We went for a long walk today from our place in Redground out to Rick’s Cafe. Being Sunday morning, we figured we would take advantage of the lighter traffic and check out the West End.
On the way down Hermitage Road we met some kids, a girl and a boy, walking down the street. They were about five and eight years old. The young boy looked up and me and said, “Yuh goa beage?”
The way he said it, I thought he was asking me something about ‘garbage’. “Pardon,” I said. “Yuh goa beage?” he repeated. Then his older sister asked us, “Are you going to the beach?”
They were both dressed in swimming suits and were quite excited to be going down to the beach. I thought it was a little odd that they were so keen, but then realized that they probably didn’t get down to the beach that often.
Tomorrow they will be returning to school after their three week Christmas break.
We walked the West End Road, which was scary. On the way we stopped in at Three Dives to admire the seascape there. Breathtaking! At Rick’s we waited in the shade of the wall there for a taxi.
“OK, I won’t have to do that again for the next ten years,” Bea said.
I agreed with her – it wasn’t a relaxing stroll.
We’ve befriended a tall, pretty, young Jamaican woman, Tanya, who lives close to us. (No, this is not the beginning of a kinky episode; sorry . . . at least I don’t think it is).
Tanya lives with her boyfriend who works the over-night shift at a place on the beach. He leaves at 7:00pm and comes home at 7:30am and sleeps most of the day. Tanya is currently unemployed but is looking for work. Consequently she has a lot of time on her hands and is therefore, in her own words, “So BORED!” In fact, she is so bored that she often comes over and visits with us in the evenings.
Bea and Tanya have hit it off, which is surprising considering the age and cultural gaps that separate them.
Tanya is confident, outspoken, expresses her opinion readily and is always about ½ second from breaking out in a laugh. She has a vivacious smile.
One evening Tanya was over and she spotted Bea’s computer sitting on the breakfast bar. She asked if she could use it. Bea said yes and Tanya logged into her Facebook account. Tanya has over 2,000 friends. There are only 5,000 people living in Negril.
She proudly showed us one of the 400-odd photos she has on FB. It was a photo of herself and one of her friends when they were recently at a ‘pool’ party. Some portable hot tubs had been brought into the venue and the girls were encouraged to get wet. The photos showed her and her friend in the hot tub, smiling and hoisting cocktails. They were clad in skimpy bikini bottoms and clingy wet, cut-off t-shirts. I assume this must be normal party behaviour for young Jamaican women. I am generally interested in photography so I examined the photos with interest.
Tanya panned through more of her Facebook photos, including one of another girlfriend of hers, posing with her partner, another woman who looked somewhat like a young boy. Given the attitude that many Jamaican’s have regarding gay men, I asked, “What do Jamaicans think of lesbians?”
Tanya shrugged, “We doan care,” she replied.
At that point Tanya’s cell rang. She looked at the display, “It’s my boyfriend,” she smiled and answered the call. Her smile disappeared immediately. What followed was a four minute conversation that was almost entirely incomprehensible to me. She was clearly exasperated and trying to explain something. One of the phrases that I did catch, that was repeated several times, was, “. . . but it was only a pool party!”
Soon she was off the phone. She explained that, coincidentally, her boyfriend had just checked her Facebook page and had seen the sexy photos of her posing and drinking in the hot tub. “Him vexed at me,” she said.
Margaritaville has some new toys
