Mountains and mangroves

'Linger by the Sea' - restaurant at our resort. It took us a few days to figure out what Lingah was!

 It's Sunday morning and I'm sitting in the outdoor lobby of our resort getting ready to edit some videos and listening to beautiful gospel singing coming from the church that happens to be directly above our room (which I just realized right now!). And in Fredericton, all of the Jeffries family is watching Alan play at the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival's 'Bluegrass Brunch'. Thankfully my sister-in-law, Mary, is sharing photos and videos of the show with me.

We've had a great week in Negril. My favourite part of the day besides our sunset swims is taking time to talk to locals and hear their fascinating stories. I've heard of how the beach used to be so wide that they would play football games in front of the hotels. Now so much of the beach has been lost that there only a few meters of beach is left in many places, and some hotels have waves literally crashing at their front steps. I also had a chance to talk to a man, Mr. Arthur, whose father opened the very first tourist spot in Negril in 1952. Back then this was just a  very small fishing village, and now almost everyone earns their living from something related to tourism. Mr. Arthur showed me a photo of his father with Negril's first ever tourist - a woman from L.A. who gave him 4 pounds to help build his business. Last night I had a chance to sit on the beach and look at the stars. Just as I was thinking how nice it was to finally be alone for a moment, a rasta walked up the beach, singing to himself.  When he spotted me he came over and asked if we could have a talk. He said 'I've never had a chance to talk to someone strange before, and I've always wanted to talk to someone strange.' I figured this must be a compliment, so I invited him to sit down and we talked for awhile about the beliefs of rastas - respect and love for all people - and about his life growing fruit in the mountains. I love that I can take the time to listen and enjoy stories such as these. The pace of life here always allows for time to talk to your friends and neighbours - and even people who are strange.

Proudly giving 'respect' in his new Bob Marley shirt. I took this photo for Alan and Caleb thinks his dad needs a matching shirt for Christmas. 

Mangrove Man! 

 We decided to visit some of the country yesterday and took a boat tour of Black River. The drive to the river was beautiful - fields of banana trees and sugar cane, mountains in the distance, small coastal villages with kids fishing from rocks in the sea, small food stands selling ackee, fish and bamby and many other delicious fruits. Black River is lined with mangrove trees, herons and egrets. Seeing the crocodiles was definitely the highlight of the trip for Caleb - especially when he got to say 'see you later alligator, after awhile crocodile' - his favourite saying for the past few weeks!

 Even more surprising than spotting crocodiles was watching the local fisherman snorkelling and using a spear gun to catch fish within meters of the crocodile. What a way to make a living.

Cale spends his mornings with Linda while Greg and I work. They play games, read books and do crafts like this masterpiece. We collected shells, leaves and flowers and cut out newspaper photos and then let Cale loose with the glue. I asked to see his drawing when got home from work, and he said - 'Mom, it's not a drawing, it's a glueing!'