Bicycles and Donkeys

So I was on my daily trek home with the children in the company of my bredrin the expert on everything that is rural Jamaican, when just up ahead of us a child who had being doing bicycle acrobatics comes tumbling down in a hurt heap. The sidewalk becomes alit with laughter and I’m the only one who runs to see if the boy is alright. Before I can reach to him, the spilt boy races to his feet brushes, himself off and makes a hasty retreat in one tremendous face saving effort. I turn to the expert and after curbing his unconscionable guffaw he says “Lissen nuh mistress, nuttin like bicycle and donkey fi embarrass yu inna public!”

He immediately caught my attention with that one. Was there some perpetual power of those two modes of transportation to humiliate that I was not aware of? I had to investigate. My companion went on to clarify, “Mi say everytime yu inna crowd an yu decide sey yu ah mek di donkey gallop, ah den it ah go throw yu.” I was flummoxed, for once again my expert bredrin had pointed out my ignorance regarding certain Jamaican lifestyles. Once again I who thought myself the quintessential Jamaican, had been out-Jamaicaned. Sure I knew of how embarrassing a public fall from a bicycle could be but regarding the shame of being unseated by a donkey, I knew nothing.

I quickly tried to find a way to look at this as an opportunity to gain some metaphoric understanding of life but all I could come to was the word overthink!! There were just some things that me with my “town girl” upbringing would never be able to understand as well as there were some things that a rural expert wouldn’t cotton to. Just like Bicycles and Donkeys. Selah.