Our first night in Hopewell was very different from a night in Central London, with its sirens, people shouting, the lorries, buses and cars charging and crashing over speed bumps outside our house causing it to shake, in Hopewell there are no streetlamps, so its was extremely dark and 
quiet, except for the motorbike that spluttered up the road and a local cockerel making himself heard every half an hour from 3:30am onwards, as dawn broke the crickets chirped and birds tweeted, joined the morning chorus. About 7ish we sat on the veranda reading our bibles and watched the morning mist disappear along with the shadow of the house as the sun rose from behind it. It was so peaceful you could hear the odd dog barking and cat meowing that was some half mile away, and occasionally you heard people and children walking along the road; before they came into sight, if they saw you, they were very polite and would say, “Hello, good-morning.”
And we would respond in the same manner.
Our peace was disturbed by the call for breakfast. Crécy made salty tea, because she followed Jackie’s instructions and used the wrong container. Jackie presented us with well done (burnt) toast (which I love) and then proceeded to baptise us with Malta drink, which fell from the fridge. After blaming the world and his wife, she called “Sharrron” in a slightly raised voice, because she was unable to locate the mop, dustpan and broom, according to Jackie, she was the only person who knew where things were or so Jackie believed, I pointed to the items she was looking for whist saying, “you just need to look.”
We laughed and I said, “You’re just like picking on Sharon, because she is your younger sister,”
She replied “no its not true; Sharon should know where everything is” laughing
“Sharrron you hear what the pastor and his wife is saying” she said.
After our breakfast and banter, we showered and sat on veranda, waiting and wondering about Jackie’s plans for today. As we sat there with Miss Lena, Peter, Jackie’s cousin arrived; he was full of life and bantered with Miss Lena.
quiet, except for the motorbike that spluttered up the road and a local cockerel making himself heard every half an hour from 3:30am onwards, as dawn broke the crickets chirped and birds tweeted, joined the morning chorus. About 7ish we sat on the veranda reading our bibles and watched the morning mist disappear along with the shadow of the house as the sun rose from behind it. It was so peaceful you could hear the odd dog barking and cat meowing that was some half mile away, and occasionally you heard people and children walking along the road; before they came into sight, if they saw you, they were very polite and would say, “Hello, good-morning.”And we would respond in the same manner.
Our peace was disturbed by the call for breakfast. Crécy made salty tea, because she followed Jackie’s instructions and used the wrong container. Jackie presented us with well done (burnt) toast (which I love) and then proceeded to baptise us with Malta drink, which fell from the fridge. After blaming the world and his wife, she called “Sharrron” in a slightly raised voice, because she was unable to locate the mop, dustpan and broom, according to Jackie, she was the only person who knew where things were or so Jackie believed, I pointed to the items she was looking for whist saying, “you just need to look.”
We laughed and I said, “You’re just like picking on Sharon, because she is your younger sister,”
She replied “no its not true; Sharon should know where everything is” laughing
“Sharrron you hear what the pastor and his wife is saying” she said.
After our breakfast and banter, we showered and sat on veranda, waiting and wondering about Jackie’s plans for today. As we sat there with Miss Lena, Peter, Jackie’s cousin arrived; he was full of life and bantered with Miss Lena.
She responded saying, “If I catch you’re neck, I would squeeze it”
He replied, “Goo waaay, you couldn’t squeeze a good plate of food.”
She laughed saying “you’ll see, I said you will see”
He told us some folklore regarding the names of places in Jamaica. These are direct quotes from him: in St Elizabeth there an area called pepper, because it gets its name from the Spanish word pimento. The Parish of Hanover got its name because; Westmoreland and St James didn’t know what to do with it so they “hand it over”. The boats from Haiti don’t need any engine to come Jamaica, because if you give a good push they will sail straight down into Portland or St Thomas, because it said to be all down hill. St Thomas is said to be the place where you can find the best obeah man. The two bays Runaway and Discovery got there names because, Runaway was where the slaves ran away too and Discovery was where they found. I not sure how true these are, because you may hear a different version depending on who you talk too, you’ll have to make your own mind up, whom or what you believe.
At 1:30pm we walked to Daliston Square, on the way we stopped to say “hello, good afternoon”, to a couple of Jackie’s friends and people who were sitting in the shade of the houses, working on their land or homes or walking to and from town. As we passed some children who were playing in the church grounds, one little boy bemused by us called his friends and said,
“Look one white man and one white woman,” whist pointing and laughing.
