Vacation.......... A noun or a verb?

[Accompong]

Since mid January when I returned from Jamaica I have been counting the days after almost immediately buying the return ticket back home. During that time, people were asking, "When are you going home?" and others "When are you going on vacation again?" That got me thinking.

I do, after all, put everything I don't take in my suitcases into a storage drum. I use that drum later when I send it to Jamaica. The dwindling contents of the drum get used when I return to the states then I start the process all over again. I am thus "vacating" my apartment until my return at the end of this year.

It was the morning of September 28th and after checking in, I found out that my flight would be leaving an hour earlier. It has never happened to me before and I thought about Linston and whether I should call him. Why worry about it, I decided. I would just wait outside on a bench and people watch.

I zipped through Immigration and Customs and when I exited the doors I found a good seat to wait. I pulled out my Jamaican cell that had last been turned on in January and after it loaded the chip, I was surprised to find about $200 Jamaican from when I turned it off before entering the airport nine months ago. A quick call to Linston verified he was about 25 minutes out so I told him not to hurry as I was "kriss".

Before long, Linston called back and said to meet him at the curbside. A few minutes later we were on the way to a Cambio, petrol and on the road to Negril.

Each time I go somewhere with Linston it gets better and better. I like to chat up things that have happened since we last got together but then I just enjoy looking out the window. A true friend is one that you feel you don't need to idle talk with if you don't want to and sometimes I get that way trying to absorb everything about being back. Over the years, I found myself to be a visual person who experiences my surroundings like a video which I seem to be able to play back at will.

Near Lucea, I broke the silence asking Linston if he could stop somewhere so I could get a couple of phone cards before we got to Negril. A few chains up the road he turned into a market where a truck was unloading produce. I pulled out a G and he took it to go inside. He returned a few minutes later with two cards and the change when he told me he was going to buy a pear to take home. I handed him a Nanny and told him it was on me and to please pick one up for me at the same time.

Off we went through the spotty rain as the conversation turned to Hurricane Matthew. We were still discussing Matthew's path when we pulled into Y Worry Cottage where I will be spending a week before going home to Accompong Town.

[Ras Walleye]

Yes!

[Accompong]

Testing panorama picture on camera. My side yard with fruit trees, water tanks and storage shed after weed-whacking the yard.
Picture of my desk with fruit bowl in the foreground. Papa, pear, banana and naseberries in abundance.

Got busy and put a magnetically closing screen on the front door.

Mountain Ginger is one of the biggest selling crops this year.

Dasheen, plantains, ginger, green bananas and coco ready for the market van pick up.

My mid-morning view from the verandah looking towards Appleton


Peace and Guidance from Accompong Town

[Rob]

I agree!

[tranquilitygurl]

Ditto

[Markospoon]

Curious, how Linston is wise beyond his years.

I too, love riding with him.

[Accompong]

Entering Negril, the pavement was bone dry and it looked like the rain which hung over the morass never made it this far West and, if it did, it left barely a footprint to signal its passing. Negril is always so new to me as I rarely spend much time there so looking at all the places both new and established seemed equally as fresh and interesting. I noticed a few names of places I heard people on this board talk about and made a mental note that if and when I ventured out I would have to stop there and see what they were all about.

When we turned onto Breadnut Lane I started to get anxious to get settled in and have something to eat. I avoid eating after landing unless I can find somewhere that serves fresh fish and vegetables as I almost completly avoid meat unless it is all that is available.

Linston swung open the gate and he drove up to the cottage. Rasta Freddy, my good friend, lives at and manages the house but he was not there and instead up in the mountains at his farm behind Red Ground.
A Jamaican "yard" has a matriarch or patriarch who actually or de-facto runs tings and this yard is no different. Miss "Icey" (short for Icelene") runs things here. She called me over to her house and told me Freddy would be back soon and that I could relax on her verandah until he returned. I noticed that her verandah was in sunlight and the cottage verandah was in the shade so I begged we should get together later and went over to the cottage to relax in the shade after unloading my luggage and seeing Linston off.

