Falmouth Field School

Today, I woke up prepared to attend church in Falmouth. The class was split into groups of at least three, and sent off to several different churches. My group, which included Paloma and Megan, attended the William Knibb church. William Knibb was a preacher in Jamaica that was known for being a major contribution to the abolition of slavery in Jamaica. At first, I felt a bit intimidated, since the sermon had already commenced and we were sent to the second row. All of the women and girls wore dresses, and the men wore a long sleeve dress shirt, a tie, and slacks. Boys my age wore a short-sleeved dress shirt that were tucked into their dress pants, held up by belts. I felt slightly underdressed in an untucked polo and casual grey pant, but that feeling eventually faded as I listened to the preacher. He yelled his sermon throughout the fifty minutes we were there, strong and powerful he referenced passages from the bible. He once referenced the tale of a woman that went to Jesus's de...

Today, we slept in, awoke late, and felt refreshed before the class traveled down into Falmouth so that we could work on our individual projects. Since I had been waiting to continue my experience with the Autocad computer program (automated computer aided design), I was able to work on that for the majority of the day. Along with Emily and Matthew, we took the rough sketches that were drawn for the house and transferred them according to the width and height measurements that were written for each section of the house. Instead of starting with the floor plan sketch (a bird's eye view of the house's interior) we decided to draw the elevation (the front of the house). Once we started, it seemed quite easy, and minutes felt like seconds, until we found that some measurements didn't add up to the over-all proportion of the house. Knowing that we didn't have much time to complete both this drawing and the floor plan, Emily, Matthew and I walked down to the house to re-measu...

Megan reading to an elementary school student at the Falmouth All Age School. An elementary school student holding up the hat she made today with the Post Oak High School students. The middle school students worked on a construction paper chain, where they wrote answers to questions about themselves, as well as Jamaica. Here is a picture of the final chain that was hung in their middle school classroom. A view of the cruise ship in port, from the playground of the All Age School Paloma, Jodi, Amber, and Megan posing with new made friends from the school. Along with the school, we all spent the afternoon of the last day of the trip at the beach, where we enjoyed clear water and sunbathing. We made thank you notes for everyone who made our trip so amazing. Pictured is Shiraz and Aldain, who helped serve our meals and helped keep the place we stayed in nice and clean.   The students presented Dr. Quillin and Dr. Lee with thank you cards to show our appreciation for them over the trip....

Shiraz and Rebecca work on their individual projects. Shiraz is researching the economy of Falmouth, and Rebecca the architecture of Falmouth. Ian, Matthew, and Emily talk to  KeVaughn about their AutoCAD drawing project. This is the house that Ian, Matthew, and Emily are drawing on AutoCAD. This is the elevation drawing of the exterior wall that faces the street that was created in AutoCAD by Ian, Matthew, and Emily. These are pictures of the glow of microorganisms in the bioluminescent lagoon as the group was swimming.

              Today, we visited the Accompong village. Driving there was an adventure in and of itself. The drive that was supposed to take three hours ended up taking us six hours. We actually circled most of Jamaica to get to our destination through the main roads of the island. There were only two lanes.  Most of the roads were in pretty bad condition. While driving, we passed through Montego Bay, the central tourist location in Jamaica. Most of the buildings were in new condition, the streets looked bigger and cleaner, and there were no people on the sides of the roads trying to sell merchandise to tourists. The first US corporations, such as KFC and DQ, that we saw were in Montego Bay. Seeing all of these larger corporations really put in perspective the poverty level we saw in Falmouth. As we journeyed on, we saw school students on their lunch break in a village near our destination. Once we arrived at Accompon...

 The group arriving at Accompong, a Maroon Town. The Maroons were escaped slaves who successfully kept their independence from the British.  The group getting some information about the town and getting ready for the hike.  POHS students following the trail to the Peace Cave, where the peace treaty between the British and the Maroons was signed.  The group making their way through a steep incline.  POHS students found pieces of ginger on the hike.  Matthew admiring the hills of Cockpit Country.  The group stopping for a quick break before continuing their hike to the Peace Cave.  Here is a picture of the plaque at the Peace Cave. Matthew sitting in the cave from where the Maroons attacked the British.