The Rainy Season

In most things, flexibility is the name of the game here in the east Caribbean, but this is perhaps the most true during the rainy season (June-December). When the rains come, life grinds to a halt, farmers cannot work on the farm because it is too slippery, people don't go out on the roads if they can avoid it, and most folks use the cool air to catch up on sleep or have a romantic afternoon at home. In fact, Lucian's love London, England, precisely because of the gray rainy days. A friend once told me that "London is the most romantic city in the world" which is a wonderful way to think about rainy days!

I too have come to love a gray rainy day here, it's actually my favorite weather, though I'm not quite to the point where I find them romantic. Mostly, it opens up some space for writing and catching up on field notes, and a chance for me to drink tea or coffee and feel a bit chilly (it's presently a brisk 79F out). Also, when the rain begins, you can hear it coming from about a mile away, and watch as a roaring and whooshing wall of rain proceeds across the valley and gradually envelops everything. Sometimes it is so loud that I cannot hear my phone ring!

The thing that always surprises me is how very unpredictable the weather is. I've learned to check the radar and forecasts from NOAA at least twice daily and to actually look at the weather maps from the West Coast of Africa and southward down to Brazil, because these are where weather typically comes from. Still, days like today can happen- last night, I checked things just before I went to bed around 11pm- the skies were fairly clear and there were no marked weather formations = yay! a good day for fieldwork and sleeping with the windows open...

About 5:30 am, I awoke to some serious rain. A little while later, when it wasn't passing, I consulted the weather gurus, and this weather system formed out of nowhere (I'm where the little orange balloon marker is)!

Looks like its gonna be a rainy day after all...

Weather.com presents NOAA's data in better graphics, thought their actual forecasting stinks- for example, right now they say that there is a 30% chance of rain. Even during Hurricane Tomas, they only predicted a 60% chance of rain.

Anyway, today's weather has disrupted everyone's plans, the guy who takes care of the Beast (my jeep) just called and requested it for a tune up since his construction plans are foiled and I'm home after farm work.

I can't help but think of this song from my childhood on days like this, though I didn't remember it being quite so slow, love it anyway!

ENJOY!

Where the wild(life) things are

One of the things I love best about doing fieldwork is how much time I get to spend outside on farms and in the streams and rivers that run beside them. Part of my farm surveys include recording the wildlife that I observe as indicators of ecosystem health and biodiversity. So I take note of everything living from ants to cows to young homo sapiens.

Here are some of my favorite photos from fieldwork in the last week or so- if you click on any given photo, it should enlarge so you can see a little more detail if desired...

OK, so I said living things, but I had to share this photos too- the splotchy areas are colorful rocks that are seriously disintegrated (through the weathering process) in a dried-out exposed piece of a riverbed. I think they look like someone spattered earth-toned paint all about!

Look in the very center of the photo- standing on the rocks hunting is a Green Heron, one of many types of herons that live on the island. They are actually mostly brown, but closer to green than any of the other herons, so Green Heron it is!

A really pretty flower (brighter red than it looks here) that reminds me of some from Maryland, but I haven't ID'ed it yet.

Early morning mist looking across a banana field with the mountains in the  background...

Looking down from above on a young bamboo shoot.

Young bamboo shoot- it is probably 4-6" in diameter.

Sometimes when I pause and just look around, it feels like I'm in a prehistoric time-warp!

One day, I heard some rustling in the bushes and spotted these two (sons of a farmer), both 11, shyly watching me...

It didn't take long before they were enthusiastically helping me "observe" the insects and creatures (what Lucians call wildlife) around me. 11 year old boys and I have very different definitions of "observation". When I asked if they had seen any, I was  expecting them to look but not touch they way that I do. Instead- they immediately started digging out spiders, millipedes and the like to hand me, I enthusiastically declined!

Look closely- there's a dragonfly with clear/brown wings seated on a blade of grass in the center of this picture...

Ant nest in a young banana shoot.

