March 3 - Jamaican Vacation

This week is a sort of school vacation in most schools in Jamaica. On Monday and Tuesday they have something called sports day, which is a sort of field day of intramural sports and other outdoor activities. Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, which is a major holiday in this very Christian country. As a result of Ash Wednesday (and probably the need for spring break), schools have Thursday and Friday off as well. This has left me and Wayne with a bit of a vacation of our own this week with no workshops to do at any schools and few meetings. It coincides nicely with Nick Marshall's visit (Wayne's little bro who has his spring break from Boston College this week), so we're spending the week cooling out and showing Nick the sights. (So far we haven't shown him too much, but he's enjoying the weather, the fruit, and some of the other local Jamaican produce.)

Sunday is a tough day to try to show someone around Kingston because almost nothing is open. We cooked some ackees and saltfish, walked to Devon House and got some ice cream, and hung around the house a bunch. We made Nick eat about 6 different kinds of fruit he had never seen before. (I am so sure that you are all sick of my fruit obsession by now, but I am going to include a couple of pictures of star apples. This is our newest fruit discovery and it is easily the weirdest looking fruit we've encountered so far. Also, it tastes like a huge, delicious Concord grape. See below.) In the evening we wanted to get Jamaican dinner, but that was impossible because it was Sunday. We opted for Chinese, because, as everywhere, Chinese restaurants are always open when nothing else is. So we set out to walk up Hope Rd. to a little street with a bunch of Chinese restaurants.

On our way home from dinner a man stopped us at the street corner. It took a little bit of energy for him to get our attention because we've gotten into the habit of walking quickly through a two block area where we usually get harassed by people asking us for money. The homeless people in Kingston are, from what I can tell, significantly worse off than their counterparts in Cambridge. They often have very little clothing and significant physical or mental ailments or life-inflicted deformities. They clearly don't get much to eat. Given this, we are disposed to actually give them a little money when we can. Neither of us prefer it as a method of social contribution, but in this case the system is so broken down and the people are in such a bad state that it is very hard not to give something. The walking quickly comes from the somewhat aggressive manner of some of these people, from asking repeatedly for money to even grabbing my arm to keep us from moving on. That kind of behavior makes me quite nervous and certainly less disposed to help.

But back to last night. This man who started speaking to us was unusually well dressed, with a shirt and pants that weren't extremely dirty and shoes. He'd also had a hair cut. He spoke well too. He didn't ask us for money, but started talking to us about his experience of Jamaica and ours. He said many visitors to Jamaica know more about Jamaica than the people who live there because they never leave the little town they are born in and aren't open to new experiences. He, it seemed, had lived in many places around the island. At one point he said that the Jamaican people were so homophobic. This surprised me, not because of the content of the statement, which is very clearly true, but because of his use of the word "homophobic." The enlightened heterosexual people in Jamaica seem to have a sort of tolerance for gay people that consists in a you-don't-come-near-me-I-won't-bother-you kind of attitude. (I am sure there are others who are more liberal in their ideas about it, though I haven't encountered them yet.) The vast majority of people seem to use the derogatory term "bati boy" to refer to gay men. The homophobia is almost atmospheric. The term "homophobia" is, unsurprisingly, not in use here at all because being anti-gay is the norm. Hence my surprise at hearing this man use the term. He referred obliquely to being called a "bati boy" in a couple of his stories as well. Though he never directly said he way gay, this all led me to believe that he very likely was, and also that it was the reason for his frequent relocation around Jamaica and his ostracization and homelessness here in Kingston.

As we started walking home he continued to walk with us for a few feet. We were still speaking with him and hadn't asked him not to. Almost immediately another homeless man who looked much worse and had shredded pants and no shoes--actually the same man who had previously grabbed me--came running across the street and started yelling at the man who was speaking to us and jabbing a bottle at him. He was yelling that the man should stop bothering us and shouldn't walk with us, but of course there was some subtext to it because he was clearly not doing it for our benefit. Most likely he didn't like how this guy was boxing him out of the begging opportunity. It is also possible that he realized that this man's behavior could result in all the beggars on that corner getting hassled by the police. (Meaning that if a beggar was seen bothering us and tailing us, the police could take it out on all of the beggars in the area.) Finally, it seems plausible to me that prejudice against him for his sexual orientation could have been the source of the animosity. To my Jamaican readers (or others), I'd love comments on this that could help me interpret it more accurately--I'm just guessing. Within a few seconds they seemed close to a physical fight with the newcomer as the aggressor.

