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 The Village Experience Everything from the slope metal roof houses to the stone oven, the village slab, a Mountain timber shed, the copper that adorns our bush tea garden and the fat pork trees that exclusive grows on Upper Rawlins landscape are monuments to the yesteryears of our fathers. Our village houses were modest wooden buildings with shingle roofs, slatted windows, shutter doors and was seated on rocks. Entire families would live in these houses with numbers upwards of ten persons or more. There was no electricity and no water nor indoor plumbing. Water was either caught from the roof top or the Villagers would fetch it from the village reservoirs. Many mornings the streets were filled with children carrying buckets of water to their homes. The houses were cool since the breeze would blow from the front door to back door and through all the windows. These houses withstood hurricanes with unyielding strength. The steep gable roof, constructed of corrugated iron adapted to suit the heavy rains and winds. The roof angle deflected the winds which protect it from being lifted off. These small quaint structures were also use as shops and a popular place for villagers to chat, congregate, swap tales, drink rum, purchase supplies or just to idle their time away. The proverbs- “It takes a village to raise a child“ is true in our villages. Families were the cornerstone of the village and everyone in the village were extended family members. All villagers were responsible for the youth in the village so children was disciplined by any elders in the village. Children worked in the fields with their parents and worked at home. Great attention was place on the elders because their were the backbone of the village and the ones that would teach the younger ones skills that would be past on for generations. Many moonlit nights the elders would gather and tell stories of the “good old days” while the children would play hide and seek in the yard. Farming and raising live stocks was the main skills for a villager. Many villagers would start the day before sunrise and head to the fields to cultivate their crops. Donkeys and carts were employed to transport the produce. The villagers would take the cart of sugarcane from the fields to the mill where is would be processed into brown sugar and molasses. Nothing was wasted the husk or baggasse from the cane was used as fuel in the mill. We grew cocoa, breadfruit, breadnut, Christophe, arrowroot, gongo peas, coconut, yams is just samples of provisions from this area’s basket. Plantation owners brought the religions of Roman Catholic and Protestant. Many faiths were derived from these religions. Churches were a major parted of life in the our villages. The statement “ We work, We go home and We go to church” was very true. Most Villagers attended Church Services 3 or 4 times in the week and then all day on Sunday. This tradition is still continued today. The Slarb was man built pond that was extensively used by the villagers to wash their clothes and watering their stock. At summers and weekends it would be engaged by village children as a swimming pool.  Stone Ovens were prominent structures throughout the villages. The
baking started early in the morning with the preparation of the oven.
Heating the oven is done by starting a fire inside the oven and small
coals were rearranged in the center just a few hours later freshly
baked bread aromas engulfed the village. As people from all corners of the village would decent upon the baker shop for hot fresh “ Ha-Penny
Bread” and butter. Also from the oven the Villagers enjoyed long
bread, twist rolls, pork bread, coconut cakes and local fruit tarts.
The oven was also used for roasting meats, fish, fowl, parching nuts,
roasting coffee and cocoa beans. For personal cooking villagers would
cook their meals outdoor on a coal pot. Coal pots were made of red
clay and firing in a open fire made of limber and coconut shell. The
coal pot consist of two parts - a clay vessel that the coal was placed
to the bottom and the pot and lid that would sit on the vessel, this is
what food was cooked in.The mountain limber shed is a skill that is past from one generation to another. This shed was built by Mr. Edward Herbert whom learn the skill from is Uncle Bishop. The harvesting of the correct limber to hand chiseling the shingles that creates the roof of the building is all a treasured skill in a village. And local volcanic rock that grace the floor would have been done by masons also a skill that would have been pass on. Not any of these structures stand today as a monument for the many skills that have been engulfed by modern conveniences and prebought materials. The copper is a large iron vessel that was used at the plantation and the later the village used the coppers in fields and at the home to provide water to the livestock. Fat Pork trees are local shrub that provides a small red fruit that was sorted after. The children will eat the fruit and carry it to the lowlands to sell for extra money. Many fruit trees were available in the village, from the varieties of juicy ripe mangoes, sugar apple, guava, papaya, passion fruit just to name a few. Each structure represented at Peak Haven were sustaining and vital parts of our village life. The slab, the oven, the shed, the kitchen, the village store, our heritage, the houses and a place for play. |
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