Joan, my views: Reflections

I am so happy that I ended up in Broward County in Florida, when I retired after almost 50 years of hard labor in my homeland, Jamaica.

Actually, Florida was never in my sights, but thanks to the horrid weather in Colorado, I flew south quickly🥶and made a perfect landing.

When I first got here, I only knew of one cousin, his wife and had one close friend living here. But would you believe that in no time I reunited with/found more family, friends and acquaintances living here than I knew at home😊!

Absolutely wonderful.

I quickly learned that of the almost two million people who legally call this county home, (2021 figures) 16% are from the English Speaking Caribbean and more than 100,000 of those are Jamaicans! So everything my stomach pines for is here😊.

The Jamaican experience here is certainly made more enjoyable too, by the involvement and excellent proactive performance of our culturally involved Consul General Oliver

Mair. His lecture series are well planned and executed too.

This month's topic was; The art of Storytelling and it was held at the Island Space Caribbean Museum, which I was not even aware of before. (Joan, my views: A fun afternoon (joan-myviews.blogspot.com)

Front view of Island Space Caribbean Museum

To tell the truth, when my fellow Jamaican friend Carol told me about the event, I decided to attend but was not all that enthused.

However, when I left, l certainly was!

This was the first time that I was even aware that Jamaica has an annual story telling competition.

A few Videos from some previous performances were shown and they were certainly entertaining, heartwarming and hilarious. (Well known comedian Blakka Ellis had entered one and as usual he was super humorous.😂)

Debra Ehrardt in action

The presenter was Debra Ehrardt, whom I soon learned is an accomplished Jamaican playwright, actress and story teller. She conducts the competition at home. She demonstrated her storytelling prowess/expertise and had us falling us off our chairs. Visiting the Caribbean Museum was also another eye opener for me. It is located at Broward Mall and according to it's web page, it's vision is; To elevate the profile of Caribbean art, history and culture in every form throughout South Florida and the broader diaspora." It has quite a few interesting and educational exhibits . We were informed that Cedella Marley has promised to donate one of Bob Marley's guitars to their growing collection. They hope to have that on display soon. I t was an other enjoyable , educational and interesting event indeed.

It was an other enjoyabe , educational and interesting event inde

Some pictures from the museum