I slumped up against the cottage wall as my 4:00am wake up was catching up with me and I soon found my chin on my chest lost in some daydream when I heard Freddy's voice in the distance. When I opened my eyes, he was standing right next to me. The distance of his voice was only the relative depth of my Jamaican daydream.

I got to my feet and hugged my Rastafarian friend. It had been too long since we last spent time together so I cherished this opportunity. Quickly the house was opened and the luggage taken into my room just off the verandah. While I was unpacking, Freddy poked his head in the door showing me the contents of the two scandal bags in his hands. Fresh ackee, saltfish, yams, plantains, bananas (both ripe and green) and I nodded my approval. "Nice dinner soon come", he said. Again, I nodded my approval but even more vigorously.

Any plans of this vacation being an action verb quickly dissapated once I finished unpacking. I opened the magnetic closing screen over the doorway and went outside, found a comfortable chair and put up my feet on the verandah wall. The last nine months I have been working seven days a week and up to ten hours a day so the unwinding of my mind was going to take all the energy thay I was willing to impart.

[Accompong]

The once occasional rattle of a pot or the scrape of a spoon was stiring memories of past meals and had me in rapt inticipation of a good meal that was soon to come. Soon even the occasional noise was being replaced by the waft of Jamaican spices that signaled the coming together of fresh foods and spices in a way only a Jamaican can do it.

The anticipation of a good meal was now getting the better of me so I decided to go to the kitchen and poke my head through the doorway to see first hand how a good cook practiced his craft.

On the way to the kitchen, I passed a table where Freddy had some of his necklaces and other pieces displayed. Freddy makes some of the most beautiful "natural" necklaces that I have seen anywhere. He mostly just makes pieces for friends but he will sell them if someone wants one. He will even supply the seeds and a mounting wire where you can make your own distinctive piece.

When I am in Accompong Town I often pay some youth to go out in the bush and collect some natural seeds for Freddy. Here on the table I saw those seeds fabricated into finished pieces. Cacoon seeds, Nickle seeds, Horse Hide and Lucky Beads are the main components of most necklaces many with a carved wood center piece like an Ankh.

Every type of seed has a story behind it. I don't know much about the Lucky Beads as I think they are just pretty and the Nickle Seeds are just called that because of their shape but I am going to look into that further. The Horse Hide is a tough nut and young children rub them quickly over their clothes and heat them up so they "burn" their classmates when they touch them with one.

The Cacoon Seed is very familiar with me as the Maroons have used them in many capacities over hundreds of years. The Maroons draped the cacoon plant around their head and shoulders to camoflage their positions along the trails of the British Soldiers during the war. The seeds contain a meat that after leaching can be eaten as food or used as a medicine. The most facinating usage is as a determiner of water quality when traversing the Cockpits. They would throw a seed in standing water and if it sank; the water was no good to drink. If it floated, the water was safe to drink.

Suddenly, Freddy surprised me with a plate of cooked food along with some natural juice flavored with tangy ginger. I was home now and blessings abounded.

"Give thanks and Praise!"

[Mike_D]

Sounds amazing! I can practically taste Freddy's cooking.

[Accompong]

The saying, "Home is where the heart is" surely applies to Accompong Town as the things that alternately sadden and gladden my heart happen here. The elation I felt when Linston drove me through town on the day of my return home was quickly replaced by a deep sadness when I learned of two old friends passing while I was away. And, just last week, a neighbor I have known for twenty some years passed from injuries sustatined in a head-on Route Taxi accident near Cave Valley.

Loss of life sadness is a relatively new emotion for me as I can only remember a couple of times in my younger years feeling a deep sadness at someone's passing. What snapped me out of the low feelings was the unexpected visit by another neighbor, Bah Wood, bringing me two hands of ripe bananas this morning. A simple but honest gesture of friendship and family.

I am feeling excited as this week an old and dear friend, Mary, is coming to Jamaica for a couple of weeks. Mary and I have been best of friends for over 40 years and I haven't seen her since her last visit here a couple of years ago. We have traveled together around Jamaica several times over the past 15 years or so. We will be spending some time here at the house before returning to Negril for the final week of her visit.

I am really looking forward to visiting with her. There are just somethings that only old friends can share about the past that new friends will never understand.