While waiting in the immigration line at the Donald Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay a few years ago, I heard the unmistakable sound of a mento band. They were playing a familiar tune, Take Her to Jamaica, and as I waited, I tapped my feet lightly and hummed along. The singing got louder as I exited immigration on my way to pick up my luggage from the carousel. By...

I never made it to St. Thomas, located on Jamaica’s southeastern coast, until I was in high school. As part of our graduation celebration, our teacher organized a day trip around the island that brought us not to Morant Bay, its historic capital, but to Prospect Pen to view the Jamintel Earth Station* that had opened some years earlier. I still have the grainy photo of us posing primly in...

Welcome to another #FoodieTuesday! You can join the #FoodieTuesday linkup by – Adding the link to your foodie post in the link tool at the bottom of this post Leaving a comment. As a courtesy, please include a link back to this post. Tweeting, G-plusing, Facebooking using the hashtag #FoodieTuesday   Today, Jamaica celebrates her 51st year of Independence. There have been many changes in the country since 1962, notably...

One of the best things about the tropics is the profusion of flowering plants. They spill out from gardens, line country roads and overhang private walkways, and paint my surroundings in vibrant red, yellow, purple, and white. During the past year, I’ve written several times about the tropical flowers I’ve been reacquainted with and those I’ve been introduced to, and I’m still finding more new (to me) flowers. Here are...

It wasn’t hard to miss this colorful object, called a dove harp, that was part of an exhibition on view at the National Museum of Jamaica (formerly the Institute of Jamaica). I thought I recognized the work as belonging to one of our local artists but I wasn’t sure. A quick look at the caption confirmed that the object was the creation of intuitive artist, Everald Brown, popularly called “Brother...

Welcome to another #FoodieTuesday linkup!   Would you eat something called blue drawers? Don’t answer just yet. Read on then let me know later. Jamaicans have a knack for christening people and things with more descriptive names. Some members of my family did it. If someone reminded them  of something else or if the person had a prominent feature, they’d call that person, behind their backs, of course, by that...

Hope Botanical Gardens or Hope Gardens, as most Jamaicans call it, is a popular spot especially for those who live in Kingston and surroundings. It’s where they go to relax on Sunday afternoon, or to enjoy nature. With the nearby Hope Zoo, Hope Gardens is also a favorite destination for school trips – it’s on almost every school’s excursion schedule. Hope Gardens sits on 60-acres of the Ligunaea Plains at...

This week’s Friday Focus visits with Kristi Keller, a Calgary native who fell in love with Jamaica and has visited the island about twenty times since 2003. Kristi has also spent months at a time in Jamaica. 1.     Tell us about yourself. I was born and raised in Calgary, Canada.  As a youth I was a dancer and a country girl, spending most of my time riding my horse.  As...

I’ve written about Devon House but only recently returned to do a tour of the Georgian style house, which is located in Kingston. Devon House was built in 1881 for George Stiebel on a property that was known as Devon Penn. Popularly described as Jamaica’s first black millionaire, Stiebel, the child of German and Jamaican parents, was a carpenter, shipper and gun runner. He struck gold after he invested in...

My father loved steamed fish. It seemed to me that he had it all the time, that it was his favorite breakfast meal. With green bananas or yam. I think this habit of his of eating this way for breakfast was because he grew up in rural Jamaica where a substantial morning meal was common. I was never a big fan of steamed fish. I prefer my fish fried as...