I guess we stood out because of our colour and clothes, also we were strangers and they knew it. JA is a place where everyone, knows everyone else, almost anyone living in the district could tell you that Mr or Miss so and so lives there and tell you something of their background, which became apparent to us after a few days because locals would say of us, “they are from England and staying with Sharon.”
A majority of the people are very warm, friendly, welcoming, they speak very softly and slowly, so we had to listen carefully. Life here moves at a leisurely pace, no one seems to be in a hurry, which was just as well, you may sit in a taxi or on a bus for 15 or 20mins while they wait for other passengers, in fact they were the only things that moved at speed once loaded. Which meant if you were walking, you have to be very alert, with no footpaths and the potholes, uneven ground, blind bends, the odd bits of gully, trucks, mini-buses and cars to avoid; you may have to step into roughage, get very close to a wall or wait on someone’s drive until they passed.
At Daliston I felt we had began to taste and experience JA, there were supermarkets, a police.JPG)
station, a post office, hawkers, selling and roasting breadfruit on car wheel rims, fruiterers, sellers of phone cards, cotton, jelly coconuts, taxi drivers were tooting, shouting there destination “Sav, Bethel Town” and number 
of spaces left (“two fi go”), local people shopping, talking, working or looking for work. Crécy brought some lovely sliced pineapple and gave the man $500 and walked away; he called her back for her change, because it was only $50.
We waited for a while, as Sharon looked for a taxi driver she knew or a car that looked reasonably road worthy. When one arrived, the four of us squeezed in the back, because he already had a passenger in the front. As we drove along he named and pointed out the different churches, as he spoke it became apparent that Devon (the drivers name) was a born again Christian. He spoke about the Lord Jesus Christ with the excitement and passion of a new believer; he was telling that we needed to turn to the Lord, it was the best thing for us; until I told him I was a minister, then he shared with us his testimony,
“I was a bad boy and all I lived for was sex and money, I thought I had to have sex every couple of days or I would die. Other than sex and money the only thing that ever worried me, was where I would go when I died, so I started reading my bible, the bible says there are two places people go when they die, heaven or hell, and I know I didn’t want to go to hell, but I knew it was the place reserved for people like me. As I read on, I discovered that Jesus died so men like me could be forgiven and escape the eternal punishment of hell. Wanting to know more, I started going to church, there I questioned the pastor and elders about what I discovered and they confirmed that is was all true. So I decided to follow the bibles instructions and accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, so I turned my back on my old way of life. I haven’t had sex for 8 months and it doesn’t bother me, because I am trusting in God and obeying His word and I never miss Church on Sunday for anything else, its always church first. I know He knows I would love a wife and I am sure He has one for me; I know, she will be Ms Right, because God only gives us the best and what is good for us. You see sir, serving Jesus is the only thing to do, because he will always bless you.”
We (Crécy and I) were encouraged to hear his testimony and promised to pray for him, which we have done and will continue to do.
When he dropped us off in centre of Savanna-La-Mar (Sav), it was at the end of the school shift, the children only attend school for part of the day; the schools have two or three shifts and two or three different coloured uniforms that are related to the shifts. I wasn’t sure who had finished school and who were just starting.
In Sav we did some window shopping and stopped at Tastee’s for lunch. We had patties in coco-bread, with sweet potato pudding and coconut water (a must have). When refreshed, we crossed
the road and brought some groceries at the D & Y supermarket, at the checkout young-men packed your shopping with great care and carried it too the car or taxi or in our case to the taxi rank, were we got a route taxi back to Daliston. Route taxis can only run between points A and B as licensed, if they go beyond these points, they run the risk of being stopped by the police and would have to pay a fine, I was told the police take all the money they have on them. All JA taxis are route taxis and most of them have there route written on the side of the car so you know where they were going.
At Daliston, Jackie whizzed around the shops picking up one of two items ordered earlier in the day, while we waited for a taxi back to Hopewell. We spent the rest of the evening watching television and making notes of the days events.
He replied, “Goo waaay, you couldn’t squeeze a good plate of food.”
She laughed saying “you’ll see, I said you will see”
He told us some folklore regarding the names of places in Jamaica. These are direct quotes from him: in St Elizabeth there an area called pepper, because it gets its name from the Spanish word pimento. The Parish of Hanover got its name because; Westmoreland and St James didn’t know what to do with it so they “hand it over”. The boats from Haiti don’t need any engine to come Jamaica, because if you give a good push they will sail straight down into Portland or St Thomas, because it said to be all down hill. St Thomas is said to be the place where you can find the best obeah man. The two bays Runaway and Discovery got there names because, Runaway was where the slaves ran away too and Discovery was where they found. I not sure how true these are, because you may hear a different version depending on who you talk too, you’ll have to make your own mind up, whom or what you believe.
