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.