Jamaican pictures

Here are some pictures and stories from my trip.


This picture is of me, Dalton (a friend from Discovery Bay), and Holly (my cousin). Dalton was a friend of Holly's when she was in the Peace Corps in Discovery bay and was absolutely wonderful with helping me perfect my driving skills on the left-hand side of the road (quite challenging at times!), taking us to local parties and restaurants, and introducing me to new places we would have never known about otherwise. The last day I was there, Dalton and I hung out in a bar (made up of one counter and enough room for about five seats) up in the hills in his home town (Farm Town...a wonderful quaint area) and burned reggae CD's. A great way to end the trip in Jamaica!

My favorite picture...Kids from a local camp showing me baby hermit crabs:


Jackie, in the picture to the left, is an amazing lady. The day we met her she had 25 kids with her. Jackie takes in children--physically and mentally disabled, physically and sexually abused, and others whose parents decided to give them to Jackie. Currently, about five (or more) of these children live with her. In the summer she runs a five week camp. She teaches them basic survival skills since so many of them are on their own. She wants to teach them basic skills so that they succeed with whatever lot in life they have been given. Since Jamaica doesn't always have the conveniences of electricity and running water in all areas, Jackie teaches them things like how to make pudding over an open fire. She doesn't have many volunteers. Most times it is just her. And she doesn't receive much funding. Funders usually want to tell her specifically how to use the funds. She feels she knows the kids better than the funders and knows what they need. The last big grant she received was used to create a something she felt would benefit the kids longer term. I guess the funders didn't like that because it wasn't the way they had designated the funds. She said she hasn't received anything from them since. It doesn't stop Jackie. She is committed to the kids.

Arriving in Discovery Bay (Puerto Seco beach):





Puerto Seco Beach is the most beautiful beach. It has beautiful white sand and wonderful clear water. You can buy jerk chicken and rice and peas at the cook shack and then buy ice cream from the man on the motorcycle (picture to the left).

Columbus Park:



Discovery Bay is supposedly where Columbus first set foot. The locals don't seem too thrilled that Columbus came to "found" the area they had already established. They see Columbus as a rapist who took over, raping the land and the women and creating slaves out of the people already there. And we claim him as a "hero" in our history books.
(side note: Shouldn't we re-think who we claim as our historical heroes??? Our country claims to have such issues with "immorality" these days...yet we hold up historical "leaders" who raped and destroyed land and people and supported and contributed to slavery. What example do we set for our children when those are the "leaders" we hold up...and what do we say to our children when we brush aside their faults as "just a product of their time??)

Foods in the market:





The market is always a favorite place of mine. I love to see (and eat!) the native fruits and vegetables. The huge avocados are absolutely wonderful diced on a plate with lime squeezed on top and a little salt. So much more flavor than the avocados here! The lady who ran the Patiently Waiting Villa we stayed at made us Acchi and Saltfish--a breakfast dish. The acchi (the pinkish stuff with black seeds in the picture to the left) is something like scrambled eggs...combined with saltfish and sauteed onions...delicious!

Beautiful trees and flowers:



I'm so disappointed that I never did get to drink coconut water straight from the green coconuts (the tree in the picture above). We did crack and eat a fresh coconut, though. Jamaica was so lush and green. Just the greenery around was relaxing!

Natural Waterfall outside of Ocho Rios:

This was a beautiful place undisturbed by tourists. It's down from Dunn's Falls, the popular tourist waterfall. The interesting thing about this natural falls is that it is where the locals come and take baths...literally!!...as well as play and swim. What was even more intriguing to me was that they don't necessarily bathe there because they don't have running water at home. The lady that took us there has a wonderful home. Yet she went with the full intention of bathing...soap and all. She explained that they just love the clean and smooth feeling of the water. Though most bathe with their suits on, there was at least one man who took the task seriously using the waterfall as his own personal shower!

Outdoor bar:

Though a little difficult to see, the hut-looking structure on the water is an outdoor bar. We attended Dalton's friend's birthday party in the open-air with the water lapping right below us.



Those are a few of the pictures and the stories. If you know me well at all, you know I have many more pictures from this trip in my collection that I would be happy to share if you're interested in living vicariously and seeing someone else's "home movies."

Jamaican Vacation

I just returned from the North Coast of Jamaica this week. I've wanted to go to Jamaica for the longest time. The trip was absolutely wonderful! I will post the wonderful pictures in a day or so. However, there were some things that struck me as not so beautiful.

As we drove into Discovery Bay, our first stop, I couldn't help but notice the eyesore of the rusted, domeshaped Bauxite plant on the hillside and the gigantic rusted ship the size of a cruise vessel jutting out from the bay of the beautiful water. The Bauxite plant mines the ore that makes aluminum. It provides people with jobs and injects money into the country...money is not available otherwise. However, the dust that the plant produces rises into the clean Jamaican air and, subsequently, settles in the Carribean Sea, suffocating the ocean life.

My cousin who was travelling with me was in the Peace Corps here 5 years ago. She explained that the number of fish had already decreased five years ago. Because there are so few fish to catch, people resort to catching smaller fish, thus preventing the fish from growing to maturity and breeding to create more.

As we snorkeled in the Bay, my cousin pointed out several different species in the coral reef, but was disappointed that there were even fewer fish now than when she was here before. We didn't see one Parrot Fish--which, evidently, used to be more common.

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As we explored the country and sought out places to stay, we ended up at a beautiful villa (called Patiently Waiting) that was somewhat like a bed and breakfast located in a small area called Mammee Estates.

Mammee Estates is another place that has been taken over by a "necessary" evil.

In the back yard of Patiently Waiting is a billion dollar all-inclusive resort called Riu. At six to seven stories high, it spans maybe 1/8 of a mile from the beachfront to the highway. It is painted purple and has loud music and talking coming from it until late in the night. The lights from the resort keep the villa's back yard bright so that the stars are no longer visible. But worse than all of that, before the resort came along, she had a view of the sea and could hear the waves crashing on the shore--now a distant memory. Though you can still get to the beach from her house, the view and the sound of the waves are completely blocked off by the huge purple structure.

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I understand that both of the facilities I've spoke of inject money into the country, provide people with jobs, and "help" the economy. But at the same time, those same structures and facilities hurt the environment and create eyesores.

I've noticed throughout my travels that our American desire for money creeps into and has begun to consume other countries and the people in those countries as well. It seems that our desires for the "luxuries" money brings cause us to accept a lower quality of life in a sense. The Jamaicans I talked to didn't question the Bauxite plant. Some people worked there. It was just a part of life.

Though I get to see the beauty of other countries and comment on the ills that I see, I am a contributor to the creation of these structures. The privileges I've been granted--by being a "rich" American--allow me to travel. Tourism is the driving force behind the purple building. Why shouldn't the Jamaicans capitalize on their opportunity??

We sacrifice the beauty of our surroundings to build bigger structures that will generate more money so that we can have more things...thus creating the need for more structures. I am not a big enough person to give up traveling and make a stand that tourists are ruining the other countries. But I do think it should cause us to think about and realize our desire (here in the U.S. and abroad) for "more" and "better" things doesn't always create the utopia we think we're looking for. Sometimes it just makes that utopia even more unreachable.