Making it Official

Linnae and I at Swearing-In Ceremony

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks since I last updated this blog. When last you heard from me, technical training was coming to a close and we were getting ready to leave Woodford for Kingston (or “town” as Jamaicans refer to it). Reconvening in “town” was a fun experience because we got to meet up with the Trainees from the Education and Youth as Promise sectors and learn what their previous five weeks had been like. It was a pretty exciting two days. The first day we had a bit of training and then our sites were revealed to us in the afternoon. Our Program Manager had been developing the sites over the last several months; making sure that partner organizations were appropriate for each volunteer and that housing was safe and adequate. He used Google Earth in such a way that for each trainee, the view would start as a zoomed out satellite image of Jamaica and then it would zoom in to the community where each person would serve. It was then we learned our home and work site for the next two years would be Bluefields in Westmoreland parish. 

Sunset over Bluefields Bay

 In our opinion, being placed in Bluefields was like hitting the Super Lotto Jackpot of Peace Corps locations. Bluefields is a sleepy bayside community of fishermen and farmers where Linnae and I are living in rustic conditions, but have the blessings of wonderful people to work with and turquoise waters to relax in. More about that later. The other information we learned at the site revealing ceremony is who we will be working with. My partner organization is the Westmoreland Organic Farmers Specially Authorized Society (WOFSAS). The organization used to be simply named Bluefields Organic Farmers Group, but because of the type of NGO status they wanted to qualify for and some unfortunate naming policies, WOFSAS is their new unwieldy name. Linnae has been assigned to the Bluefields Bay Fishermen’s Friendly Society (BBFFS). I will commit a blog post to our duties later.

Our little cabin

OK, let me backtrack a little. So, we learned about our site locations that first day back in Kingston. The next day, we all got to meet our counterparts. For Linnae and I that meant meeting the presidents of WOFSAS (Brian) and BBFFS (Wolde). The morning of that second day was spent with introductions and small talk with our counterparts followed by lunch and then loading all of our luggage into a van and heading west across the island for site orientation week. When we finally arrived at our yard (in Jamaica, yard is a term that refers to the area that a cluster of houses are located, often an extended family situation), I breathed a sigh of relief for a few reasons: 1) I knew we were done hauling our luggage around for a long time, 2) I could tell immediately that there was a lot of character in our yard and community, 3) our living conditions are as rustic as the average Peace Corps Volunteer, negating the “Posh Corps” stereotype Jamaica gets. Linnae and I live in a 400 sq ft wooden cabin that relies on catching rain water to fill a tank that provides our bathing, dishwashing, and toilet water. I will admit we are a little spoiled by the fact that the previous Volunteer was able to acquire free internet from some high-end villas down on the bay. We happen to be in line with the signal that is broadcast to their office and guesthouses. I will soon commit a blog post to describing our living situation and talk about our new host-mother “Bumpy” and the extended family in the yard.  

Side view of cabin

Fixing lunch with Kevin

Fishing beach where Linnae and I work

Site orientation week mainly consisted of getting to know community members, unpacking, and being driven around to schools and other areas of interest. We were in Bluefields from Tuesday to Saturday morning, when we all headed back to Kingston via public transportation. After about five hours of travel we finally arrived at the hotel, but we were heartened by the fact that we only had six days before swearing in, becoming official, and starting the next phase of our adventure. There isn’t much to report on about that week, except of course for the big swearing in ceremony at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence.

Lion Fish, a delicious invasive species

 This year marks the 50^th anniversary of Peace Corps in Jamaica and also the 50^th anniversary of Jamaican independence from Britain. Therefore, our ceremony was a big “to do”. All in all there were over 250 guests including a former Prime Minister, the current Governor General, high-level Jamaican politicians, the U.S. Ambassador, the media (we made the evening news), and more. The ceremony consisted of remarks from the Jamaica Governor General and Peace Corps officials, a musical performance, the administration of the oath that transferred our status from Trainee to Volunteer, brief remarks from myself and two other Volunteers nominated to speak on behalf of their sector, and a ceremonial cutting of the 50^th Anniversary cake. It was a hot morning in Town, so I was glad to climb back into Linnae’s supervisor’s van and cruise back to our seaside home away from home. 

Fisherman with a stringer of snapper

I realize I have condensed two weeks of hustle and bustle into just over 900 words. Now that we are settled in, I will try to blog a little more frequently or at least with more specificity so as to better share our experiences in the “real” Jamaica. Until next time, Walk Good. 

