Falmouth Field School

Today was sadly our last full day in Jamaica. It was also our last day working, which meant my group, the city study, needed to get a lot of work done. We had all of this data we accumulated throughout our days here, but we needed an interesting way to present it. We decided we were going to dive deeper. We really wanted to not just know the problems Jamaicans faced, but what caused them. So we interviewed three people from the study, recorded them, and asked them to talk more about the questions we asked. We then went to a small coffee shop and analyzed what our interviewees told us. We found out a lot more about them; first off, the super nice woman who worked as a secretary almost had to live her life on the streets. And, our friend from the market traveled the world before residing in Jamaica to be back with her family. As well as that, our friend from the electronic store only knew he was going to run the business and move to Jamaica three days in advance. This helped us understan...

Dr. Conolley introducing local William Knibb Memorial High School students to archeology. Dr. Conolley explaining how we discovered the casique's hut. Everyone learning how to use the trowel while opening up a new unit. Time to relax at the beach. The students rushing out to enjoy the deep blue waters!

Everyone gets ready for a special viewing of a film the owner of Good Hope produced about gang violence in Dunham Town, Jamaica. Sarah enjoys a snack while Brooks discusses the city study project. Francesco takes apart the old roof of the house we are working on located on Trelawny Street in preparation for it to be rebuilt. Arjhong organizes the materials that will be used in the restoration of the house on Trelawny Street. Claire laughs at a joke as she writes her blog for today. Arjhong and Justin rough house after getting back from a long day's work. Francesco smiles for a quick picture in front of our beautiful view at the Coach House.

"Hi, my name is Claire. I am a high school student from the United States. My school comes here every year to partner with Falmouth Heritage Renewal and I'm wondering if you could help me with my project." Over my four years and five visits, a collective 50 days, in Falmouth I have used this introduction, or one like it, certainly over 1,000 times. This short introduction along with my Post Oak Falmouth Field School t-shirt have opened doors for thousands of meaningful interactions with locals and opportunities for conversation and insight into the nuances of daily life here in Falmouth. In discussing the culmination of our city study survey we talked about the importance of benefiting the local community through our efforts . This can be tricky considering that sociological work does not always have a clear cut, tangible result, unlike the restoration and archaeology projects we work on while we're here. To do this we talked about identifying a theme, perhaps, n...

During my past three trips to Falmouth, my work has always been on the films we create. This year working on the city study it has been a bit different. The city study has the objective of recording changes in patterns of life throughout the years in Falmouth as we are witnessing a change due to the booming affect of the tourism indust ry.  Since our work here consists of these larger projects, it takes us a significant amount of  time  to  see progress from our work.  When making those films in the past, we often have had to go to a beach off the side of a main road in town to get some shots for the editing process when we get back.  Every time we have gone to this beach , we've noticed how poorly kept it is. When we first got here, Claire said to Dr. Quillin she had an idea to clean that little beach that we had previously seen so littered with garbage . It turned out this beach was a part of a fisherman's co-op where people could keep...

Anna, Claire and Sarah pose with the creative director of today's blog, a local who helped us get some great shots. Francesco and Arjhong pose on top of the only washed up trash we didn't collect before leaving the beach.  Franceso, Arjhong and our new friend are hard at work moving a huge rock which had a fishing net wedged under it.  Anna, Claire and Sarah show off some plastic they found while wading in the water.  Jordan takes a well deserved break in the ocean after a long morning cleaning up the beach.  Jordan and Arjhong take on trash clean up together. 

Today we visited the First Assembly of God Church to see how the religious experience in Jamaican Church is and later through seminar discuss how different it is from other religious e xperiences.  When we walked in it was very loud and lively with many songs ranging in duration. My favorite of the songs is "My God is Awesome". The entire experience at the church was incredibly interesting and uniquely entertaining and extremely different from mass at a Greek Orthodox Church. It's different in noise levels, and when psalms are being read, in Jamaican church the majority of the service is songs sung at high volumes, while at Greek Orthodox it is a song sung at a lower volume then psalms and other readings, then another song. The feeling and overall atmosphere of the church was friendly and welcoming to us as outsiders visiting the church. Christianity is one of the most prominent religions in Jamaica. Religion has been present in Jamaica for a long time. Ch...

The students put on their Sunday best before heading to the Falmouth First Assembly of God for church. Francesco and Arjhong share some nervous laughter before going on Chukka's zip-line tour Arjhong spots a mongoose in the distance. Sage concentrates on not hitting a tree while going down the zip-line. Jordan, Sarah, Anna, Justin, and Brooks enjoy their trip down the Martha Brae River. The students and Ms. Pilisi form a tube chain as they begin their rafting journey.  The peanut butter boys take on kayaking. Sadly, Sage is unable to find the camera.

Sage, Francesco, and Brooks are about to go on a tour of the Greenwood Great House. Everyone is amazed with an antique artifact, a forerunner of the player piano. The extraordinary view from the balcony overlooks the coast line. Brooks is learning about the history, culture, and art of Jamaica at the National Gallery West. All of us learning about the incredible Sam Sharpe, who was the main leader in the slave rebellion of 1831, which led to the emancipation of slavery in the British Empire three years later. Learning about the interesting lifestyle of Rastafarianism. The group is enjoying a nice evening on the beach. Brooks, Francesco, Arjhong, and Sage posing on the beach front. Claire, Anna, and Sarah having a good time at the beach.

