Bittersweet: Cocoa and Permaculture in Trinidad Jamaica
Faculty Note: Given the late winter quarter return to campus of this study abroad program, which due to a State of Emergency pivoted from Trinidad to Jamaica, this website assembles what too quickly scattered, metamorphosing from community experiences to individual memories. Big appreciation to study abroad student and program aide, Emma Shumaker-Chupp for curating this public program website, which is designed for educational use only. Many thanks also to those who agreed to share photos and project work, to sign media release forms, and especially to our very wondrous community partners who made possible the experiences documented here. Welcome!
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Some weeks into winter quarter Bittersweet: Cocoa and Permaculture in Trinidad became Bittersweet: Cocoa and Permaculture in Jamaica. Thanks to networks of collaborators in Trinidad and Jamaica, the resilience of the program’s learning community, and the support of many, the program that had been two years in the making successfully pivoted countries after the government in Trinidad and Tobago declared a State of Emergency due to gang-related violence. The enthusiastic support of Dr. Dexter Gordon, Evergreen’s Executive Vice-President, native Jamaican, and “all-rounder” in combination with the extraordinary “provider” role assumed by Nine (Rodje Malcolm) with One Regeneration repeatedly re-created this program in the innovative tradition of Experiment at Evergreen (Jones 1981). Lessons learned from the unexpected and prolonged negotiation of a pivot from the south to the north Caribbean proved significant in that students arrived “fully committed” not despite but because of what it meant to practice resilience and innovate while “learning to roll.”
For a story of study abroad student Andrea’s presentation to Evergreen’s Board of Trustees on the significance of “water” and “learning to roll” in relation to this study abroad, see faculty member, Sarah Williams’ experimental ethnography (under Program Materials). Click through the following slideshow to see study abroad student Moss (Mahaylee) Bennitt’s presentation at Evergreen’s Equity Symposium about the significance of radical relationality in her community-based study of herbs and healing foods while in Jamaica.
See Jamaica through study abroad student Margot McBrady’s eyes in this video of “Jamaica through a Viewfinder,” which was inspired by Agnes Varda’s The Gleaners and I.
Ocean/Pool at Artvark/Very Dear. See the menu, “Sites and Excursions” for all host sites
Google Map – Bittersweet: Jamaica
Website Design and Bittersweet Program Curation by Emma Shumaker-Chupp