The venomous centipede, sometimes fatal to the young, old and allergic and otherwise unpleasant to everyone else. This guy was about 4" long and still young, it will turn red and black when it gets bigger. After being startled and recoiling for a moment, I realized this was a good opportunity to take a picture of this guy in his natural habitat.

Ok, I'm kinda proud of myself for this picture, after noticing the centipede, I looked closer and realized he was in the process of eating another bug. You can see it in his jaws/legs on the end with his head (head is down) and an ant is crawling on his back...

...and then I realized that ants and gnats (flying in the left side of this picture) were hanging around and trying to collect scraps of the centipede's lunch.

Really cool looking vine I saw for this first time this week. It's variegation is stunning and somehow Dr. Seuss like!

A bug was here... I don't know which bug leaves these munch marks behind, and no farmers have been able to say either, but I'm pretty sure the Very Hungry Caterpillar might have an idea :)

It is uncommon for cows to eat banana leaves, but this young plant must have been fresh and tasty because the farmers' cow was chowing down!

Nom, nom, nom...

A flock of Cattle Egret having a convention in a Golden Apple tree (no relation to an actual apple tree). One day I'll do a post with all the various fruits that Lucian's call apples and their distinct non-apple appearance. 

No news is good news... Carnival edition!

So things have been very, very busy here in St. Lucia because fieldwork is going well overall. Time is flying by at the moment and it is super hard to believe I will be done with this 15 month odyssey in just under 5 months...

In the last 2 months, I've finally reached a stage were I'm making serious progress in understanding a lot more about what's going on here and in Fairtrade (not close to everything by any stretch of the imagination), which unfortunately, has the effect of making me not want to talk about it in my free time, both because I'm in the midst of a process and it is generally VERY frustrating. The exciting and certainly more interesting part, is that I finally crossed the threshold from people telling me what they think they should say, to actually what they do and what others do. This makes life infinitely more interesting and I've been learning all about black market bananas, ex-drug barons and the insidious world of consumer-driven impacts...  Thus- I haven't been blogging. There is lots more to be said about all of this, but not yet, and not now.

Happily, Carnival happened and I am pleased to share the following photos :)

I miss you all and will try to post more again very soon...

Man preaching about Jesus and the environment

J holding this passer-by's rum and coke while she fixed her costume

Rum and other refreshments were delivered to spectators via handy carts :)

Me: "I'm having a great time, the only thing that could make this day better is if I get to try on someone's headdress..."         Jul: "This is awesome, you're gonna have to ask someone, there's no way they are going to give it to you... "

A few minutes later, two girls passed and spontaneously GAVE us their headdresses!!!

Then this happened...

...and then we spread the Carnival spirit by giving our newly acquired headdresses to these adorable little girls :)

Dancing and spraying energy drink allover the crowd!

Mobile bars were responsible for keeping all the dancers in their bands "hydrated".  Note the giant bottles of rum on the rails...

Dancing!

Drinking!

Commentary on the thieves in the banana industry...

Best feathered costume!

Biggest costume, making fun on the recent arrival of a casino in St. Lucia. This lady had wheels on the bottom of her dress to keep it going, yes, wheels...

The back of her dress!

Tired revelers joined the crowed to watch the rest of the parade...

Love these two

guys!!!

Awesome!

More awesome!

The sun heads in for the night and so did we!

Lian's Graduation Day!!!

Being away from home for almost a year and a half is mostly a big adventure, but there are somethings that are really hard to be away for. Today is a very hard day- my little sister Lian is graduating from college, and I can't be there to cheer as she walks across the stage, give her a hug afterward, or share a round of celebratory drinks that should most certainly follow her big day.

Since I can't be there in person, I'm going to have to use my blog to celebrate Lian from afar, as any really proud big sister would do. You see, Lian isn't just graduating from college, she is graduating summa cum laude, with a 4.0, all applicable departmental and university honors, with a degree in Theater Education, a minor in English Literature and a certification in secondary education.


Before you get an image of a goody-two shoes student, you should know that my sister is an up for anything kinda gal, most apt to be found in a pair of cargo pants or jeans spattered in all colors of paint, Laura Croft type work boots, and wielding several knives for work purposes...

