END OF THE MONTH!

We still don’t have power back at our office! Now it has been almost 4 weeks! I’m told it’s because RADA is a government organization and I need not explain the rest….so that is that :)

Yesterday Will and I had the pleasure of escorting some Cubans around St. Elizabeth. We had a lot of fun talking with them and showing them how farming is done in Jamaica. They will be helping Jamaica in the months to come with some technical advice on how to use better farming techniques. Their goal yesterday was to go around and see how things are currently being done! We took them to several farms that have irrigation, farms that don’t have irrigation, livestock operations, and one of five pumping stations in the lower part of St. Elizabeth. The best part of this entire experience…a gift from the Cubans…some FINE CIGARS! We were so excited to receive these and are looking forward to a special occasion where we can light them up! (i.e. maybe Josh Hunters B-Day???)

Today I had my very first compost training with the women’s group that I work with in Malvern! It was a lot of fun. I trained about 15 women. I’m looking forward to more things to come from this group. (pictured below is the training)

It’s the end of the month and we FINALLY got paid! However it seems that all our money is already almost gone. I would like to give everyone an idea of what we’re paid and how it’s spent: (I need to note that the exchange rate has skyrocketed! When we got here it was $66J = $1US now its $85J = $1US)
----Rent- this costs Will and I $14,000J which is $165 U.S Dollars
----Internet- $2,000J which is $23.50 per month
----Food- The grocery store can be really expensive! Usually with any given month Will and I spend about $18,000J or $212 US on food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc. We went to the market yesterday and purchased:
**Potato’s- $60J per pound or 70 cents US
**Cucumber- $70J per Pound or 82 cents US
**Carrot- $70J per pound or 82 cents US
**Escallion and Thyme- $50J a bundle or 58 cents US
**Garlic- 9 cloves for $60J or 70 cents US
**Tomato- $60J per pound or 70 cents US
**Bell Pepper- $150 per pound or $1.76 US (the price of peppers is up because the demand is so high and there is a shortage right now)
**We buy our meat from the Agriculture school which costs us about $3,000J per month or $36 US- we buy pork, chicken, and beef from them and it lasts us all month long.
----Transportation for the month-
**A trip to Kingston costs us: $400J or $4.70 US to ride the bus from Santa to Kingston (the bus has a capacity of 25 but we manage to fit about 43-45 people)
**Once in Kingston there are route taxis or Chartered taxis- we usually try to take a route taxi which can charge $50J-100J ($60 cents US- $1.20) the problem with these is you have to “small up “which means squeeze as many in as possible. Our personal best is 9 in a taxi including the driver.

These are all rough estimates but as you can see the money is gone just like that and the next month we start all over again!