((sorry in advance for no pictures. Having some trouble uploading them. Will try later.))
Greetings from Accompong Town! A lot has happened since I last posted shortly after my arrival almost 4 months ago. I get so caught up in daily life here that I sometimes forget to document my thoughts and feelings.
Most of my time seems to be taken up with work around the house from cleaning up to some rough carpentry work which keeps me quite busy.
In early October, I suffered some kind of stomach area infection which landed me in the Black River Hospital for about a week. It is all better now and, in fact, I am feeling better and stronger than before I got sick. I had four different doctors looking after me in the men’s wing dormitory. One Chinese-Jamaican, one Indian-Jamaican, one Nigerian-Jamaica and the fourth was a young Jamaican just out of college. I have to admit that I was concerned at first about the quality of care but in no time I felt quite at ease with all the constant looking after by all the nurses. My total bill for six days of stay was about $20,000 Jamaican. Where in America can you stay almost anywhere for six days for less than $200 US dollars?
It is now late December and everyone is getting in the festive mood. The radio and TV stations are constantly playing Christmas music and movies. Somehow seeing Scrooge in 80s degree weather just isn’t the same. I have a gungo peas bush next to my verandah and the yellow flowers attract a variety of birds like the “chip” “chip” and hummingbirds as well as butterflies and honey bees. Everyone in town who passes by comments on how it is the biggest gungo peas bush around. There is hardly nothing better than gungo peas cooked with brown rice and the proper seasoning.
I have been walking the approximate mile to the Computer Center two and sometimes three times a week much to the amazement of some residents who remember me mostly unable to walk much at all when I arrived last year.
One day in early November, I took a picture of Cudjoe’s Monument while waiting for the computer center to open. I am glad I did as the town has been busily working on a complete facelift to be completed by the January 6th Celebration of Cudjoe’s Birthday. In fact, there is a lot of work going on in town right now both for the Celebration and returning residents from affaren doing construction on their houses. The masons and carpenters are busy and the best ones are booked up for the next couple of months.
The Celebration this January 6th looks like it is going to be even more special as a different group of Maroon residents have taken on the responsibility of arranging a main show for the Parade Grounds. Everyone is keeping mum about the details but it should be a good one. Also, there is a Gospel Concert scheduled for January 4th and 5th at the same venue that has a lot of residents excited.
Finally, after a lean year money wise, people are starting to have some money and that in its self is a reason to celebrate! The crops are in and it has been a very good year for dasheen, ginger and plantains as the main cash crops. Everyone you see returning from the bush has cut poles over their shoulder or balanced on their head to be used or sold to build vendor stalls.
Mystic Bowie Cultural Center is feverishly working to complete the library at the school before the 6th of January but a lot of the work on the inside will have to wait. Soon the Parade Grounds that were once filled with Maroon soldiers training for battle will be filled with Maroons and visitors celebrating Cudjoe’s Birthday.
Peace and Guidance
