Now look what you made me do!!!!

[OUV11112]

Day 5 - Part 1

We had made arrangements with Joe Cool to take us to a school in the hills on Monday. We found out that they would be closed due to the election so we arranged to go out on this day at 9.00 AM. Engelbert arrived before our scheduled 9.00 AM pick up. I told him that I really doubted that he was actually Jamaican now. No horn, on time, and oh yea his radio was out on the way from the airport to the hotel. He laughed and took us to another hotel to pick up a guest that was a teacher and wanted to tag along. We drove along to Green Island and took a right up into the hills. The girls were getting alone great in the back and Engelbert and I were having some great conversations about Jamaica and his life there. He left Jamaica at one point for 9 months to make enough money to better his life. Even though he had a “good” job as the head of water sports at Beaches he saw that there was opportunity for someone that wanted to work hard and be honest. He takes people to these schools trips free of charge as his way of giving back to the community.



The first school we visited was the Riverside Basic School. It had kids from the age of three to five. My wife was a bit apprehensive about this as she wanted to help in a small way but did not want to be sad at the conditions of the school. Needless to say we were blown away by the experience. This was the first visit to this school as Engelbert has been working his way up to it. The kids were excited to see us as was the staff. They were all dressed very well in their uniforms and there was a lot of noise as there were no walls separating the classes. They liked to have their picture taken and look at themselves afterwards. My wife got big hugs from a lot of the kids. As I was emptying out our suitcase on the Principles desk a few of them came up and started to touch the things we had brought. She came by and made them go sit down. Everything we brought was from the Dollar Store. We had school supplies, balls, learning flash cards, pens, pencils .... We also brought about 20 skipping ropes. My wife’s uncle passed away this year after having being diagnosed with brain cancer in December. He taught her how to skip so she thought that this was a good way to honour his memory. We also visited the kitchen where the cook was preparing lunch. Chicken, rice and peas and some salad. The kitchen was spotless.





We then went to a middle school to pass on some of the things such as calculators that would be more appropriate for older kids. We were able to visit three classrooms with the Principle Mrs. Allen. We once again received a great reception and the kids were all very well behaved. My wife was asking them what they wanted to be when they grew up. The first response from a Grade 4 student was Paediatrician! A lot of the boys wanted to be soldiers. Mrs. Allen was kind enough to send us an email showing the kids skipping with the ropes we had left. My wife had a tear in her eye when she saw this.
The gates at this school were locked and closed as were the classroom doors. They worry about kids that are not in school, or other kids that go to other schools coming in and causing trouble such as stealing the kid’s lunch money.

I have some really good pictures of the kids at the schools but do not want to post them. If anyone wants to see them they can PM me with an email address and I will send them along.



We now got to have a personalized tour of the hills from Engelbert. It included a visit to a processing plant that takes turmeric root and cooks and dries it to make curry powder from. The local dig up the root and take it to the plant for processing which involves boiling it large vats and air drying it. He was also able to show us the many fruits, herbs and trees of the area. Who knew that a banana tree takes 9 months to bear fruit “Just like a woman” and then has to be cut down. They have troubles with mongooses in the area that were brought in to control rats, the mongooses decided that chicken tastes better than rats and they do not have any natural enemies so they are a big pest in the hills. I had also read that rabies were not know in Jamaica, Engelbert told me that they actually were but he had only heard of cases coming from cats.







We then went to Big Ras and Marvin’s for lunch. I have to admit that it is not a place that I would have gone to on my own. Big Ras was out front smoking a big one and peeling some veggies into a pot. They don’t call him Big Ras for nothing. It is very rustic inside but you can’t judge a book by its cover. Engelbert and I had the curried conch with rice and peas and the girls settled on veggies with rice and peas. The food was delicious and there was enough on one plate to split between two people. Engelbert took the extras from his plate in a to go box. 4 meals and 4 Red Stripes set me back a whopping $2360 JA.





Engelbert then took us back to Rooms. On the way we passed the Grand Palladium where he used to “wait” for work. He then decided with the help of some friends that he was better off looking for work so he had a web site set up and uses a Blackberry to stay in touch. He dropped us off with 5 minutes to spare before his next trip for some people also staying at Rooms.