Storming the Castle: September 2011

Proud farmers display their produce

The school garden was a great success last year. After our harvest of string beans and turnips we planted and reaped lettuce, tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, and carrots. We had such a bountiful harvest that we could not use all of the vegetables at the school. We sent some of the produce to the local shops and market and a lot of it to needy families. The profits from the garden will be used towards seeds and fertilizer for this school year and for the school nutrition program (more to follow). We are looking forward to planting more string beans, carrots, tomato, broccoli, and lettuce within the next month. Our sweet pepper and hot pepper plants are still bearing along with scallion and thyme the key ingredients in every Jamaican dish.

A local shopkeeper sells our tomatoes in his shop and at the market

Yesterday was the second full week of school. School let out early on Friday afternoon, as usual. I stayed later to let students swap library books. They were excited because they get to take two books on the weekends. However, after library time was long gone I was surprised to see a group of students still hovering in the school yard, debating the differences between sharks and dolphins. This is a Friday afternoon! Don't you want to go home throw off your school uniforms and have some fun? I guess I shouldn't have been. Jamaican children love school. In Westphalia at least children would much rather be in school than at home. Summer was boring and they are so happy to be back in school again. The teachers tell me it's because they have too many chores to do at home. I'm not sure what it is but Shhh! don't tell them they're not supposed to like it!

At the end of last year I asked my students if they wanted to continue reading classes over the summer, expecting them to say no. Another surprise: yes miss! How many days a week would you like to have them? Everyday miss! But you wouldn't want to have it all day, just for about an hour or so? All day miss! We compromised with reading class Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday mornings and swimming lessons at the river on Fridays when most children help their parents on the farm. Swimming lessons were large and sometimes more fun than swimming. Reading classes were small but successful. Between November and July one student improved by 3 grade levels, two students improved 2 grade levels, and 8 students improved 1 grade level. Most of them are still below grade level, but hopefully that will change this year!

Mondays, Saturdays, and some Sundays were dedicated to water work days with a core group of men in the community laying water pipe to the school. Thanks to Appropriate Projects my fellow Peace Corps Volunteer Daniel McDonald's parents Judy and Doug McDonald, the National Water Commission, and community members the pipe has nearly reached the school (only 20 lengths to go!). Work days were frustrating at times due to lack of support, but we have successfully carried, dug trenches for, joined, laid, and buried over 150 20' lengths of pipe.

I also had several visitors this summer, and hurricane Irene was not one of them! My friends and fellow Peace Corps Volunteers Sammi Travis and Patrick Marti came on a river day. Two new Peace Corps Volunteers Sarah Marshall and Crystal Aeppli came and helped Fitzroy and I weed out the garden and carry two inch pipe on their shoulders - what great sports. Thank you guys!

Mom and Dad enjoying Jamaica's natural beauty.

Finally, my PARENTS came to visit me in Jamaica. Which was BIG NEWS in Westphalia. My parents kept asking "When can we come visit?" My community kept asking "When are mommy and daddy going to come look for you?" and I was the major stone in the road keeping these two groups from meeting each other. They come very different worlds and I, living somewhere between the two, was afraid I would be mortified by their interactions. However these two forces were bigger than me, and they arrived mid-July. My fears were misplaced. My parents were wonderfully flexible. They stayed in Westphalia for a few days and took bucket baths like pros! My community members were very welcoming opening up their hearts and homes and sending them on their way with freshly ground coffee. I had wild dreams about us riding bikes through the mountains for two days but when one of the valves on the tubes sprung a leak we had to content ourselves with a rusty old truck ride. At one point during the ride, Dad looked down through the holes in the rusted out bottom of the truck to see a fire below his seat. Luckily, our driver was a mechanic and after whacking the battery with a wrench a few times it was as good as new. I am used to drivers moonlighting as a mechanics but my parents were remarkably cool about it as well. We had several more adventures far from the traditional all-inclusive Jamaican vacation including touring a bammy factory and swimming in one of Jamaica's many "blue holes" which are gorgeous clear blue water usually with a waterfall as a backdrop. We topped it off with the highlight of my summer - turtles. We helped 148 baby turtles hatch and watched a mother lay another 100 something eggs. I got to swim out to sea with the babies until they tucked their flippers into their sides and drifted out with the current.

There were literally HANDFULLS of turtles. They are so determined and independent from birth - they know exactly where the ocean is and head straight for it. As we say in Jamaica "Dem no business wit nobody."

Fitzroy, my community counterpart and right hand man for our water project and school garden, and I also got to do some traveling including visiting his daughter in Trinityville, St. Thomas and going to the yearly Jamaican Agriculture show in Denbigh, Clarendon. All in all, it was an enjoyable summer and I'm excited for school to be back in session again!