Bondo Hill
I was born in 1941 in Jamaica to a family that did not have much in terms of material possessions and means. Living in rural Jamaica in the 1940s and 50s was both a blessing and a problem. My mother was a single parent who worked as a domestic in the neighbouring town. Our little house, where we lived with my maternal grandparents Harry and Gertrude, my Aunt Amy and my Uncle Denis, was located on an elevation known as Browns Hill.
Although we were poor in financial terms, we were never hungry because we grew our own food like ackee, bananas, plantains, yams, sweet potatoes, mangoes, oranges, grapefruit, sugarcane, jackfruit, cabbage, lemongrass, and a variety of beans, peas, and herbs. We caught fish and shrimp fresh from the rivers and I used my sling shot to hunt birds with my friends which we roasted outdoors.
What was missing in my life were necessities like clothing or shoes of which we never had a lot. Money was also in short supply. We had one pair of shoes each which were worn on special occasions like Sunday church services, weddings, and funerals. Although removed from slavery by over a century, like our enslaved ancestors before us, we commonly walked barefooted to school and everywhere else.
My family (and families like ours) did not see a doctor, have annual physical exams or visit the dentist. The nearest doctor was eight miles away which was not easy to travel without a car. Growing up, I soon learned that the doctor was for situations when the family thought an illness or situation was potentially fatal. It is not an exaggeration to say that a person had to be near death to be taken to a doctor. But because of this, we learned to cure all manner of illnesses ourselves. At the feet of my grandparents, I learned which leaves and bushes to pick so that they could boil one of their healing teas. I learned to boil cold medicines at the age of nine. My grandmother Gertrude instructed me how to combine the leaves of the cotton, orange, and grapefruit plants with ginger and sage bush. To cure fever, we boiled lemongrass (referred to as fever grass), ginger, mint, and sage bush. Needless to say, my grandparents’ cures, although very effective, usually tasted awful. To my mind, there were no illnesses, with the possible exceptions of cancer and tuberculosis, for which we did not have a home remedy.
In spite of our circumstances, we were happy. We knew we were “have nots,” but we were happy with what little we had. We also never begrudged the wealthy for their possessions. As a young boy, I do not ever recall being aware or concerned about what we did not have. Being deprived of material things meant that we built a stronger connection to nature. Our house was so small and fragile that the boundaries between outside and inside seemed unclear. Since I never had the luxury of toys and games, my life was lived outside in nature alongside my rambunctious friends from the village. Together we learned to live with nature and, with the help of our elders, to heed its signs.
Our house was one of only two built on Brown’s Hill in the village of Spring Head in the parish of St. Mary. It was a high hill that required substantial effort to climb. We didn’t have a radio. That was another possession of the rich. TV had yet to be invented (or at least had not reached rural Jamaica). So, there was no such thing as an official weather report. Instead, my grandmother taught me to read the signs of the weather by observing nature. She would point to the mountain about a mile from our house named Bondo Hill, and teach me how to interpret the cloud formations and colour changes in the sky.
If the clouds were dark, expect rain. The darker the clouds and the denser their formations, the heavier the rainfall and the longer the downpour would be. I do not ever remember our observations of Bondo Hill being wrong. We understood and respected the information it provided.
Growing up in my surroundings was a truly fascinating experience. I would not change anything if I could. As a child it was a blessing to be oblivious to what I did not have. But more than that, I was surrounded by a natural bounty that my elders knew how to cultivate and interpret for my youthful mind. My profound early lessons were that happiness is not dependent on wealth and nature will provide. It doesn’t get better than that.