Day 10: Snow Day, Jamaica Style - Anna

Today was our last day working in Falmouth for our 2018 Field School. We started out the day like any other day, getting up in the morning and going to our different destinations. Today I was working on our film, so I was in Falmouth. We worked on interviews and walked around like always, but something today was very different than other days, creating a huge shift in the town’s feeling; there wasn’t a ship in dock. I realized today how much Falmouth relies on the port and how the local’s lives are based very largely on tourists. Everything was empty, the craft market wasn’t set up, the usual cab drivers or tour guides along the sidewalk weren’t there, and the stands right outside the port were closed. It seemed almost like a ghost town.

After an interview with a local tailor, it started to downpour, so we took our rain jackets wrapped up the camera and started to run in the rain to our next interview with an attorney. Once that interview was over, I walked outside and heard that we weren’t the only ones that were being rained on; all the groups were rained out so we decided to cut our day short and go back to Good Hope. Our original plan for the afternoon was to leave Falmouth around two to go to the Good Hope private beach, but since the weather wasn’t in our favor, that couldn’t happen. Next thing I know, we’re all running in the rain across Water Square to get patties (a Jamaican specialty) for lunch. On our way running back, we stopped to say goodbye to our good friend Krystal. Over the past two years we have created a strong relationship with her and she will be a very important voice in our film this year. I’m so happy that we have this opportunity to create strong friendships over the course of less than two weeks then come back a year later and still have the same connection.

Once we escaped the torrential rain, we spent the rest of the day at Good Hope. We hung out, slept, swam, ate, and spent time as a group. Even though it wasn’t at all how we pictured the day, and we probably would’ve rather been at the beach, I think it was good for us to be able to relax along the beautiful view that we have of this historic plantation. It gave us an opportunity to spend our last full day in Jamaica reflecting the hard work we have done and have some down time before we went home, whether at the beach or not.