The purple words are lovely.... Much respect!
The purple words are lovely.... Much respect!
You never see it coming ... and the next thing you know ... UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
I am finally home in Accompong Town. I arrived on September 12th and after picking up a pallet I had shipped some two weeks prior, Marshall, his neighbor with a pickup truck and I ascended the winding mountain roads to our house in the Cockpit Country.
The most amazing thing to me about Accompong Town is that time seems to virtually stand still and my arrival seemed seamless with my departure some eight months prior. Yes, a couple of people have passed and a couple have been born but, all in all, this town seems the same peaceful and friendly place that I have grown to love and (more importantly) Respect.
The major difference is water and, more precisely “rain water” that was in short supply last November through January. Accompong Town does not have piped in water. You must have a storage tank of some sort and an ability to capture the rain water that does fall to use for drinking, bathing and flushing the toilet. A large truck with a 5,000 gallon tank strapped to the bed makes occasional rounds from which you can purchase water at around $3 Jamaican Dollars a gallon with a 500 gallon minimum purchase.
Well, there is no problem in September as the rains have been consistently predictable most every afternoon at 3:00pm. The storage drums are full to the brim.
The only problem has been wireless internet. Last year I had Claro 3G thumb drive assess here at the house but Claro merged with Digicel and only a 4G product is available, however, 4G is not available out here in the country. I tried Lime 3G but it did not work sufficiently to make it effective so I returned it for a refund. The best thing is that Accompong Town has an Internet Center with 12 up-to-date computers with Hi Speed Internet connections at $1.20 Jamaican per hour of use. My house is a little too far for me to walk to the center but a neighbor has offered to drive me both ways; three days a week for the cost of petrol.
Yes, life is good in Accompong Town.
Peace and Guidance
Free Opinions Offered. No tipping required. Hours: Open when I feel like it.
Jah bless my Brother. Peace be unto you.
Linston's Zion Hill Taxi
Captain Dave
During many of my trips to Jamaica in the ‘80s and ‘90s, I stayed at Apple Valley Park in Maggotty http://applevalleypark.com/home.php . I had wanted to go up to Accompong Town for a couple of nights but the room where I stayed a few years back was not available. It seems a family member from England had taken up a longer residence than my new friends had anticipated. One day during the beginning of my second week at the park, Marshall had come down to visit and said he had a place for me to stay if I still wanted to spend a few nights there. I jumped at the chance. I hurriedly packed my bags and Marshall helped me haul them to the transport area at the front of Shakespeare’s in downtown Maggotty. When we got to town, Marshall had a youth take my bags over to where I would be staying and we walked over to a shop owned by his uncle Jubie (like Ruby with a J). We sat around the shop drinking some rum and warm beer until well past dark.
The alcohol and a lack of sleep from a little party the night before while we were playing music at the park, was taking its toll and I told Marshall that I would like to lie down and rest. He walked with me across the trails up and down the hills in the town past the Kindah Tree and finally ended up at a strange house perched on the side of a hill. Upon reaching the porch,
Marshall reached through a cracked open window and opened the door from the inside as most houses there don’t lock their doors anyways. He showed me where the outhouse was and the standpipe should I need to use them and then offered me a nice, soft bed in the main bedroom. I thanked him for his help and generosity, stripped down to a pair of shorts as it was quite hot and before long, I was fast asleep.
Somewhere in the middle of my sweet dreams, I heard some people outside the front of the house. More activity ensued and soon I heard some work, like sawing and hammering, taking place but I was still tired and decided to just roll over and try to ignore it for awhile. I keep drifting in and out of sleep and the noises outside my window were increasing. I smelled some cooked food and reasoned that Marshall must be fixing us something to eat. Boy, I was getting hungry. I lay in bed for a while longer and then got up, opened the bedroom door to the porch and gave out a big yawn and stretched my weary body against the door frame. The noise suddenly stopped and to my horror, a couple of dozen people were seated around the front lawn and porch! Just about that time, I realized that I was nearly naked having on only a pair of shorts.
I started to go back into the bedroom to dress when a Maroon who look like he just came out of the bush, charged the porch with a flailing machete in his hand screaming something about “Duppy” and a lot of other words I could not understand. Marshall sprung into action and grabbed the man’s arm and said something like, “That is no duppy! That is Bill, my friend”. For a brief moment I was terrified that I was going to die so I jumped back inside the room and leaned against the now closed door. Marshall came around from the living room entrance to the bedroom and told me that the reason he had a place for me to stay is that he just got the house from his aunt’s passing and that I had been sleeping in her bed. The commotion outside was a “Nine Nights” and the guy with the machete thought I was the soul of his aunt still walking around the house. I wanted to be angry with Marshall for this incident but I could see he was deeply apologetic and a little shook up at the scene himself.
I sat down for a bit and composed myself before putting on some nicer clothes and joining in the rituals. I had always heard about Redemption Songs since my seeing Bob Marley and the Wailers in 1978 and now I was singing them! The people welcomed me warmly and the guy with the machete put it down and warily shook my hand. Over the next 20 years of visiting to Accompong Town, I can’t count the number of times that this incident would come up in a conversation. We all had a good laugh over something that could have ended quite badly.
Peace and Guidance
Free Opinions Offered. No tipping required. Hours: Open when I feel like it.
hey bill, looking forward to seeing you this trip.
