Katie Crocker
Bittersweet Abroad: Cocoa and Permaculture in Jamaica
March 16, 2025
Dr. Sarah Williams, faculty
Final Self-Evaluation
When the study abroad program to Trinidad was canceled, the student remained committed to the course and the study abroad possibility. The student managed this by attending every session on time and engaged every time. The student also planned out an alternative travel scenario to Portugal and Spain, complete with several reference books bought or borrowed from the library. When plans were cemented for Jamaica, the student rearranged her leave of absence from work and began learning about the culture and island of Jamaica. Hours lost at work due to this pivot caused hardship, and the student worked additional hours during weeks five and six along with completing all assignments, reading all prescribed works, watching recommended videos, eating in fellowship with classmates, and engaging in seminar. When faced with adversity, the student dug in and showed resiliency and adaptability.
The overall quality of engagement from the student was excellent, with the student arriving on time to every course session. The student attended a Food Hub pack-out, made cupcakes for a student-led potluck, and communicated with the group through WhatsApp and Discord prior to departure. The student was present and engaged at all seminar meetings, with having all recommended readings complete. The student completed all Beyond Guilt Trips assignments and preparations for study abroad (i.e., paperwork, questionnaires, legal forms completed).
To satisfy the credit requirements for Introduction to Caribbean Studies, the student read Orlando Patterson’s The Confounding Island: Jamaica and the Postcolonial Predicament and engaged in conversation with Dr. Dexter Gordon privately, at fireside chats, and through letters. The student also read and discussed Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place. During a fireside chat, the student asked Dr. Gordon about burial rituals on the island. The student also visited a typical Jamaican grave and discussed it with a student at The University of the West Indies. The student visited an UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Blue Mountains and engaged with the Maroon people of Moore Town: dining with them, enjoying song and dance. The student spent a night camping in the bush with three other students while working on a waterway project to restore water flow to a community greenhouse and post-production agricultural plant. Other important cultural sites visited were Cynthia’s, Winnifred Beach, and Margaritaville.
Six credits of Tropical and Temperate Permaculture should be awarded, as the student obtained their Permaculture Design Certificate while abroad. The final project of a site design dealing with swales and designing a tropical food forest in conjunction with several other classmates was well-received by the Permaculture instructors in Jamaica. The student participated in a multi-day natural building workshop and a multi-day waterway project. Before departure, the student also spent time at Permaculture Rising with Marisha Auerbach, completed all assigned and recommended Permaculture readings, and engaged in work at Evergreen’s organic farm.
While studying Cocoa: Political Ecology of Food, the student read Kristie Leissle’s Cocoa, engaged in chocolate tastings from chocolates around the globe, visited cocoa farms (Mount Pleasant Farm) and chocolate factories (Pure Chocolate, One One Cocoa). The student planted their own cocoa tree and recorded the coordinates (18 degrees 6’50” N, 76 degrees 47’43” W). The student also harvested drupes, put beans into a fermentation box, shelled dried and roasted beans, ground beans up, made a cocoa tea ball, tempered chocolate, and a made a chocolate bar.
For their individual project, the student read Richard Powers’ The Overstory and wrote an additional chapter for the book about their familial connection to the cocoa tree. Additional resources for the project included reading interviews with the author, personal conversations with family members, retrieving pictures from family members, and reading Peter Wohlleben’s The Heartbeat of Trees: Embracing Our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature. An additional text was selected at the University of the West Indies bookstore and included in the annotated bibliography for the project. Planting the cocoa tree at Mount Pleasant Farm, naming the tree “Hildegard”, and recording the coordinates was a monumental personal connection for the project. Hours for the project met academic requirements.
Throughout the quarter and time spent abroad, the student was challenged to work and function as part of a group. While the student found that it was a challenge to have individual freedom of movement, privacy, and quiet time restricted, they rose to challenge with dignity and grace. The student is a better person and more well-quipped for the future for having learned and experienced all they did this quarter.