Mi Go A Kingston

Want to feel a little Jamaican today?  My sweet friend, Tash put this on her Facebook update status.  Can you understand the Jamaican patwa language?  Jamaicans speak the King's English.  So they understand me fine.  They have a dialect of words and phrases that have been shortened and have their own meanings.  They call the "patwa".  I don't speak it but I can usually understand it.  Prince can speak it like a native and loves it when someone assumes he's a {rich} white American tourist then he starts speaking patwa.

"when the devil see seh God guh give mi some job him try fi stop it. but a one ting God back mi and i will get wats mine with God as my shield and provider am rich with him"

Here is a prayer that she wrote in her notes.
  "Lord your guidance and protection i seek. ur love, mercy and forgiveness i need, b wit me as i trod on this journey. Help me to c d bad and move away frm dem. let me c d good and embrace it and as i travel on this path hold my hands, lead me, lift me up and carry me cause i am helpless, hopeless, weak, a failure and ntn without u. ur understanding and righteousness i seek cause i have non of my own aMEN Love u Lord.:)"


We went over the mountain today to Kingston (the capitol) to buy groceries.  I've mentioned it before that there is a store very similar to Sam's Club.  We can save money by driving there and buying in bulk.  I mainly enjoy just getting out of the house!  In Kingston there is a T.G.I. Fridays.   If I was in the States that really wouldn't be my choice to eat there but I love the American feeling that we get being there.  So we went and I savored every bite of my hamburger and french fries...and broccoli and cheese soup.  It has been sooo long since I've been to a sit down restaurant and ate something that didn't come wrapped in aluminum foil!  It was soooo good.

I was personally surprised at the amount of "whities" in there....also enjoying the atmosphere.  While we were there I was walking Brynlee to the restroom.  We had to walk all the way around the restaurant to the other side.  Poor lil, Brynlee isn't used to whities.  There were 2 white teenage boys sitting at a table and they tried to talk to her when she walked by.  She stopped walking and stared at them with her wide eyes.  Suddenly she turned and ran back around the restaurant towards Daddy.  Poor baby.  Scary white boys.

Hop into my bus and enjoy the view of the Jamaican countryside as we zoom along dodging potholes, goats, and bicycles.

(see the Caribbean Sea blended into the sky?  

We were going up into the mountains but were so high we could see the Sea.  

Remember this is a small Island.)

(I always enjoy this old Church)

(Interesting little blue house

See the bathtub?)

(push cart with fruit.  You see these everywhere!)

(this is a large farm.  When we drove by on the way home there was a whole bunch of baby cows.)

(see the pots cooking where you can by stewed chicken and rice and peas, also her fruit for sale - 

banana, orange, pineapple, yams)

(Some parts of the mountain road is very treacherous.  This is the crumbling edge.  

Some looks worse than this.  I was trying to show that it is a straight down drop off 

over that little bitty ledge.)

(I don't know the name of this river but it is pretty and seems like it is always this mellow green color)

(Can you see the lady walking across at the bottom?  

Many times I've seen ladies doing their laundry down there)

(more patwa)

Have a lovely day,