Time,,,, sometimes as fickle as Jamaica whom I have said of, “She will kiss you softly on the lips one moment and slap you hard across the face the next”. Even in a place we run too to escape time she has a way of rearing her head. Good times, bad times, to little time,,,,
I remember a time when we sorta looked at charters as a double edged sword, unbelievable prices ($249.00 round trip at least 20 times) and non-stop flights but cattle car crowded and short legged roomed and in most cases during high season you had to fly on their 3 days a week,,,, well I am here to say after a 6 hour layover in ATL and a 18 hour door to door jaunt I yearn for that tight seat from times gone by.
You never know where in time you are going to run into a boardy, we got to meet Music Doc in ATL during our layover, now there is a cat that has spent some time on the rock,,,,
I ran out to Green Island with a realtor and looked at a property that a lady from Germany, a physical therapist by trade, had spent 30 years of her life building and I was enthralled. She is having eye problems and her kids have moved her back to foreign, the deeded property is for sale. You come directly off A1 up onto the first 200 foot or so altitude rise as you travel through a very middle class Jamaican neighborhood, nobody sitting on side of street mid-day everybody is at school or work, the houses the multiple addition style Jamaicans are famous for, there is an energy of always bettering in Jamaica that fascinates me. You then dip through a little draw and ascend another sharp incline up another 400 or 500 feet to the property. She loved to sun bath in the nude and designed the property to take advantage of 10 miles of coast and sea views but also to maintain her privacy from surrounding properties. The house sits at the top of 3/4ers acre of hillside, with slight elevation rises from patio to living/dining/kitchen, to bedrooms. 3 bedroom 2 bath with stairs up to a flat roof top surveying an un-impeded view that would be immediately turned into my bar-b-que entertainment zone. Her flower garden is in full bloom and she kept birds in an aviary and raised chickens, on the bottom side of the property is sloping beautiful north coast soil with already existing mango/lime/orange trees and some already in need of loving care banana trees, a day or so with a couple guys with machetes or a weed whacker would bring the area back into tip top shape. The entire property surrounded by a block fence topped with conch shells. The lady spent her 30 years of time there well, it was a good investment of a few hours of my vacation time.
We spent time at Askenish Basic School, a trip that is awarding and new every time into Jamaica. I took the crew over to Sav to do some shopping with the church ladies contributed money. Observations: The buy parking anywhere on the street by the hour policy implemented a few years ago is working well, you can start at one end of King George and move car end to end with parking available close to every store you wish to visit. I love the market in Sav, whole beef lips to tail awaiting cutting orders, barrels of conch, lobster, every spice imaginable already ground with some custom mixes already combined (chicken, fish, soup, etc.) colorful - aromatic “this is what the leaf looks like – rub it smell it – this is what it looks like ground”, vegetables vegetables and more vegetables with the elusive PEAR (avocado) available, tubers, roots, leaf, fruits with no haggling and no pressure – very proud vendors, knives, machetes, toys, thread, a true adventure. Not to cause controversy but,,,, I agree with those that advocate buying school supplies in Jamaica to support Jamaican business and I know that tightness in the stomach of declaring only personal items at customs and we shopped Sav hard hard hard and found a decent selection of essentials and books,,,,,, but even with a $25 dollar bag fee I can buy 50 lbs of school supplies and books in USA for what 10 lbs runs in Ja,,,,, just considering the end user my value would fall on the quantity side,,,, . The simplest things like finger or hand puppets bring so much joy to the kids.
