For Thanksgiving, a Post about Food

Most days I come home from work with food. Whether it is simply a single tangerine or a whole bag of pears (avocados), most people in the rural areas grow lots of food in their yards and are always willing to share it with me. The forty-ish year old man who loves to attend my youth club meeting in Pratville brings me bags of cane and oranges most weeks. One of the old church ladies in Cross Keys regularly sends me home with at least two different foods. From cho cho (sp?) to pumpkin to bananas, it’s always a surprise what she’ll have for me. The parents at the Basic School have even started bringing things when they pick the kids up if they saw that morning that I was there. This influx of produce has led me to start experimenting with my Jamaican cooking, as I received a bag of gungo peas and some sorrel from some parents one afternoon last week. The next day being my day off I made my most Jamaican meal yet: rice and peas. Jamaicans eat rice and peas more than any other food I have seen. The most common version of this dish is rice and red beans (which they call peas), but the traditional dish is actually made with the gungo peas, that are currently in season and which that mother had picked from her yard to give me. (The red peas version is more common because red peas are cheaper. I definitely prefer the gungo pea version.) Anyway, I knew little about how to make it, but I went to the market and asked the woman who we usually buy our produce from, and she was nice enough to give me directions AND the ingredients for free. In case anyone at home wants to try to make it (with the red peas, since I don’t know if I’ve ever even seen gungo peas at home), I’ll quickly share the directions. I boiled about a cup of gungo peas in a pot with about 4 cups of water and about 2 cups of coconut milk (I used poweder – I wasn’t ambitious enough to make my own milk from a coconut). Anyway, in that pot I also crushed two cloves of garlic and put one scotch bonnet pepper (these really spicy little peppers – I didn’t cut it or anything, just put the whole pepper in like the lady said to do). I also added some chopped scallion and a few sprigs of fresh thyme. After about 5 minutes, once the peas had cooked pretty well, I added 3 cups of rice and let it all cook together on a low heat. 

While that cooked I also cooked some bammy, which I had purchased at the market. I know I’ve mentioned bammy before, but it is one of my favorite Jamaican foods. Made from shaved cassava, it is slightly bitter, but when it is cooked it reminds me of Baba’s pedahaire (I know that is not spelt anything like it really is, but I figured the family might understand what I’m talking about better). One of the boys from my youth group has made me bammy before, and he promised that he’s going to teach me how to make it, but for now it’s a learning experience just for me to buy it and cook it.

 I soaked the bammy in milk and then fried it on a pretty dry skillet. Soaking it in milk gives it a pretty gummy texture, but then the frying makes the outside crispy, just like pedahaire with the crispy outside and potatoes inside.

Anyway, for my lunch that day I ended up having the rice and peas, bammy, AND plantains, since Natalie had been making them at the same time. Also, Kathryn had used the sorrel we received to make the sorrel drink that is so popular here at this time of year. I love the sorrel drink. It is made from these flowers that you take the petals off of and then put into boiling water with some fresh grated ginger. You then add sugar and allow it to cool. It is one of the best drinks that I have had. Jamaicans say that it’s even better with rum, but I’m yet to try it that way. Anyway, to complete my very Jamaican lunch that day I had a glass of sorrel. I’m very excited to know how to cook these things, and I hope that someone will give the rice and peas a try! If not, I’ll definitely cook it for everyone when I get back!

On another note, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone at home. It’s really strange to be here for Thanksgiving. When I missed Thanksgiving when I was in Europe it wasn’t so strange because the weather was at least cold and Tarah and Jenny were there, so it was a little bit more like a Thanksgiving weekend at home. It’s a little bit stranger to be here, but we will be having our own family Thanksgiving dinner tonight as well as a big one at Bosco tomorrow night with over fifty other Americans on the island. It’ll be nice to still have the same foods, but it definitely won’t be the same as Thanksgiving at home!

Some Updates and Some Sweet Sap

On behalf of Sean, thanks to everyone who offered ideas about his books. The good news is that a priest from his high school has a brother who owns a shipping company, so the books will be making their way to Florida soon. Thanks again for the help.

