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kanlaon · 7 years ago

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Disclaimer: “The contents of this blog are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.”

By | Por: Scott Elliott

This entry serves to provide my initial impressions after my first six weeks at my final two-year site. My previous blog left off with a brief written description of a site in the mountains of St. Mary, Jamaica. On May 22nd, 2018, I swore in as an official Peace Corps volunteer. Click this link to see footage of the Swearing-In Ceremony. Immediately after the ceremony, I was driven to my site by my supervisor and welcomed by my host family and neighbors on the veranda of my living space. They first showed me my room, which I am pretty happy about overall. I get my own fully furnished flat, which consists of a private bathroom, kitchen and living room in addition to my bedroom. I set down all my things, showered, changed, and joined everyone in the veranda.

Two dogs and one cat had all just given birth the previous week. In total, there were 10 little puppies and 4 kittens running around loose. I was asked if I wanted to adopt any of them. I declined because I don’t want to commit to taking care of them. If it were a laying hen, quail, dairy goat, tilapia pond, truffle-sniffing pig, or anything functional then I probably would have responded differently. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I have two years to stay in this area. That is about enough time for a person to build an attachment to an animal and only make it more difficult for Close of Service. Adopting a puppy or kitten would have been a financial burden for me. Pet feed, medications, fleas, potty training, and teaching overall obedience are not services I am willing to exchange for the companionship and loyalty that a pet might or might not give. Sadly, all 10 puppies and one kitten perished a few weeks later due to disease and neglect.

Besides the puppies and kittens, I was introduced to a few pigeons and pigs that they held in small cages between the back of the house and the river down in the gully. They appeared to be getting enough attention to live to adulthood, but it seemed far from an optimal life. Just like my host brother in Hellshire, they were fascinated with the idea of having pet pigeons and not using their eggs. Their chickens and goats appeared to be thriving the most, since they could walk around and forage like a wild animal. There were about 25 humans there, three of whom were to be my roommates for the next two years. The rest of them had come to greet me or maybe just get some free food at my welcoming party.

Just like at my previous host stay, my site evaluation form claimed that my host father is considered a trained chef. Peace Corps gives me the option of using in-country allowances to choose between paying host families to be fed prepared meals versus purchasing and preparing food on our own. We are supposed to sign a written agreement that includes information about meal planning. When he came out of his kitchen to serve all of us that evening, I was ready to see whether I would be preparing my food for the next two years. He cooked up some standard Jamaican fair for everyone. It consisted primarily of a scoop of bony meat and a heaping mound of white rice. Each plate also came with a typical Jamaican salad, which consisted of shredded cabbage, cucumber, tomato, and carrots. The only difference from the Costa Rican salads that I have had is the absence of lemon, which I find only makes it inferior. Then he came out of the kitchen with a large cup of red liquid that people call “juus,” which is a mix of cold water, white cane sugar, and food coloring. Everything was served in styrofoam and all of the cutlery was disposable plastic. I took one sip of the juice and one bite of the rice and gave the rest to the person sitting next to me. He promptly devoured it. I found none of this to be very spectacular, but I was still not ready to decide. I was just excited to meet people and frantically write everyone’s name down so that I would not forget. People were excitedly telling me things like “im mek nais dumplin, I bad, yu afi chrai I ina di moros. Yu gwan laik I,” which I later found to mean that “he is good at frying bleached wheat flour in canola oil with imported ingredients and putting it in styrofoam. You have to try it tomorrow. You will like it.” Those who know me should know that I did not. In fact, I decided at that point with certainty that I will make my own meals for the next two years of service.

So far so good. One of my favorite things about my site is that there are about 20 coconut trees that I have access to everyday. Sometimes they fall from the trees and roll all the way down the hill to my doorstep. I have learned several new ways to use the coconut. Bringing my Vitamix blender down here was one of the best items that I packed down here. A high-powered blender and the coconut make a fantastic pair. I feel blessed to have a refrigerator and freezer that now works as of last week. I store coconut milk in there, which is known locally as coconut juice. After a couple of hours in the fridge, the oils rise to the surface and the water sinks to the bottom. Then the oils begin to solidify into a coconut cream. Sometimes I put the coconut cream into the freezer and it turns into the best ice cream I have ever had. It is so simple! It is very low in sugar, vegan, gluten-free, paleo friendly, organic, and probably even healthy, dare I say. I also discovered a wonderful use for the shredded coconut that is left over from the coconut milk extraction. I spread it out on a metal tray and put it in the toaster oven that came with my kitchen. I turn it on the lowest heat, which happens to be the only setting that works with the voltage in my house and stir it with a fork once an hour until it dries out. Just as it starts to turn a golden brown, I throw it back in the blender once more and I’m left with an extremely versatile coconut flour that seems to last forever in a sealed bag in the fridge. I sprinkle it on food to thicken it up and give it a nice coconut flavor. I made a couple of coconut-breadfruit cakes that were great too.

