Living in Llandillo
**Disclaimer** I regret that the trip in this post is about a year before I owned a digital camera and I hardly have any pictures that were worth using 🙁 Kind of crappy pics and definitely a lack of them too. Sorry!
On my second trip to Jamaica back in 2003 I had made arrangements to stay at the home of a Jamaican police officer in Llandillo Phase 1, Savanna La Mar, in the parish of Westmoreland. Not as glamorous as it sounds LOL.
This post could be really long because I have sooo much to say about this trip and you can’t really cram the good stuff. Since it was only my second time in Jamaica there was a HUGE difference in what I would experience from my first trip. I do believe this trip was the turning point in how I viewed the country as a whole, the people, the culture, etc. It’s also the point when I became ANTI-resort for so many reasons.
The officer Adrian picked me up at the airport when I arrived and it was very stressful because I’d only met him for a brief time 2 months earlier. Honestly I didn’t even remember what he looked like and had no idea who I was looking for! I knew he was really tall and I was hoping he’d spot me first so I didn’t look like an idiot. Sure enough he did spot me and he rushed up to help with my bags because it was a downpour when I got there and we just wanted to get in the car! Stupid me ran up to the wrong side of the car to get in because I forgot the driver is on the opposite side in Jamaica. DUH.
Once inside the car and soaked we kind of laughed about the rain and sat for a minute getting acquainted. It was awkward but fun. We hit the road, left Montego Bay and headed towards “Sav La Mar”, which is just outside of Negril. We had a good 2 hour drive ahead of us. We ate and had a Red Stripe at a little roadside stop on the way, watched some Cricket on the TV in there, then hit the road again.
We finally reached his neighborhood which pretty much looked half done and under construction. I guess this housing scheme was fairly new, phase 1. His house looked really large approaching and I was impressed. It was fully grilled around the house and yard so he had to get out to unlock the grill to drive in. I soon found out when we entered the house that its actually split off into 3 different living units and is occupied by himself and 2 other families. I now know that in Jamaica, tons of people live this way and its normal. I had to laugh because people here in North America are pretty greedy with their space and privacy.
Adrian’s living space consisted of one room which housed his bed, dresser, dining table, TV and a fridge. He had a door to lock off his area, and the door led down a hall. First right was the bathroom and at the end of the hall was the full kitchen….both of which he shared with a single mother and her son. The other half of the house was bigger and was occupied by a couple and their daughter. Cool. And the whole neighborhood was occupied by police.
I’ll try to compress the week a bit so this post doesn’t completely drag on. The downside to this week was that Adrian is a police officer and it was close to elections in Jamaica. So he wasn’t able to be around hardly at all because elections are very volatile and the police are much busier than usual. Those were the days he’d drop me at the beach in Negril and I was left to entertain myself. Boring, I won’t even write about the beach. The upside is that on the couple days he WAS available we drove half the island and I got to see all the reasons why I’ve kept going back ever since!
One of my beach days was awesome though. I was alone at the house since Adrian went to work early in the morning. While I was sitting on the veranda wondering what to do the neighbors with the little girl came and asked if I’d like to join them for the day at a local beach. Of course!! I quickly phoned Adrian to see if it was a good idea and he said go ahead! I had the most wonderful day with the family and the little 4 year old clinging to my arm.
Seven days was WAAY too short for this kind of exploratory trip but I’ll give the quick version of the places we visited and the people I got to meet.
- A day up the mountain in Mandeville, Manchester where its shockingly cold! We visited his aunt who lives there.
- Drove through Bamboo Avenue, Black River….on the way to Mandeville.
- Spent a day in Falmouth, Trelawny. Played pool at a local billiards place.
- Visited a school in Magotty, Hanover where Adrian’s uncle is a teacher.
- Ate at several little roadside stops that I would have never found.
- Visited a barber in a tiny town where the children hadn’t met a white girl ever!
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