Things have been crazy here, so this is just a short post with a little taste of Jamaica. This is a picture of one of my favorite fruits here in Jamaica. The season has finished now, but they were excellent. They are called Sweet Sap, and the inside tastes a little bit like honey.

This second photo is of the inside of the Sweet Sap. The other thing on the plate is sugar cane, which is a very popular snack here, (which given the lack of money and access of dental care, you can imagine the state of a lot of people's teeth). Anyway, more on Jamaican food soon! 

Mi Beggy Some Ideas...

I'm writing this post as a bit of a plea on behalf of Sean, one of the other volunteers. This is Sean's second year serving as a volunteer at Black River High School, and beyond his role as head coach of their basketball team, Sean has set out to build their library at the school. From Jamaica he has been able to secure about SIX THOUSAND books from various sources in the States. The nonprofit Food for the Poor will be able to bring these books into Jamaica duty free, which is huge, but the problem is that the books must somehow get to Coconut Creek, Florida where the headquarters are located. Sean's family has been inundated with books, as they agreed to let him use their home on Long Island to store them. However, the transportation from Long Island to Florida fell through, and his family is looking at the holidays with a home decorated in cardboard boxes. We have brainstormed and brainstormed and tried many different options, but we are out of ideas as to how to get them to Florida in an economical way. That is why I am looking to all of you for some help. I am hoping that the more brains we have on this the better the chance of finding a solution. We welcome any and all suggestions! Thanks in advance for your great ideas!

I'm Still Here, Dad - "Don't Worry, 'Bout a Thing"

The last two weeks have been some of my busiest since arriving in Jamaica, but they have also been some of my best. From an overnight to Dunn's River Falls for our first house trip, to my new weekly routine of spending Sunday afternoons playing football at the Bosco Boys' Home, to the several days where I have been the substitute teacher and had my own class, it has been a whirlwind that I have thoroughly enjoyed, despite the fact that I have been out of energy and have a new habit of falling asleep in my taxis.

Having been in schools for over two months now, it is amazing to see the amount of progress that the students have made in such a short time. For example, yesterday morning I took taxi out to Holy Cross Basic School in Pratville, and the taxi driver was the father of one of the students from the class in which I usually work. We picked the boy up for school along the way (making him the 4th person in the front seat, sitting between me on a pillow on the center console and his father in the driver's seat). At the beginning of the year Tavary was basically a zombie; he would wander into school at a very slow pace, only when coaxed, and for at least the first month I had not heard him utter a single word, not even his name. The past two weeks he has started to give trouble in class. Most teachers (if I can group myself in that) would be annoyed by a problem student, but I've just been so happy that he's been coming out of his shell. His father didn't believe me when I told him of Tavary's newfound personality, as he claims he barely talks at home either, but when Tavary got in the taxi yesterday morning and saw me, he became animated and even answered my questions (which impressed his father). The best part was that since I was filling in for another teacher yesterday, I was not in Tavary's classroom as I usually am, yet Tavary spent the entire day sneaking out of his room and down to the four year old class where I was, content to just stand there holding my hand while I taught the letter "Hh." Every once in a while he would tell the class "Mi daddy carry Auntie Danielle a school today!" Tavary is quickly becoming one of my favorites (as is half the school), but it really is great to see the little ones becoming little people with big personalities.

Anyway, I really do want to make an effort to post more frequently (not just 'cause my father has been pestering me to do so). I feel like there are so many interesting and wonderful nuances about Jamaica that I miss when trying to post solely on big events, so I want to try to post more often and work in the small details that I think are the most important in understanding what my life here in Jamaica really is like.

Happy belated Halloween to all of you who were in a country that celebrated it! My favorite answer that I got for why Jamaica doesn't celebrate Halloween was from one of my Jamaican friends who stated that "Jamaica 'ave nuff scary people dat we don't need a 'oliday fi dem good ones a be actin' scary too!"