One of today's stops was at the National Gallery West, a museum in Montego Bay that houses exhibits on Jamaican history, Rastafarianism, and Jamaican art. The piece that most struck me, housed in the Jamaican history exhibit, was the "human cage", a man-shaped monstrosity of steel bars and sharp edges used as a punishment device. The idea of a cage so small as to be literally form-fitting is an inherently horrific concept. A cell is the restriction of freedom. Here, exactly where your physical form ends, so too does that freedom. Not even the paltry right to fidget is allowed, and the pain of spikes impaling your feet even rob the ability of the mind to move unrestricted. In many ways this object is the logical end point of the ideology that permits slavery. This thing was accepted as normal, not only just as a punishment for the perceived subhuman slaves, but also for British citizens accused of robbery.  It's a testament to how far our society's sensibilities ha...

       I am part of the restoration gro up that is helping to reconstruct historic Falmouth. The past few days, we've been working on a family's house that is practically falling apart. Their roof is leaking and their floors are rotting. In doing so, we've had to get our hands dirty and do a lot of hard work. However, we've also had the o pportunity to connect with the construction workers and kids who we work with. I specifically had the pleasure of conversing with the head construction worker, Kenneth Hamilton. At first, we were talking about the project, but as we continued to talk we began to look at some of the issues Falmouth faces, one of which is the rise in sea level. Kenneth walked me over to the street drains and said, "You see how the water isn't draining? It's because of the rise in sea level." At first, I wasn't clear on what exactly he meant and so he began to explain that the rise in sea level didn't allow the rainwater to dra...

         Today was the third day excavating the Kent Taino archaeological site on Spanish Hill. Similar to the other two preceding days on the site, we spent the day separating artifacts based on whether they were shells, pottery, lithics (rock), or bones, as well as an additional bag for any special finds. Day 1 we found many shells, very little pottery and lithics, and not even a single bone as we concluded our excavation. Though some of the shells we found were interesting, we became discouraged by the lack of hardly anything else in the other bags. This is were Dr. Conolley taught me a great lesson in archaeology: patience is key. He told me that in this practice, it's better to be patient and go slow, because if you rush your work, you might miss something that's right under your eye. Even after learning this important lesson from Dr. Conolley, I would still say the most memorable souvenir from day 1 of archaeology was the brutal sunburn I  received. ...

Claire and Joseph practicing good hydration skills Dr. Quillin enjoying our delicious pasta lunch Jordan, Sarah, Claire, Asher, Justin and Arjhong striking a pose on the beach in the fishing village We visited the construction site, and Sarah held a crab Anna surveying a worker in the beauty surplus store Joseph, Claire, Anna, and a little bit of Mrs. Pilisi walking through Falmouth The construction group mixing concrete for the floor of a home.

Today I joined the Falmouth city study group. Through this study, I learned a lot about Falmouth and it's people. When it comes to Falmouth's people there is nothing they find more important than the community. You will see people from many different lifestyles come together in a way that you cannot find anywhere else. Some of these people may be having friendly interactions all while dealing with severe circumstances such as being homeless or not having access to running water. I think it is these interactions that just come to show how good many of us in the U.S. have it. A common occurrence I noticed throughout the interviews today was people's idea of access to running water. Our city study addresses some of these severe circumstances. Specifically, in one of the questions there was a miscommunication when I asked the question if they had access to running water. At the beginning of the day, some would reply with "The River" or "It depends on the weather...

Asher, Dr. Conolley, Sage, and Joseph pose for a picture after finding a possible stone tablet.  Francesco, Joseph, and Asher demonstrate how seriously they take their jobs as archaeologists. The Peanut Butter Boys take a break and chomp on some good sammies.  Arjhong and Jordan hard at work mixing some cement for the restoration project  Justin shows why he's worth twice as much as anyone else on the team according to Arjhong.  Francesco shows us some of the bones he's found on the archaeological site. 

     Today Claire, Sarah and I started the city study project. The city study project is a study in which we are using a survey to collect a data set we can refer to in the future to answer questions about Falmouth.  It is important to note that  prior to emancipation, Falmouth had one of the largest ports in Jamaica, in terms of imports and exports. This was due to the cheap labor provided from the slave trade. However, after emancipation, the port started to decline, until the 1950's, when the port completely collapsed. With the port responsible for most of the economy in Falmouth, the town entered a period with a very weak economy.  In 2010, the Royal Caribbean cruise line constructed a new port in Falmouth that brought hundreds of thousands of tourists through Falmouth. This new port is reviving  Falmouths economy. Due to the growth of the economy, Falmouth has been going  through many social changes. Hopefully, using the data we collect we ca...

Justin and Jordan give bright smiles as they start off strong, in restoration of a local Falmouth home.                              Jordan constructing the foundation of a house in need of renovation.                 Arjhong learning how to use circular saw from Peter, as they build a porch cover.  Justin and Jordan hard at work building the foundation of local Falmouth home.  S age and Francesco enjoying a dip in the pool after a long day of archeological work. Joseph smiles while playing football with his fellow archeologists. Another delicious dinner prepared by Barbara!