Sunday, February 28, 2010

Birthday and Donkey Races

When I was a kid, I was always jealous of those kids who were able to have pool parties or parties at Splash Down (the local water park) for their birthdays. Being that my birthday is in February, I never really had that option. But! Then I moved to Jamaica, where it’s summer all year round. So this year, I was finally able to have my summer birthday. It was sunny, warm and wonderful all day just as I had always hoped. And my dogs were even quite in the morning, meaning I wasn’t woken up at 5:45 by them barking their heads off! (Something that happens more often than not.) I was flooded with emails, calls, texts, Facebook posts and even a few cards throughout the day, and each one of them definitely made my day a little bit better. I even had a HUGE piece of cake at work, and managed to make it most of the day without getting “flowered” (it’s a Jamaican tradition that on your birthday, everyone throws flower on you…sometimes after spraying you with beer).

After work I went with a few friends to go cliff jumping. Negril is a seaside town, and there are 2 sides to it – the beach side, where I live, has a 7 mile long, white, sandy beach that is great for relaxing and leisurely beach days. The other half is several miles of jagged rocks and cliffs jutting out into the water. There are many, many points along here to jump off the cliffs into water, most being at least 20 feet up, if not more. Like I said, I’ve never had a summer birthday before, and I was excited to take advantage of finally having one. A few good friends agreed to join me on this excursion, and we decided to go to the “lighthouse” at Negril Escape, a very Peace Corps-friendly hotel whose manager we work with on a pretty regular basis. We all know how much I like clichés, and we all know what they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words. So let me shut up and just show you a picture of my friend, Eric jumping off the lighthouse:

After a few jumps, we headed out to a local spot for some great jerk chicken, another piece of cake (it was by birthday, after all) and another Red Stripe or two before heading home for the night. And yes, my friends did manage to flower me right at the end of the night with the help of a local store owner.

A few days later, some volunteers and I volunteered at a local community event – Donkey Races! It’s a fundraiser put on by the Negril Rotary, and it was a fantastic day. It’s just what it sounds like – donkeys racing around a circular track. And yes, there were jockeys. There were several heats and several rounds, and I got to see many donkey races throughout the day. Each one was more entertaining than the last was. Some of the donkeys just sprinted around the track, some bucked their riders off, some refused to move, some turned around and went backwards and some just walked and took their sweet time. We all helped out throughout the day and definitely took the time to enjoy watching the races. Again, this is something that needs to be seen to be believed, so please watch this video to get an idea of the day:



I’ve also posted some recent pictures online, and here’s the link if you’d like to check them out:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2309230&id=5301199&l=14096fe197

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Mi have fi respec all di farmer man who grow it proper

For those loyal readers of my blog, you may remember an entry I had back in September (October?) where I talked about farmers and farming and what not. We've been back to visit those same farmers a few times since then, and on our last visit, I started seriously thinking about how amazing the whole cycle of farming is. I should also add that I had just finished reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food (which I highly recommend), and I'm sure that has something to do with it too.

I don't think many of us, especially Americans, really take the time to think about where our food comes from. We see an enormous bounty in every supermarket we go into, and a lot of people don't take a second to realize all of the work that has gone into getting each of those pieces of produce onto those shelves. I thought I had an idea about what farmers went through, but after visiting farms here and talking with farmers, I realized that I had only a tiny, tiny grasp of all the work. So I wanted to tell you all a little bit about what the farmers here go through. I'm sure for the big industrial farms in the states, it's different, but I have a feeling that for small, family farms in America, it's pretty similar.

What I'm learning by visiting all these farmers is the vast amount of work that goes into farming even a half acre of land. You have to clear the land, prepare it for planting, create some kind of water system, acquire the seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. Once all of that is in order, you have to work 7 days a week, every day of the year to keep up with the weeds and pests, and with the needs of the plants. These farmers are out there from early in the morning, and work right through the day. And in the Jamaican sun and heat, that takes an enormous amount of energy. Just walking around on these farms for a few hours exhausts me, and I am doing no hard work at all. And these farmers have to be there every day, putting in several hours a day. If they are not, the weeds take it over, the pests will eat it, or as in one unfortunate case, someone will come along and steal their crop. And the farmers here usually don't have any tools – just a well used machete in most cases.

Most of the people we meet have been farming their whole life, and the store of knowledge that each one has is incredible. That's the other thing about farming that amazes me – you can't necessarily just use the same method that works for one crop on your next crop. Each crop you plant has to be planted at a certain time, a certain way and has unique needs. And each pest that might come to feast on your crops needs to be dealt with in a certain way – whether organically or with chemicals. Hearing them talk about all of this is dizzying. Farmers here often plant peppers, tomatoes, root crops and calallo (similar to spinach) on a small plot of land, but each of those crops need to be planted and worked in a different way. They need different amounts of water, different nutrients, and different levels of attention. Like I said, dizzying.

Then there's reaping it. How farmers know exactly when their produce is ready is still beyond me, but somehow they do. Then they have to get it from their farm to market. Many of the farmers we have talked to have said this is the worst part about their job – they can't usually find a fair price for their crops. Many of the farmers here sell their crops to a higgler, or middle man (“miggle man” in Patwa), and they are kind of forced to take whatever price he gives them, knowing he's gonna mark it up like crazy. They can't sell directly to the hotel, and can't always get to the market themselves, so they are kind of stuck. Even getting the produce out to the road is hard sometimes – farmers have to farm where there is land, and sometimes that's in the middle of the bush. So it's a lot of hard labor just to get things to a road where a truck can pick it up. Again, it's dizzying just to think about.

Despite how intelligent these farmers usually are, they are often uneducated in a traditional sense. Many are near illiterate, and I don't think we've met one who understand the economics of running a business, which is what farming is for them. No one has really taught them bookkeeping or accounting, and they usually have no idea if they are turning a profit – they only know if they have money in their pockets today or not, and they usually don't have much of that. It saddens me how much society over looks the farmers. Without farmers, we would be in some deep trouble. And there aren't a whole lot of young farmers out there either. Understandably, the youth don't usually want to be out in the fields doing hard work all day. When you really look at it, farming is a noble profession, but it's not usually seen as such.

I've thought about it, and I don't think I'd last 2 weeks as a farmer. But I'm glad there are people out there doing it, and I'm glad I've gotten to know just a few of them.