Market/Beeston Spring

On Friday, after breakfast, we all traveled to Savanna-La-Mar(Sav) to the market. Imagine a farmer's market, but they sell lots of stuff. After we got off the bus, we walked down the street to a big building with fruit stands out front. We wandered through the building toward a few women that seemed to know Scott and Carrie well. They looked at me and my brother and were pretty surprised at the similarity. We bought callaloo, beans, onions, oranges, peppers, pineapple and bananas from a variety of stands. The big building reminded me of a 4-H cattle barn at the county fairs, with a smell not to unlike the cattle barns as well. We wandered through the meat section of the market, with carcasses hanging from the walls, flys on some of the cuts of meat, and a man cleaving a goat head in half. After the market we walked through a few stores in Sav, and caught a bus home.

We we got home we put the groceries away and headed out to Scott's community of Beeston Spring. We took buses and taxis, stopping along the way for a curry chicken patty, a flaky crusted calzone like bread pocket with curry chicken inside. The patty is like the fast food cheeseburger here. We got up to the community and stopped by the well house where Scott's project is. He is helping to install a new water tank and shower house for the community. All the houses on the surrounding hills get their water from one source, and Scott is working on helping to engineer a new tank, spring house, and showers for the community. The cement work was coming along well. We paid our driver and walked up the road toward a place called the 3 R's. Scott's community is very happy with him and love to treat him and guests. We arrived and met Ossie who gave us cold beer and then talked with us about the great island. We were treated to Ackee and saltfish, the national dish and roasted breadfruit. Joan, the bar's owner was very hospitible and told us to each as much as we could. We then were treated to roast steam fish that was amazing.

We were going to tour Ossie's farm, when a rain storm hit, so we were stuck in the bar. Ossie poured more drinks and we talked about education, the community, etc. When the rain quit Ossie offered to drive us (a treat compared to public transportation) to our next destinations. We stopped at Rolbert's house. Rolbert is an architect that helped design the spring house and holding tank. He talked with Scott for a while then led us around the biggest house I have seen in Jamaica. It was partially finished, but will be a great space when complete. We then walked around his yard as he gave a tour of his garden.Astil, the community president approached me at one point and asked, "When did Scott get fat?" I have never been bigger than my older brother and many of my friends back home would laugh at the fact someone mistook me for a fatter version of my older brother. After a year of sweating and walking, I can understand how Scott has lost the weight. We left with a gift of bread fruit, and mangoes!

We finished the evening with a movie on the laptop.