A Portrait of Nanny of the Maroons on the Wall of Heroes in Accompong Town
In Jamaica, nothing is quite as easy as you expect it to be. Now, multiply that by a factor of 1000 and that, in a nutshell, describes living in Accompong Town. Now, I don’t mean to imply that life here is more difficult emotionally or security-wise as that is quite the opposite. What I mean is that I am used to “quick quick” and when in So. Florida I make a list and the majority of the items are completed before the sun goes down. Here the clock seems to run a likkle slower and you could easily swear that there are more than 24 hours in a day while you patiently wait for things to get done.
A good example is my Internet Connection I want to purchase so I can use it at my house. After 3 or 4 days of mostly helpful input from computer-savvy residents, it was nearly a unanimous opinion that the Digicel 3G thumb drive was the best option. There is only one in the town and its user says the connection is okay but less than 3G. Okay, where can I get one? I went to the Yellow Pages and found a Digicel Page with about 100 suppliers. I called a couple in Santa Cruz and they said they haven’t seen one in nearly a month. One person finally volunteered that Mandeville would be the place to go. “To go?” Mandeville is over 50kilometers from here and up a tough hill called Spur Tree. I went back to the Yellow Pages and picked out the suppliers in Mandeville that sounded bigger so they would more likely have one in stock. After two $100 phone cards all I learned is that they sometimes get them on Thursday and they don’t have any in stock and, if they do get some, they are only on “first come, first served” basis and that they couldn‘t hold one so a trip could be in vain.
After another three days, I finally learned where the only unit in town was purchased but they would have to get me a phone number as the place is not listed in the phone book. I have been patiently waiting for that phone call going on 3 days now. The most frustrating part is that no one thinks it is unusual to have so much difficulty. All I get is a shake of the head slowly and “((kissteet)) Jamaica noh easy.”
Well, at least, I have access to the Computer Center on the other side of the village which is about a mile from my house. The only problem with this is that it opens at about 3 or 4pm 6 days a week and the summer rains begin about 2:30pm 7 days a week and I have no car or even an umbrella.
Today I woke up to clear blue skies and a pressing need to use the Internet so I decided to head out around noon and stop along the road to visit a friend or two so that when the rains came, I would be safely inside the Computer Center. What could go wrong? How about at 12:15pm (15 minutes after I leave) the time it takes these old knees to negotiate nearly half a mile, the skies open up and a torrential downpour catches me out in the open between houses without even a bare branch to impede the onslaught.
As quickly as the rain came, the clouds rapidly moved to the West and the unbearably hot sun soon mixed my sweat with my rain-drenched clothes giving a cooling effect that felt quite pleasant. Now, I didn’t want to stop with clothes that could wet up my friend’s furniture so I pressed on to a shady spot at Cudjoe’s Monument across from the Community Center and the Computer Center where I took the following pictures.
Peace and Guidance
