What Vibes?

I didn’t leave the property to meet with my friends until the third day after my arrival. I grabbed my laptop and would be meeting them at a local internet cafe. It was nice to finally feel enough energy to see them !

I began the 10 minute walk towards the main road, taking in the neighborhood, watching for mean yard dogs and greeting some of the locals along the way. There were these two crazy guys I would have to pass every time I walked that road – one would always be standing under a big ol mango tree with a huge grin on his face, sometimes having an animated conversation with an unseen friend. He was always smiling….or talking to stray goats. He was harmless. The other dude had more of a sinister vibe about him; always grinding some herb in the palm of his hand and silently giving me the evil eye as I passed. The yard man told me that dude was crazy and to steer clear of him. On one of my subsequent walks, this scary dude was there as usual, although this time as I passed he let out a huge roar of laughter that startled me and said, “Ha ha ha! You’re too fat/phat!!! Ha ha!!!” I’ll never know if he was complimenting or dissing me, LOL! But I digress…

I arrived at the internet cafe that morning as well as a few other mornings during my stay. Typically I would have a bite to eat or a smoothie, check email, and visit with whatever friends were there or happened to show up. During these mornings, there were always other message board “boardies” there as well; either vacationing or staying long term in Negril. I made it a point NOT to reveal myself as Yamangurl to the folks I do not really know….I like to be somewhat invisible when I travel to Negril; just a preference of mine and one of my personal travel safety measures.

I am glad I kept to myself with those folks at the cafe because I found I have absolutely nothing in common with any of them! Honest to the almighty creator, I cannot believe the gossip and venom these folks would say about every person they knew! Ugh! It didn’t take long for that to get really old….”this rude posse person is a major coke head, and that person is sleeping with every Jamaican she can get her hands on, and this dude is married and having babies with any tourist with two legs, and that tourist is here with her hubby but sleeping with the owner of that market ova der under her hubby’s nose, this business owner expects the employees to work and they often don’t get paid, and  then of course there was all that bullshit with a certain message board moderator and his  girlfriend who, when she gets drunk, likes to yell that she hates “Uh-mericans”…..

I was glad they didn’t know anything about me personally, else no doubt I would have been included in their discussions. Who knows, maybe they gossiped about me too anyway, LOL! During this trip, it seemed that I saw so many instances of people displaying the worst of themselves. I wasn’t prepared for that during my vacation…and I admit I let it get to me this time.

Christmas Day arrived and I gave the owner and yard man the gifts I had brought with me. They expressed their excitement and gratitude at receiving them, so it was nice to be able to make someone’s day. It turns out that there was to be no yard party afterall; so instead I headed over to a gathering at a local place on the cliffs, then headed back to the property.

That evening one of my friends called and she invited me to a staff Christmas party that was happening at a local bar. She was on her way right then and would have the driver come to get me too. So although dark, I began walking towards the road in order to meet them part way. Afterall, I figured the driver wouldn’t want to drive his car on that bad road either.

Before you know it, I was lost! It was dark, I couldn’t see where  the hell I was going and I hadn’t previously walked that road enough to know which way to go – I was so turned around!!! Ugh! Then I started to panic because I didn’t know if I was safe, there was no one else about (at least that I could see, LOL) and my friend’s phone had decided to stop working entirely shortly before this. Great…. I started imagining that I would stay lost, or get murdered and no one would find my bones for years. Can I just tell you how frustrating that was??? AND scary. Normally I have a good sense of direction but that time I hadn’t a clue!

Fortunately, I soon saw headlights from an approaching car and it was indeed my friend there to pick me up.

I get in the car and after a few moments commisserating about being lost and scared, the driver says to me, “I know you”. I was like, “huh?”  I did not recognize him at all. My friend said that as they were approaching he asked her if I was Jamaican because we were driving “inna yahd”, ha ha. But then he saw me walking towards them he asked her what my name was and she told him; apparently he recognized me, even from a distance. So I asked him, “What’s your name?” And he told me his name, but still I didn’t think I knew him.

Then it finally hit me…(cue “Twighlight Zone” music)

On a previous trip two years prior, I was traveling with a couple of friends via route taxi to Clarendon. We started out from Negril to the car park in Sav la Mar, then got in a bus there; the driver of the bus wouldn’t leave until it was full, so my friends climbed in the back and I found a spot towards the front and sat next to some guy.

That leg of the trip was nearly three hours, and the bus was jam-packed as is the norm with route transportation in Jamaica. We were all squished together so I made the most of it and ended up with my arm around this strange guy for the whole trip!  We ended up talking the whole time. Before he got off the bus near his home in Mandeville, I gave him some things to give his daughter that I happened to have in my bag and we exchanged phone numbers. For about a year after that trip we occasionally kept in touch, but eventually lost contact. I never saw him again.

Well, tonight’s driver was THAT guy!!!!

Who would have ever thought in a million years, that someone I met in another parish two years ago was now driving a taxi in Negril and happened to be the driver picking us up that night??? I dunno, it was just really weird to me.

But this is Jamaica. Anything is possible here, no problem, mon.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 6:19 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.