July 20th- 23rd

The Twentieth began with a short visit with the bees in the yard. It was interesting to notice how different it felt this time, versus the first time I ever went into the bees. I have learned so much, but I am still aware of the plethora of information and knowledge there is yet to obtain. We were excused from the bees to finish making the top bar hives. The first half of the day was spent hammering, eating frozen pine, hammering, eating lunch, and more hammering. It was extremely rewarding to have a finished product after all of our hard work; having something tangible that correlates to your own learning and working is always a great thing. It was also fascinating to realize how easy it is to make your own top bar hives, sustainably too. I cant wait to have my own apiary some day and I hope I can teach as many people as I can what I have learned about this amazing way of life, and how obtainable it is for everyone to create their own apiary. Later on, we went on a walk to the river pool to get out of the yard and to show the guests around the town. The walk was accompanied by my favorite mango juice from lities- it’s a must-have for me on an extra hot day. On the walk back, I was pulled into the house of my supposed “boyfriend”. I was unsure that by accepting a piece of paper with a boys email written on it, I would be agreeing to be his wife some day and would bring him to America. His mother hugged me and excitedly exclaimed I would be her daughter in law. I was even more thrilled to find out that my husband’s nickname throughout the whole town is “panty mon”, because his sister hit him in the face with her panties one time. Get ready Mom and Dad- I am marrying panty mon! After the adventure we had a great dinner of fried bread dumplings, and then we prepared the still for a wood co-distillation for the morning. Panty mon tried to join the fun, but quickly got shut down by realizing through the energy in the air that he in fact, is not my husband to-be. I fell into a deep sleep feeling giggly and giddy about the strange events that had occurred that day.

On the Twenty-first Kyra and I started the day early to do the wood co-distillation of sweet wood, cedar wood, and pimento wood. We quickly learned we had messed up the beginning steps, which caused for a failed distillation. It happened for a reason though, and taught all of us a lesson that we still had a lot to learn about distilling before we both leave. We had been focusing on the bees more when the other interns were here, but we realized that this was the time to prioritize distilling, because both Kyra and I are serious about doing distillations back in our various homes. So we brushed off the failure, and took the lesson into our hearts. We went to harvest ribena leafs to distill. The ribena gave out beautiful, bright green oil that I had never anything like it before. It was a long distillation, and the generous tree gave much more oil than we expected. Thank you tree! Thank you earth! We love you. During the distillation, Agape gave us a Patoix lesson. It is such a comprehensive and practical language. I love it so much and hope I can really master it one day when I return to Jamaica. The rest of the day and night was spent nursing the distillation, and we turned in early with a beautiful, new oil to add to our collection.

After a long, restful sleep, Kyra and I woke up at 5:00am to watch the sunrise on the Twenty-second. We watched the colors dance and rise at the point, then went to go harvest sea rosemary because we saw two giant trees of it chopped down the other day. We almost made it to the trees, when we were stopped by the goat-sheppard who hates the family’s dogs because they have killed his goats in the past. He was furious and made us turn around- there is no avoiding having the dogs accompany you wherever you go here so we had to oblige, and we learned our lesson, again. We went back to the farm and I took a swim and a rest before we headed to Black Sands Beach. A Rasta man named Lion took us there. We walked about three miles in the bush, while he pointed out every plant to us and told us what it is called and what it is good for. It was incredible… to be in the presence of a bushman with that much knowledge… It makes me even more appalled by westerns (myself included unfortunately) reliance on chemicals and doctors for medicine while the earth and ourselves are the only true doctors and healers. I am making a major shift away form that way of life and coming back to my roots, to the nature of human beings, because we are animal’s we are the earth, we are we, we are one… I learned a lot from Lion, but didn’t gather all of what he said, because there was so much to learn. We eventually made it to Black Sands and it was incredible. We played in the huge waves, looking down the expansive beach and sea. We drank coconuts and Lion cooked us plantain and kallula for lunch. We walked down the beach and climbed a big rock and were impressed, yet again, by Lion and his skills and he balanced atop of the rock. We then made our way up to the waterfalls: We hiked about another mile and were greeted by the most amazing sight I have ever seen: Incredible falls that had carved away the rocks in the most fascinating way. We climbed, jumped, played, drank, and baked in the gloriously fresh, rejuvenating, and magical water. Water is life. After a good amount of time we hiked back in hopes of having a nice a boat ride back to the town. We waited and waited and waited for boatman, but boatman never came. So we picked up our asses and walked back, barefoot and entranced by the bush, and I made rhymes in my head. Lion gave us coconuts at his house for the unexpected, longer journey, and we eventually made it back to the yard to eat and distill sea oxeye. We were thrilled to see the oxeye giving us oil- it might be on of my favorite oils thus far, and the great thing is, who knows if anyone else in the world has ever distilled it! It was a magical day to say the least and I had an experience that I will remember forever.

I awoke feeling more grounded and balanced then ever on Twenty-third after our wonderful day in the bush. Nature is the world’s best healer, clearer, and care-giver. Thank you J. The whole morning was spent gathering sweet-sap leafs, cutting them, and distilling them. We were thrilled, yet again, to get oil from the plant. While it was distilling we stripped the leafs, collected the berries, and chopped the leafs of pimento. These actions might sound easy, but they take was longer then you would expect. We needed a break eventually, so we went to the ocean. We had planned to distill the pimento that night, but by the time all the chopping was done it was much too late because it’s a six-hour distillation. We had a restful night, which was much needed and I drank rosemary and citrus tea before a night swim and a deep sleep.

Until next time!