Last Week, Farmer Field School, and Finding a New Home

Getting the bed ready

We have just finished our final week of Agriculture/Environment based training in Woodford. Like the week before, we were engaged in practice-based experiential learning. The highlight for me was the Farmer Field School that we facilitated. We also did some more work in hillside farming and companion cropping. The local extension agents from the Rural Agriculture Development Authority (RADA) spent a lot of time with us sharing their technical knowledge as well as their experiences working in the Jamaican context.

On Tuesday, we finished breaking ground in our hillside plot and inter-cropped tomatoes with scallions (the odor of the scallions repels bugs from tomatoes). This involved breaking up the soil with a large hoe and turning the soil with a large fork. Once the ground was broken up and leveled back out, we used the end of a machete to carve out little holes for the seedlings. After getting the seedlings firmly in the ground and adding a little water, we were done for the day. It all got done pretty quickly with about twelve people working at any given time.

Wednesday the RADA marketing officer for St. Andrew parish came to speak with us. I found it interesting that a lot of his work revolves around linking farmers with buyers, whereas most farmers in the U.S. have the ability to carry out this function for themselves. I look forward to learning more about the knowledge and information systems available to farmers and how varied levels of literacy affect access to these systems.

Thursday morning we held the Farmer Field School (FFS). Usually, a FFS consists of many sessions over the course of a growing season, so one could argue it wasn’t technically a FFS since it was a one-off event. Regardless, it was a good opportunity for us to become familiar with the model and to experience facilitating farmer-centered training. The official start time for the event was announced as 8:30am, but by 9:00 we had about three people. A few minutes later we were up to about seven, and then by 10:00 we had 16 participants (a lesson in “island time”). Since many of the farmers had met with us the week prior for a general discussion, we started by revisiting a few of their main concerns related to market prices and availability of market information. Since these are things that an individual farmer has little control of, we shifted the focus to another way of making more money: reducing input costs. The problem is few farmers keep records of their expenditures, so they have no idea what their cost of production is for any given crop. The intent was for the farmers to become aware of their costs and identify ways of increasing the profit margin by reducing inputs. Two or three seemed interested enough adopt the practice. As part of this session, we introduced the farmers to the Jamaica Agriculture Market Information System (JAMIS). JAMIS is a new online tool that makes weekly market prices available at various points in the chain: farmgate, municipal, wholesale, and retail. It is a pretty extensive database that relies on input from the RADA marketing officers in each parish. The idea is to make pricing more transparent and to help farmers identify better opportunities. The participant that showed the most interest in this was "Ziggy", a twenty-something farmer with a high level of literacy and business sense. It would be interesting to see how he utilizes the JAMIS system to build his enterprise.

Making pesticide from neem

 Other sessions in the FFS included making natural pesticides from neem tree leaves as well as household items like dish soap, garlic, pepper, and vinegar.A few farmers seemed interested in trying it because it is cheaper and safer to apply. Keep in mind; many of these farmers have less than two acres. Some of them were already using this technology and it resulted in good discussion within the group. For the last session, we had the farmers teach us how and why they plant certain crops according to the moon phases. The farmers really enjoyed taking on the role of teacher and we certainly learned a lot; the first quarter is a busy time for farmers! All in all the FFS was a great experience and I hope to be involved in regular training like this when I get to my permanent site.

Thursday evening we had a big potluck where all the host families and trainees got together. Many of the trainees cooked dishes too, so there was a variety of food to choose from. Most people went home with belly aches from overeating. We really enjoyed ourselves and we could tell that the families we have been with genuinely cared for us and appreciated having us stay with them for these five weeks.

Friday was spent reviewing all we have covered in training and wrapping up some administrative items in the morning. In the afternoon we worked on a special presentation we will be making in Kingston on Monday when we reconvene with the rest of Group 83 (Youth as Promise & Education sectors). I won’t give away any of the details now, but it should be pretty awesome.

Well camoflauged insect I found on my shirt

Monday afternoon, Linnae and I will find out exactly where we will be living and the Jamaican counterparts we will work with over the next two years. On Tuesday we will meet these counterparts and they will take us to our little spot on the island. We will stay there for four days and then return to Kingston for some final training as a group which will culminate with a swearing in ceremony on the 18th and the beginning of 24 months of agricultural teaching, research, and outreach.