Sacred Shifts: A Call for Support on Our Homesteading Journey in Jamaica
Our Journey of Surrender and Openness to Support Amid Financial Challenges in Jamaica
“The Most High blesses us with resources from Nature to sustain us. We are gifted random donations from strangers, and it sustains us. We ask for support and receive it from family and friends, and we are so grateful. I live in the knowing that the sacred cycles of giving and receiving are activated through our lived experiences. I release shame over my life journey and embrace the divine unfolding and sacred lessons happening amidst it all.” - an affirmative prayer.
We purchased a bunch of green bananas from a local elderly farmer two weeks ago and recognized that they would be great for ripening. This is wonderful because it grants us access to ripe bananas without having to purchase them from the market, which, though sometimes the only option for fresh produce, tends to be much more expensive than buying directly from farmers. I decided to put all the green bananas in a bag to give them a dark space and encourage ripening, and they’ve been slowly ripening. I am so grateful. We eat them as snacks, and I use them to make different treats and add them to our meals in various ways. This means more food security and less dependence on store-bought food, which can be costly and often lacks quality and nourishment. These will go quickly but so grateful for having them in this cycle.
Nature is a powerful ally in our present fight against the harsh socioeconomic conditions of modern life rooted in unnatural work-life rhythms, and this is why my husband and I believe in our work of cultivating a homestead environment where we can eat from the land and develop a system that is sustainable.
This week, between April 26th to May 4th, my goal is to generate a total of $500 USD through the power of my digital endeavors.
I've created various ways to receive reciprocal support from those who appreciate my work, as well as ways donations can be sent to me.
The truth is, since we entered this phase of living from scratch in the rural landscape, my husband has not had a consistent stream of income like he did in America. Back then, he was the sole provider for all our financial needs. That began in 2016, when we got married and moved in together—and I became a stay-at-home mother later that year, when I was pregnant with our first child.
We left America in 2020 with our savings and a plan to build home-based businesses offering some of the natural resources of Jamaica to our digital audience. We started with a sea moss business, which was very promising and made us some initial revenue. However, due to many issues with the shipping process in Jamaica, we could not sustain the business. We quickly recognized that any business that required us to ship natural resources would be tricky.
We had to integrate local business, which we realized offered a much lower profit rate for our hard work—mostly due to the economic state of Jamaica as well as a limited audience of buyers interested in organic or handmade products.
Moving to rural Jamaica empowered us, as we gained access to land—but business building became even more difficult. Soon, we surrendered completely to a life of subsistence farming, as this felt like the most aligned way to move forward. My husband became deeply dedicated to cultivating the land with organic greens and other crops that could survive the challenging natural environment and water insecurity in our area.
Alongside my daily duties of cooking, cleaning, and tending to our children’s needs—with the support of my husband wherever I've needed it—I've deepened in my intention to use the digital space not only to share our journey and advocate for support but also to build my digital-based offerings—alternative businesses that remain quite rare in Jamaica. Still, I am in the early stages and still organically cultivating my digital based businesses.
We feel the new land and home environment we are preparing to shift to will offer us more opportunities to build a local community business space rooted in value for our work and reciprocal exchange. You can read more about our current plans to make a major move here.
The Realities of Cultivating A Homesteading Life in Jamaica.
Despite the popular aesthetics of a homesteading life that shows abundance and food security, the reality for many, especially those from low socioeconomic conditions, is that homesteading is more of a practice of survival rooted in subsistence farming, once called peasant farming. The difference between homesteading in a developed landscape and in a developing landscape, and homesteading as one of socioeconomic privilege versus navigating systems of oppression due to one’s class origins, is that access to resources can be very difficult.
I've spoken previously about the challenging socioeconomic system of Jamaica and the many limitations that come for someone like me, who comes from a background of black, rural dwellers who have always lived off the grid and fended for themselves. In time, I'll share more as well about the false hope rooted in the school system and following a colonizer's model to success, which is based on paying large fees to attain degrees for a job in middle to high-income working roles, or settling for a minimum wage in imbalanced exchange systems.
I'll keep saying that digital is powerful
Digital is powerful. Especially for people like me, who are living on the edge of a new world—navigating oppressive systems in alternative, ancestral, and holistic ways. That said, building reliable local income while living this kind of life in a developing island can be challenging. Still, It is not impossible and we continue to strive forward to root ourselves in environments where we can build organic businesses and a community rooted in reciprocal exchanges who value one another's work.
In the meantime, we continue to subsistence farm, ask for and open to support, embrace doing various odd jobs that align with our skills, embrace various firms of reciprocal resources exchanges and work with integrity. I know our harvest cycles will come.
If you’ve come across this message and resonate with our journey, I invite you to support us—if you’re able—by making a donation of any amount. The best platform to support us, tangibly, on is Kofi - which offers. pay-what-you-can option. Your contribution, no matter the size, makes a real difference.
If 50 people donate just $10, we’ll reach our $500 goal. And while that might seem small to some, in Jamaica, it does so much: helping us access quality ingredients for nourishing meals, purchase seeds, tools, and other essentials to empower our journey of cultivating a more organic and sustainable life.
Your support helps us not only survive but thrive—continuing the work of creating a family and community space rooted in harmony, resilience, and a more liberated way of living.
To make a donation, visit my Ko-fi via visiting my linktree here, or you can cashapp me at $MakedaofJamaica
I want to acknowledge that many of us are navigating the complexities of today’s financial landscape—doing what we can to sustain ourselves and our families, often while gifting and giving in our own ways.
If you’re not in a position to contribute financially, please know that your presence, encouragement, and even sharing this message are also meaningful and powerful ways to support our journey. We are all finding our way through this time, and I see you.
Thank you for witnessing our journey—and for being part of this greater movement toward a more nourished, regenerative, and liberated life.