At 1:30pm we walked to Daliston Square, on the way we stopped to say “hello, good afternoon”, to a couple of Jackie’s friends and people who were sitting in the shade of the houses, working on their land or homes or walking to and from town. As we passed some children who were playing in the church grounds, one little boy bemused by us called his friends and said,
“Look one white man and one white woman,” whist pointing and laughing.
I guess we stood out because of our colour and clothes, also we were strangers and they knew it. JA is a place where everyone, knows everyone else, almost anyone living in the district could tell you that Mr or Miss so and so lives there and tell you something of their background, which became apparent to us after a few days because locals would say of us, “they are from England and staying with Sharon.”
A majority of the people are very warm, friendly, welcoming, they speak very softly and slowly, so we had to listen carefully. Life here moves at a leisurely pace, no one seems to be in a hurry, which was just as well, you may sit in a taxi or on a bus for 15 or 20mins while they wait for other passengers, in fact they were the only things that moved at speed once loaded. Which meant if you were walking, you have to be very alert, with no footpaths and the potholes, uneven ground, blind bends, the odd bits of gully, trucks, mini-buses and cars to avoid; you may have to step into roughage, get very close to a wall or wait on someone’s drive until they passed.
At Daliston I felt we had began to taste and experience JA, there were supermarkets, a police
.JPG)
station, a post office, hawkers, selling and roasting breadfruit on car wheel rims, fruiterers, sellers of phone cards, cotton, jelly coconuts, taxi drivers were tooting, shouting there destination “Sav, Bethel Town” and number 
of spaces left (“two fi go”), local people shopping, talking, working or looking for work. Crécy brought some lovely sliced pineapple and gave the man $500 and walked away; he called her back for her change, because it was only $50.We waited for a while, as Sharon looked for a taxi driver she knew or a car that looked reasonably road worthy. When one arrived, the four of us squeezed in the back, because he already had a passenger in the front. As we drove along he named and pointed out the different churches, as he spoke it became apparent that Devon (the drivers name) was a born again Christian. He spoke about the Lord Jesus Christ with the excitement and passion of a new believer; he was telling that we needed to turn to the Lord, it was the best thing for us; until I told him I was a minister, then he shared with us his testimony,
“I was a bad boy and all I lived for was sex and money, I thought I had to have sex every couple of days or I would die. Other than sex and money the only thing that ever worried me, was where I would go when I died, so I started reading my bible, the bible says there are two places people go when they die, heaven or hell, and I know I didn’t want to go to hell, but I knew it was the place reserved for people like me. As I read on, I discovered that Jesus died so men like me could be forgiven and escape the eternal punishment of hell. Wanting to know more, I started going to church, there I questioned the pastor and elders about what I discovered and they confirmed that is was all true. So I decided to follow the bibles instructions and accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, so I turned my back on my old way of life. I haven’t had sex for 8 months and it doesn’t bother me, because I am trusting in God and obeying His word and I never miss Church on Sunday for anything else, its always church first. I know He knows I would love a wife and I am sure He has one for me; I know, she will be Ms Right, because God only gives us the best and what is good for us. You see sir, serving Jesus is the only thing to do, because he will always bless you.”
We (Crécy and I) were encouraged to hear his testimony and promised to pray for him, which we have done and will continue to do.
When he dropped us off in centre of Savanna-La-Mar (Sav), it was at the end of the school shift, the children only attend school for part of the day; the schools have two or three shifts and two or three different coloured uniforms that are related to the shifts. I wasn’t sure who had finished school and who were just starting.In Sav we did some window shopping and stopped at Tastee’s for lunch. We had patties in coco-bread, with sweet potato pudding and coconut water (a must have). When refreshed, we crossed
the road and brought some groceries at the D & Y supermarket, at the checkout young-men packed your shopping with great care and carried it too the car or taxi or in our case to the taxi rank, were we got a route taxi back to Daliston. Route taxis can only run between points A and B as licensed, if they go beyond these points, they run the risk of being stopped by the police and would have to pay a fine, I was told the police take all the money they have on them. All JA taxis are route taxis and most of them have there route written on the side of the car so you know where they were going.At Daliston, Jackie whizzed around the shops picking up one of two items ordered earlier in the day, while we waited for a taxi back to Hopewell. We spent the rest of the evening watching television and making notes of the days events.
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