Coconut Breadfruit Cake

Dehydrated coconut seasoning on top of some curried pumpkin and cabbage

Almost all of the trees in my area are fruit trees, such as jackfruit, ackee, mango, breadfruit, star apple (caimito), cola nut, moringa, sweet sop, lychee, Jamaican (Water) apple, cashew, mamey sapote, niisberry, tinkin tou, and guinep. The ackee and tinkin tou deserve special attention, considering how abundant, globally unusual, and nutritious they are here. Both have very unique flavors and nutritional profiles, and both appear to be very unique to Jamaica. I see a lot of economic potential for Jamaica in processing the fruits of these two trees. However, much research and experimentation must be done on proper harvesting, handling, preparation, and marketing. Ackee has already been banned in the US due to deadly poisons it has from improper processing. Tinkin tou grows to become an enormous tree, which can make harvesting hazardous. It also has a very strong odor, which may be as offensive as durian. The only large non-fruit trees that I have identified in my community are cedar and mahogany. I purchased a copy of “Manual of Dendrology Jamaica” and had it autographed by edidtor and tree taxonomist Mr. D’Owen Grant from the Forestry Department.

What I learned in the book is that virtually all indigenous trees were removed decades ago, and used for charcoal. Bambusa vulgaris, also known as common bamboo, was planted in its place in hopes to quickly replenish charcoal stocks. However, the bamboo was found to be too low in carbon density to produce charcoal efficiently. Instead of harvesting the bamboo, it spread all over my community and has become a pest that competes with agricultural crops.

Much of what I have learned about forest management comes from botanical gardens. The Wilson Botanical Garden and Las Cruces Biological station is just as far from Finca Sylvatica as the closest botanical garden is from me. The paralleling walking distances have profound implications. In fact, today I just did the two-hour one-way walk to Botanical Gardens to get Wifi access to publish this blog entry. I have another two-hour walk back home after this. The next nearest place for me to get Wifi access would probably take all day to walk there. My phone does have a data plan, but the service is very spotty. If I hold my phone out the window, sometimes I can get enough signal to read or send out a Whatsapp message, but internet browsing or anything more advanced than that is out of the question. The most convenient way for me to do that is to use some of my limited data, walk up a really steep hill after school hours, spray on a layer of mosquito repellant, and sit down on the far north-west corner of the pavement a primary school up the hill. Today, however, I am using the Gardens’ Wifi to replenish my podcasts, download some files, and use more internet than my data plan allows. I just got accepted as a member of Technology For Development (T4D), which is a Peace Corps group that provides technology resources to PCVs. I have also been in contact with the Universal Service Fund (USF) to put together an internet program at the primary school. I hope these connections will help me become better connected as well. At the very least, this trip to the Gardens should be much easier because I just got myself a used bicycle. The only problems it has is the brakes, the chain, the back intertube, and the lack of gears and working racks. It only has one gear and is a women’s bicycle, but I don’t mind. Once I get it up and running, I will be pedaling around again somewhat like old times. It is better than attempting to maneuver the bus system here. Just look at this bus stop.

The environment is manageable. Even though I am living in the coldest place that I have ever lived in Jamaica, it is still 80 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade. To stay cool, I keep lots of things in the freezer, like my water bottles and food and clothes. Quite a bit of what I eat and drink comes straight from the fridge or freezer. Sometimes I take numerous quick showers throughout the day. Other times I just wear a shirt after washing it and let it dry on my body instead of on a clothesline. The vegetation appears very lush and organic, but upon closer inspection, you will find garbage that has been swallowed, but not digested by the jungle. Usually after I dig down through the plastic bottles, tin cans, calcium geology, and subsurface roots to about one foot deep, I find what appears to be a very dark, silty, and fertile soil. I have dug holes to plant things in hundreds of places around here and have yet to do so without finding at least one piece of garbage. It is as if it has become incorporated into the overall humus layer.

I had the chance to visit a stone and sand quarry and see how sand is mined. It was surprisingly simple. A tractor just drives into a rocky area beside a river and picks up a load of rocky sand. It then drives about one or two minutes up to the top of a hill and dumps it over a cliff so that it lands on top of a big triangle-shaped screen. The rocks roll off the screen to the side and the sand falls straight through the screen. The tractor then drives around and scoops it up. It was as simple as I could have ever imagined.

The Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) came by the primary school up the hill a few weeks ago with a truckload of pineapple suckers. We proceeded to plant them in this humus layer on a steep hillside between the school and the road that I live on, where soil erosion has caused landslides to cover some of the road. According to RADA authorities, pineapple is good for erosion control. We made an A-frame and demonstrated how to use it with students from the school as well as local farmers and community members. We then formed a contour line with wooden stakes that we drove into the ground. We cut off the bottom end of the pineapple with machetes, which is a practice that I have never seen before. Then we made a triangle shape with some 2-foot-long wood pieces and string to measure out the distance between holes so that each contour line had two rows of alternating pineapples. We used a pick axe to make a hole in the humus-garbage and stuck a pineapple sucker in each hole. Later I came back and picked out the visible garbage by hand. I guess I just have a hard time with the concept of growing food in a place that looks like a garbage dump. Another plant that is recommended for erosion control is vetiver grass. Since there were several clumps of it growing wild, I transplanted off-shoots of it along the road border to prevent more landslides from occurring in the future. I moved the soil that had already collapsed into the road onto the lower side of the road and built a pumpkin and spinach garden with it.

