Back in Florida after 70 days in Jamaica
Hi friends,
I just returned from 70 days in Jamaica and I am already looking for an airfare deal to go back for 120 more! As usual, I had a wonderful time staying first for 7 nights at Seastar on the cliffs of Negril and the balance at my home in Accompong Town (Cockpit Country) St. Elizabeth Jamaica.
I previously posted pictures and accounts of my stay at Seastar so I won’t go into that much but to say that Chris, Francine, Francine, Francine, Barbara, etc. made me feel like part of their “close-knit” family. I know I have finally found my second favorite place to stay in Jamaica (after my home that is)! Big Up to all of you at Seastar!
I got to Accompong Town on November 23, 2011 to begin my 2- month plus long working vacation. I call it a “working” vacation as I had to take a lot of time off from having fun to assist in the construction of the house. I wasn’t too sure about what I would find when I got there but was relieved to find a downstairs room with a bathroom attached ready for me to move in. Those that know me well realize I have a “camper’s mentality” so I am used to Spartan living conditions. Though it wasn’t completely finished yet as the floor was still rough concrete, no electricity wired in, walls were rendered but not painted and no piped in water… it was home to me.
I spent the first couple of days surveying the on-going construction of the top floor where there are a kitchen, living room and two bedrooms separated by a bathroom. There were no windows yet anywhere on that floor or no doors either. Just a sturdy concrete structure consisting of nearly 3 tons of steel rebar, 400 concrete blocks and 300 bags of Carib cement overlooking the Appleton Valley and the Don Figueroa mountains in the distance where the sun rose each morning. Out the back door you could walk for over 20 miles without seeing another person all the way to Trelawney through virgin Cockpits. The house is truly on the edge of civilization.
I have been visiting on and off for twenty years so I am no stranger to the residents of the town and that became evident on my very first night there. Three times different neighbors knocked on my door and offered me cold jellies; fingerling bananas and an assortment of yams (yellow, white and dasheen) along with a few minutes of chatting so I could catch up on the runnings since my last visit in 2007. Nothing ever really changes in Accompong Town except the people are a few years older and the little pickneys become young adults. Names of pickneys I had met over the years never seemed to be important to remember but as young adults they all seemed anxious that I called them by either their given names or nicknames as they are known.
Marshall has been my best friend for these past 20 years and he has taken the responsibility of looking after my meals and helping me hook-up with the people and places I want to visit while in town. He is a Rastafarian and a staunch follower of Marcus Garvey’s principals. He does not eat any meat only fish and fresh food from the earth which he prepares in constantly changing ways to keep each and every meal tasty and a culinary adventure. I ate very well and actually lost almost 20 pounds over the 9+ weeks I was there.
I experienced so much during this time that it is hard to put into words; an election, an all-night New Year’s Eve party and of course the 6th of January Celebration to name a few of the high points. I am scrambling to catch up with all I missed here in my private life and my work so I don’t know when I will have the time to go into the details and; no, I don’t have a lot of pictures as these are my friends and Accompong is my home so I don’t feel comfortable playing a “shutterbug”.
If anyone has any questions or wants more information about Accompong Town, I will be happy to answer in due time. Until then, I am feeling bittersweet about being back here in the US and can’t wait to return.
Peace and Guidance
Life in Accompong Town - The Election
As I have stated many times over, Accompong Town is a very mellow and mostly uneventful place to live and, frankly, I really like it like that. Lack of drama makes for a predictable pace of life and allows one to concentrate on the little things that normally are obscured by the ebb and flow of emotions.
The dramatic breaks in this “Stepford Style” life are what stories are made from. One such dramatic break was the National Election on December 29th, 2011.
Living in the United States and being a little bit of a Political Junkie, you are constantly bombarded by personal attack ads and sound bytes from all sides of the political spectrum but for this election in Jamaica, the tone was fairly respectful and for the most part politicians on both sides discussed the problems and proposed solutions to them instead of going negative.
It was a constant barrage of the “Vote for Labor” jingle and the PNP’s Soca-style jingle that was a little hard to understand all the words as they were in colloquial Patios. Every once in a while a vehicle with bull horns on the roof would pass through the town extolling the virtues of the MP from North Saint Elizabeth. After all, under the Jamaican (English-based) form of government, the party with the most seats in Parliament gets the right to have their chosen Member of Parliament elevated to the position of “Prime” Minister.
Starting around Christmas (which was celebrated twice that year as it landed on a Sunday); through Boxing Day and on to the 29th, you started to see the familiar colors of the PNP (orange) and JLP (green) being worn by some people in the community and the discussions at the local shop in the evening were often spirited when the topic of the election reared its head.
Finally, Election Day was here and all the political advertising stopped as suddenly as it began when the date of the election was announced by Andrew Holness the sitting Prime Minister. In Accompong Town the voting place was the school on top of the hill and small groups of people intermittently made their way there to vote from morning until the polls closed that evening.
