Living on the Island Jamaica: I Cannot Swim

 

 Inquisitive Person: Where are you from?

Me trying to listen music: I am from Jamaica

Inquisitive Person: Oh nice! Jamaica, the land of wood and water. " Yeah mon"

                                Do you know Bob Marley?

 Me trying to listen music: Stares Bloodcl**tly         

 Inquisitive Person:   Can you swim?

 Me trying to listen music: No, not really

Inquisitive Person:  In utter disbelief. How can you live on an island and not know how to                                       swim? How is that even possible?

 If you know, you know

 First of all where I grew up, It was mostly wood and no water.  I didn't learn to swim because back then, there was only a pond or watering hole that was created for the animals to drink from. When other people had the luxury of swimming with the dolphins, If I were to learn to swim in that pond I would be swimming with the frogs and, that would be just wrong because I do not like frogs and I am very afraid of them. There is something about the way that they jump that does not sit right with my spirit.

Secondly, not knowing how to swim is not a requirement or a rite of passage for living on an island.  It is awesome if you can  swim but it does not hinder us islanders from functioning as any other normal human being. We do not live under water, not like the little mermaid Ariel did, nor Sponge Bob, nor do we have houses and other establishment on the water (unless its for tourist attraction). People who lives on an island lives on land. We do not  swim to work, nor the supermarket nor the bank  and so on.

 What was very important though, living on an island especially in Jamaica in the rural area as a child was:

Knowing how to run/walk very fast

When your mother/ grandmother or guardian says to you as a child " no mek me spit dry up and you no reach back".  You have to know how to run /walk fast to Mass Eugene shop or wherever they send you. "Hurry and come back", you better "walk sharp".

Some of us ran from getting beating but that was never a good idea because you shall be getting it by the 'hook or the crook'. Truth be told, getting beating in your sleep was way worse and if you shift your hand, more lick was gonna be added.  Also, it was a possibility to get more beating if you cried too extra after the first beating because you did not get anything to cry for the first time. Those days are over though.  Its a new generation.

You had to run down common fowl (chicken) to catch them to start cooking it from the day before, for the dinner of the next day. By the way, if somebody tells you that you tuff (tough) like common fowl, please remove yourself from their presence and go in a corner and cry (Just kidding).

 You have to know how to duck/ sight/evade getting hit

You have to know how to duck or sight. When growing up as a child  in Jamaica  in the deep rural parts and your underwear starts to get too tight , smelly or big, you do  not get new ones. When your 'drawse' (underwear-panty/brief) was getting too big or begin to smell, you  were rewarded with a broom, slippers, rock-stone or anything that was within reach at the time of your deemed misbehavior thrown after you. Therefore you had to know how to duck, or something was gonna claat you in a you boxcova.

If you were a chatta box or a copy pecker in school , teacher was going to fling duster/eraser after you, so it was best to know how to sight. For good practice we played dandy shandy also known as sight in the middle.

Swimming for fun

I did learn to swim a little, but I can only swim in a swimming pool. I did not learn sea swimming. That is next on my agenda. While I can swim in a pool, it is very different from the swimming that would be required for the sea. 

• First of all the pool has walls to contain its water and for me to hold on to, the sea has no walls or anything for that matter to hold on to.

• The swimming pool has no waves. The sea has waves in different categories , so you can see my dilemma there.
  

• I can stand in the pool only if its no more than 5 ft deep... the sea is very deep and wide. Hence, I have only learnt swimming pool swimming. 

 

I thank you, 

Bye.