Looking at this with fresh eyes today I'm still at a loss for words or understanding really why this thread was started, why there is such vitriol regarding my using the word "yard" to describe where I live...so, friends on my block and up the block on Hylton Ave, with homes from humble to grand, walls (my godson just finished putting an 8' wall around his entire yard, NOT an inexpensive undertaking)are they not supposed to say they live "a yaad" or "come on over to my yard" or "I just planted a tree in my yard"? Is the word "yard" supposed to be reserved for something else? Macy help me out here - but in the 30 years that I have been coming to Jamaica everyone living there refers to their home/property as their "yard" whether it has 7 dwellings on it, 5 dwellings on it or ONE house on a lot in Redground or Orange Bay (I love OB, such a nice community.) Enlighten me please...cause I say I live in a yard just because its nice, or has a gate (new, by the way) or a high wall (built after my landlord moved his wife and three children in there)...I'm not "getting it" and maybe I never will.
Look - the house I rent, as I said is not a regular vacation rental/villa. Sure, when I get there the landlord takes care to "spruce" it up but there's always stuff to be done, screens repaired, roof shingles to be replaced, this year I had to get a new ceiling fan in my bedroom. No worries. When MDC was being built my yard and my house lost power every day at sunset, just like the rest of my neighborhood. Their generator sounded like a jet engine, lol. We, the renters in the yard had no generators and truth be told lost our sense of humor after a couple of weeks of this nonsense. My friend and I actually flagged down a JPS truck in an attempt to hijack it over to our area to try to fix the problem. Everyone knows the West End, particular my part of the West End has been having severe water problems since November - well...that includes me and my little house. The last "good" shower I had was New Years Eve - my next door neighbor who does not have a pump had her last good shower on Christmas. So, the last month we were there we were dealing with water issues from having to lug containers out to the street on the off chance the water truck came by - we had to try to make the tanks on the property work, then bleach, boil, filter...wash out of a bucket, learn how to do laundry with 5 gallons of water...sure, I could've said "f" this and moved to a hotel as someone suggested but no, not the point. When I say I "live" there that's what I do - through the good, the bad and the ugly (having Bren staying at Catcha Gardens with a nice strong shower came in handy, lol.)
My house is furnished - but my first week is spent moving in - getting my things out of storage, using my own linens, my own kitchen stuff - its a house and it comes with furniture and that's it. No housekeeper. No cook. I shop the way my neighbors shop - fish market, butcher in Sav, veg truck that comes to the yard, chickens from my neighbor's "ranch". I so enjoy that. My little badge of honor when I'm there is cooking with local and seasonal ingredients. Thank you Brenda again, she would get so excited to cook with us and I would LOVE to cook for her. (She was a chef).
So I'm still perplexed as to why JB felt she needed to "figure out" where my yard was and at best peak through the gate (you really wouldn't see much that way anyway) or worst trespass on private property (wouldn't get too far past the dogs is my guess?) JUST to "call a thing a thing". My god girl you are in Negril and walking around my neighborhood is really nice - lots of nice yards with Jamaicans AND Expats living in them and its still one of the few spots where you can see the sea from the road.
Suzen, your spot sounds like paradise so I'm guessing that you must feel blessed in your life too, as I do. So why be so touchy about my feeling blessed with the situations in my life that I have created and worked hard for and have the need to minimize my experiences? I don't want to own land in Jamaica, not now at least...so I rent a house. In a yard. In a real neighborhood, not in the middle of hotel central and in a quiet part of town. Honey, you really inspired me to take that ride east and I'll always be grateful for your advice and encouragement.
And Macy, I GET IT about staying a-yard with FAMILY. These days when I go to New York (my "old country") I stay in a hotel. Family dynamics are family dynamics all over the world.
So now I think I've said enough on the subject, I said before I'm done defending my life to anyone - you guys, my Mom, even my friends sometimes. I am what I am, I know myself and I know my comfort zones and I know when to push outside of that comfort zone. That first time 10 years ago when I sublet my friend's cabin in that same yard (cabin, no hot water, Les called it the "glorified tool shed" lol) I was nervous, it was outside my comfort zone but within the first week of the six I'd spend there that year I felt AT HOME. A-yard. And in a great community.
Another blog post for those interested:
http://westcountywestend.com/2010/10/16/the-yard/