8/23

We went into the hives with Agape for the first time. She gave us a quick intro on how to inspect the hives so that we would know what to do tomorrow when we show the hives to the bee club kids. However, we were only able to go through 3 hives with Agape until she had go back to nursing the baby. So Emma and I decided to try inspecting the hives by ourselves. We inpected 2 and found one of the hives filled with lots of honeycombs and a big and healthy broodnest. It looked like they were ready to swarm so we decided to space the broodnest with empty top bars.

8/22

We finally finished making our hives. To complete them, we cut sheets of tin and nailed them onto the roof frames. We also rendered wax but it turned into an ugly brownish color since Kofi threw blue and red crayons into the rendered hot liquid.

8/21

Today, we woke up really early to drive all the way to Kingston to go Cornation market. There were lots of higglers selling various vegtables and fruits in large bulks. I learned from Agape that higglers stationed inside of the building  are permanent higglers  who live in Kingston and those stationed outside are temporary higglers who come to sell their goods only from time to time. Thus higglers outside tend to sell their goods at a cheaper price than the permanent higglers. While Emma and I were strolling around the market place, people kept calling us by different names like "ching-ching", "chiney", "miss korea", "tokyo japan", etc. In the afternoon, the boys took us on another walk to Marcum point.

 

8/20

We started building our top bar hives today. We cut the woods from the lumberyard into the right sizes and nailed the parts together to build the trough part of the hive. We still have to finish building the roof. We also caught a swarm that Joshua spotted. We added a couple of brood combs to prevent the bees from leaving the hive. In the afternoon, I made cane juice with Melchizedek by squeezing the sugar canes that are growing in the yard with a cane juicer that Kwao had finished making. I was taken aback by its sweet taste when I first had cane juice, since it looks exactly like green tea and I had drank it expecting to taste the bitterness of the tea.  However, I have come to like the taste of the Carribean drink. I think it's a perfect drink to fight the hot weather here.

8/19

The boys took me and Emma on a walk. We went to Strawberry point, a rocky cliff overlooking the sea. It was a pretty exhilirating experience, walking on the ground covered in sharp rocks, putting my face into a blow hole, and watching the mighty waves crash into the shore with their powerful force. On our way back, we stopped at a ginnip tree. Joshua climbed the tree to get the really big ginnips at the top of the tree for us to try which was really sweet of him. Once I got back, I felt drained out of energy from waking up early the last couple of days so I took a really long nap. Later, Kwao took me and Emma to the lumberyard to get some wood so that we can start building our own top bar hives. At night, we made lemongrass scented soap. We first measured out the ingredients, which included vegetable shortening, rhye, lemongrass essential oil, vegetable oil, palm oil, and coconut oil. We first measured the vegetable shortening so that it could be melted while we measured the other ingredients. Once we finished melting the shortening, we cooled it by mixing it with a drill. While it was being cooled, we cut wax paper to line the inside of the soap mold with, and the rest of the ingredients were added into the cooled shortening before the the whole mixture was poured into the mold. Then the finished soap was cooled over night covered in layers of towels and blankets.

8/18

We worked with the bees early in the morning again. We went to a different upper apiary to inspect all of the hives there. They had not been inspected for over two months. When we inspected them, we noticed that many of the hives were spaced out too much and the bees were not using the empty combs very well. When Agape had last inspected them, it was still in the middle of the honey flow season and the bees had been growing too fast and they had even built combs on the outside of their hives. Thus Agape had spaced them out thoroughly, but immediately afterwards, the honey flow had probably ended and the bees were not able to use the extra space. During the inspection process, we harvested a good amount of wax from teh empty combs. We also gave water to the bees so that they would stop pestering their neighbors; we brought two buckets full of water and floated a wood in each so that the bees could land on them and drink from it. While we were up there, we also found a robbed hive infested with wax moths and cockroaches. The rest of the day, I hung out with the boys at the beach. We played push off the rock and swam against the current. Before coming here, I was worried about whether I would be able to bond with the boys. I do not have much experience with boys as I only have one younger sister and had not babysat kids in high school. However, after a week of being here, I think I have made some progress. Enoch and Kofi asks me to read books to them. They also like to tickle me and Emma. I really enjoy playing with them, but sometimes I have trouble understanding what they are saying. The older boys are a little harder to bond with, but they like it when you play rough with them. I wrestle with them at the beach and double cross them during water gun fights. Playing with the boys gives me a good excuse from having to act like a 21 year old. Last night, after the younger boys had gone to bed, Emma and I had held arm wrestling matches with the older boys. Emma and I also showedthem how to make Asian poop with play dough (Joshua thought it was a birthday cake at first). This time, I showed Joshua and Melchizedek a baby snake I had caught. They kept asking me if they could kill it. Whenever I ask the boys about school related stuff, they seem really uninterested, but as soon as I ask them about how many bullfrogs, snakes, scorpions they have killed, their eyes light up.