Hospitality

24-1-11

For those of us who were born and grown in the American South, we have strong sense of pride in what we like to call our “Southern Hospitality”; I think this means we are welcoming to strangers, giving of directions to the lost, and generally helping those in need;  I thought I understood and had seen this in action throughout my lifetime;  I really didn’t think I had anymore to learn;  That was, until I moved to Jamaica, and  more specifically this past weekend;

Over the course of my last six months on Jamrock, I have encountered massive amounts of hospitality;  I have lived with three different families, who have welcomed me into their homes, fed me, washed for me, clothed me, and treated me as if I had lived there my entire life;  In addition, I have been given farm produce and fed on multiple occasions;  I have never really felt threatened by anyone, which is why there was no doubt in my mind that Liz and I would be fine as when we walked  trail over the Blue Mountain range from St Thomas to Portland;

We invited people to come with us;  In fact, I invited all of my Somerset friends and no one had any desire to take that long of a walk;  So in the end, it was Liz and me, who left Somerset around 6:30 am Saturday morning;  We taxied to Morant Bay and grabbed breakfast and coffee (a must, since we stayed up entirely too late Friday night watching the video from the Stonelove dance (sidenote:  I made the cover of the DVD :-0));  From Morant Bay we taxied to Bath, where we soon learned we wouldn’t find any taxis up the hill to Hayfield, the location of the trailhead of the Cuhna Cuhna Pass;

After a brief meeting with Johnny, a gentleman who lived in the US for sometime, we started the approximately five mile hike to Hayfield;  Five minutes into the walk, we met Lyndon, a farmer who called out to us, “Wait for me!  I’m going up the road too;” We walked about a mile with Lyndon as he talked about his 200 acre farm, his work on the roadways throughout Jamaica, and the United States;  When we reached his farm, we were introduced to his 98 year old father, a man as white as Liz and myself, and given two jelly coconuts to enjoy at the moment, two to carry with us, and a scandal bag full of apples;  Liz and I both agreed that the jelly and apples were the sweetest we have had since we reached the island;  He sent us on our way with our snacks, his phone number to let him know when we reached Portland, and his promise that if we come back his way we can have a big party;  I think he even promised to slaughter a goat;  After leaving Lyndon we continued up the road to the district of Hayfield;  Luckily we caught  a drive partway with a farmer in the bed of his pickup truck;

Lyndon, giving us apples!

Hitching a ride up to Hayfield!

Hayfield is a district with a rapidly declining population;  There is one car that runs taxi from there to Bath, two churches, and to our surprise, a primary school;  People there were very friendly as we asked which part to find the Cuhna Cuhna Pass, and asked someone to chop our next two jelly coconuts; All anyone could say was, “Just the two of oonoo alone a go walk it?” To which we responded, “Yeah man, just the two of we;  We can manage it;”

As we entered the trail just behind the Pentecostal Church, two young gentlemen quickly followed us from Hayfield, just to keep us company along the path;  The trail itself was fairly short, featuring two rest up areas, and one pit latrine;  The signs along the way explained that the path was once home to a settlement called Contingent, where land was given to veterans of both World Wars by the Crown of England;  It also served as a footpath for runaway slaves, and a market trail between the parishes of St Thomas and Portland;  It is also home to a tree growing the largest grapefruit I’ve ever seen  Our travel partners picked about six and we ate them for the hours to come;  Later in the night, we even squeezed our own grapefruit juice to drink alongside our apple vodka, that yes, we did carry all the way to Portland with us;

The boys that hiked over with us

Liz and me at one of the rest stops on the trail

the pit latrine along the way!

We reached the district of Millbank on the Portland side around 3:30 pm, at which time we met Steve;  Steve makes crafts from dry bamboo which he sells to tourist stores in Ochi;  As supporters of local artisans, we looked on the crafts and each purchased a small jewelry box and a Jamaica bangle bracelet;  This cost us each $450 J and then Steve gave us each an extra bracelet;  He even woke his daughter from her nap so we could meet her, we shared our apples with him, he offered us a drink of rum, and we hung out till around 4:30 at which point we decided to look a taxi so to reach Mark’s house in Bellevue before dark;  It was 6:00 when we finally found a drive, two districts from Millbank in a place called Ginger House;  We took a $150 J taxi ride to the bridge at Alligator Church;  From that bridge, we walked all the way to Mark’s house;  There was a small mishap when we veered off the main road and entered someone’s yard;  To which we were shouted at, “Hey white people, where you ago pon my land?”  We quickly explained the details of our day and the man and his friends walked us all the way to Mark’s house, carrying our backpacks with them;

Liz with one of our giant grapefruits

At Mark’s we were greeted with a big plate of fried chicken and curry goat, along with a much needed bath, and some AMAZING pop cake (thanks Kels!);  We enjoyed the company and birthday celebration;  The next morning, Mark’s mom made a huge breakfast  Then we traveled to Port Antonio by car, where the St Thomas bus was full and ready to leave, I caught an immediate taxi to the Trinityville crossroad, walked up Somerset, telling everyone about the trip along the way;

Mark's birthday cake...not sure why Mark is not in the picture ;-(

It was one of those weekends that reminds me why I love this island and the wonderful, hospitable people, who give those in the South a big run for their money;

Until the next adventure!