My garden at Cape Clear during training is still thriving. I have gone back twice and been able to harvest bags and bags of kale, lettuce, kallaloo, and okra. It is hard to get out there to pick veggies, so the level of production is beginning to dwindle. On my first week at my final site, I started a garden with about 30 cucumber and 30 bak choi and now they are almost ready to harvest. I started a small fruit tree nursery that already has about 30 baby tinkin tou trees, 20 sprouting cashew trees, 5 mamey sapote sprouts, and 30 sprouting miracle berry trees. I planted a few trees with the primary school principal around the parking lot. Just last week, my oldest host brother let me clear out and prepare approximately 100 m2 of flat garden space on the north side of his house to plant ginger, turmeric, scallion, peppers, cerassi, moringa, tomato, kallaloo, cabbage, bak choi, and lettuce. During the soil preparation, I hauled out about 5 big rice sacks full of garbage that was buried in it. Just yesterday I looked at the garden and noticed that people had thrown a few more plastic bottles in the garden.

Getting people to stop littering is hard! I can’t count how many times people have thrown garbage at me as if to assume that I am equivalent to a garbage bin. Garbage is often just doused in kerosene and lit on fire, such as this burning mattress down the street from my house.

The agricultural department at St. Mary High allowed me to give a talk on garbage management to their sixth-grade students. I had the students participate in a group quiz activity to help increase awareness on how long it takes materials to break down. Some of these teenagers thought that an orange peel takes over a thousand years to biodegrade and that a styrofoam cup takes three days to break down. It took a great deal of persuasion to convince them otherwise. It is hard to blame these children either. The older generations, including staff that I engage with, litter nearly every time they have the chance. Even as I am on my way to put something in a waste receptacle, I have often been encountered by individuals who snatch what is in my hand and toss it deep into the bushes. They then turn to me with a smile that demands gratitude for helping me dispose of the item. One strategy that I am trying out is boycotting the use of new disposable utensils and plastic bottles. On 8 occasions since arriving here in Jamaica nearly four months ago, I admit that I made an exception to this rule. Yes, I accepted two styrofoam cups, one styrofoam plate, two styrofoam boxes, and 3 plastic bottles. However, I still have 5 out of those 8 items and continue to reuse and repurpose them. I write my name on them with a sharpie to signal to others that it is not to be thrown in the bushes or somewhere inappropriate. Two of the other three were far to mangled to be reused and the last one was thrown away without my permission by an unknown suspect. People have come to know me now as that guy who wont accept styrofoam or plastic, even if it contains their favorite Jamaican food. I have done much more difficult things with my willpower, such as being vegetarian for 7 years, vegan for 5 years, raw vegan for 3 years, 80-10-10 raw vegan for 2 years, fruitarian for a year, water fasting for three weeks, and dry fasting for 100 hours. I’d rather make my own food on a real plate, thank you very much.

Another strategy that I have worked on with my supervisor was to paint our garbage receptacles with fresh paint. They do look much nicer to me now that they have been painted. Perhaps the strategy is to just have patience, resilience, and perseverance, which are the three words that my program manager defined, printed, and laminated for me when I received my site placement. My program manager also just approved me for a three month visit to Denbigh, the largest agricultural exposition in Jamaica from August 4-6, 2018. It will be full of environmental education programs that I hope can be transferred to my site. In the case that funding is the best strategy, I applied for a grant to the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ) and plan to apply for another one to Kusanone Grass-Roots Human Security Projects.

Education is a bit different here than what I am used to. For one, graduation is held about two weeks before the last day of the school year. Another is that graduation is a much bigger deal than what I have been accustomed to. The ceremony can last many many hours and go on all day. Speeches, awards, songs, prayers, vote of thanks, national anthems, school anthems, pledges, and guest speakers will take up the whole day. I watched a graduating class of 13 go on for 4 hours. There were about 30 gold-painted plastic trophies handed out, half of which went to two students. I am a bit excited for the summer season. It might reduce the amount of time I spend picking up garbage and give me more time to grow something in the green space surrounding the school.

Last weekend we had the first annual “Elderly Banquet” at the primary school where we honored all of the elders in our community. We went around the area for a whole month and invited over one hundred guests. It was a great way to meet the older generations and bring them together and treat them with the respect that they have earned. I designed a logo and banner for our organization. During the event, I was tasked with handling the “Certificates of Acknowledgement” for all of the attendees. I asked all of the guests what their name was and the correct spelling, which turned out to be one of the most difficult tasks that I have been given during my Peace Corps Service. About half of them seemed to know how to read. A few of them didn’t want to give me their name. One of them kept repeating the letters “bs.”

She would yell loudly, “jus rait BS!” (Just write “BS”)

I would reply, “So a dat yu firs niem? (So is that your first name?)

“Yes!”

“And yu las niem?” (And your last name?)

“BS!”

“So yu niem ‘BS BS’?” (So your name is “BS BS?”)

“Yes!”

It went on longer than that, but I had to stop because she was starting to yell and I didn’t want to give the poor old lady a heart attack. Someone later found out what her real name was and told me she was “mad.” Eventually, I managed to get about 40 names and spelled about 38 of them correctly. The rest of the attendees either didn’t get a certificate, or they walked up at the end and requested one.

