the last entry stopped abruptly so, I will complete: the journey back to Falmouth, then another taxi carrying additional bags of groceries. This is such an arduous experience that one avoids shopping as much as possible and sometimes just opts to do without!
Mornings here are my favorite time - sun filtering through the coconut and banana leaves, chickens and their baby chicks digging in the leaves and grass for breakfast, roosters crowing, men and women and children already walking on the road before 6:00am going to school or work, the almost lyrical sounds greetings in Patois being spoken, "Wa gwaan?" what's happening and the replies, "mi cris mon, or "everting irie" both replies meaning I am well, I am good mon.
Just this past week, I experienced a cultural phenomena - I heard sounds that at first I thought were a babying crying but when I looked out my back door, a goat was hanging from a tree, hind legs tied to a limb. A man with a machete soon ended its misery by slitting it's throat! I stood transfixed as I was watching an ancient ritual. The goat was being slaughtered for my landlord's birthday celebration the following day. Jamaicans love curried goat. The head is cut off and cleaned up to make Mannish Water, a favored soup that is supposed to increase virility and stamina in a man. I must stop now but will tell more about the party later.
That is so awesome, Mom! You are so awesome!
ReplyDeleteLinda, it is so good that you are writing these things down. The funeral experience sounded like a Fellini film and you described it so well that I felt like I was right there.
ReplyDeleteLove You,
Jane