RE: blog

2015-JUL-28-1346Hrs

Hi Errol,

Hope you are enjoying being home.  Please post this attachment.

Thank you.

--

Brenda

"and this too will pass"

. . . and we did it!

The shirts were a hit and those cooler bags came in handy for transporting our munchies.

Let me get rid of the negative first, the hotel was less than we had expected – some rooms weren’t cleaned daily, towels were dingy and threadbare, only mirror was in the bathroom, electric irons had to be signed for, the few room safes which worked  cost three USD per day, few bedside lamps or clocks, non existant beach towels, etc.  Breakfast was included and we were fed six days of Jamaican breakfast – green bananas, yams, boiled and fried dumplings, stewed or curried chicken.  Sometimes we were treated to vegetables and a sliver of fruit with the meal.  The alternative was scrambled eggs or omelette.  It often took an hour and several reminders to the staff to get our meal.

Most positive – the air conditioning in the rooms worked and the pleasant service staff who tried hard to compensate.

 Having said this, it seemed that there was an unspoken decision to make the best of what we had – and we did.  In true pioneering style, we took the lemons and made lemonade.

The Sunday evening reception opened with prayers and the name tag exchange gave us an opportunity to mingle.

Each day’s trip had it’s special features – some agile Mausicans (playing brave in dey senior years) climbed Dunn’s River Falls, of note was Wednesday’s trip to Rick’s Place in Negril where Howard was the soloist with the band.  On that day Mausicans also got a hail out from the DJ at Margaritaville.  There was also a special greeting to Judith Bazzey, the birthday girl.

Our visit to Jamaica was made memorable by the two bus drivers who took us on all of our outings – they were knowledgeable about their island and they accommodated our requests for stops along the way whenever we wanted.

On Thursday we were joined by a group of retired teachers who had attended Mico Teachers’ College in Jamaica, who compared their teaching experiences with ours.

Mausica night was Thursday, the instructions were either “play or pay”.  Our apprehensions that colleagues would not participate were in vain.  Every single person took part, some in groups or individually.  After the concert the majority of us had a get together at the pool side, under the guise of continuing to honour Wednesday’s birthday girl.  This evolved into a stimulating discussion about reunions in general and about the hopes for the future.

Friday’s dinner/dance was the most “intimate” we ever had, because there were fewer of us than at other reunions.  It’s nice to see that we still like to dress up and party.

Mobay was hot, hot, hot – busy and lively, so was reunion 2015.

The camaraderie was there, as it always is.

Thanks again to the organizing committee, it was irie mon!

Brenda Alexander-Perez 65.