Write Around the Block

What about the food? Has anyone talked about the food? That stunning bouquet of colors that Suzett arranges on our breakfast table: purple of star apples, pale pineapple, rose colored watermelon, the coral and orange of papaya and mango, creamy bananas. The richness of ackee scrambled with onions and peppers (ackee is a Jamaican fruit that is a buttery yellow with a large purple-black seed when opened. And you never eat it when unopened, or it will be your last meal). There is the exotic design of dinner: white meaty king fish with rice cooked in coconut milk and thyme, glistening jerked pork and rice and beans, peppery beef that falls apart on the tongue, the local green, callaloo, luscious salads of crisp green lettuce and rosy beetroot. And we still have two more days to go.

Our Breakfast

Our Painters and Writers

Our Shoppers

Our Flora and Fauna

As the brilliant warm day gives way to dusk, we watch with rapt wonder the soulful Jamaican sunsets — each glorious, all encompassing, and beyond awe. The azure Caribbean Sea is lit with gold, orange, yellow, and pink, while cloud formations appear to paint the sky. Doesn’t this beauty abound all over the globe, you might ask.

Yah, mon, but Jamaica’s got the edge on Soul. Especially at the Calabash House.

by Gayle Marano-Brown

Flora

This is such a wonderful experience! Challenging writing workshops in the mornings and wonderful adventures in the afternoons. Our group is so energizing because everyone brings such rich personal histories with them and as we share with each other, I find myself inspired to dig deeper and to write better. Then, the fun and laughter of our excursions — walking down the road to the little shop for sodas, boating across the seas to the Black River with crocodiles and egrets to admire along the way — dinners around the long table on the back veranda with the sound of the waves washing the shores behind us — my senses are full and I feel myself letting go of all the tensions of work and responsibility. Watching Flora, our companion dog this afternoon in the launch as we cruised the Black River, her nose high and ears forward, eagerly searching the banks for crocodiles, made me realize how much I need to live more in the moment, how we all must relish every second that we have on this earth. And it’s only Tuesday! I can’t wait to see what Wednesday brings! Thank you Tracy, Liz, and Sara. You said it would be great and it really, truly, is.

–Nancy Shumaker

Our View

Our Writers

This morning, after a sumptuous traditional Jamaican breakfast and the best coffee in the world, we all gathered on the porch overlooking the sea for our first workshop meeting. Those who traveled here from Virginia and Texas, Georgia, California were joined by two who are lucky enough to live here while Tracy led us all through writing prompts which focused on the value, the craft, the art and joy of asking questions.

Late afternoon now. Suzette, our lovely cook, sings as she prepares dinner in the kitchen. We sit and write, paint or just stare out at our host, Elizabeth’s bright hued gardens, watch butterflies and listen to the waves lap the sand. Questions that settle in my mind at this end of the day are simple: Why would anyone ever want to leave this place? How am I going to manage to leave when the time comes? What further adventures, inspirations, moments of awe are yet to come?

After a relaxing night in Montego Bay, today we head to Calabash House for a wonderful week of Writing, Writing, Writing.