05 September 2006 23:00
schools began their fall session yesterday, as evidenced by the thousands of kids suddenly in uniform. it doesn't appear as if the number of kids in the streets has lessened in any way, in the middle of the day there's just as many roaming about as there would be on a summer day--they're simply in uniform now.after an easy day yesterday of wading through the end of month inventory report, and a short day today of only two flights; I decided it was time for a mini-vacation and headed out to Black River. i would of course pick a rainy day to do it on and the traffic was not good. for the first half hour i spent more time staring at the brake lights of the stopped car in front of me than i actually spent moving.
the gloomy crawl was enlightened at one point (in a not-so-reputable part of kingston) when a moped whizzed by and pulled in between myself and the car ahead of me to wait while a pepsi truck passed. no issue, happens all the time. when the oncoming traffic cleared i expected him to pull back out in the other lane and keep buzzing up past the line of stopped cars. instead his passenger (a tall lanky man wearing a baseball cap with the brim turned up and thin shoulder length braids hanging down) was getting off the back of the moped. no problem, must be his stop. that's all the further my thoughts got as the man walked around to the passenger side of my car and proceeded to try the handle.
i tend to travel with the doors locked. makes rescue difficult if my car winds up in a ditch, but comes in handy in situations like this. he tried the handle again while leaning down to peer through my heavily tinted window with a decidedly aggravated look. (this is usual as jamaicans tend to look affronted when you refuse to give them a free ride). i in return was looking back with my eyebrows well elevated into the "just who do you think you are?" position. i'm used to people begging for money, food, or rides; but to try my doorhandle in this pre-emptive fashion was definitely over the top of my tolerance threshold.
this all happened very quickly, and he started to realize that he had the wrong vehicle at the same time that the moped driver started talking to him with lots of arm motions. my opinon of the guy trying my door handle climbed a long ways up from the dark hole it was in when i realized that he'd mistaken my car for somebody else's. he quickly hopped back on the moped, and with an apologetic wave in my direction they pulled out into the oncoming lane and sped off.
sure enough, two minutes later when I'd crawled another three hundred feet down the road i noticed the moped (now passengerless) cutting back into traffic from a side road. as I came up to the side road, here came a silver honda accord (i drive a silver honda civic) with my would-be companion sitting in the passenger seat. as i let them into the line ahead of me, he gave me a second wave of apology. for somebody who tried to jump into my car, he was an alright guy :).
unfortunately (or fortunately), after that little bit of adrenaline there wasn't much else happening on the drive to black river. it rained very little, but the roads were wet the entire way. when the honda was in the shop last month for some work they disconnected the heat in some fashion or another so now the car has no heat. not that the heat is particularly necessary for the warmth of the driver here in jamaica, but it is necessary to properly defog the windshield. that made the driving that much more challenging, and there's nothing like a good challenge to make one hungry--which of course precipitated a stop for a little sustenance.
three hours and twenty minutes after setting out i arrived at michael and pearls', family friends who own a house along the sweeping curve on the south half of black river bay. since then it's been a quiet evening. pearl made a "light supper" of soup and jerk chicken and rolls (which essentially doubled the amount of food i ate today). a cousin of michael's is here with her husband from mandeville. their house is under renovation so they came down for the afternoon to escape the paint fumes for a while. michael wound up running to kingston for something or another, so he was westbound on the may pen bypass when i arrived here, thus around two hours behind me. since he hasn't shown up yet, he has probably stopped at their farm or some place in black river to do business...he rarely stops.
i spent some time out on their sea wall listening to the little waves roll onto the beach. the bay here is not sheltered in the traditional sense, but between a shallow coastal shelf in the bay and the fact that it opens southwest there are hardly ever real waves here. currently the beach extends about eight feet beyond the waterline before becoming clogged with a water-loving ground cover. most wave action hits the island from the east or southeast; which explains why the surfing spots are on the east and south coasts (there's one near long bay portland, bull bay, and then plumb point) while the tourist spots are on the west and north coasts (negril, mobay, the myriad of small beaches from st. ann to portland).
one exception to that rule is the latest sandals resort in whitehouse, st. elizabeth; it is the only large resort on the south coast. but then like black river bay, parker's bay (where sandals whitehouse is located) faces southwest away from the waves. however, there are then exceptions to the waves on occasion--for instance when a hurricane passes overhead or just southwest of the island. most notably for michael and pearl was hurricane ivan in '03 which successfully demolished the sea wall that was located between their house and the carribean. itself fifteen feet from the waterline, their house is then another twenty feet inland from that, and situated at a whopping four or five feet above sea level.
they've since installed a grander, much beefier wall; and I spent some time standing on that watching the world stand still. besides the little breakers (all of eight inches high), the only other movement was the rapid flashes of lightning from a storm cell that was sixty or eighty miles away to the west on the horizon. i only watched for a short bit before deciding to try my hand at getting it on film and came away with a couple shots i'm happy with. i would have liked to stay for more, but had to go inside to give my body time to replace the blood i'd just donated to a humongous clan of mosquitoes who converged in pearl's backyard with no other apparent intent than sucking me dry.
it was actually one of the more pleasant moments i've had overlooking the sea here (despite the loss of blood). mostly i think the difference was due to the evening breeze blowing from land to sea, carrying with it the smell of fresh mowed grass from the roadside. normally one is treated to the lovely aroma of dead fish and seaweed.
i'm off to see if it's possible to sleep here without air conditioning. i've proven that there is a significant mosquito population in the area, so it might be an interesting (long) night. i don't always sleep with the a/c on in kingston, but at the very least i have a fan blowing gale force winds across my bed to keep unwanted life forms away while i lie defenseless. here i'm just defenseless. unless i'm awake that is, but then i don't tend to get too much sleep when i'm awake...
(check back in a couple days for that photo of the storm...i don't have my photo editing software with me).
23:00 email me permalink / commentary (1)
So I tried leaving this long comment on your blog yesterday and my connection kept being interrupted. Eventually, I decided no communication was worth the frustration I was feeling and ditched the idea.
Well, what can I say today I'm back!! For starters, I love the background you've got going now. It's perfect!! Adds some life to the blog.
Secondly, thanks for sharing about your Black River trip. Now having met Michael and Pearl for myself, your little adventure takes on new meaning. Especially the sea wall. If I remember correctly, you have in your posession a picture I took of you at that sea wall. You should definitely post that picture. 08 September, 2006 10:20 – 
Jenn Heatwole
