About to finish our first year

Mangoes and more Mangoes…and Labor Day!

None of you can imagine the impact mangoes [mang is pronounced like song or mongoes] have on daily life in May and June. It’s a veritable community passion for those little babies. Everyone’s eating them [including the dogs] and comparing theirs with those of others’. Just here in Chapelton there are thousands of trees each with many hundreds hanging from them; they are simply everywhere. You can’t look in any direction and not see several mango trees within your reach. And then there are the pits, large and golden [~ 1” X 2”], scattered all over the roads, the product of the locals’ mango orgy that ends with a simple toss to the roadside.

The varieties are called Common, Milli, Black, East Indian, #11, and a dozen other titles we haven’t yet learned. So many have shared their bounty with us that we could get sick [Mrs. Rumble eats six in one sitting] if we didn’t resist to some degree. So far Milli’s are our favorite. Common aren’t bad but they leave long stringy fibers hanging from your teeth. All are soft, juicy, and sweet. There’s another month left with more new varieties appearing each week.

We get them either from our friends and neighbors or just pick them up off the trail or street where they have fallen from a tree. The library has two large mango trees and we make a point of looking for drops each time we go. Many others do the same; so, unless you arrive early the ground’s already been cleared. When you come upon a tree with lots of drops the view is something akin to a fish feeding frenzy, everyone grabbing for one of those tasty treats.

Labor Day!

Two weekends ago the Jamaicans observed their Labor Day. Very unlike “our” Labor Day in September. The Jamaican Labor Day is a day for volunteerism particularly meant for residents to go out and do something for the community. This could include cleaning the streets, cutting the grass back off the streets up to the curb, planting trees in the park (something that Margaret helped with at a local park), picking up litter, or any other job that would help to beautify the area. The recently formed Senior Citizens’ Association, of which I am an ex-officio member and facilitator, decided that the Labor Day weekend would be a good time to run a fundraising dinner to feed the various workers who didn’t have time to prepare meals for themselves. This event took many days and lots of seniors to plan. After all the provisions were bought the cooking and preparation began about three days before the event, Monday, May 25. Our fare was fried chicken, curried goat (and yes I helped butcher the goat for the event), mackerel rundown, goat soup, and of course rice and salad (a slaw without mayo). The event went off as planned, albeit a little slow with customers. From noon to 6 pm on Monday the 25th many seniors helped with the cooking, serving, and general organization of the event. The economy here is no better than in the US….as you can imagine the number of people able to come up with $250-$300 Jamaican (about $3 US dollars) significantly affected our proceeds. After all was calculated we took a loss…but learned a lot for next years attempt. One of the most important factors (as suggested by one of the seniors) was that we had no music. Music is a big draw to any event in Jamaica…although I thought the sunny and breezy day without the ear throbbing reggae was quite pleasant.

Butchering of the goat was quite an experience. The Jamaicans are quite resourceful (as we have mentioned before) and this process was no exception. They used the head, the stomach, intestines, skin, not just the muscle we use for meat. Without going into specific detail about the whole process I will mention one thing that further convinced me of this. Nearing the end of the butchering process I took one of the hoofs of the goat, cut it off the leg and then discarded it in the trash. The man who was the main butcher about 30 minutes later said, “Gary, where is the front foot?” I responded rather sheepishly, “it’s in the trash.” He immediately gave me a lecture about how the Jamaicans use all parts of the animal and that I should retrieve the hoof. I found the hoof and was informed that the process was to take the foot and roast it over the outside wood fire….until the hair was burned off…then it was scraped of the skin and then put into the “manish” goat soup for flavor. WHO KNEW!

The summer is pretty quiet with regards to holidays…the next events will focus on Emancipation Day, August 1st, and Independence Day, August 6th. Margaret and I will join a number of other Peace Corps volunteers on a southern coast beach for the U. S. July 4th weekend. The younger volunteers are going to rent a house which will have wall-to-wall sleeping arrangements. We are going to check-in to a local motel!