Tuesday Jan 24th

San San Beach, the police stop at the house, and we go to a soccer match

After a breakfast of pancakes which was a nice change up, we went to San San beach. It was a bit of a walk past Frenchman's Cove. Maybe 20 minutes walk? It was just the 4 of us today. Sarge was working at San San beach. He collected our entrance fee of $400 a person. We stayed at the beach for a few hours. The water was blue but it had rained all night and the sand was all mixed up. We couldn't really see anything. There is a reef in the distance, it's pretty to watch the waves breaking. There is also a good view of Monkey Island. Kris and I had our silly rafts so we floated in the sea for a while. We had San San beach to ourselves. No one else was there but Sarge and the bartender. We took some snacks to San San for lunch. I had our oranges from the market and we had a few packs of peanuts and a CranWata I bought for $140j.

Video of San San area. Monkey Island and San San beach. I actually took this the day before but forgot to add it.

After San San we ran into Dave who invited us to go to a soccer game in Fairy Hill later that afternoon. We jumped on the offer and we agreed to meet at 2:30 at the end of our lane. The game was scheduled to start at 3pm. Dave asked if we wanted to take a route taxi, or have him drive us. He told me that he wouldn't charge to carry us but I know (after past experience and advice from some boardies) that nothing is free. We told him that we'd take a route taxi and we'd pay his fee too. $100 per person each way. Cheap way to get around. This was cool with him.

While sitting on the veranda, a jeep with two police women pulled up. The driver honks her horn and the passenger officer tells me to come to the gate. I get up and stand behind the verand gate while the officer looks me up and down giving me the 'cut eye' look. She asks me if we have any children in the house. I tell her no..... she kisses teeth, then silence....she says "ok" in a long and drawn out tone, then they drive on. It was really weird. I'm not sure if she was just checking in on us or what her motive was. Later in the week we were talking about this incident again. Remember when Pakka and I stood outside the church? I happened to be holding a souvenier rum-bar cup (it was empty). Well...there was a lady police officer in uniform right by the door. I am pretty sure it was the same lady. I'm not sure if I pissed her off by listening in on the sermon or what the deal was. Maybe she was just checking on our well being? Who knows?

After she left we walked to the end of the lane to get in the route taxi to go to the soccer match. We had 1 guy up front and 4 in the back seat. Guess who reappears? The 2 women police officers. She jumped the driver's azz for trying to get more than 4 passengers total in the car. She made us get out and told us we'd have to take 2 taxis. Bernie, Dave's friend came up and said he'd wait with Louie and get the next cab. I know the officer was doing her job but come on...how many times have we all seen route taxis filled with people. Oh well. We split up, made her happy and didn't see her again for the rest of our stay.

We arrived at the soccer match. We were early. We had to wait outside the gate for a while. Entrance fee was $100 per person, we paid for Dave and his friend to get in since he invited us and Dave's friend rode with Louie. We bought a few drinks, I had a bag juice. The game was scheduled to start at 3 but there was a man mowing the field by hand with a push mower that kept dying on him. I would have long ago taken a baseball bat to that mower but the man was so patient and just kept restarting it and pushing on. The teams arrived. Drapers vs. Fairy Hill. Drapers was the visiting team. We watched the team change into their uniforms on the side of the field. Kris and I were in heaven. Matt and Louie were disgusted with our ooohing and ahhhing, us girls were elbowing eachother saying "hey, look at that guy". I love soccer. #10 aka Rasta is Drapers star player. He's also pretty good looking too. I have a lot of pictures of him.

Game was action packed. These guys are good! There were a lot of people in attendance. I was recording some video when a fight broke out over a bad call. Someone got chopped, then you can hear 2 gunshots at :40 seconds. I was told it was the police shooting. I'm not sure who it was but I didn't see any police. We left immediatly after this. The game was called off and a winner would be decided later. Dave said that if the wrong team was declared the winner, there would be a riot. We were outta there! Pronto.

Video of some of the game:

Here's the video of the fight:

Back to Drapers, we went to Pakka's to eat dinner. He had made us dolphin fish, ackee and saltfish and callalloo. He made this meal because I told him these were my favorite jamaican foods. There was a LOT of food. There were 5 of us and about 5-6 other people around that ate also. Total was $2500 for everything and everyone. Everyone was happy, Matt bought the chef a "Q" of rum and a craven. The chef was happy too. Word came back to Drapers that the Drapers soccer team was declared the winner. This meant that Drapers would be going to the semi-finals. Last yea,r Drapers was the champion and they had to keep the title. It was an all out party after the winning announcement! Everyone was in a great mood. Things felt at ease. Pakka, Dave and Bernie invited us to go out with them for a while after dinner. We went along to celebrate the win. We met a guy this night who works at Jamaica Palace Hotel. He told us to meet him the following day at 4pm at the front gate of Jamaica Palace and he'd give us a tour of the place.