These are wonderful qualities to have in a sister, b/c she does things like help paint your kitchen!

Lian also worked nearly full time throughout her time in school, meaning that she is graduating debt free (a serious accomplishment these days), though it sometimes made it difficult to hang out with her when she came into contact with horizontal surfaces...

Before you get too far thinking that she is the acting/ dancing/ singing type, you should know her side of theater is the technical design, lighting, scenery construction, painting, props and costumes side of things. Though she does have a flair for the dramatic and humorous. I suspect this will go over well with her future students...

So basically, Lian's a bad-ass. It's hard to believe that this little girl I grew up with (and at times bossed around...err, sorry!) is finished with college. I have a particularly bad track record with Lian: when she was chosen to sing at a huge and prestigious event in Baltimore when she was 12, I not only missed it, but caused the rest of our family to as well because it was also the first day of my freshmen orientation for college several states away. I then went on to graduate from college the day before Lian turned 16, causing her birthday to be a truncated celebration of eating birthday cake from tea-cups and coffee mugs in the family camper van parked outside Gypsy Central (my house in college), hundreds of miles away from her friends. When she completed her AA degree at 19, I missed her graduation because I was in St. Lucia, doing preliminary fieldwork. Though she did come visit me a few weeks later!

Once again, I'm far, far away, but I just have to say-

Lian, I'm so proud of you and happy that you have found and really succeeded at these things that make you happy. May you continue to flourish and grow in the years to come!

Happy Graduation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Return of the Banana

So my blog posts have mainly been limited to extra curricular activities and holidays for a while now. In part because these are more fun and provide better pictures, and in part because the banana industry is still recovering.

In fact, since Hurricane Tomas, October 30, 2010, bananas have not been exported from St. Lucia. This has meant no real income for banana farmers and those who depend on the industry for their work (packing, shipping, laborers etc.) and the rise of banana theft, or pradial larceny and development of a black market for local bananas.
Actually, the local banana shortage has emphasized the importance of green bananas to the local diet and underscored the role of green bananas or "green fig" as people call them here, in the food security of the country. Farmers are regularly having 60% or more of their bananas stolen during the night. The problem is two-fold: Firstly, it has increased with the passing of Tomas and the economic troubles that linger from the hurricane. Secondly this crisis has actually exposed an ongoing relationship where the very poor (and the strung out druggies or Jombis as the farmers call them) take green bananas for eating and to sell on the black market. Before Tomas, it didn't matter very much, because farmers were growing more bananas than they could sell, but since Tomas, the thefts have drastically increased, while farmers have very few banana trees mature enough to produce a bunch, so the thefts have a lot more impact these days.

The good news is that this situation will soon change for many farmers. Although some farmers won't be able to harvest until Sept or even Oct this year, the first harvest day for export is in two weeks, and everyone is getting excited about it! Many farmers are also replanting the acres that were so damaged from Tomas that the roots from their bananas were actually killed. One of the things I've been doing lately for participant observation is replanting and deflowering {insert joke here} with the farmers. I took some photos one day to document what goes into replanting. One day soon I'll do a post devoted to the 9mth lifespan of the banana, but for now replanting!

Tools need for replanting- fork for digging holes, small shovel for filling them in, cutlass (aka machete) for just about everything. A cutlass is seriously the most versatile tool ever.

A row of newly planted plants- in a few weeks they will send up new shoots and leaves!

Young shoots that have been dug up elsewhere with their roots intact.

First- place new plant in a hole

Second- fill the hole in with surrounding dirt

Third- firmly step around the base of planted banana (that is my foot!) and then repeat Step Two.

Fourth- using both feet step/dance around the banana in a circle to ensure that the ground is firmly packed around it.

Fifth- care for plants and wait appx 9 months and you will have full grown plants with fruit (inside the blue bags)

Young bananas with the flowers still on the butts of each fruit (or "finger")... we are about to pull each of these flowers off for the deflowering process. It leaves your fingers very sticky from the banana latex!