probably have to devote an entire blog post to this event later.

One of the turtles

Last month, a Community Development Committee (CDC) was revitalized for our area. The organization used to exist under a different name, but has not been functioning well over the last few years. I am working with the chairman of the CDC and plan to facilitate some Participatory Learning and Action activities with locals and hope that will be effective at energizing the group towards grassroots ownership of development activities. There are definitely wealthy influencers in Jamaica that would like to mold our community to their business interests rather than the people’s interests. This should be an nteresting challenge to overcome.

Some other interesting happenings are that Linnae and I accompanied a local turtle watch program to check on a nest that was due to hatch. When we got to the site, there were only two little turtles and several broken eggs. We aren’t sure what happened, but it seems to be a combination of eggs hatching at different times, some eggs spoiling in the heat, and just bad timing. Regardless, we got a kick out of watching this one make its way to the sea. If it is a female and very lucky, she may be back to the same beach in 30 years to lay a nest of her own.

Linnae and I at the chicken coop

Our common fowl flock is growing. I might be the only one around that throws feed out for chickens in the morning, so we are having some migrate into the yard. This is good news. I understand the flock started with three birds, so we will benefit from the genetic diversity. We are also taking matters into our own hands with the baby chicks. The dogs and mongooses are pretty effective predators.

Sorry I’ve been blogless for nearly a month. I will try to do better. 

Working, Studying, Living

Bluefields Bay as seen walking down from my supervisor's farm

Last week our Safety and Security Coordinator came to visit and brought one of the best possible gifts; a care package from Linnae’s sister. I say this, because inside was an 18-month weekly planner just for me (the coffee is great too). Now I can finally keep track of all the meetings, tasks, and fleeting ideas that come into my brain without shuffling through disorderly notes in a flimsy college-ruled notebook. A wise Texas A&M professor once told me, “Pale ink is better than brilliant memory.” I couldn’t agree more.

Linnae and I have been in Jamaica for 110 days and at our site here in Bluefields for 44. At this point, we more or less have established a routine. I am up at about 5:30 to feed the chickens and fetch some water. By six o’clock I am eating cereal, drinking coffee, listening to BBC, and reading news (basically my morning routine back in the U.S.). If it is a weekday I am on my way to a farm or working on a project at home by 7:30. Most of what I have been doing at home is reading about organic farming, developing adult ICT training, and literature review for my thesis. Linnae and I each wash dishes once a day.

It is puppy season in our yard

Weekends usually start the same but also include hand washing our laundry and tidying up the cabin. This Saturday evening we were invited to a gospel singing at the Seventh Day Advent church just up the hill. If the vocal talent in the churches of Jamaica were ever unleashed on the TV competitions in America, we would have a really hard time competing! Sunday nights we go to the local Police Youth Club (PYC), which is a youth development program sponsored by the police force. Many communities around the island have a PYC.

Every other Monday evening is a general meeting of the organic farmers group and often the in-between Monday is a committee or executive meeting. Bluefields just had an initial meeting to stand up a Community Development Committee (CDC). So two Wednesday evenings will entail going to the general meeting or the executive committee meeting of the CDC. Starting in September, I will be going to Belmont Academy (high school) every Tuesday afternoon to work with the 4-H club. On Monday evenings and Wednesday afternoons, we go to a local resort and visit with the tourists. Part of the Peace Corps mission is to help Americans gain a better understanding of the country that we serve in. So, we go straight to the Americans who are staying in all-inclusive luxury villa and talk to them about what really g’waan in Bluefields. 

My supervisor with a freshly picked pineapple. His field is recovering from a fire.

You may have noticed I just talked mainly about what I do in the mornings and evenings. This is mainly due to the fact that it is really hot and really humid in the afternoon and I am a taxi ride away from the nearest public establishment with air conditioning. So, between 2:00pm and about 5:00pm, I am sitting in front of a fan at the cabin reading or napping. I talked to a professor from Missouri State last week who has been visiting Jamaica for research over the last 40 years. His opinion is that Bluefields is the hottest non-urban spot on the island and he doesn’t bring students in the summer anymore. I guess this makes me feel a little better about my afternoon laziness.

Peace Corps Masters International

Thus far, I am still hoping to do a study that looks at a basket of agricultural innovations introduced in the area and the influence of local attitudes, beliefs, and activities on the adoption or non-adoption of those innovations. I am hoping to incorporate a mixed method design, because I don’t think you can do development research without qualitative/naturalistic inquiry to go along with numbers and statistical tests. As I type this, I can already tell it is too ambitious and I can hear my professor telling me to pare it down to something more realistic. But at this stage, I am thinking pretty broadly and focusing on integrating with and learning from the community. I want the community to have a voice in the development of hypotheses and potentially take action with the study’s findings. I don’t want to be extractive like so many development scholars who craft a survey in their ivory tower, swoop in to an impoverished community, generate their numbers, and then go home to write up a report and get themselves published (if you have read Robert Chambers, this might sound familiar). I’ll do another update on PCMI soon. I will know a lot more as I go through the Community and Sector Inventory process that Peace Corps mandates. I’ll be sharing that document with my professors and potentially all of my blog readers to get input on the potential research to be done.