It was a great way to practice my Patwa, especially since so many of these elders could not speak anything else. I was truly forcing myself to speak the language. Some aspects of the language involve a deep understanding of the Jamaican culture, even if it may just be in how it adjusts to another culture. For example, one of the biggest tourist destinations around here is a place called “Tapioca Village.” My project partner took me there and I expected to get some tapioca, but apparently the name is metaphorical. There was not a sign of cassava growing or pudding on the premises. Only one person on site, who was the owner, knew what tapioca is. He said that he tried it once or twice a long time ago. My supervisor and project partner just thought it was some name with no connection to a dessert. The owner’s reasoning for the tapioca name is that tapioca sticks together and that people with solidarity stick together. It was a stretch for me to see his vision. I wandered around the place with my project partner while we waited for lunch and we found a repurposed bus. It was an old school bus that was turned into to dormitory. My project partner laid down on one of the beds at around noon and fell asleep to my surprise. While waiting three hours for him to wake up, I chose another bed and fell asleep too. So it goes here in Jamaica.

First Impressions of Final Site Placement in Jamaica Disclaimer: “The contents of this blog are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S.

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kanlaon · 7 years ago

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A Dancehall King is Swearing in as an Environment Volunteer

The content of this website is mine alone and does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Government, the Peace Corps, or the Jamaican Government.

Pardon the jargon, for I have been “a foren,” in the land of reggae music and Jamaican Patwa (JP) for the past 10 weeks. For clarity sake, all words and phrases in quotes (“”) throughout this blog entry shall be defined in this blog. Also, this…

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kanlaon · 7 years ago

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Disclaimer: “The contents of this blog are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.”

By | Por: Scott Elliott

<ESPAÑOL ABAJO>

Wah Gwaan! Mi ina Jamieka an mi luv it. That is Jamaican Patwa for “Hello! I’m in Jamaica and I love it.” I am currently living with my second Jamaican host family in Pre-Service-Training (PST) in the Environmental Sector. Check out some of the photos below. This blog entry just highlights several things that have stood out to me during my experience so far as I reach the end of the first of 27 months here.

“Nuh Dutty Up Jamaica” is a slogan that I have seen around in Jamaica. It stands out to me as critical to making a significant impact in the environmental sector with Peace Corps (PC). Garbage, trash, and waste is tossed out virtually everywhere here, which is something that I noticed during my two trips to The Philippines and my bike trip through Central America. I must admit that nearly all of my exposure to pollution has been short-term. I have never had to live for extended periods of time in polluted areas. My pampered, previous life with the established waste management systems of the US and Costa Rica shall not be taken for granted again. Cleaning up all the waste will require a huge paradigm shift that is currently beyond my comprehension.

However, I have been assigned to co-creating a garden that I feel much more capable of. All 16 of us Environmental PC trainees in Jamaica this year have been divided into four gardening teams: A, B, C, and D. Each team has 4 trainees and is assigned one small terrace on a West-facing slope here in Jamaica. I am in team C and I have been hauling compost and manure up a steep hill with a wheelbarrow to prepare the soil. By looking at the photos below, see if you can tell which terrace corresponds to team C.

You may also notice in the photos below that people have begun to feed me pretty well here. At first, I left my food preferences completely open to get an idea of what typical, modern, conventional Jamaican food is like. What I found is that it seems very conducive to aggravating the diabetic state. I also learned how to get more of what I want and less of what I do not. None of the Language and Cross-culture Facilitators or anyone within PC ever told me what I am about to tell you and what I have already told to several other PC trainees who have expressed a concern for diabetes in the local diet. The secret seems to be exaggerating preferences and repeating them so the Jamaican hosts don’t forget. In my case, my host would offer me sugary drinks everyday for the first week. Each time I would have to use some willpower to politely decline. He is obligated to prepare breakfast and dinner for me everyday through an agreement with PC. The first meals provided to me consisted of a mountain of rice on my dinner plate with a small portion of fried chicken or a stack of plain toast for breakfast with a banana or fried dumplings. Describing my food preferences as if I actually had diabetes may have made them sound more serious. More recently, I have been able to fine tune my food choices by asking for unusual foods. Instead of making my own food grown from my own garden and from my neighbors, I now rely on a Jamaican chef who used to travel the world on a cruise ship and now manages his own kuk shap. This has resulted in some very interesting foods such as his very own “cow skin juice” recipe, which is a blended mix of irish moss, strong back herb, peanuts, oats, nutmeg, Red Dragon Stout, condensed milk, ice, and the main ingredient: boiled, then frozen, cow skin. Ya kyaan get nuf!

Lengua Jamaicina

Powel Plaza de Kingston

Marcus Garvey Museo

Haile Selassie bandera en el museo

Gregory mostrando como preparar el aki

Playa Ft. Clarence

Perros silvestres?

Desayuno tipico con camote

Cabras grandes en el Ag Expo

nuez moscada y canistel

Williams a la izquerda, FHIA 25 al centro, Robusta al derecho

Cabra bebe haciendo estiras

monte creciendo como monte en una fisura dentro al pavimiento

Cabeza de pescado y Kalallo para desayuno

higado

recordes de jardin

nuestra equipo son segundo de abajo

nuestro terace tiene abono

duespues poner abono

otra vista

jugo de piel de vaca

cabra curri

un arbol de yaca creciendo a fuera mi cuarto

la gente aqui usan casas de Langstroth. Nunca he visto miel tan carro como Jamaica

Un vecino abriendo un coco “jelli”

31/5000 los testículos son más grandes que la ubre

El Iguana jamaicana en peligro crítico que parece triste en una jaula. Es ilegal pero no se aplica.

