“Dean”

Hearing about hurricane Dean hitting Jamaica made me think of our trip there some years ago. It was a company trip and we stayed in a nice hotel on the beach in Montego Bay. The water was a beautiful blue and we enjoyed being there. They had crab "races" on the patio everyday and a water volleyball game anytime people were willing. There were also side trips to see what there was to see on the island. On a trip to the straw market, I noticed a front leg of a cow that they were slicing meat off for a snack! Yeah, no worries about refrigeration! We brought some things home to the kids and a few relatives, but it was mostly over-priced junk!

I also noticed what looked a lot like over-sized cardboard boxes on the side of a hill. Those were houses. So, a hurricane coming thru there must be extremely rough! I would say that the majority of people are poor. The hotel had armed guards on the beach at night to discourage locals from taking the patio furniture!

Anytime we got off a bus the company provided, we were swarmed by people selling trinkets. We finally bought a couple of necklaces made of seeds or something, so we could say we already had some! On a trip by ourselves on a local bus, someone got on with some freshly caught fish! One day on the beach, this Jamaican came up to us and excitely told us how we could use the wooden statue he had to put pot in to bring home! No thanks!

Several years later, we went back to Jamaica and stayed at the same hotel. This time we were on the ground floor just off the beach. A hurricane had been through in the meanwhile, and we noticed the print on the wall had a watermark half way up it and there was a layer of sand in the toilet! So, I guess the room we were in had been halfway under water when the hurricane struck. There's been a couple of more hurricanes thru since then, so I hope they've redecorated!

(A funny note: Everywhere we went, we heard "Yellow Bird" so I found it very funny when one of the first days we were home, I heard it again at the dentist's office! I'm sure the other people wondered why I started laughing!)