More pictures from Jamaica....

Here are some more pictures from my Spring Break week in Jamaica. I was visiting a dear friend from high school, Lisa, who is working in Montego Bay for the year. She was the best tour guide I could have ever asked for. Instead of a week lounging on the golden sand sipping a margarita, I got to experience the gritty, sweaty (more sweat), pulsing world of real Jamaica. I saw the good and the bad, the funny and the sad, the beautiful and the dirty. And that's exactly what I wanted.

So this first picture is of Lisa with her neighbour's little son (halfway through getting his hair braided). Little Shawn was only 2 years old, but check out the attitude in his eyes already! He held a pencil like it was a cigarette, and it looked completely natural in his hands.

Here's Captain Sarah. Lisa and I took a ride down a river on a bamboo raft, and our guide let us be in control for a while. And no, that's NOT the riverbank that I'm headed straight towards.... (they were very awkward to steer, in my defense)

So here's Lisa and I, enjoying the gentle ride. I got a killer burn on my shoulders that day. oops

Two lovely gentleman, Duvall and Paul, split open a coconut for me with a machete. Here we are eating the "jelly" from the inside. Think consistency of a jiggly egg white, with no taste. Any comments about the contortions of my mouth are NOT necessary--I am fully aware of the fact that my mouth goes in strange directions when I chew.

Before we ate the jelly, I drank the water out. Messy business. My charms of gracefulness didn't seem to be working.

The colours of the Caribbean Sea are every bit as beautiful as people/pictures/stories claim them to be. Unfortunately, it is a rare photo that does these colours justice.

The cottage where we stayed in Montego Bay. Felt very tropical.

Clowns in the market. If you look closely, you can see the guy sitting on the ground has his leg around the back of his neck. He was in the process of manipulating his body to look like a dog. It actually worked! It was funny to watch the Jamaicans watch the clowns. Americans would tend to laugh, but a lot of the Jamaicans looked dismayed. One woman even screamed and ran away when the clowns came near her.

All in all, a wonderful and valuable week. It was a culture that was highly entertaining (fiery tempers, constant sexual offers from men, loud voices, colourful, musical), but also one that left me with lots of questions and things to contemplate. Specifically issues of culture, poverty, government, etc.

OK, off to class!