Estos se venden por 25,000 JMD aquí. No, gracias, usaré mi Vitamix.

This is a bag of PC garbage accumulated from a typical day. Nuh dutty up Jamaica!

Wah Gwaan! Mi ina Jamieka an mi luv it. Esa es Criolo Jamaicano para “¡Hola! Estoy en Jamaica y me encanta”. Actualmente estoy viviendo con mi segunda familia anfitriona jamaicana en Pre-Service-Training (PST) en el Sector Ambiental. Mira algunas de las fotos a continuación. Esta entrada de blog simplemente resalta varias cosas que me han destacado durante mi experiencia en lo que respecta al final del primero de los 27 meses aquí.

“Nuh Dutty Up Jamaica” es un eslogan que he visto en Jamaica. Me destaca como fundamental para lograr un impacto significativo en el sector ambiental con Peace Corps (PC). Basura, basura y desperdicios son tirados virtualmente a todas partes aquí, que es algo que noté durante mis dos viajes a Filipinas y mi viaje en bicicleta por América Central. Debo admitir que casi toda mi exposición a la contaminación ha sido a corto plazo. Nunca he tenido que vivir durante largos períodos de tiempo en áreas contaminadas. Mi vida previa mimada con los sistemas de gestión de desechos establecidos en los Estados Unidos y Costa Rica no se dará por sentada nuevamente. Limpiar todo el desperdicio requerirá un gran cambio de paradigma que actualmente está más allá de mi comprensión.

Sin embargo, me han asignado co-crear un jardín del que me siento mucho más capaz. Todos los 16 practicantes de PC ambientales en Jamaica este año han sido divididos en cuatro equipos de jardinería: A, B, C y D. Cada equipo tiene 4 aprendices y se le asigna una pequeña terraza en una ladera orientada al oeste aquí en Jamaica. Estoy en el equipo C y he estado acarreando abono y estiércol hasta una colina empinada con una carretilla para preparar el suelo. Al mirar las fotos a continuación, vea si puede decir qué terraza corresponde al equipo C.

También puede observar en las fotos a continuación que la gente comenzó a alimentarme bastante bien aquí. Al principio, dejé mis preferencias de comida completamente abiertas para tener una idea de cómo es la comida jamaicana típica, moderna y convencional. Lo que encontré es que parece muy propicio para agravar el estado diabético. También aprendí cómo obtener más de lo que quiero y menos de lo que no. Ninguno de los Facilitadores de Lenguaje e Interculturas ni nadie dentro de PC alguna vez me dijo lo que estoy a punto de decirte y lo que ya les he contado a muchos otros alumnos de PC que han expresado su preocupación por la diabetes en la dieta local. El secreto parece estar exagerando las preferencias y repitiéndolas para que los anfitriones jamaicanos no se olviden. En mi caso, mi anfitrión me ofrecía bebidas azucaradas todos los días durante la primera semana. Cada vez tendría que usar un poco de fuerza de voluntad para rechazar cortésmente. Él está obligado a preparar el desayuno y la cena para mí todos los días a través de un acuerdo con la PC. Las primeras comidas que me dieron consistían en una montaña de arroz en mi plato con una pequeña porción de pollo frito o una pila de pan tostado para el desayuno con plátano o albóndigas fritas. Describir mis preferencias alimenticias como si realmente tuviera diabetes puede haber hecho que parezcan más serias. Más recientemente, he podido ajustar mis elecciones de alimentos pidiendo comidas inusuales. En lugar de hacer mi propia comida cultivada en mi propio jardín y en la de mis vecinos, ahora confío en un chef jamaiquino que solía viajar por el mundo en un crucero y ahora maneja su propio kuk shap. Esto ha dado lugar a algunos alimentos muy interesantes, como su propia receta de “jugo de piel de vaca”, que es una mezcla de musgo irlandés, hierba de espalda fuerte, cacahuetes, avena, nuez moscada, Red Dragon Stout, leche condensada, hielo y el ingrediente principal: piel de vaca hervida, luego congelada. Ya kyaan obtener nuf!

Lengua Jamaicina

Powel Plaza de Kingston

Marcus Garvey Museo

Haile Selassie bandera en el museo

Gregory mostrando como preparar el aki

Playa Ft. Clarence

Perros silvestres?

Desayuno tipico con camote

Cabras grandes en el Ag Expo

nuez moscada y canistel

Williams a la izquerda, FHIA 25 al centro, Robusta al derecho

Cabra bebe haciendo estiras

monte creciendo como monte en una fisura dentro al pavimiento

Cabeza de pescado y Kalallo para desayuno

higado

recordes de jardin

nuestra equipo son segundo de abajo

nuestro terace tiene abono

duespues poner abono

otra vista

jugo de piel de vaca

cabra curri

un arbol de yaca creciendo a fuera mi cuarto

la gente aqui usan casas de Langstroth. Nunca he visto miel tan carro como Jamaica

Un vecino abriendo un coco “jelli”

31/5000 los testículos son más grandes que la ubre

El Iguana jamaicana en peligro crítico que parece triste en una jaula. Es ilegal pero no se aplica.

