‘30 Days’ of a new life
JC resident Jenkins participant on Fox cable show, spent month living in rural setting
Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter staff writer
Jersey City Reporter
07/01/2005
OFF THE GRID – Jersey City resident Johari Jenkins stands in a garden in the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri, part of her one-month experience of living a rural life while on the FX network series “30 Days.”
It was an online ad that caught Johari Jenkins’ attention and led her down the path to reality TV.
“It said online, ‘Do you consume a lot, do you use internet a lot, are you always on the go?’ And I said ‘yeah, that’s me’,” Jenkins said.
The 30-year old Jenkins, a resident of the Jersey City Heights section for the past five years, would go from a respondent to resident for a month at the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Rutledge, Mo., a six-hour drive from St. Louis.
Jenkins and her friend, Bronx resident Vito Summa, were participants on the new Fox Cable Network (FX) reality TV series, “30 Days.” Jenkins spoke last week to the Jersey City Reporter, a few weeks following her experience on the show.
“30 Days” is the brainchild of documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, Oscar-nominated for his 2004 documentary Super Size Me, which chronicled his one-month endeavor to live on a daily diet of eating meals at McDonald’s, as well as the dangers of fast food.
Spurlock’s new series – a set of six episodes started airing in June – explores how individuals cope with a change in lifestyle over a month’s time. Episodes range from Spurlock and his girlfriend moving from their comfortable New York apartment to working minimum wage jobs in Columbus, Ohio, to a mother becoming a binge drinker in order to impress upon her college-bound daughter the dangers of drinking.
In the case of Jenkins and Summa, it was living a rural, agrarian lifestyle, 180 degrees from Jenkins’ current work as an events coordinator and club DJ and Summa as a bouncer. That episode, “Off the Grid” will air on Wednesday, July 20.
For Jenkins, the experience would be a very pronounced change of pace.
“I am always on my cell phone, I check my e-mails all the time on my Sidekick pager, and I can’t live without my TV,” said Jenkins. “And now I am going out to the middle of nowhere.”
30 days’ change of pace
After seeing the initial ad in April that would lead to being immersed in another reality, Jenkins was in sporadic contact with the producers for a month. But by the end of the month, she knew it was official.
“They sent out a psychologist to evaluate me, making sure that I can handle the stress,” said Jenkins. Jenkins also said that she was given very little information on where she was going, although she figured it was in the United States since she wasn’t asked for a passport.
Jenkins would soon get a visit from Spurlock and one of the show’s producers along with a cameraman who accompanied her on a trip to the Shop Rite in Hoboken.
“I would pick up an item and then Spurlock or the producer would then read the contents and point out what’s wrong with it,” said Jenkins.
That was just the beginning of the education that she would receive in a major way when Jenkins and Summa arrived at the ecovillage. Jenkins began to wonder what she had gotten herself into.
“I was having second thoughts, wondering can I survive this for a whole month,” said Jenkins.
What Jenkins saw was a village of over 20 people who engage daily in a rural ecological existence. That meant growing your own foods, taking solar heated showers and making your own fuel.
Jenkins and Summa lived in a converted grain bin with available light initially provided by candles and sunlight until solar panels arrived.
Jenkins said that it took some time to adjust, and at times was frustrating. But she found what seemed like “hippies” living a backwards lifestyle becoming more interesting to her with each passing day.
“I met a woman about my age from southern New Jersey, who had the same interests as mine, and I asked how she ended up here,” said Jenkins. “She told mr she came out for a short visit, grew fond of the place and lifestyle, and decided to leave her former life and come live out here for the long haul.”
Jenkins slowly grew to appreciate the simple charms of people and the ecovillage as a whole. She said that leaving was “emotional” and left an impact on her.
30 days after
Jenkins said when she came back to New Jersey at the beginning of June it took some time to adjust. Her experience was not completely negative as she began to see a regular world in a whole new light.
“I started recycling. I am embarrassed to say that I would throw all garbage together, but now I am more aware,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins found herself also educating her friends and family on what they were consuming.
“I would try not to be so preachy, but I would shop with someone and they would pick up shampoo or some food, and I would say ‘Do you know what are the ingredients in there?’ ” Jenkins said. “As I learned from my friends at the ecovillage – if there’s more than five products whose names you can’t pronounce then it’s not good for you.”
Jenkins plans to visit Dancing Rabbit again in the near future.
“30 Days” airs on the FX network on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. For more information on the show’s schedule and the show itself, visit www.fxnetworks.com. Also, there is a photo gallery of Jenkins’ experience at www.dancingrabbit.org.
The Hudson Reporter 2005
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
Posted by: Paul on July 02, 2005 at 11:37:20