Best Day Ever With Soloman..and Negril

**mountaingal** · 01-05-2003, 03:43 PM

Re: Best Day Ever With Soloman..and Negril

not a crony (i don't think [img]/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img] ), but with you every step of the way. what you're seeing here is the way of life i grew up with. did you notice the silence, the stillness in the middle of the day up in those hills?

**BND1999** · 01-05-2003, 03:45 PM

Re: Best Day Ever With Soloman..and Negril

Oh yes mountaingal.. so glad you and Bregga are here too reading.. I loved the silence.. the peace.. like all the world felt so bountiful.. I can close my eyes and feel it.. I was intensely happy

**mountaingal** · 01-05-2003, 03:50 PM

Re: Best Day Ever With Soloman..and Negril

aie, Nina, you have a way with words. it's those very feelings you describe that hook overseas Jamaicans and keep them longing for home.

I love how you look so happy in those photos!

i used to carry water like that man when I was a child. it was one of my chores. i'd get water from a standpipe when our tank ran dry. or i'd take water across the fields to give to the goats. it's possible that the man in your picture was going to give water to animals - goats or cows.

**BND1999** · 01-05-2003, 03:58 PM

Re: Best Day Ever With Soloman..and Negril

Ok.. so we stay at this house for atleast half an hour.. there are kids running all around.. girls.. they all take to me like glue..

One is especially pretty.. she asks me about my red skin.. from the sun.. and what my normal color is.. I show her my belly..she tells me she loves my white skin.. and I tell her I love her skin color.. that I work hard to get it darker, DWL..

she notices everything on me.. like a mother lion preening a cub.. she points to a mole on my face asking what it is.. then to a scar on my back where a doctor took one off.. they all look at the camera wanting photos.. and to see them..she tells me I am so beautiful.. and she makes my day.. I think she is stunning too.. but I just marvel each and every time when I meet folks and show them something like a digital.. that we all take for granted.. I have travelled plenty in the third world.. not just JA but it is still so daunting how so much of the world has so little.. and appreciates so much..

**BND1999** · 01-05-2003, 04:00 PM

Re: Best Day Ever With Soloman..and Negril

Oh Mountaingirl.. I'd kill to be there today.. I bet its hard carrying that water.. but I'd love to give it a try.. where he was walking is where I would have wanted to go.. further and further into the bush

**BND1999** · 01-05-2003, 04:07 PM

Re: Best Day Ever With Soloman..and Negril

Again time to move on.. I am feeling very satisfied.. this is what I love about Jamaica.. the way out of the way villages.. the bush country.. the small cook stands.. the bustling villages... I tell Sala that now you really know what I like.. what makes me tick..

we wind down the mountain.. I am already dreading the realit check... we head through Likkle london this time.. and Sala takes us to meet his family.. after all the times I've been here we have never made that stop.. I feel happy to do so.. Soloman feels like my JA family!! (Sienna too)

His dad looks so young.. very engrossed in his domino game.. we head back to Negril.. I keep thinking this was the best day ever.. and I feel saddened Dan missed it.. don't even know how to recapture such a thing for him..

Two hours later dan comes back soaked.. He exclaims hes had his best day ever.. could this be true.. we both have our best days.. similar experiences simultaneously.. how karmic..

He went with his rasta buddies and his friend from home on a journey not far from us in Cascade.. way way into the bush.. his was more a spiritual rasta thing.. I never got details.. but they too were one with nature...

Boy will we all sleep tonight.. we head to Bar B Barn for dinner.. This place will always be the place I think to go to meet queenb [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] I think to myself .. I know she wishes she were here.. visiting Alberto.. I pass a thought of her.. to her place.... dinner was awesome.. and after which we all went home to crash...

**breggae** · 01-05-2003, 04:10 PM

Re: Best Day Ever With Soloman..and Negril

They certainly are beautiful little girls! Its always so wonderful to hear from a child how beautiful one is, isn't it? For some reason, to me, it means more. Sounds like it was an exciting day for Solomon as well. Looking forward to the rest!!

**loops** · 01-05-2003, 04:13 PM

Re: Best Day Ever With Soloman..and Negril

Just a fantastic story Nina! The photos are so real and so green and make me want to take a similar tour. We were with Sala I think about a week after you were last year...he relayed the story of you folks stopping there where the vendors were (can't remember the name of the place but I know people wash cars in the river there). He asked us if we wanted to stop...we declined at the time but I'm thinking I would probably check it out given a second chance. Your written words are every bit as beautiful as the photos!

