September 26, 2006
Jamaica has been met with a large number of difficulties since its independence in 1962, including the negative consequences that globalization has had on its local agricultural markets now dependent on exports and monopolized by foreign corporations. Social problems are especially relevant amongst the youth who are often cornered into a life of gangs and drugs.
While not many alternatives exist for such youth, there is one prominent safe space in Montego Bay. Participants had the opportunity to visit the Montego Bay Boy’s & Girl’s Club, founded in 1942 by priests who felt a need to direct the energy of the youth into positive avenues of sports, music, and learning. Currently there are 150 members of the club, 40 of whom are girls. The club itself is a small building settled in the outskirts of downtown Montego Bay. Inside is reminiscent of a boxing club with walls filled with the dusty framed pictures of athletes (both world-renowned and the club’s own stars), wooden lockers, long benches, and a large blackboard with the scores from each of the club’s teams in a variety of sports including football, basketball, etc.
In the back of the club are three small rooms that house a wood shop (where we met a man crafting wooden trophies for the club’s teams), a home economics room, a preschool, and a basketball/soccer court. Every day students between the ages of six and twenty-six come to the Club after school to participate in activities until around 8:30pm or 9:00pm. The program is entirely funded by the directors and through the earnings the club’s marching band receives from performances at hotels in the area, three times per week.
Gladstone “Pop” Lawrence
Participants met Kumiko Terai, a Japanese woman who is married to Phillip Roane, a band member in the group T. Frenz (a reggae band that wrote Peace Boat’s departure song, “Believe”) and has had a friendship with Peace Boat for some years. She is now teaching computer science at the Boy’s and Girl’s Club. In 2005, Peace Boat started an exchange program with the Club and raised funds to donate computers. We also met Gladstone Lawrence (or “Pop”), now 73 years old, who has been with the club since he was nine years old. He is now director and a well-respected member of the Montego Bay community.
We enjoyed a few hours of games including a relay race, musical chairs, and soccer. Japanese participants shared their culture through traditional crafts like shouji (calligraphy), origami, and yukata. Afterwards we were treated to a Jamaican feast. In the evening we joined other participants for a reggae event on the beach, Sun Bash 2006, organized by Peace Boat and featuring T. Frenz, from which a portion of the amount raised went to the Club as support.
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