After working for many years, most people look forward to relaxing at home on retirement.

That, however, does not apply to Lori and Steve Frank.

Upon their retirement, the American couple departed the United States for Jamaica to begin their tenure as Peace Corps volunteers, working with farmers in Westmoreland.

“I was a high school science teacher for 35 years and really enjoyed that career, but then [I] appreciated being able to retire and shifted gears and looked for something else,” Lori Frank told the

Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

“I have always thought about Peace Corps, before even getting married,” she admitted.

She explained that she and her husband had participated in a four-year Fulbright exchange programme in England, so when she approached him about completing the two-year Peace Corps tenure in Jamaica, he was open to the idea.

So excited and certain of their acceptance into the Peace Corps programme, the couple retired before even knowing whether or not they were accepted.

She said that after arriving in the island last year March they underwent several months of training in social readjustment and integration, as well as in agriculture, in St Catherine and St Thomas.

The areas of focus for the agricultural aspect of the training included mitigating efforts against the negative consequences of climate change, teaching environmental studies in schools, and looking at how to build capacity in societies and groups.

The couple initially applied for agroforestry positions, but due to the unavailability of such positions at the time they were assigned to more agricultural-centred positions, resulting in them working with the Westmoreland Organic Farmers Society in the community of Bluefields, Westmoreland.

Frank said that so far they have been well received by the community and are currently working on several projects such as an aquaponics unit where organic vegetables and fish are raised, maintaining an apiary, as well as working with the farmers society’s home economics group which makes and bottles jams from specific crops.

“We did a full cost analysis on what it actually costs to produce a bottle of jam, because they were still selling it for the price [it was worth] in 2010, and in 2010 the Jamaican dollar was worth $89 to the American dollar. Now it is at $130 so it has lost considerable value, and so they were not selling their jam for what the real value is,” Frank explained.

She said that from the cost analysis it was discovered that there needed to be a price increase of 50 per cent, and after affording local buyers a chance to examine the cost analysis, the price was increased.

This, Frank explained, has resulted in a huge increase in income for the society. However, she maintained that while this has helped, they are still in need of other supplies for their kitchen and are now considering writing a grant proposal to source funds.

The Peace Corps volunteer stated that one of the biggest problems so far for the society is that of finding consistent markets for the group’s products.

“You know you can find markets in the tourist industry but only during the tourist periods, and farming doesn’t work that way, you know. Produce is available much longer, for many more weeks and months than just the peak tourist industry period,” Frank said.

“We are trying to find sustainable markets. It is really a task we’ve been trying to tackle but we feel that we are making a little bit of headway, [but] it’s still too early to see the fruits of that labour,” she added..

Frank said that while her current position can be stressful at times, having her husband as a “sounding board” and as a support system helps to ease the burden. She said one of the most difficult things she had to get adjusted to was Jamaican time as “the sense of time here is incredibly different than in America”.

“In America, it seems that in our culture we are far more driven to tackle a job and not finish till it is done, where here you tackle it in pieces but it still gets finished. I learned now it does get finished, and it’s just a different way to go about it,” Frank stated.

“So I think that adaptation and being flexible… just being open and realising Jamaica has been here a long time and has overcome a lot of obstacles, so obviously there is a lot of things that work well in this country. It’s just a matter of staying open-minded to see how that works,” she added.