Just then a police car drove up, and seeing these two homeless men seemingly harassing a group of three white people, they slowed down. One police officer in a bullet proof vest and carrying an M-16 got out of the car to see what was happening. The two homeless men started to walk off. Rather than going up to the men, the police officer came directly to me to ask if everything was o.k. I told him it was, and mindful of the reputation of the police I made sure to tell him that the man we had voluntarily been talking to had not been bothering us in anyway. The police officer seemed to want to give us a ride home to make sure we were safe, but I told him we were fine. He apologized and seemed to indicate that the man we had been speaking to was crazy. To me it seemed that the other man was a much better candidate for mental instability. Up the street it looked like there was little chance that a physical fight between the two would be avoided, but seeing that we were o.k., the police drove off paying no attention to them.

The rest of the walk home was uneventful, except for a brief stop at a vendor while he prepared fresh sugar cane for us with his machete. We sucked our sugar all the way home.

Today I met another man on the street, this time when I was walking mid-morning by myself. I don't usually talk to people on the street when I'm by myself, though it isn't particularly dangerous in broad daylight on Hope road. This man was a rasta man in the general vicinity of the Marley museum, a common sight. Usually when we're walking in that part of Hope Road at least one of them asks us if we need any ganga. That was this man's game as well. I'm not a marijuana smoker, but you could hardly live in this country without getting a sense of how pervasive it is in the economy and the culture. It's my opinion that it should be legalized for domestic use. Currently its sale for personal use and personal use itself are completely accepted, except when the police want to make a few bucks by busting someone's chops about it. It's the exporters, the export trade and the cocaine (mainly the cocaine) that cause the real problems. (We heard last week that one in 10 passengers on every flight out of Jamaica (foreign and Jamaican passengers) are carrying drugs. Generally many tiny plastic bags of cocaine that they've swallowed before getting on the plane. The drug carriers (called mules) are usually women who do it because they need the money. Actually carrying the drugs is dangerous both because of the jail terms that result if you are caught and because death could easily result if even one of the little bags bursts while inside you.) Of course marijuana is also exported to the U.S. and Europe in large quantities. But it seems that marijuana exports could as easily be stopped if marijuana was legal here as now when it is illegal--possibly easier because marijuana growing could be licensed and tracked. Currently when spring breakers get off the airplanes they are met with copious quantities of Red Stripe beer and rum drinks (whether they are 21 or not--drinking age here is 18 and is not enforced) and are told not to buy or smoke any marijuana because it is illegal. Then they are let loose (sort of) on the island where they are asked if they want to buy marijuana many times a day. I don't know how many of them listen to the prohibitions, but I do know that a large number of American dollars flow into Jamaica through those who do not. I also believe that very few of these spring breakers are dumb enough, even after a week of drinking rum on the beach, to attempt to carry any back to the U.S. To me it looks like Jamaica could benefit, both in appeal to tourists and in the amount of money earned through tourism if they legalized sale of small quantities of marijuana.

This brings me back to the man I met on the street. Just living here I've gotten a pretty good sense of what Jamaicans pay for marijuana, and it is a lot less than Americans. They have a quantity that they sell called a "grand bag" because it costs JA$1000 (just under US$20) and which consists of approximately the same amount and quality that I hear one might buy in the US for US$250. I'd heard that people selling to tourists generally offer prices that are slightly better than American prices--enough to seem like a good deal to the people buying while still bringing in a ridiculously high mark-up for the seller. I thought I'd test the theory on this man. I told him I wouldn't be buying any but asked him what he would charge for an "artist bag" (equivalent to a "grand bag", I think). He offered me about one 15th of the usual amount for JA$1000, but promised me it was much better than what I would get for Jamaican prices. I'll never know, but...

My grandparents are regular readers of this blog--Hi Grandma and Grandpa!--and they have expressed some worries for our safety down here. I figure this blog hasn't been too reassuring. I can only say that although I encounter people who are quite willing to rip me off if I'm not careful, I am reassured by all my encounters (and by what locals tell me) that no one has any interest in hurting me in any way. Quite the opposite in fact, as they have everything to lose if they do so. (See above discussion of the encounter with the police.) As for those of you who are worried about the progress of Nick's vacation, we are planning a trip to the beach at Lime Cay tomorrow, followed by fish in Port Royal and a recording session with the Multicast guys. He won't leave without a full Jamaican vacation.