Last Saturday was Asa's birthday, and I'm still trying to get to that blog too. But first up I'm trying to knock out the countries. We had a little rearranging of our schedule, and I was trying to fit in all of Government Week before his birthday, but that just didn't happen. So, I suggested perhaps we could have Anarchy Day on his birthday. If you know Asa, you know how much that appealed to him.
I guess I forgot to take a picture of the Anarchy page on the board, opsies. But, you guys probably don't need it anyway.
The word 'Anarchy' itself means without rulers. It's a society without a publicly enforced government.
Now the term is usually associated with a sense of lawlessness and disorder (and living here during anarchy day, I can't necessarily dispute that- people would just do whatever, throw their hands up and yell 'AN-ARCH-EEEEEEE' ), but that doesn't have to be the case.
We explained (to Hayden especially) that it is important to be responsible even if there are no rulers or publicly enforced government for a couple of reasons. I mean, you shouldn't just abide by some of the enforcement of government just because it's against the law, you should do it because laws make sense!
Also, in Anarchy, people can punish you however they see fit. He didn't really like that part.
Now, there's not really any countries in Anarchy anymore. The closest to any form of it is Iceland (but that's being saved for Explorers Week!)
But, there are some that have tried it out, and failed, obviously.
o
England during the English Civil War
in the 17th century
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France during the French Revolution
in the 18th century
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Jamaica in 1720
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Russia during the Russian Civil War
at the beginning of the 20th century
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Spain in 1936 during the Revolution
led by General Franco
Out of that list, we picked Jamaica, home to Bob Marley and Reggae music, made famous in the 70s. Our landmark was even Bob Marley's house, which he lived in until he died in 1981.
And of course we couldn't talk about Jamaica without mentioning the Jamaican Bobsled Team (and Cool Runnings), and Usain Bolt, the world's fastest man.
Jamaica, the first Caribbean country to gain it's independence (in 1962) is proud of it's African roots, probably more so than any other country in the Caribbean.
Their most famous festival is Junkanoo, a celebration in which Jamaicans wear colorful masks and sing and dance in the streets. It started back before the abolition of slavery when African slaves were given three days off at Christmas, and that's how they decided to celebrate.
Jamaica could also be called the most religious country, as it has more churches per square mile than any other country in the world (worth noting: about 70% of the country is Protestant).
For an authentic Jamaican experience, tourists often visit and take a trip down one of the many inland rivers aboard a 30 foot bamboo raft. The rivers connect the major cities to less popular rural areas, and the rafts were once used by farmers to transport their crops to the cities.
One more fun Jamaican fact for you:
Ian Fleming (who wrote James Bond) is British, but he wrote the stories of James Bond in Jamaica.
The boys made their Jamaican postcards.
Calib's featured reggae music and the Arecaceae, or as we know it, the coconut palm tree. Fun fact: these quintessential Caribbean trees are not native to the islands. They were imported (along with sugar cane and mangoes) when the Europeans first started settling there.
I personally loved Peyton's nod to the Jamaican Bobsled team, and his little stick figure of Usain Bolt.
And Hayden gave one guy a crown to denote that Jamaica is a Constitutional Monarchy.
Since it was Asa's birthday, I was responsible for making a Jamaican lunch (since I still wanted Asa to be able to request his birthday dinner). If it's my turn to cook, I make it as easy as possible, so we got some Jamaican Kola and Jamacian Beef Patties from Publix. We also found some cute little red bananas at Sprouts.
This meal was an all around spoons up.
We had varying spiciness levels, and Allison and Calib had chicken jerk patties instead of beef ones, but we were all happy with them. The boys have even asked for me to get more sometime.
The kola was 'eh', though Asa was a fan. Full disclosure, I don't really try all the drinks, because I stick to water and coffee, but I heard it was like a weird ginger ale.
And the red bananas were just normal tiny bananas (maybe with a tiny bit more *banana-y* flavor)
With no outline of the island, we just made a long line below Cuba and called it a day. It maybe should have been a little further north, but it'll have to do now that it's on the table.
49 countries down, 144 to go!
Next Up: Jordan
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