Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2014 | Page 27

TRAVEL

see the Head of the village as I assumed
that there would be one. A man arrived
before us brandishing a Rasta beard, and
I told him it was our first visit to Jamaica
and I was very interested in learning
about their way of life and on this basis
asked him if we could come to the village
‘safely’ during our holiday.
To demonstrate my appreciation I
presented him with the cigars, rum and a
few American dollars.
He smiled widely and said ‘no problem
mon and evert-ing cool mon’ the latter
meaning ‘how are you’.
The days that followed were very
interesting and we were befriended by
the whole village community of some 30
people, who were keen to demonstrate to
us their excellent skills with their wood
which clearly were sold to the tourist
outlet shops for next to nothing with vast
profits made on re-sale.
My wife and daughter joined us, at
their request, after the third visit and we
enjoyed taking various items for them

to enjoy of an English nature. They were
clearly people with little means and
we were determined not to patronise
them and felt we had met real friends
of the Caribbean! Their houses were

"We were determined
not to patronise them
and felt we had met
real friends of the
Caribbean!"
constructed of corrugated tin walls
and roofs but quite homely inside with
rugs and stoves but with a strong smell
of reefers. There appeared to be whole
generations from men and women in
their 80s and 90s, down to grandchildren

where the skills were clearly being passed
down the family line. I shall never forget
meeting ‘putty man’ with his family,
who agreed to model, from a piece of
mahogany wood, my pet dog, which we
undertook from a photograph I provided
him from my wallet. He presented it to
me before our departure and he invited
my whole family into his home, where
his wife had carefully wrapped up the
finished article. It was an emotional
moment as he announced: ‘‘this is for you
Mon and with all our luv’’. He did not
want payment and any suggestion would
have been offensive.
It was a most special moving moment for
us all as we all finally walked away. This
first visit to the Caribbean and particularly
Jamaica prompted us to return and we
did on another five occasions over the
following years prompted by the warmth
and friendliness of the people, which is
epitomised in their country’s motto: ‘out of
many, one people’.

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