Christmas in Montego Bay

I was able to get out of Kingston for Christmas and Boxing Day and spent the holidays in Montego Bay with my dear friends Mario and Tami. We have known each other for about 18 years, and become as close as family. We have been through the ups and downs that this type of relationship sees. We have had the joys and pains of watching each others kids grow up. We have seen their kids, become adults with their own kids, and as for Shani and I, well we started our family late. We had been married for 10 years before we decided to have our own children. Our son is now 15,(my heavens where has the time gone?), and our daughter is 13. So we still have a few years before our kids are on their own.

Mario and Tami and I all went to Sunset Beach Resort and Spa here in Montego Bay yesterday. It is approximately 400 feet up the road from where Mario lives now, it's in the same complex my wife Shani, the kids and I used to live in (I took the picture of the pool and flowers off of his balcony this morning). Mario, like me, has also become an expatriated American here without his family. Tami is a school teacher (very honorable profession) and is here for a visit during the holidays. It was nice to be together with them again during Christmas.

The Trip to Sunset Beach Resort was very relaxing and very nice. It's good to visit "The Tourist Jamaica" occasionally so I don't forget that I live in an island paradise. Living in Kingston is almost like living in any other big city anywhere in the world. It's dirty, the traffic is heavy, it's noisy, and worst of all (for an avid scuba diver like me), the waters around Kingston are badly polluted. I hope and pray that the Jamaican people will come to the realization that if they continue to pollute their water it will destroy their nation. I just hope they realize this sooner rather than later.

I look forward to the times I'm able to get away from Kingston, I get reminded of how beautiful this country is and how the people are friendly and willing to talk to anyone that shows any interest in what they are doing. For the most part, the people of Jamaica are friendly, hard working people, and are very proud of who they are as a nation. Once I learned to speak some patois (the local language), my adventures got even more interesting. It surprises them when I speak their language, albeit with a foreigner's accent, but it's a good ice breaker. I think I will save some examples of this for another blog posting.

Until then.....No Problems Mon!