I am a Peace Corps Volunteer assigned to work at the HEART Trust campus in Falmouth, Trelawny. HEART Trust is Jamaica’s national vocational training institution and has campuses all over the country. Falmouth HEART offers training in plumbing, electrical, construction (carpentry and masonry), food & beverage management, and business administration.
In addition to their core classes, students are required to take an Environmental Studies course. It is part of my job to teach the all the Environmental Studies classes.
Last month, I took my class of 12 Food and Beverage students to the Falmouth fishing village. We walked from the school to the village, which is about a half mile away. We arived just in time to see the boats coming in and the fishermen unloading their fish. The fishermen landed their catch of parrot fish, lion fish and doctor fish, just to name a few.
Many of the fishermen have been doing this type of work for over 30 years and told us that they the catch has dwindled over time. Most of the fish are gone from the reef close to the shore due to pollution, over-fishing, and poor fishing practices. Now most of the boats are too small to go far enough off shore to catch bigger fish.
The food and bevrage trainees were shown how to clean and scale the fish, and how to cook them over an open fire. We were told about the many ways the fishermen catch their fish, such as traps, nets, spearing and hand lines. The students convinced the fishermen to cook and share some of the day’s catch over the fire that’s usually kept blazing on beach. When the students had their fill of fresh fish, we said our goodbyes, thanked the fisherman and went next door to a water front restaurant which shares the fishing beach with the fishermen.
There we met the owner, who had the chef and bartender talk to the Food and Beverage students about their work. We lucked out because in addition to the regular bartender, there was a mixologist who teaches at Miami International University who was in Falmouth on vacation. The students were fascinated by her explanations about how to mix and serve drinks.
I asked the students to write a report on the trip and the next week they turned in their essays. Needless to say everyone’s favorite part of the trip was eating the fresh fish cooked on the beach at the fishing village!
- Ken Caldell, Group 81
Falmouth, Trelawny
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