Estos se venden por 25,000 JMD aquí. No, gracias, usaré mi Vitamix.

Esta es una bolsa de basura de PC acumulada de un día típico. Nuh dutty up Jamaica!

Integreshan | Integration | Integración Disclaimer: “The contents of this blog are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S.

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kanlaon · 7 years ago

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Peace Corps Agroforestry in Jamaica

By: Scott Elliott

Welcome to my Peace Corps blog! This is a new blog. The Finca Sylvatica / Rainbow Crystal Land (FS/RCL) blog now has 33 posts to date that each have specific, on-site information about FS/RCL. This blog, however, is to document and publicize information about my Peace Corps (PC) service in Jamaica as an Agroforestry volunteer. Since Finca Sylvatica truly embraces agroforestry,…

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kanlaon · 8 years ago

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The Long House | La Casa Larga

By |Por: Scott Elliott

<ESPAÑOL ABAJO>

The storms have persisted while we continue to persevere well into the dry season. We are now in a new moon with a new and improved plan. Instead of destructing the old wood cabin and installing two new houses, we have decided to just build one larger “long” house and just fix up the old cabin. Wikipedia claims that long houses are normally “built from…

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kanlaon · 8 years ago

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Storm of Change

By |Por: Scott Elliott

<ESPAÑOL ABAJO>

Hurricane Nate hit Finca Sylvatica a couple weeks ago. It rained torrentially for approximately 30 hours without stopping. Wind knocked over some trees and blew out one of my windows which was helpful as you shall discover. We handled it just fine. Since the storm, the weather has been very calm and dry. It feels a lot like the dry season already even though…

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kanlaon · 8 years ago

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Bahay ng Buhay

By | Por: Scott Elliott

<ESPAÑOL ABAJO>

In the Filipino language of Tagalog, the word “bahay” means “home” and the word “buhay” means life. “Bahay ng buhay” is a home of life. The similarity of these two words in Tagalog hints at synchronicities they share with one another. Wouldn’t you want to live in a home full of life? Wouldn’t you want your home to be the place for you to spend your life?…

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kanlaon · 8 years ago

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One Flew Over The Rainbow | Uno Voló En Cima Del Arco Iris

By | Por: Rio Tattersall

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Buenos días! Coming to you from a really quaint little hotel in Cerro Punta, Panama. I know some people consider it not “rainbow” to stay in hotels but hey it’s ‘friggin’ cold outside. Festival/Rainbow season has blown through on its way to grander continents and the rains are coming in early this year. Some may call it a shame, but, to most, the water is…

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kanlaon · 8 years ago

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Disclaimer: “The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.”

Renuncia: “El contenido de este sitio web es mío personalmente y no refleja ninguna posición del gobierno de los Estados Unidos o del Cuerpo de Paz.”

By | Por: Scott Elliott

<ESPAÑOL ABAJO>

Happy Earth Day,

As I write this, I am catching my breath from what I would call a perfect morning of gardening. It started as a clear and beautiful sunny morning and finished mid day just as the rains began to water all of the seeds I had just planted in my gardens up in Washington State.

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The progress on such a special day reminded me of the beautiful photos people submitted for our first ever Photo Contest that has shown how far Finca Sylvatica has come over the years. This blog will announce the winners of the contest as well as share news about when I will be back on site.

Many beautiful pictures were taken. I had a great time looking at what people were able to capture with their cameras. There are two winners to the photo contest. Our on-site property manager, Rio, wins the first runner-up prize of 5 mil colones for his photo selection. The following four are now featured in our gallery:

Morning View of Coopa Buena & Baru Volcano from RCL

Passion Fruit Flower @ RCL

Cicada on tree @ Finca Sylvatica

Caterpillar @ RCL

The first prize winner of 10 mil goes to Inês for taking the following pictures:

Feeling the freshness of Nature

Harvesting Man

Listenning the heart beats of the trees

The Wisdom Owl

I am sure that we will have another photo contest at some point, so “follow” this blog if you are interested in participating in the future. Thank you to those who participated. It has inspired me to take much more photographs when I am on site next, which may be sooner than I thought.

In a rather unexpected turn of events over the past month since my last blog entry, the Earth, in the spirit of Earth Day, at Finca Sylvatica has begun to pull me back with stronger force. It appears that I will be returning much sooner than I expected. I cannot say when exactly that will happen, but I predict it will happen no later than August. If you read my previous blog entry titled “Remember Your Dreams,” you would know that Peace Corps invited me to The Philippines. Soon after that entry, I presented the following poster at the First Washington Botanical Symposium, nearly certain that I would be going to The Philippines in June of 2017. Here is a link to a high-resolution pdf.

However, a couple weeks ago, Peace Corps contacted me and told me that I would have to be removed from my training class due to safety and security concerns because of the current domestic situation in The Philippines. I was absolutely devastated when I heard the news. My fourth attempt applying to the CRMV position was turned down. The following conceptual conversation between myself and The Philippine Eagle has pervaded my imagination and consciousness:

Scotino: It is so sad to see such majestic and innocent creature locked up for so long in such a rusty old cage.

