My dad is a very early riser so by the time I woke up at 7:15 he was showered, dressed, and ready to conquer the world. I, on the other hand, snuggled deeper into the bed and listened to the news weather report about the snow storm predicted to hit northeastern U.S.A. From what I could tell the storm moved further north than previously thought and would be a clear miss for Atlanta. That made me feel much more comfortable that our flight wouldn't be cancelled. After laying down for another 20 minutes I got up got dressed and go online to make sure AlphaPoppa and the kids were doing OK without me home. They whatsapp'ed me that everything was AOK and were on their way out for a helicopter flight.
We lounged around for another 45 minutes or so, neither of us were in the mood for breakfast and just decided to wait for the Registrar's General Office to open at 9. We spoke to Pauline for a while as she got her hair twisted and shortly before 9am Mikey was ready to take us to make our payment at the office. Come to find out. Chris and Mikey are the hotel owners brothers, we didn't meet him but it was nice knowing that heir whole family worked together to help my family.
We arrived at the Registrar's General Office within ten minutes. The office was next to cousin Cynthia's church that we met her at the previous day on Humber Street. The line was short and we were directed to speak with the manager Mr Redwood in his office. While handling our case and taking a few phone calls simultaneously he took down my grandparents information, full name, birth place and date. I let him know if my conversations and correspondence with Mario and Ms Williams in the Spanish Town office. "Yes, Mario!" He said with a smile,"he is a good boy. He will find this information for you!" After verifying that the Montego Bay district could take our international money orders, he sent us to the cashier to pay.
That line was a little longer and since we had already been in the office for over 40 minutes my dad went out to let Mikey know where we were and that we would be out as soon as possible.
The cashier was extremely precise in calculating out research time. For each grandparent I made a payment of $60, that would give us a total of 4 hours research on each grand parent at a $15 rate. However according to the cashier the rate had changed in my favor and wild give me 4 1/2 hours research per grandparent. Although I was excited to hear that news by this time it was almost 10:45 and I was hoping to still send off postcards and buy some Jamaican spice bun before checking in at the airport. The cashier was sweet and moved along as quickly as possible despite her slow computer system. I've pretty figured out 2 things I. My global travels. #1. Women all over the world are waiting in line to use the bathroom and #2. Government agencies are slow in every, single country. If you are resolved to be patient when dealing with these two givens life may not be so aggravating.
As promised she got me out of her office as quickly as she could.
Since I didn't have much time I had to choose before sending the postcard and but if the spice bun.
Mikey said the post office was close by so that won the contest. The Bob Marley stamps were SOOO fly, my favorite stamps that I've seen thus far. They were $100JD each ($1USD) and totally worth it! I quickly stamped my post cards and dropped them in the airmail slot for delivery.
That took less than 10 minutes and before 11:20 we were at the airport. Once we checked in I felt more comfortable and slowed down a pace a few notches. After inquiring an airport employee informed me that spice bun was for sale at the island grill souvenir and cafe shop. I was super excited to be able to get the spice bun for a dear friend and bought 3, 2 for her and 1 for me! Security etc, was seamless and the Montego Bay airport was like a resort party area inside. Although I didn't get the "touristy" experience of Jamaica from what I could see it looked like plenty of fun and I could definitely see its allure.
This trip has given me a new travel revelation. In my eyes my personal growth as a human being is very much attached to my recently wanderlust. Each time I travel another branch of enlightenment stretches out from me, I grow and like to think I become a little bit wiser. As those branches extend and reach toward the light I also need to make sure my roots are still well grounded and being nourished. My roots in this case are represented by my ancestral homes. From my birth moving back in time these roots pass through New York City and dig deeper through Jamaica and the Virgin Islands (both US and British) and finally have their deepest most powerful anchor somewhere in Africa. I must nourish these roots as a travel the world. I hope the results from our genealogy answer all of our questions about our Jamaican ancestors, I will also take the DNA test to pinpoint, exactly were my african ancestors were stolen from and where my European ancestors immigrated from. So far putting the pieces of the past together has been thrilling, I look forward to completing the puzzle and sharing it with the rest of the family and with other who would like to hear our story. I will make sure my children and all the youth of our family know this history, they will know the names and hopefully the stories of those who came before them. It is not in my control how they receive this information but I will make sure it is available to them when they are ready. All praises and love to the ancestors for even making this possible, this is better than a dream and is progressively getting better!
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