The sun may come up around 6 am but in this house we rise long before the sun warms the hills. Marshall starts the kettle fire and soon hot water steeping a brew of strongback tea with a heavy dose of mountain ginger and just enough lemon grass to give it some sweetness. He says we must start our day by purifying our blood and this potion fits that bill. A quick breakfast of a slice of wheat bread to sop up the tin mackerel mixture seasoned with slices of onion and lots of garlic to hold us over until a more proper meal at midmorning can be prepared as daylight is fast approaching. The Cockpits are calling.
Mountain Ginger and Strongback
Marshall is completing the cleaning and sharpening of his chainsaw before hoisting it onto his shoulder and heading out into the dim light. It is another day of cutting wood to build a coal kiln from which his livelihood is derived. I spend my mornings picking up around the house, sweeping the as of yet untilled floors and checking the water barrels before sitting down at the computer to work. These are the rainy months and thunder storms along with strong lightning around mid afternoon limit the usage of electrical appliances so all computer work needs to cease when the clouds darken over the Don Figueroa mountains to the East. I honestly look forward to the afternoons on the verandah watching the lightning flash across the sky along with the solid excuse for not working it provides.
Sometime in the late morning, I hear Marshall in the room downstairs putting up his tools and work clothes before washing up and joining me here in the living room. Another day of wood cutting and packing the kiln is complete and now it is time for a proper breakfast. Marshall takes his machete and goes out the back door to a banana tree and cuts a few hands of green bananas to boil along with a cut-up white yam to begin the meal. While out in the Cockpits, Marshall picked some gully beans and some red ginger which is actually turmeric and the basis for a curry. He adds the turmeric to some hot oil in a kettle while he stirs in the gully beans, black pepper and a vegetable protein called “veggie chunks” along with some fresh tomatoes and onions. The result is Susumba, a traditional Maroon dish and adds the boiled bananas and yam to the plate. We sit at the table eating our meal and talking over plans for the rest of the day and the rest of the week. A trip to Santa Cruz, some twenty or so miles away, to a grocery store needs to be scheduled each week and any other items picked up at the same time.
Marshall excuses himself and heads out to the bush behind the house where he has two pregnant goats tied to some bushes just far enough apart as not to allow them contact with each other. He moves them one at a time to a new location with higher weeds as a goat prefers the tops of bushes. I turn on the radio to a call-in show and go out to the verandah and take a seat where Marshall joins me after tending to his goats. We sit facing the East and watch the clouds start to form over near Mandeville as they head across the valleys below. A cool breeze is blowing and it’s a good time for Marshall to take a short nap while I remain on the verandah reading a day’s old Gleaner someone left at the local shop.
I am so preoccupied with reading that I don’t notice the dark rain clouds until they are upon us. I scramble around the house shutting the windows and return to the verandah and remove the chairs just as the rain intensifies. I have one more job to do before heading inside. I go around to all the rain barrels and assure that the lids have been removed and that any gutters are in place to capture every drop possible. We are now in for at least 3 hours of steady rain so I took the paper to my room and fall asleep to the sound of the rain pelting my window.
When I opened my eyes, I noticed the sky was clearing and the rain had finished. I also noticed the smell of food being cooked. I recognized the smell of plantains being fried as I straightened my bed and headed to the bathroom to wash for the soon to be dinner. Tonight “nerve soup” and fried plantains are on the menu. Nerve soup is so named as when I asked what it was, Marshall said it was good for the nerves. So, nerve soup it is! This version has chunks of yellow yam, dasheen and Irish in a lightly spicy broth of a fish based soup along with lentil beans (which I brought from the US), onions, peppers and red beans. A piece of fish steamed in the mixture was added to the top. It was delicious.
Night was falling and most nights Marshall goes out for a few hours to a couple of shops in our section of the community and sometimes I join him but tonight, we sit down to watch a couple of DVDs. I rarely watch movies at home so I look forward to seeing them here. I seems that most all the neighbors have a small, usually scratched selection that we can choose from and I did bring a few from the US as well. Marshall prefers to watch the “Nigerian” movies anyways so finding a regular movie and a Nigerian movie is not that difficult here.
We watch movies until 8 or 9 o’clock until the news plays on one or the other of the two stations we get. After watching the news and enjoying one last cup of tea, we retire for the evening as the sun will come up early tomorrow just like today and another day will be upon us.
Peace and Guidance
Free Opinions Offered. No tipping required. Hours: Open when I feel like it.
Have a good trip, hope it is a long one. The story of someone thinking you were a duppy made me laugh. Glad you did not get chopped.
Bill - have a great visit. Looking forward to hearing about the great success which I expect the Riverstone Project at Accompong to be.
For anyone who wants more information about the children's painting/crafts project, click on this link (its a great website Bill). For those that wish to make a donation (for which you can receive a handcrafted gift if you wish), you can do so on the website./ http://www.jamaicanmaroons.com/river-stone
There isn't much in this world that I envy - I generally consider myself to have been blessed with some wonderful experiences. However, in you I may make the exception. You live a life that some folks only get to dream of and have been blessed with the love of a truly good friend. Some folks live an entire lifetime without knowing what that really means.
Stay Blessed. PEACE.
"May Jah protect & guide"
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