**BND1999** · 01-05-2003, 04:18 PM

Re: Best Day Ever With Soloman..and Negril

last remaining days are pretty uneventful.. beach.. sun.. food.. visiting with our friends from the past.. getting a massage at the Negril Yoga Center..

Alas... one more thing.. I walk far down the beach and I see acrylic painitngs floating in the air.. I have been collecting Carribean paintings.. ever so slowly.. I am very picky.. and think I doubt these will be good but I look...

Lo and behold I am very drawn to two of them.. Eroll Allen.. he turns out to be quite talented. and he's shown his work in the museum in Kingston and is collected by others around the globe.

I stared at them all.. spent about 2 hours with him and purchase one.. we negotiate as they are pricey..

I am still in love with another.. but I can't buy two.. can I?

I leave.. and I tell him that his signature is a bit too bold for me. that my eye looks at his name too much rather than focusing on the work.. he tells me he can make it more subtle.. I leave.. but I can't stop thinking about the second piece.. I feel I will regret it if I dont get it...

days later I call , hop a route cab and purchase the second

these pictures actually do not do them justice at all..

I head back to our place.. in a few days we will go home.. we talk to Soloman about our trip .. he comes to visit... takes us to the cliff to see friends.. He tells me that day was as special for him as it was us.. that he now understands what I really love... I feel connected more to him from this experience...

Need I say more.. the rest in inconsequential at best.. I had special JA moments.. the landscape of TB, The day in the bush with Sala, and the meeting of a very special and talented painter..

I feel enormously blessed.. and while I see others leaving as I return.. I feel so grateful that I am fortunate to go back and back..

I think Jamaica and the reasons for people to go back are different.. but there is a common essence we all share. about the land.. and the people.. though how we soak it up may be different..

I know for me it began with the search for the roots/reggae/rasta connection... island life.. and it has still remained very grounded in this today... The roots of the place.. being at one with the landscape.. her people.. I hold it all tight in my heart..

**BND1999** · 01-05-2003, 04:23 PM

Re: Best Day Ever With Soloman..and Negril

Loops.. you should definitely make the off the beaten path stops.. they are always the ones I like best. not the original destinations.. though the ones on our first trip with Chef in Kingston were also quite fulfillign and moving in a similar way.. sentimental.. a gut emotional reaction..

**mountaingal** · 01-05-2003, 04:31 PM

Re: Best Day Ever With Soloman..and Negril

beautiful report and pictures! i also like your paintings, both of them.

thanks for sharing... [img]/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

**BND1999** · 01-05-2003, 04:44 PM

Re: Best Day Ever With Soloman..and Negril

Thanks Mountaingal.. glad you appreciated my day...

can't wait to get the pictures stretched on a board!!

**Guest** · 01-05-2003, 05:27 PM

Re: Best Day Ever With Soloman..and Negril

Ahh !! This my Jamaica ! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img] I love to be up ina bush [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] .Nina You are bringing tears to my eyes. I remmember my 1st time up inna a bush with my friend Tamar. Up in the hills of St Ann / where she had a bunch of relatives.

Also, that art is awesome / you gotta hook me up with that artist.

Me wanna go home now !! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

**BND1999** · 01-05-2003, 05:36 PM

Re: Best Day Ever With Soloman..and Negril

I guess there are many of us who like to be in the bush.. something very profound up there... I have felt it only a few places in the world...

Hate to tell you .. that artist was $$
but I have special funds I had aside at home for that...he asked if I could bring brushes or paints for him the next time.. I may send some with a friend

**Guest** · 01-05-2003, 05:38 PM

Re: Best Day Ever With Soloman..and Negril

Originally posted by BND1999:
[qb]I guess there are many of us who like to be in the bush.. something very profound up there... I have felt it only a few places in the world...

Hate to tell you .. that artist was $$
but I have special funds I had aside at home for that...he asked if I could bring brushes or paints for him the next time.. I may send some with a friend[/qb]

His work is beautiful / but orobably not in my $$ range [img]/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Best Day Ever With Soloman..and Negril

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