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Re: face to face with jamaica
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Re: face to face with jamaica
Face to face with Jamaica
Enough with the gated resorts. It was time to break out and meet the locals.
By Andrea Sachs
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Kathi Cooke unhinged the gate to her house in Montego Bay and opened her arms. I strode into her embrace and then into her home. As the evening darkened, we gabbed away on her silky red couch, about gardening, dogs, community service, baking, work life and dating in Jamaica. Cooke served banana chips and a juice-and-ginger-ale cocktail that smelled of the tropics. She showed me family portraits, then took some photos of us to add to the shelf. Finally, I stood up to go.
TRIP REPORT HERE!
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Re: face to face with jamaica
Howdy Seveen - I posted this here last month.
<span style="font-style: italic">Remember?</span>
Ah suh quick yuh figet?
Seet yah ...
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Re: face to face with jamaica
gurl i'm a card carrying AARP member
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Re: face to face with jamaica
Hello Yuri and Seveen,
Thank you for showing this link to a very well written report.
It was a pleasure to read and I thoroughly enjoyed the sense of
actually being with her every step of the way during her visit to JA.
Now I would like to share another report with you.
There is a lady called afrobaby from New York.
She visited Kingston and then Zion County in Port Antonio.
Her style of writing fascinates me and she has covered just about
everything about visiting and feeling comfortable in Jamaica.
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Re: face to face with jamaica
I want to share this simple story with you.
A few years ago a young Spanish lady went to Negril with two other girlfriends.
She was taken aback by the aggressiveness of the local citizens in the area.
She had come to relax, enjoy the music and have fun.
It was not happening.
She was always being accosted whenever trying to do even the simplest thing like taking a walk.
Her two girlfriends were not helping as they did not even like the food and complained about every little thing.
However, this young lady discovered that Jamaica did have something mystic about her.
Something special that lay below this upper crust in the tourist traps.
She returned home to Spain and later joined another travel forum in the Spanish language.
One on which I also make suggestions.
She wrote a personal message telling me what had happened and explaining why she wanted to return.
After exchanging a few messages I realized the she was serious.
She was not the typical tourist girl looking for marihuana in the company of a local macho.
She took my humble advice and set off towards Port Antonio.
She speaks very little English and had to fly from Spain to Kingston via Miami.
Now I love Miami because I understand how things work there.
But for a newbie, the Miami airport can be a dangerous and rude awakening for any traveller.
The customs and immigration personal can be hard and mean. They have to be. This is their job.
The Miami airport caters to the entrance of everyone coming from all over
the world including Central + South America and all the Caribbean Islands.
This is a giant melting pot of all types of characters.
If you do not have a tough skin they will eat you alive.
She had a problem with her suitcase but eventually managed to get on the flight to Kingston.
The taxi driver was not there to meet her.
He had gone to the Montego Bay airport instead.
She was in tears but her positive and friendly attitude gave her the courage to get over to Porty with another driver.
Can you imagine arriving at the airport in Kingston and only speaking a few basic words in the English language?
This girl is brave, brave, brave.
In her own words, she described her arrival in Porty as having reached the Jamaica that she had dreamed about.
It became her new home. She just returned from her fourth trip and is already planning another.
She described herself as being a shy and inward person who could never do anything by herself.
Thanks to the impact of Porty and the friendly hospitable citizens she has come into herself.
On this last trip she even went over to Ocho Rios where she went to The Blue House so as
to meet up with Elise and continue to help the elderly and less fortunate of the area.
After her first trip to Porty she was delighted to describe how much she enjoyed doing such simple things like a walk along the beach at sunrise to pick up shells and wave to the fishermen. Playing dominoes with the locals. Building sandcastles with the children who were afraid to go in the water. Being in a local bar and seeing someone enter to offer a hot cup of soup to the older folks. The ones who could not afford to pay. Dancing with the locals in this same bar. Riding in the back of a pick-up van to get from one place to another. Most times she was not charged as the word had spread that she was a good and kind person. Waving and smiling to everyone at all hours of the day.
Her social life in Spain is now nonexistent. She stumbles from home to work and back again just to be able to save every euro for her next trip.
Here are some pictures of the place that helped her to become an independent person.
One stay was dedicated to helping others to rebuild the area that the hurricane had completely destroyed.
All this destruction took place a week before her arrival. These people had given so much to her and now she wanted to help them.
This is the effect that Port Antonio has on all of us.
It takes us away from the fantasy land of the all inclusive resorts
and takes us into the reality of the lifestyle on an island.Comment
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Re: face to face with jamaica
very eloquent as usual
(((CurtisD)))Comment
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Re: face to face with jamaica
very nice,
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Re: face to face with jamaica
simply divune!! thanks for sharing this!!Comment
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