Visiting friends on a long weekend in Chester District between Montego Bay and Ocho Rios in Jamaica in early February brought me a heightened awareness of how inefficient my household routines are.

In Jamaica, my friend lives with eight other family members in a small home situated on a sunny hilltop surrounded by fruit and nut trees and flanked by other small homes populated with extended family. The children, too young to go to school (which begins at age 3), are watched by whichever family member is off of work, or unemployed at the time. Jobs are hard to come by, and often require long hours and six to seven day work weeks. Typical income for working adults in her home is about 55 US dollars per week. Food prices, however, are comparable to prices here at home.

To combat these prices, much of the food is grown on their property. They have a beautiful almond tree, breadfruit trees, abundant coconuts, bananas, and other sustainably farmed fruits and vegetables. Some of her brothers bring fresh fish home a few times a week which they eat immediately or salt for future use. There is very little food wasted. But what is determined as “scrap” is put on a small pile outside of their kitchen door for their two dogs to enjoy. The dogs, who have no names, and aren’t ever let into the home, benefit from the food and shelter (outside of the house) provided by the family. In return, they help dispose of scraps and alert the family of visitors approaching.

Freshwater is efficiently captured in large rooftop containers, and occasionally replenished with buckets and trips to the nearby stream to supply household needs via gravity.

They use the natural Caribbean breeze to cool their home opening all doors and windows during the day and close things up at night to guard against insects and other pests. Very little is wasted and they seem to want for very little.

When I think about my heating costs, cooling costs, food waste, my beloved dog (who has her own bed in my bedroom), and my struggles to grow a few good tomatoes each year, I feel like I have much to learn.

So long as I continue to try, however, my Jamaican friends assure me there will be “No problem!”