TiCtOc pon di rock LIVE AND DIRECT **TRIP REPORT** On a Zero budget.

[TiCtOc]

One thing I always notice about Jamaican people is that theyalways stick together and look out for one another. If one has no food anotherwill try to provide, if an elderly person has nowhere to live someone in the community will usually help and take them in and treat them like family.

I have seen it a lot in many shapes and forms everyone looking out for one another. It is just about love and not money.Sharing,caring,Things that just do not happen where I come from. Once your money runs out at home you are on your own usually nobody cares nobody would take you under their wing and let you move in that would very very rarely be seen happen but seems second nature in Jamaica, seems almost every family has an elderly Jamaican lady overseeing house activities and shes sometimes called aunty but sometimes infact most times they can't remember actually who aunty is related to! It is just a polite term and they look after aunty or Mz b/d/g regardless of wherever she came from.It's like who's that lady?oh we nah know lol but they take care of her anyway!
I have decided that January definitely is not a month for me for a short holiday infact I may have been a little disappointed if I had only come for a week or two in January because the nights get quite chilly and themornings too and it is not very hot during the day, now that weather is perfectif you are building a house for instance and want to oversee the work. Januarycould be great for that but as a tourist for a holiday if you are seeking HOT HOT HOT January may not be the month . It has been comfortable as I am in the countryside but if I was on the beach maybe I would not be so happy with it. We had a great December here though very sunny and nice and calm because for the last 2 decembers there was a lot of breeze,wind and cold Jamaicans were wearing light jackets so we was very lucky with the nice December weather. I love the heat though and I think our next trip may be a july or august as that is the childrens school longest holiday and this was a total one off that they could take anytime out of school so I would have to fit it in around them if we were all coming together next time.
Today is our last full day here, tomorrow we leave ,I am absolutely devastated to have to leave, Thinking of some of my family back home but I know they are ok we have stayed in touch and I will be glad to see them but I just wish theywould all come here instead! They need to just Pack up and leave.
I really do not want to go home and if I had only myself to think about I would stay but I am also excited about my girls sitting their final exams they are both set to get very high results and one of them will have the highest number of passes in the area if it all works out.I will be very excited if she makes the press.
We worked hard towards this for many years so that will be at least one nice thing tolook forward to on my return. If only I could pay back this trip by July and return with them for an exam passing celebration LOL OOPS here I go already planning the next trip while I am still here I must try to stop that. Infact I think I totally let my hair down and already celebrated their upcoming success on this trip like a pre exam pass trip lol. I know I partied hard this trip and a lot of you maybe thought what is she doing? But some of you are aware but some are not that I have been a full time24/7 mum for almost 16 years my kids have always come first before anything oranyone and I have spent 11 years making sure my girls are ahead of their expected learning age at all times from the moment they started school at age 3-4
It was a big thing to me that meant a lot to be there 24/7for them dinner on the table straight after school someone in the house at all times and and to get them to love reading and writing and try my best to makesure they can clock up all those A grades.I realise I was fortunate even if broke to be able to do that as lots of mums do not get that opportunity,So now is the time where they will sit their very final exams and we will see the results of those many years of hard work which we all put in to makesure they have a better choice of options and hopefully will make better decisions and choices in their life than I did in my own. All of those 11 years of doing the schooling with them I rarely partied VERY rarely.So now I am at the final finish line I just feel like Iwent a bit crazy also grieving in a party way (is that allowed is that normal i don't know never grieved b4) partying on this holiday as it is a big changing point in all my families life. When they finish these exams in a couple of months they finish school and are half way through their plans and I am just thankful that we made it through, we got there in the end it was not always an easy road for me but they do not know that ,They think its all rosey and they got to travel the world and had everything they needed.Wanted to makesure my kids had a really good education so they would not end up old, stupid and no prospects. So yes I have gone a bit wild on the partying but I never hurt no-one and I probably will not be able to celebrate their success by returning to Jamaica with them this summer so I guess I just let my hair down early! And why not?We all worked hard for these final results.I have my hopes pinned high on them! Iam very proud of them and now its almost all coming to an end.
This trip planning saga is cleaning mine and everyone elses bank accounts out! I cannot help it,This love of Jamaica will last forever ,I am torn if I want to live here or not. I love it but I need heaps more money.
I said I would be happy in a wooden house which I would BUT long term how would that work out? what facilities would I have? could I cope? I could cope with a nice mansion with pool of course or a basic wooden hut but it is the inbetween that I cannot cope with, I am an all or nothing kinda gal, the electric and gas and water dramas that happen often. Things breaking down or needing repairing just things we take for granted back home, plus other issues like the hurricanes, I am scared of heavy rainfall so imagine me in a hurricane and then there are the roads The roads in the interior are just downright terrifying and I promised myself I will never put my family in danger again by riding those roads again unless in an emergency.I have been on those roads for years and years and it is an adrenaline rush for sure BUT the amounts of accidents and deaths I witnessed this trip in such a short space of time has definately made me re-evaluate things.At home I do read statistics of road accidents and robberies or deaths and such to keep up with what is going on but seeing it live in front of your face is totally something else and my family are worth more to me than a holiday, a car ride.If it is not essential and an emergency I will not take them those routes again, of course the violence part too,But I love it and sometimesyou have to go to what you love to be happy and content.
I am off to go eat my ackee and saltfish now , hope you have all had a delicious home grown breakfast and if not get yourselves down here and do not forget to invite me!