I let Clarity get ahead of me? How the hell did that happen? December rolling up on our azzes? Let's wrap this up soon and get back to the rock...
Thursday
We wake to a sunlit room this morning and decide to take a new path. We fall back asleep. In a likkle bit. When we rise to the day it’s late, we scoot down to the restaurant to grab a bite of breakfast. We talk about what to do for the next few nights. Yesterday we had talked with Hubbity about going down to the beach for a night, hanging at the SeaSplash with them. They had talked with Jim about our situation before going on the pub crawl and he had told them how bad he felt about it and he’d take care of us. We figure we’ll go down there for a night, hang on the beach and come back up to the SeaStar for Friday and Saturday. We pay our bill and make a reservation for the weekend. We thank everyone profusely for the past couple of days. I’ll say it again, SeaStar is a fantastic place.
Percy has been around this morning and we had scheduled with him to take us to SeaSplash. We also want to stop and see Fr. Jim Bok at the Catholic parish. I had talked to my Mom a couple of weeks before we left and told her we were heading back down to Negril. She says, “Jim Bok, who did James funeral service, has a church in Negril. You should go see him.” I mention the St Anthony’s Kitchen and she kind of laughs, “Oh yeah, that would be him!” Well, we’re going to see him.
10 years ago, July 15 2002, my brother James fell asleep watching Sportscenter on his couch in a fourth floor walk-up in Cincinnati. He never woke up. He was 33 years old and a physical specimen. 6’3”, 220 lbs, fit and healthy except for a smoking habit he was trying to kick with the help of Wellbutrin. A full autopsy was unable to find a cause of death. It was a crushing episode for my family, especially my Mom. Fr. Jim, who at the time was a parish priest at St Francis in Cincinnati, was very helpful to my folks and was a key part of a beautiful service for him.
We have a great conversation with Percy about this on our way to Mary Gate of Heaven church. We will have many more interesting talks with him in the next few days. When we get to the church Fr. Jim comes out from the rectory to meet us. When I mention my folks he slips into an easy smile. We do a little catching up and talk a fair bit about what the church is trying to accomplish in Negril. He is happy with the success of the Kitchen but acknowledges that it is a band-aid. He is now working on trying to address some of the structural problems of the poverty that is so prevalent in Negril. They are trying to address it through education, which is very close to my heart. They are trying to incentivize attendance and are also doing a Sponsor a Child program where you can cover the cost of a child’s attendance for a year for a pretty nominal cost. They are not quick fixes but I truly believe the path sufficiency comes through education. Fr. Jim said that if you want to get a tax deduction for your contribution you can make your donation through the Franciscan Friars and designate that you want it to go to Mary Gate of Heaven in Negril.
https://franciscan.org/MAndM/donate.asp
We get to spend about 45 minutes with Fr. Jim this morning, leave a donation and have a fond farewell. We look forward to seeing him on our next reach. He truly is a remarkable man.
Percy has been wandering the grounds while we talked and when we’re ready to leave he comes up with a handful of hard red seeds. “I don’t know what they call this but it comes from that tree over there,” he says pointing, ”You can take a hot needle and it will burn a hole through them, then they string them together for jewelry.” I’m looking for a necklace with these in December. We brought these home, hope we don’t get in trouble…
