Geddes Town, St Mary

Michael had an idea. Why didn’t I visit Geddes Town to meet Boycott, a friend of his? A cousin could drive me there for 2.000 dollars. He explained to me how such a meeting would be executed. My visit would be announced ahead of time. I had to bring 5.000 dollars, so Boycott could buy some rum for his friends in the village. This seemed like a perfectly good plan. When I arrived Boycott was waiting for me, I slipped him the 5.000 and soon he bought a couple of bottles of rum and cranberry juice.

Wray & Nephew is the rum of choice for most Jamaicans. It’s available everywhere at 1.200 dollars per bottle, about 7 euro. It can be mixed with cranberry juice to make it more easy to drink. Wray & Nephew rum is 63%. I could not drink more than three glasses over the whole afternoon. I declined to smoke. Boycott could manage both smoke and drink at the same time.

Lunch was provided by this lady who was operating some kind of home cooking restaurant from her back yard. She made me some rice and peas and KFC styled fried chicken.

Botanical lessons

During my stay I we talked a lot about all the plants growing in the village. The tree and the fruit below is called noni and is native to Southeast Asia and Australasia. The fruit is bitter and was commonly only eaten in times of famine. In Thai cuisine the leaves are used for curry like kaeng bai-yo or in som tam. In Jamaica noni fruit, also known as duppy soursop, is mainly used as a herbal medicine. Duppy is a haunting spirit of the dead.

In the gardens yam is grown. To determine if the yam is ready to harvest you have to look at the green tops. If they become dry and black the yam might be ready.

Michael Swaby, World’s Best Innovative Coconut Farmer

At one point a car stopped and a man stepped out. Before saying anything he lifted his white tank top and flashed his big gun at me. I was like: “Who are you?”. “Google me”, he said. So I entered “the world’s best innovative coconut farmer” in the search field and indeed, I found Michael Swaby on YouTube. “If you are so famous, I will take your photo’, I said. Thumbs up!

After hours of drinking we took a walk around Geddes Town. I noticed Boycott had trouble walking and he explained his body was smashed up in a car accident not too long ago.

The village provides everything, from fruits and vegetables to meat. Some people raise pigs.

Jamaicans love to argue. If I understood the argument correctly the man sitting down was convinced there were people living in the sky and under the earth. The other man was having none of it and demanded proof.

We talked about geopolitics and Boycott was sharp on these issues. Whether it was the war in Ukraine or the war between Hamas and Israel, I found myself on the same page as he was. I was a little sad to leave the village. I couldn’t take note of all the different plants Boycott explained to me and its uses. When I left Boycott calculated how much he spent of the 5.000 dollars.

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