This story begins with hike through the bush to the neighboring community of Quick Step. It was about two weeks ago and I had just mobilized an effort to trace out the original Maroon trail that linked the community with Accompong by way of Saucey Bottom in the northwest. I had originally worked through a very reliable and honest Rasta named Taurus, who, unfortunately, had acquired some more associates to act in his stead. I was a little confused seeing that I had originally thought that I would be working with Taurus alone. On the other hand, I had already experience so many set backs and it seemed to good to be true that these men were ready and willing start with the trail the next day, so I gave them the go ahead and told them that we did not had any real working capital to amount to anything. The men seemed unphased by this, however, I did add that I did not expect them to work for free; so long as they are patient and not too worried about how much they get.
Three days later I met them on the outskirts of town and they had successfully tagged the original trail. After buying them a beer and bulla each, the conversation began to shift to money. I had originally thought that about 2 G or so would be the amount -some guys would just be happy with the beer and a cigarette. It was pretty naive of me to think that these guys would be so easy when Christmas was just about a week away. What I thought was a community project ended up carrying a price tag of about 32 G- for those of you who do not know Jamaican money…that is a lot.
I did not agree to anything and told them that I would have to give some thought to this and talk it over with someone else. I had pretty much thought that I could just enjoy my Christmas vacation, and it was Christmas Eve, when I recieved a phone call from one of the guys demanding money. I told him what I could manage, but he would not have it. Even so I had to give him a day that I would bring the money in any amount just to get him off the phone and get me back to pretending like I was not in Jamaica anymore. I ended up spending my Christmas worrying about getting the money and as I agreed, on the day after Christmas I awoke early and began to journey through the bush to face my pending doom. With me, I carried a lot less money than was initially stated, but it was all that I could round up, so there was nothing that I could do but pray.
I was greeted by Taurus upon my arrival and gave him the envelope containing 3 G for each of them. To my surprise he accepted it with thanks and told me that it was just this one guy that was hustling me. He said that I would not have to deal with him again. Well, “he” showed up and accepted the money with little disdain. He even bought me a couple of beers with it. It was as though it was no real big deal to begin with.
This had me confused – seeing that I pretty muched ruined my Christmas worrying about it. Jamaican are odd in how they can act so upset to the point of violence, yet be completely placid and friendly the next day.
