I will never fail on my decision to "Choose Joy" each and every day and this past week was a test of that :) Living through remodeling with 3 rooms of your house in totes in the living room and every inch of space covered with white plaster dust is a challenge. That said...Project 365 is a failure. I guess there are worse resolutions to fail on then not even knowing where your camera is and not being able to get to the second one! I do love the idea of a photo of a day though so maybe once things settle down I will do a photo a day for a month :)Mosaic 2: Starfruit are currently ripe and being harvested and we got to eat one fresh off the tree. A view of the Jamaican coastline from a stop on our atv riding tour, another tour offered was the swimming horseback ride where the horses swim you on a trek in waters up to 20 ft deep - not for us :) More flowers and a banana plant.
Since the only photos I can access right now are ones already stored on the computer I bring you scenes from Jamaica in mosaics.Mosaic 3: Those big blue blossoms are beautiful but they are from an invasive vine that is growing up a lot of trees in the forest and killing them off. The reason I took this photo is the Jamaican version of a ladybug which was about 1/4 the size of our ladybugs. Jamaica grows 12 varieties of pineapple and we sampled 6 of them. None of them are the ones we can buy locally and oh how I wish we could, delicious! A cluster of jackfruit, pelicans flying at sunrise and more Jamaican wildlife in the form of a lizard.
Mosaic 4: Water sport scenes from our resort, sunset over Montego Bay, more flowers and 2 beautiful birds. The scissor tail hummingbird is actually called a Doctorbird and it is the national bird of Jamaica. It was a fast mover and I couldn't find him half the time in the screen of my purse sized camera I brought with on the trip. Seeing the Jamaican birds was the only time I regretted leaving the good camera back home! I asked the name of the yellow/black/white bird and have already forgotten the name but the gardener at our hotel told me they are nicknamed the wasp bird because they bring the wasps with them. Tradition says they promised the wasp one of their eggs in return for protection for the rest of the eggs and so the wasps follow them around and protect their nests from other predators.
Mosaic 5: Two more photos of the doctorbird (it was so beautiful) and more tropical plants.
Mosaic 6: Seeing the "real Jamaican" out of the tourism sector was my favorite part of the trip. Jamaican roads are something else - 2 laned roads that are narrow than a one lane here in these parts. School kids in their uniforms and the color of the uniform says which school you attend. The business places were the most interesting - most you walk in and there is one long caged in counter and you purchase your stuff through the salesperson behind the counter. Corner bars were everywhere in an approx 10' x 10' bldg with a bar counter and maybe 3 chairs. That said Jamaica is in the records books as having the most churches per square mile since they average 1/sq mile. The photo with the girl in the yellow outfit is a local restaurant. The homes in the upper right were 2 of the nicer we saw - maybe I should say 2 that were finished. Jamaicans don't take out home mortgages because their interest rates are from 13-31% - instead they save $$ and build as they can afford it and it can take from 5 to 20 years to build your house. One local told us the "deep pockets" can afford to build their homes in 5 years but the average Jamaican takes 10-20 years. Many homes are one level and being lived in with rebar sticking up for the second story to be added at a later day - many have stockpiles of sand and cement blocks on the yard purchased as they can afford it for construction later.
Mosaic 7: Examples of houses being lived in and under construction - some you could see one room finished, some the entire lower level and some were even built around the original wooden shack which I imagined would be torn down as the house was finished. The photo in the lower right is scaffolding which I don't think would pass a safety inspection in the US. The photos on the left are to show just how narrow the 2 lane roads were and they don't slow down much when meeting someone either. A constant noise on these curvy roads is the beep of vehicle horns - they beep when approaching a curve (and there are many) to warn pedestrians and other vehicles someone is coming around the curve.
Mosaic 8: More scenes of rural Jamaica - the narrow roads, people getting their water from a river (only 85% of Jamaicans have access to piped water), one of the many churches and some colorful homes. The bottom 2 photos were quite interesting. If you live more than 5 miles from a cemetery you are allowed to have a family plot on your property. Many homes had crypts in small yards and the lady buried in the lower left has a fancy "home" built on her crypt compared to the actual house on the property. One last interesting fact - Jamaicans pay property tax on the actual land they own and not the value of their homes. So if you have a lot with a tin shack or a mansion by their standards you are taxed the same if your lot is the same size.
Visiting Jamaica really hits home to how fortunate most of us are, we take running water for granted, we take our 3-4 bedroom homes for granted and we are wasteful with the amount of food we have. No more complaining on my messy remodel for me - I'm lucky I have the means to do so. That said, this week will be spent painting so I won't be back online for awhile.
