Mary's day

Mary gets up soon after 5 am for family prayers. She and Lanlie then milk the cows in the dairy.
Cows need to be milked early in the morning.
The family are Seventh-Day Adventists, and their religion plays a big part in their lives. They spend a lot of time each week at their church, where they are active members.

The milk is poured into a milk cooler to keep it fresh.
The milk is cooled and filtered to remove any impurities.

Mary feeds the calves, and Lanlie the chickens. Meanwhile, everyone else is up and about, getting their own breakfast.
Often they have fried plantain and bread for breakfast. Lanlie and Mary eat after Mary has come back from the school run.

Mary takes Bruce and Georgette to Balaclava Primary School.
The school is six miles away. Lorri-Ann and LaVeta have even longer journeys – Lorri-Ann's school is 20 miles away, and it takes LaVeta at least an hour to get to college. Mary is very keen for her children to get a good education.

A tanker arrives to collect the milk.
The tanker belongs to the Jamaican Dairy Farmers' Federation (JDFF) and is on loan to the St Elizabeth Dairy Co-operative. Mary is a member of both organisations. She sits on the board of the JDFF and is involved in discussions about the problems faced by Jamaican dairy farmers.

The milk is tested for quality.
Mary and Lanlie produce 'A' grade milk, which sells for more than 'B' grade milk.

Mary sells her milk to the St Elizabeth Dairy Development Co-operative.
The main office of the co-operative, with its farm stores and milk collection station, is five miles from Mary's farm. The co-operative pays farmers for their milk, which is then sold to a processor (Nestlé International). Nestlé is importing cheap milk powder into the island, and buying less fresh milk from farmers like Mary.

Mary spends much of her day doing other jobs around the farm.
For example, she needs to cut back trees and bushes from the grazing land. In the tropical climate, things grow quickly. She has a rest in the afternoon, when it is usually very hot.

Mary and Lanlie milk the cows again.
It takes them an hour to do the milking, including cleaning-up time. Mary used to milk with a milking machine, but it took her another half an hour to clean the machine, and her electricity costs were much higher. She and Lanlie decided to go back to milking by hand, as it is cheaper and quicker.

The children come back from school and college.
Bruce and Georgette help out a little, but most of the cooking and cleaning is done by La Veta and Lorri-Ann. Sometimes La Veta goes to visit friends after college but Lorri-Ann doesn't go out much.

The children finish their homework after dinner. Twice a week, they go to church.
The children are encouraged to do their homework, because it's difficult to get a good job without qualifications. They also watch television and read.