Around poll closing time, I made my way over to Winsome and Troy’s small store to listen in with a group of local residents to the results as they were announced. A group of three youth in their 20’s whom I knew some years back when they were barely teenagers asked me to play some dominoes with them which I gladly agreed to do.
Our two opponents, one wearing PNP Orange and the other JLP Green systematically kicked our butts as they had a system worked out to pass the information about each of their holdings of dominoes which made playing so much easier. I knew they were “cheating” but it was a friendly game so I just tried my best to get a few good plays here and there and surprisingly I did seem to manage enough to maybe even impress my partner as well as our opponents.
In the background, I kept hearing the results until finally a big cheer went up as the PNP and Portia Simpson Miller won a landslide majority. Our game just continued as if nothing even happened at all. The reason I found this so interesting is that I have been in Jamaica during three previous elections and have witnessed violence and bloodshed so I was a little nervous to see what would happen.
Around midnight, the guys wanted to leave to go to a dance so we fist-bumped our goodbyes and I headed back to my house somewhat bewildered by the calmness of this election.
The next morning, I woke up to a rising sun and a change in political leadership but Accompong Town had not changed and that was to my liking.
Peace and Guidance.
New Year's Eve and Troy's Birthday Bash
New Years Eve was a very special time in Accompong Town. That day just happens to be my good friend Troy’s birthday and a party had been in the planning since before Christmas. Troy and Winsome own the little shop/bar a stone’s throw away from my house so with my gimpy knee, it was my favorite place to hang our in the evening.
I know that in Jamaica, no party really gets going until after midnight so I decided to catch a nap before walking over to the shop at around 11pm as not to miss the celebration at midnight. When I got there, a sound system from Santa Cruz called “Genesis” had been setting-up and testing the massive speaker columns. As it turns out, the shop’s front stoop was roughly equal distance from each column so I staked out a spot to enjoy the show.
Winsome and a couple of relatives had been cooking a pot of Mannish Water for most of the day and they offered me a “testing” cup. I think they reasoned if a “tourist” found it suitable to eat then it was ready for their local friends and relatives. Since Mannish Water is based on the remnants of a ram goat after the choice cuts were taken for Curried Goat, I watched the ram’s head spinning around the pot as the ladle stirred to get my sample secretly praying that the goat’s testicles (or possibly an eyeball) wouldn’t become part of my serving. Thankfully it had just vegetables and some non-descript pieces of goat seasoned to perfection. I gave it a “thumb’s up!”
There were lots of chicken quarters soaking in a jerk marinade and getting cooked over a “three stone” fire right along side of two pots of Curry chicken and Curry goat; roasted yams and tons of shredded cabbage coleslaw topped with a slice of hard dough bread going for $300J per plate. I got another cup of Mannish Water for $100J so I could donate to the Troy Birthday fund and headed back to my seat on the stoop.
Genesis was in full swing playing oldies from the Ska, Rocksteady and Roots Reggae eras tastefully woven together in a not too loud presentation that would surely become ear-splitting as the clock wound forward. The early crowd was composed almost exclusively of Accompong Town residents or former residents who had come home for the holidays and the January 6th Celebration. I was like old home time for me as I had not seen a lot of these people in several years making for a big reunion and lots of storytelling.
Midnight was upon us as some children as well as adults acting like children tossed firecrackers into the road. Here in South Florida a barrage of gun fire would accompany the striking of midnight but only one or two gunshots could be discerned and those from a village down the hill. As if on cue, Genesis turned up the volume and began playing a Garnett Silk set. This was a good choice as Garnett was a local singer playing mostly out of Mandeville and smaller venues within a few miles of town.
It was approaching 1 am and the sparse crowd of less than a hundred started to swell from residents and surrounding town’s residents who came to dance the night away. A majority of these newcomers were ladies dressed to “the nines” in tight-fitting dresses and jumpsuits. Alcohol consumption increased and inhibitions were on the decline.
Time passed rather quickly in the cool, damp night and the heat coming from the dancing made me forget about any discomfort I was feeling from the temperature or my knee. At around 4 am there must have been close to 300 people up and down the road dancing to the dancehall beat and this is in a town of about 1500 residents. There was little sleep in this sleepy, little village that night.
I walked back to the house at about 5 am and lay in my bed listening to the boom of the bass beat to around 6:30 or so when I finally fell asleep in utter exhaustion. It was now 2012 and the January 6th Celebration was just a few days away.
Peace and Guidance.
The January 6th Celebration in Accompong Town
Every year on January 6th, my hometown; Accompong Town goes into party mode. A lively festival brings thousands of people from all over Jamaica and affaren. Here is a nice video shot by the Jamaica Gleaner.
http://youtu.be/Jdqf8pHn388