Going Organic

One of our common fowl hens, Theresa, and her peeps

Since arriving in Bluefields, I have “gone organic” in a major way. I am studying it, promoting it, writing business plans for it, and eating it when it is available. For the next two years I will be working hard to get more farmers to go organic too. Have I raised any eyebrows yet?

Don’t get me wrong, I am still an equal-opportunity lover of agriculture in all of its forms. I think the mudslinging and misinformation in the organic vs. conventional contest is embarrassing for agriculture and erodes the ability to progress. Similar to other areas of the human existence, I believe research and development in new technologies, be they biotechnological or natural/organic, has the potential to greatly improve the human condition. But like I said, I am an agricultural pragmatist, if you will. I am for matching the food production system to local conditions in a way that achieves environmental, social, and economic sustainability and contributes to the most food security.

That being said, I feel very fortunate to have been placed with the Westmoreland Organic Farmers Specially Authorized Society (WOFSAS); the long name is a product of bureaucracy. Bluefields is a coastal community located along a bay that is rich in history and currently serves as a fish sanctuary. The terrain rises to 2000ft of elevation within a few miles of the shoreline. Most of the farmers work small plots of rocky government-owned ground with little hope of ever holding a deed for the land. Many farmers in Jamaica suffer from illiteracy, which is especially problematic and results in over-application or misuse when they apply chemical fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides. This is problematic enough in gently sloping areas; can you imagine the impacts of over-application of agro-chemicals in a steep slope coastal region that is supposed to be serving as protected habitat for marine life? That’s just a small piece of the calculus that makes me confident that organic agriculture is optimal in the paradigm of environmental, social, and economic sustainability for Bluefields, Jamaica.

So there you have it, for the next two years I am all about organic agriculture (but don’t expect me to “take sides”). I really want WOFSAS and local farmers to achieve success in growing and marketing their organic produce to eager customers in the tourism and food industry in our little part of the island. I hope their children will grow to love growing things as much as their families and as much as I do. At the end of the day, it’s all about treating the land, the animals, and people with respect and keeping future generations in mind. And you don’t have to be certified anything to do that.

Bluefields Beginnings

Goat got stuck trying to get a mango seed out of the box

Well, we have officially been Peace Corps Volunteers at our site in Bluefields for two weeks. Our focus thus far has really just been on making our cabin into a home, getting to know people, and learning about the organizations we work with. This “take it slow” approach is encouraged by Peace Corps to achieve two things, 1) to integrate into our community in such a way that increases personal safety, and 2) to fully understand the local knowledge, history, and assets that will inform and shape projects going forward. In fact, Peace Corps doesn’t even provide Program Design & Management training until the Early Service Conference (four months into service) because of the pitfalls of trying to get a big project going before really understanding the environment.

Our Community

As someone who served two tours in Iraq as a soldier and three months in South Sudan as a civilian, I feel truly blessed to have been placed here in Bluefields, Jamaica. Many of the farms I work on provide scenic views that blend verdant land and indigo Caribbean Sea. It is nowhere near as cool as some of the mountainous sites like where we trained in Woodford, but even though the sweat pours all day, I think we can make it down to the local beach just about every weekend. There are a few upscale villas and a Sandals resort nearby, so on first meeting a lot of locals assume we are short-term tourists. However, after speaking a little Patois and explaining where we live and what we do, they warm right up.

Bus on right is a typical "15 Passenger" taxi

We are adjusting to things like waiting for small taxi buses that hold 15 people, but cramming in with 20 or more. Our cabin is not plumbed into any public water service, so we haul water to the house in jugs and buckets. We have a 300 gallon tank next to the house designed to catch rainwater off of the roof to shower and flush the toilet, but since we haven’t gotten any rain I have had to haul water up on the roof to pour into the tank and may have to do it again soon. I am once again taking “combat showers” like in Iraq, which means turning on the water to get wet, then turning it off to scrub and turning it on again to quickly rinse off. We also only flush the toilet after going number two. One quickly becomes conscious of water consumption when you carry it all by hand.

Fixing up future Heritage Center

Some highlights of my activities so far include helping fix up an old police building that will become a heritage center for Bluefields, digging holes and putting in fence posts with a goat farmer, planting corn with my supervisor, and planning sessions with key leaders of the Westmoreland Organic Farmers Specially Authorized Society (WOFSAS). A lot of our work over the course of the year will include getting the group officially registered with the government, increasing the output of value-added organic products, and planning the second annual Bluefields Organic Expo & Sorrel Festival on December 19 & 20, 2012. 

Products made by WOFSAS

Unfortunately, I have a touch of the flu so I am going to cut things off here. We have the internet back up and running in our cabin, so feel free to leave a comment/question or shoot me an email.