I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned, but knowing that I needed to be up at 5AM to leave at 6AM, I just couldn’t lull into a deep sleep. Our driver, Devon Sinclair (Robert Sinclair) was a little early assuring us we would be on time to St. Boniface Vocational Training Center. When we went to Seaford Town last year, we toured their Heritage Museaum and Early Childhood Center. When I scheduled our visit for this year, I wanted to make sure that we had enough time to actually tour the St. Boniface VTC (which is why we needed to leave so early). Since we didn’t stop along the way, we got to Seaford Town about an hour early. I called the guide, Marie Kameta, to let her know we were early and to ask her if we would start earlier. She did come earlier, but then delayed our tour by not having the keys to show us the church. The total time that we spend attempting the tour was 2 hours… for her showing us one church and a one room museam. I don’t think we’ll be doing that part of the trip to Seaford Town again.
Fortunately, we also got to spend about 30 minutes in the Early Childhood Center. I’m really excited because I think that between the Early Childhood Center and the Uppertop Early Childhood Center, we should have plenty to do for next year. I am also looking forward to speaking to Amy Tamsen and Sandy Suprek, Northcentral Technical College Early Childhood program instructors, about having the learners in their program do some activities for us to bring down to Jamacia (paper projects mostly). Also, the teachers indicated a willingness to let our students shadow and actively participate in the teaching of students in their classrooms. The Jamaica children sang three songs to us. We also sang Happy Birthday to Ms. Cynthia Kameta, the principal. It costs $2000 jays ($23.53 US) for students to attend the Early Childhood center. They pay this cost per term, with terms starting in September, January and after Easter. All students in Jamaica wear uniforms, those at the Early Childhood Center wear green.
We were treated to a tour of the St. Boniface Vocational Training Center. A teacher at the school gave us a tour of the VTC. They have many training programs similar to Northcentral Technical College such as welding, carpentry, drafting, and informational technology systems. They have other programs too such as garment design, restaurant . The students looked absolutely beautiful in their colorful uniforms. Each program wears a color specific to their training. We had also arranged for their learners to present to us a meal to demonstrate comprehension of the skills they were learning. So, we were treated to curried goat or barbeque chicken, potato salad (made with potatoes, corn, carrots, and peas) or tossed salad (coleslaw type veggies with thousand island dressing) and rice and peas. For desert we had three deserts (3!!!): banana pudding, banana bread, and pineapple upside down cake. We were overfilled at that point, but we still continued to enjoy the fresh pineapple, papaya, and oranges that were presented to us. We thanked our guests for their hospitality. It was a wonderful experience that was enjoyed by all.
We left the VTC to go to Tommy’s farm. We got a little lost on the way, but eventually got to where we needed to be. Nicole Sankey, Lori Garber and I had all toured Tommy’s farm last year and explained to the learners that this farm is a wee bit different than the farms in Wisconsin. Rather, Tommy’s farm is a farm of fruits, herbs, and vegetable. Tommy greeted us graciously. He walked us back to his place and shared with us a variety of fruits and such as oranges, pineapple, honey bananas, peppers. We spent over 3 hours with Tommy asking him about his natural way of life and allowing him to share his world to us. He explained the benefits of healthy eating and eating for the nutrients in the food.
The ride to Negril seemed quicker on the way back than on the way there, but that’s usually the way it works when you’re traveling a road slightly wider than the size of the van and your going down the size of the mountain, not up it.
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