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

Calibe Thompson, a co-founder of the museum

Consul General Oliver Mair introduces actor/playwright Ricky Rowe

Created from plastic bags!

 

It’s Christmas 😊

I don’t normally go to church, unless its Christmas or if a very special person passes. 

Then I go to be with their family.

This is not because I am an atheist, but because I hate religion. For in my book, religion is the root of all the evils in the world, having caused most of the bloodshed over the centuries.

In my search for a civilized, non-violent religion, I had even looked into Buddhism one time. Then chaos reigned in Myanmar, and we saw the terrible images of Buddhist Monks, chasing out Rohingya Muslims, killing them and burning their villages.😡

That cured me instantly.

Obviously, the common thread among most religions seems to be vicious dogmatism which dictates that only my religion is the true one, so no one must enjoy this planet unless they subscribe to MY particular religious beliefs!

However I make the exception about avoiding religion and go to churches during Christmas, because I love Christmas music.

 In fact, not just Christmas music but Gospel music in general…….a hangover from the days when I was dragged into boring church services and the music was the only respite.😏

So, when in Jamaica, I even caroling with my friends in Lauristan, Spanish Town, on  Christmas mornings. 

This despite the community’s terrible reputation for violence. However, that problem only applies to small section on the banks of the Rio Cobre River, where squatters have settled.

The rest of the community has solid citizens and my friend Audley Nain, formerly of the Jamaica Folk Singers who is also president of the Citizens Association, started a Christmas ritual years ago whereby we would start at 5 am on Christmas morning,  knocking on peoples’ gates and singing carols loudly.

Then we all converge at the Community Centre where everyone would bring a dish, curried goat, jerk pork, turned cornmeal, hot chocolate, roast breadfruit and on and on😊.

After a sumptuous meal, the kids have their entertainment and we our dominoes, whatever.

How I miss those sessions, although I had the pleasure of joining them to celebrate Jamaica 60 this year. Joan, my views: Memories of Jamaica's 60th Anniversary celebrations. (joan-myviews.blogspot.com)

But I am rambling aren’t I?

This was just a preamble to say how much I enjoyed the Christmas Concert at United Methodist Church in Plantation, Florida, which kicked off the season for me.

This was a Steve Higgins Production, in conjunction with the Consul General of Jamaica, featuring the South Florida Caribbean Chorale.

Steve Higgins as you probably know, is an excellent Jamaican tenor and cultural ambassador.

I enjoyed the entire concert, the interaction between the MC and audience, the music, and even the bits that the Jamaican Consul General to Miami performed.

He seems to be quite charismatic and talented.

I loved too how the choir and other performers switched from traditional Christmas Carols to Jamaican Christmas Carols written by the late, great, Noel Dexter and even one perforemd by Jamaican performer Pluto Shervington.

So, I have saved quite a few clips below for posterity. 

For posterity