Philippine Eagle: Things could be worse. My family was shot down and murdered for sport by your people, including my offspring. At least I am still alive.

S: I will free you one day.

PE: You have been saying that for over a decade. Has anything changed?

S: The world outside your cage has become more hostile. People are being shot over petty crimes. Climate change, environmental issues, and science literacy is being neglected internationally, but particularly in the countries that have the biggest impact on your home right outside of your prison cell.

PE: Well perhaps I’m better off stuck in this cage. Its probably safer here.

S: That may be true for now, but I remain optimistic that one day the environment outside your cage will reach a threshold when people begin to think differently about the way people manage forests. After that happens, I hope that your habitat will welcome you back.

PE: When I am welcome back, I hope to come back in whatever form is necessary.

This dialogue haunted me for a couple weeks after receiving the news from Peace Corps. Then I was offered alternative invitations to Ghana, Guinea, and Jamaica. All three of these countries have agroforestry programs, which I have much more experience with than the Coastal Resource Management program of The Philippines. Life at Finca Sylvatica is excellent preparation for all three of these agroforestry programs. My adviser at the UW and I agreed that Jamaica would be a suitable alternative. Unlike The Philippines, I probably wouldn’t have to worry about getting shot in the streets or even have to cut off my dreadlocks. I would only be a short boat ride away from Costa Rica and I could remain in PCMI and just transfer all of my paperwork over without having to reapply to Peace Corps. As the closest major island to Costa Rica, I can remain close to home while tending to my Filipino cravings for island life. For these reasons, I have accepted the invitation to Jamaica, which does not depart for an additional 9 months. This means that I will not only be the very last PCMI students at the UW, but perhaps even the very last PCMI worldwide after nearly 30 years of operation.

With this extra time, I will have the opportunity to return to Finca Sylvatica and begin utilizing all of the skills I have been gaining at the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences (SEFS), such as Continuous Cover Forestry management, GIS Spatial Analysis, Economics in the Third World, Statistical Inference, Integrated Resource Management, Plant Propagation, Interviewing Methods, Herbarium Vouchering, Rare plant monitoring, and Seed Vault management. Just today, the Program Manager of the Washington Rare Plant Care and Conservation Program expressed her support in opening up an arboretum, botanical research center, herbarium, and seed vault on site at Finca Sylvatica.

“You will want to start categorizing what you have. That may involve just doing a lot of collections and herbarium vouchering and getting them ID’d and confirmed. Figuring out, “Is any of this really rare?” Get in touch with any experts that you could start working with or an herbarium.”

Here is a picture of one experiment I just started to test different seeds growing under different soil mediums at the Douglas Research Conservatory:

I know that the Wilson Botanical Center nearby should be a great resource. I envision Finca Sylvatica can help expand on their ornamental selection with more functional species, such as edibles, medicinals, pollinators, and other rare species that diversify habitats. She also connected me with Ursula Valdez, a faculty member at the UW who has been doing a lot of conservation work with the Harpy Eagle in Ecuador. The parallels it shares with the Philippine Eagle are renewing my faith that one day I truly will circle back around to make a significant positive impact on Earth, even if it is not today.

Feliz día de la Tierra,

Al escribir esto, estoy recuperando mi aliento de lo que yo llamaría una mañana perfecta de la jardinería. Comenzó como una clara y hermosa mañana de sol y terminó a mediodía justo cuando las lluvias comenzaron a regar todas las semillas que acababa de plantar en mis jardines en el estado de Washington.

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El progreso en un día tan especial me recordó las hermosas fotos que la gente envió para nuestro primer Concurso Fotográfico que ha demostrado hasta qué punto la Finca Sylvatica ha venido a través de los años. Este blog anunciará a los ganadores del concurso, así como compartirá noticias sobre cuándo volveré al sitio.

Muchas bellas imágenes fueron tomadas. Me lo pasé muy bien mirando lo que la gente podía capturar con sus cámaras. Hay dos ganadores en el concurso fotográfico. Nuestro gerente de propiedad in situ, Rio, gana el primer premio de 5 mil colones por su foto selección. Los cuatro siguientes se presentan ahora en nuestra galería:

Cicada on tree @ Finca Sylvatica

Morning View of Coopa Buena & Baru Volcano from RCL

Passion Fruit Flower @ RCL

Caterpillar @ RCL

El ganador del primer premio de 10 mil le va a Inês por tomar las siguientes fotos:

Feeling the freshness of Nature

Harvesting Man

Listenning the heart beats of the trees

The Wisdom Owl

Estoy seguro de que tendremos otro concurso de fotos en algún momento, así que “siga” este blog si usted está interesado en participar en el futuro. Gracias a todos los que participaron. Me ha inspirado a tomar muchas más fotografías cuando estoy en el sitio siguiente, que puede ser más pronto de lo que pensaba.

En un cambio bastante inesperado de los acontecimientos del mes pasado desde mi última entrada en el blog, la Tierra, en el espíritu del Día de la Tierra, en la Finca Sylvatica ha comenzado a retroceder con más fuerza. Parece que volveré mucho antes de lo que esperaba. No puedo decir exactamente cuándo ocurrirá, pero preveo que ocurrirá a más tardar en agosto. Si usted leyera mi entrada anterior del blog titulada “Recuerde sus sueños,” usted sabría que el cuerpo de paz me invitó a Filipinas. Poco después de esa entrada, presenté el siguiente póster en el Primer Simposio Botánico de Washington, casi seguro de que iría a Filipinas en junio de 2017. Aquí hay un enlace a un pdf de alta resolución.

