Well, my good friend Mary is back home in Washington and I am back in Accompong Town after a two week visit that I am sure we will both remember for a long time to come. For the first nine days here in Accompong Town we managed to find time to just sit and chat about years gone by but Mary has been here before so she spent a good deal of time visiting with friends she had made before and new people she met this trip.
Before Mary's arrival, we bought a verandah seating set with one bench and two chairs padded and attached to wrought-iron frames. Almost every evening her friends and some of mine showed up to chat and to show each other movies of their grandchildren. With camera phones, some things are the same in every culture now. I think this helped Mary from missing her grandchildren so much.
November 4th and it was time to go to Negril for her last five days. We were staying at Y Worry Cottage on Breadnut Lane, the West End. We got John, a local Route Taxi driver, to take us down and my best friend, Marshall, tagged along for the ride. The trip down was great as John had only been in Negril once before and that was more than ten years ago and everything was so new to him. It was almost like bringing a "newbie" along!
We pulled in around 1pm and soon we had everything unpacked and reassembled out on the verandah. I brought down five pound of vacuume sealed, roasted Vassilly Valley coffee beans grown behind our house for Penny and some friends along with some vegetables from the farm. Penny and Marshall had not seen each other in a long while so they chatted in one corner while Mary, John and I shared the other corner of the verandah. After about an hour, Rasta Freddy arrived from his farm just in time to say goodbye to John and Marshall as they headed back to Accompong Town. Before long, Rasta Freddy was in the kitchen cooking up a nice dinner for the four of us.
We don't go out much too eat but instead Freddy cooks when we ask and we have a friend Keith "Killer" (he is called Killer in reference to the "Killer Chicken" he makes). We just need to call him and order Jerk Chicken and tell him when we want in and it arrives with a Killer sauce in a bottle along with sides like callalloo and bread etc. I normally don't eat meat while in Jamaica but I will always make an exception for Killer Chicken!
Dinner was great. Rasta Freddy made a favorite of mine, coconut rice with pumkin and ackee along with a side of fresh callalloo. Now full, we retired back to the verandah and drank a cup of fresh coffee and caught up on when we were last together four years ago on my verandah in Accompong Town. Before we knew it, it was time to go to bed so we made plans for tomorrow. Another day like today would be just fine for all of us. 38 down and 51 to go.
