This was written last August, a week after Independence Day, but it got lost somewhere. Nevertheless, it’s still amusing enough to share with you now.

Last week Monday I spent the day at our Independence Village in Montego Bay. The crowd was quite something – a mix of returning Jamaicans from the States or England, local yaadies, old and and young alike. I had some time to kill before the club I was volunteering for showed up so I decided to spend it people watching. Yes, this was the same afternoon that we had the Olympic awards ceremony for the Men’s 100M, and despite the drizzle there was quite a crowd to watch the giant screen they had set up in the middle of the field.

Seats were scarce and getting one involved standing around and waiting for the Jamerican family to move their lazy butts so I could get one. Seriously, what is it with Jamaicans? Even when no one’s in the seat, there’s like fifty different bags on top of it. And as soon as anyone starts hovering around they send one of the kids to go hold the seat until the grown-ups can come give you the stink eye themselves.

But I digress.

I was sitting beside this old lady who was talking to her friend. You know how old people are: long time gyal mi never see you etc. etc. And I’m totally not eavesdropping when I hear the first old lady say,

“Bwoy, mi tiyad a siddung an watch TV a mi yaad.”

Really. So that’s why when you leave your house, you sit down and watch the giant screen Olympics coverage in the middle of a field in the rain. Because there’s nothing like a change of scenery…