Sin embargo, hace un par de semanas, el Cuerpo de Paz me contactó y me dijo que tendría que ser retirado de mi clase de entrenamiento debido a las preocupaciones de seguridad y seguridad debido a la actual situación doméstica en Filipinas. Estaba absolutamente devastada cuando oí las noticias. Mi cuarto intento de aplicar a la posición CRMV fue rechazado. La siguiente conversación conceptual entre yo y el águila filipina ha impregnado mi imaginación y conciencia:

Scotino: Es tan triste ver tan majestuosa e inocente criatura encerrada durante tanto tiempo en una jaula tan oxidada y vieja.

Águila Filipina: Las cosas podrían ser peores. Mi familia fue derribada y asesinada por el deporte por su gente, incluyendo a mi descendencia. Por lo menos todavía estoy vivo.

S: Lo liberaré un día.

AF: Lo has estado diciendo desde hace más de una década. ¿Ha cambiado algo?

S: El mundo fuera de su jaula se ha vuelto más hostil. La gente está siendo fusilada por delitos menores. El cambio climático, las cuestiones ambientales y la alfabetización científica se están descuidando internacionalmente, pero particularmente en los países que tienen el mayor impacto en su hogar justo fuera de su celda.

AF: Bueno, tal vez me sienta mejor atrapado en esta jaula. Es probablemente más seguro aquí.

S: Eso puede ser cierto por ahora, pero sigo siendo optimista de que un día el ambiente fuera de su jaula llegará a un umbral cuando la gente comience a pensar de manera diferente sobre la forma en que la gente maneja los bosques. Después de que eso suceda, espero que su hábitat le dará la bienvenida de nuevo.

AF: Cuando sea bienvenida de nuevo, espero volver en cualquier forma que sea necesario.

Este diálogo me persiguió un par de semanas después de recibir las noticias de Peace Corps. Luego me ofrecieron invitaciones alternativas a Ghana, Guinea y Jamaica. Los tres de estos países tienen programas agroforestales, con los que tengo mucha más experiencia que el programa de manejo de recursos costeros de Filipinas. La vida en Finca Sylvatica es una excelente preparación para los tres programas agroforestales. Mi asesor en la UW y yo estuvimos de acuerdo en que Jamaica sería una alternativa adecuada. A diferencia de Filipinas, probablemente no tendría que preocuparse de recibir un disparo en las calles o incluso tener que cortar mis dreadlocks. Yo sólo estaría a un corto trayecto en barco desde Costa Rica y podría permanecer en PCMI y simplemente transferir todo mi papeleo sin tener que volver a presentarme al Cuerpo de Paz. Como la isla principal más cercana a Costa Rica, puedo permanecer cerca de casa mientras que tiende a mis anhelos filipinos para la vida de la isla. Por estas razones, he aceptado la invitación a Jamaica, que no se aparta por otros nueve meses. Esto significa que no sólo seré los últimos estudiantes de PCMI en la UW, sino quizás hasta el último PCMI de todo el mundo después de casi 30 años de operación.

Con este tiempo extra tendremos la oportunidad de regresar a la Finca Sylvatica y comenzar a utilizar todas las habilidades que he ido ganando en la Escuela de Ciencias Forestales y Ambientales (SEFS), como la gestión forestal de Capa Continua, el Análisis Espacial GIS, la Economía En el Tercer Mundo, Inferencia Estadística, Manejo Integrado de Recursos, Propagación de Plantas, Métodos de Entrevistas, Certificación de Herbario, Monitoreo de Plantas Raras y Gestión de Bóvedas de Semillas. Justo hoy, la Directora del Programa de Conservación y Conservación de Plantas Rara de Washington expresó su apoyo en la apertura de un arboreto, un centro de investigación botánica, un herbario y una bóveda de semillas en la finca Sylvatica.

“Usted querrá empezar a categorizar lo que tiene.Que puede implicar sólo hacer un montón de colecciones y bonos de herbario y conseguir que ID’d y confirmado.Debecir,” ¿Es algo de esto realmente raro? “Póngase en contacto con cualquier experto Que podría comenzar a trabajar con o un herbario. ”

Aquí está una imagen de un experimento que acabo de empezar a probar diferentes semillas que crecen bajo diferentes medios de suelo en el Conservatorio de Investigación Douglas:

Sé que el Wilson Botanical Center cercano debería ser un gran recurso. Yo imagino que la Finca Sylvatica puede ayudar a expandir su selección ornamental con especies más funcionales, como comestibles, medicinales, polinizadores y otras especies raras que diversifican los hábitats. También me conectó con Ursula Valdez, un miembro de la facultad de la UW que ha estado haciendo un gran trabajo de conservación con el águila arpía en Ecuador. Los paralelos que comparte con el Águila Filipina están renovando mi fe de que un día realmente haré un círculo alrededor para hacer un impacto positivo significativo en la Tierra, aunque no sea hoy.

Earth Day | Día de la Tierra Disclaimer: “The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S.

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