Before we left to go home, Dave told us that he was going to throw us a going away party on Friday and he was going to invite all of his friends so we could meet them. He was going to jerk some chicken, telling us that he would purchase all of the supplies with his own money. It was his way of paying us back, he said. I thought that was a nice gesture...but....there was a catch. All we had to do was buy all the booze....there was no way we were falling for this. We easily would have spent hundreds of dollars on overproof and beer in just a few hours. We also didn't feel comfortable buying overproof for people we didn't even know. All young men, jacked up on overproof?...I think we'll pass. After the whispers of robbery plans, we went with our best judgement and told Dave not to make any plans for us because we wanted to keep our schedule open. Thanks but no thanks. He nodded. Pakka and Dave walked us back to the end of our lane.

Tonight was one of the worst nights for sleep. An angry man came to the gate about 11pm shaking, rattling and yelling for the host to come out. Our host was not home. I found out the next morning that the man was vexed because his employer didn't pay him for some work. Not sure why he was banging at our gate? He was rum drunk so maybe he had the wrong house? He worked for the neighbor. I got out of bed, peeked out the window, went back to bed... Until about midnight. That's when the dogs started barking. I was very nervous this night. The dogs don't bark for nothing (usually) and this night, they barked alllll niiigghhht looonng. I shut all the windows to our bedroom in case there was someone prowling outside. Tried to get some sleep.

Other news of the day:
Matt and I had won a day pass to Goldeneye in Oracabessa from the Animal House Jamaica annual auction. We had won this on Christmas day but I still had not received any confirmation or the gift certificate I was told we'd be emailed. I was getting nervous because we planned on going to Goldeneye on Thursday Jan26th but I had to confirm it. Our hosts let me use their computer to check my email and I had a message from the director of the Animal House for me to call her. Our hosts also let me use their phone, (I bought them a $100 phone card to make up for the calls I made), I spoke to Animal House and she gave me the direct number for the general manager of Goldeneye. I called her and left a message. Now I just had to wait to hear back. Maureen at Animal House was great in helping me get this sorted out. I was a bit worried for a while, thinking we wouldn't get to go. *our hosts were accomodating when it came to me needing to use the phone and arranging a driver for us.

PICTURE TIME!!!

San San beach

Kris on her raft.

Soccer Game

warm-up

#10 aka Rasta

There had to be 2 time-outs called during the game. It was funny.

Dog on the field

Goat on the field

Some mushrooms I found . No, I didn't eat them, just took a picture.

Dinner at Pakka's

Our group after the game.

jeannie, you and your pack did really well!! . . . you mixed wisely! . . . and got experience to some degree what it's like to "live" in a regular jamaican neighbourhood . . . not easy for true!!!! . . . now, you could have left anytime, but the folks that live there can't. . . . their reality is not pretty . . . it's rough, rough!!!

Wow, you sure did have a lot of excitement!

I love the "goat on the field" pic, that's classic.

Why did you have to mix their faces up? Boy your trip is a trip in itself !!!! good job !!!

LOL! I loved the goat on the field. I'm really enjoying your report. But it's making me rethink if I want to head that direction. I know I'd have Sophie to guard me but. . .

Jeannieb- You are beautiful. You look like I wish I had looked at your age BUT you seem to be completely down to earth as if you don't even know you are beautiful~~~now THAT is a lovely combination

Whew! You're having quite a full trip here, Jeannie! And meeting lotsa cops, LOL. You are one patient ooman! Really enjoying these trip reports!

Talk about "grace under fire" seems like you handled "the yard life": pretty well and kept on with a very sincere smile...Many lesser mortals would have been gone..My hats off to you and yours..Seems like you defintely "Thicken your Jam skin:" but also got to exp. some awesome events-totally "jam" style..
I'm just sorry you had to deal with the "drapers accommodations fiasco"..
I wait anxiously for more pics and report..
And I hope this dosent turn you off da side of the island..I think Zion country would be perfect(as Jitters rec)- I plan to stay there myself in the future..and that area so much different than the rest of A Jam (including Drapers)
Hats off to you...your a real traveler-that can flex with da best of them..

Oh yes, You are mucho bonita ms JB...I love the fact that you took the chance and set out to exp a diff. Jam-maybe it wasn't as planned (but jam will never allow that ..lol) but so many that vacation there or even spend long-term vacation rentals never leave their area ..I understand if you actually own/lease/rent a house full-term (not just vac rental) that all that money and time/hassle you spent you want to enjoy it..but props to you for getting out..you take a chance and dealt with it-but somehow you have some kind of positive rewards from the exp I gather as well...

I realize not everyone is of the adventuresome spirit-but props to those that are...Like St Augustine wrote: the world is a like a book and if only stay in one place its like only reading one page..

FOOTBALL JeannieB FOOTBALL not Soccer. :p

Im a huge FOOTBALL fan and yes Jamaicans are v good players. Reggae Boyz!!! Many Jamaicans play for English Premier League Teams. Drapers team looks quite flush. Full matching kit, boots, proper full size goal on a well maintained full pitch!! They must be good. That pitch seriously has to be one of the most beautiful I have ever seen in the world. Look at that backdrop! My boy played FOOTBALL in Ja last reach and learnt a few fouls...LOL! We are saving lots of football gear to take with us next time.

My word it all goes off where you are. Does it calm down some? bc I dont think my nerves can take much more.....x x (j/k..you know Im loving it) x x