July 3rd- July 6th

These past few days have been incredibly exhausting but so accomplished and replete with learning and excitement.

On the Third, I did my first hours of beekeeping ever. It was amazing to be in the presence of such complex and intelligent creatures, we checked 3 of the 20 or something (sustainable and pest-control free) hives they have at the farm, (the have about 80 in total) and I learned how to do a hive scan. I got my first bee sting, which wasn’t bad compared to a fellow intern who has 30+ stings. I made two goals for myself: to get no more then 12 stings, and to not drop a hive if I get stung on the hand while holding one. As Agape said, “I must hold my vibes”. The one down side to beekeeping in Jamaica is you are basically bathing in your own sweat for hours. So I was eager to get in the ocean after we finished. After a swim, we ate lunch, and went with the boys to build a bonfire on Lions Beach for us for us to enjoy later.

That afternoon I did my first distillation: Agape was thrilled to figure out that we could distill mango peels, because there are a plethora of various mango trees on the farm. Me, the other interns, the boys, and the local kids went and gathered as many mangos as we could, and Agape happily peeled them all. We did the distillation, and it smelled absolutely amazing, although we only yielded about 1ml, it was well worth it. It is fun to be distilling plants that have never been distilled or mass produced before, along with the general higher yielding ones too.

On the fourth of July, I started my day out with some yoga by the ocean, after that we went to the bees and did a few more hive examinations. Following the bees, we cut the mango leafs we harvested when we collected mangos for the peel distillation, and distilled the leafs- it wasn’t much of a high yield either, but hey, its mango essential oils so who cares. I am excited to create a list with Agape of aromatic plants in both Colorado and Southern California, and hopefully start distilling myself. It is such a beautiful process with the plants that creates such a beautiful relationship between you and your medicines. After our daily playtime in the ocean, the interns and me made hive stands with Kwao. Following an amazing dinner we did another mango peel distillation, and Agape and I sat down and made a list of my goals for my stay. One of my goals was saying yes to opportunities that will take me outside of the farm and the village to other parts of Jamaica.

So I said yes, on the Fifth, me and a few of the interns accompanied Kwao and Agape and the boys/ local kids to Dunns River Falls, while Agape visited an old friend from high school. It was fun and playful and I was very humbled and happy to be able to see how an experience of a tourist could be in Jamaica versus my experience. I am so grateful to be living with Rastas, and many of their views and life habits align with mine, and also to have found this amazing family. So much more excitement awaits, and I am cherishing every moment I am spending here.

On the sixth, I surpassed my goal of getting only 12 beestings. The morning was spent doing yoga, water coloring with the boys, and hanging out. Around noon we went up to some of the hives in the bush with Kwao to clean up the hives from the bush plants engulfing the hives. We used machetes and weed-whackers, got plenty of blisters, and took a nice break and ate pineapples, watermelons, and fresh coconut to cool down. Once we went back at it the bees were angry to say the least, we were able to work for about 30 minutes until the bees started swarming us, I got about 20 stings- I think the hand stings are the worst. There is nothing to do when you get swarmed but laugh about it, drink a cold beer, and wash the sting off in the beach. It was a good day and a good nights rest will follow.

Until next time