First Christmas in Jamaica

When I was about 12 years old, my family stopped celebrating Christmas, in addition to the rest of the holidays. The reason is because my mom became a Jehovah's Witness (google it if you want more details). So, for the past 12 years, Christmas has been a weird time for me, mostly because it was my favorite holiday when I was younger. The music, the decorations, the lights, waking up early to run to the living room to see all my presents, A Christmas Story marathon on TNT...such a happy time. After I went to college, I started "celebrating" again: going to Christmas parties or dinners, exchanging gifts, etc. But when I would come home for Christmas break, it was just like a normal day. No decorations. No exchanging of presents. No preparing for family to come over. Just another day of the year. To some people, that sounds sad (as said to me by some people). I actually got used to it pretty quickly though, once I stopped worrying about what people thought. Since I haven't truly celebrated Christmas in a long time, I wondered how my Christmas in Jamaica would be.

Here are a few differences that I noticed:

1.  People don't decorate nearly as much. Most people say that they can't afford the current (electricity).

2.  No snow. If it ever snows in Jamaica, I'm pretty sure people would think the world's coming to an end.

3.  Not as much emphasis on buying gifts. I mean, they do go shopping here, but it's not as crazy as in the U.S. I don't think you would hear about someone getting trampled at MegaMart by a crowd of people trying to get the last Tickle Me Elmo, you know? Although there is Market Day...

4.  There is an event called Market Day, held on Christmas Eve, in different cities across Jamaica. Market Day (at least the one I briefly experienced) is basically where vendors with all kinds of products are lining the streets, crowds of people are walking around looking and maybe buying, music is playing, and jerk chicken is being grilled everywhere. It lasts into the wee hours of the morning. I actually know people who didn't return home until about 7 the next morning. I, on the other hand, was home by 10 pm. It was interesting to see, but since I'm not a big fan of crowds, there wasn't anything spectacular about it for me. I heard, though, that the one in Mandeville isn't quite as exciting as the one in other places like Brown's Town in St. Ann or Kingston. So maybe next year I'll try a different one.

5.  A lot of families go to church on Christmas Day. Now this may actually be common in the U.S. too but most people I know stay at home.

Thats all I can think of right now. Let me tell you about my Christmas week. On Tuesday, a few other volunteers and I traveled to the eastern part of the island to hike the Blue Mountains.

 

It's a really beautiful area

I'm not really an outdoors type of girl. Never been hiking or camping or anything. But I wanna try new things, break stereotypes, prove that black people do hike and stuff. I don't know any black people that do, but I'm sure there are some. I actually have a list of things that I wanna try, but I'll save it for another post. So, in my attempt to try something new, I ended up getting sick early in the hike and chose to turn around and go back to Jah B's, the place we were staying. But you better believe I'm trying again. Before May 2012, I will make it to the top of that mountain.

So, while out in the wilderness, somehow I developed a swollen top lip. I ended up going to see our PCMO's (Peace Corps Medical Officers), and spending the night in Kingston since it was too late to go home. So glad I got to stay. I got to go to Pizza Hut and to a free charity concert in Emancipation Park featuring Tarrus Riley, Queen Ifrica, and a host of other reggae artists. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even with my swollen top lip (although it wasn't as swollen by then).

I returned home the next day (Thursday) and went shopping for ingredients to make my immensely popular and delicious cheesecake (for which I'm currently having withdrawals). On Friday, a PCV couple in Mandeville had me and a couple of other volunteers over for vegetarian enchiladas. Then we all ventured out for Market Day (see no.4 above). I later returned home to wrap presents.

Christmas Day finally rolled around and I woke up early so I could give out my gifts. The kids are usually the only ones to get presents so mom, dad, and sis were surprised when I gave them gifts. I got my brother EJ a batman wallet and I'm happy to see he's been carrying it around ever since.

After opening presents, we all went to go put flowers on Errol's (host dad) aunt's grave. She died last year in September and I think it's gonna be a tradition from now on to visit her grave every Christmas. I felt very honored to be included. They all reminisced about different times spent with her, things she used to do, how good her cooking was, etc. Apparently she even got to spend time with the PCV's that lived with my host family a couple of years ago.

Next we started preparing for dinner. I made my cheesecake and then helped with the other preparations. Whenever I get married and have a family, Christmas dinner will absolutely not be at our house...not unless it's a potluck. There is so much to do. And sooo much food to cook. Rice and peas, jerk chicken, ham, curry goat, salad, quiche, etc...not exactly the Southern cuisine I would have liked, but still very good. I was full as a tick. There were about 20 people total partaking, and there were still a lot of leftovers.

Sorry I don't have more pics of the food :)

After eating and cleaning up, everyone just sat around and chilled. The men went out on the veranda and played dominoes. Some people went to sleep. Overall, the day went well and I really enjoyed it. My first Christmas in Jamaica turned out to be a good one, thanks to my host family and PCV friends. Love you all!

Tash, EJ, and one their cousins in the middle