What was it like for you while growing up in the island? As a little girl my sister and I used to travel on the train from Kingston to St Elizabeth every summer. Each year I looked forward to the trip because my mom would buy us pepper shrimp at the nearest railroad road station. We would immediately devour the shrimps because they were delicious, then we ate the sweetest peeled oranges to quickly eased the hot peppery taste.

This past February, I had the pleasure of visiting my roots (Ipswich, St Elizabeth). Upon returning I labeled the trip “My reality check”. The reason is, the last summer I visited St Elizabeth was over 20 years ago, not only was the train a distant memory, the tracks and rails were broken and rotted. I experienced such a sudden world wind of emotions that words could not explain, only because, for all the years I’ve gone back to Jamaica on vacation I failed to visit the place of my ancestry, the beautiful mango eating and sweet pine bearing St. Elizabeth.

What’s your story?