Accompong Town.... Going Home.

[Accompong]

Just to completely understand the soccer ball donation, how can we arrange to have them picked up?
Cheers

Try emailing Dondi at dondi@jamaicans.com and see if he contacts you. It is the best way I know to do it.
Peace and Guidance

[Accompong]

Masonry work is the predominant form of construction currently being used in Jamaica and the finishing of the outside of a structure takes a person with a high degree of skill in working with concrete in its many forms. Basically, there are three main finishes used over concrete block buildings; “pebble dash”, “splashing” and “rendering”. These may be called different names in different areas of Jamaica but they are used here in Accompong Town.

All these finishes use cement in high percentage and the coarseness of the material used in the mixture is determined by screening or filtering its size down from pebbles to very fine sand. The finest coating “rendering” is most common on interior walls and more popular on exterior walls like the example in the photo below of “Bits and Pieces” Variety Store on the main.

A make-shift concrete pad in the middle of our road left over from previous work on our house provides the palette for preparing the concrete mixture. My neighbor Rani (we call him “Boss”) mixes the fine sand with the concrete and after blending it together, runs it through a finer screen to get the desired texture for rendering.

Boss and Marshall work together to wet the mixture and use a shovel to mix it into a thin paste to be carried by bucket onto the scaffolding where the finish mason applies it to the wall. A good, experienced mason can render a wall of a house in a day’s work with good ground support.

Just a day’s more masonry work and the rendering of the house will be complete inside and out.


Building a house in Jamaica and, most often in Accompong Town, is a multi-year endeavor and our house is no exception. Since the original house slid down the hill in pieces after Hurricane Ivan, the construction has often been slow and painful but now the end is in sight.

When you are a tourist and interact with your Jamaican friends for a week or two each year, you learn a little about them and about the Jamaican Culture at the same time but nothing can compare to actually living in Jamaica and having to deal with and work alongside your Jamaican friends and neighbors to accomplish a goal like in this case building a house.

A person you would like to share a Red Stripe with is not necessarily the person you would want to work with you to get a job done. Serious work takes serious people. Thankfully, I live among some of the most serious workers I have ever met in Jamaica over my 30 years of being in Jamaica.

Peace and Guidance

[Accompong]

Now that I have finally solved my Internet problem (well, at least ‘solving’ is more accurate) as I am just waiting for the phone call to pick up the Digicel-powered unit next week in Mandeville. At least I know it should work here as the school principal, Garfield Rowe, uses it and although it is less than 3G he says it is adequate for most needs.

Until then, I am able to get to the Computer Center at least twice a week to get updates on my email and to do a little work for the motel in So. Florida. Yesterday when I went over for the morning opening at 10am, they were having some problems so I had to wait for about an hour. I had my camera with me so I took a couple of shots of the Computer Center and Library while waiting.

A smiling face to brighten your day.

“Our Hands, Our Community” is a wonderful montage of handprints to simulate the leaves on a tree. That’s my seat. #2

There are 12 High Speed Broadband connected consoles loaded with software.

Also, there is a small library. Mystic Bowie is building a much larger library up at the main school building which is scheduled to be completed by the January 6th Celebration 2014.

Internet time costs $2 Jamaican Dollars a minute and only $1 Dollar a minute for school related work. A normal, non-school hours day has several groups of youths gathering around a few computers to play a car racing program which requires no Internet but on school hours days you find a half dozen younger adults using mainly Facebook and YouTube and only a few using them for research of some type.

Such a powerful tool with so few people knowing how to use it; the Internet could be used to a great advantage by these people but there is no one to show them how unless someone like me gets more involved. I try to limit my projects to a small number because I must make sure that I succeed with each and every project I embark upon. Too often the people of my town have seen people come and go with great ideas and solutions but, like a mango on a tree, they are seasonal and don’t seem to last long enough to become a project they can sustain on their own. I must continuously remind myself that I am here for the long haul and not to spread myself too thin or promise too much.

Peace and Guidance