Ground broke on Jamaica’s first skate park on September 8th, 2019 in the small town of Boston Bay, Portland Parish, Jamaica. Right near the beach.
A local named Darly contacted Alis about getting a bmx/skatepark built in town, who told Josh at Wonders around the World, and the wheels started turning. After Darly got the go ahead from the municipality, a crowdfunding site and social media pages with the details of the project were set up and word started spreading. Alis got 5,000 left over beers from Copenhagen open, and had a fundraiser at Wonderland with proceeds going directly into Jamaican concrete. Thank you to anyone at Copenhagen open who didn’t drink as much as they could.
As planning and fundraising continue volunteers start booking tickets and planning what tools to bring. Over 30 people from 10+ countries had their hands in this park. There’s always a mix from first time volunteers, to veteran concrete pros, all are welcome. Cody Lockwood from Creature /Dreamland came through with some tools and boards for the youth.
I arrived in the middle of the build, and felt like I was showing up really late, but it worked out. As I arrived some of the people who’d been there since groundbreaking were starting to leave and there was still plenty of work to be done, with less hands by the day.
Nothing is getting built during Hurricane season so it was decided to build in September since it’s one of the country’s driest months. Still there were scattered storms and heat lighting a lot of nights, free fireworks, as Albert called them. The park was built at a local youth community center and we were able to use the center as our house, having breakfast and dinner there everyday, which was nice since it was right at the build site. Everyone camped in tents around the center, or slept inside on floor mats, hammocks, or wherever they could. I slept in a hammock, the first night. I’d never slept in a hammock before and felt like it could snap in the middle of the night. In the morning they told me two of them already had.
For two weeks it was pretty much all the same, everyone would start waking up and could have two eggs, toast, usually some plantains and porridge. There would be coffee and usually some bush tea made from local herbs gathered that morning. After breakfast people usually go work on the site until it’s time to pour something. After or instead of work there was an amazing small secluded beach minutes from the park that everyone tried to go to as much as possible. It was a perfect way to wash off the concrete and ease any cuts and burns at the end of the day. The closest town with an ATM or various other things you might want was Port Antonio, about 30 minutes by taxi but only cost about $1USD. The taxis would fly down the rocky street picking up everyone on the way until there was usually about ten people in a tiny sedan, then drop you off in town. The first taxi ride I took we picked up a lady on the side of the road with a 4×8 sheet of plywood. The taxi driver threw it on the roof, helped her in the front, and told me and the guy on the other side to hold it down with our arms out the window, and took off. The town is small, basically just two streets, but always full of activity.
A month after groundbreaking the park is complete and all the volunteers are either back home, off to the next build, or whatever adventure they have next.
One of the other volunteers asked me what Americans thought of Jamaica, do people vacation there, what kind of people etc. I said, I think Americans think of Jamaica as kind of sketchy but also a good place to vacation if you stay safe / in the resorts. I felt like most Americans don’t get to see real Jamaican life. One of the best things about these skatepark builds is it’s the furthest thing from a resort vacation experience as you could imagine. Camping in tents, working with limited everything, interacting with the locals, having them show you around the town. Most tourists don’t get to see beyond the surface of the places they visit, but by the end of these trips you’re usually able to walk around town with people recognizing you, saying hi to street people and arguing about the best places in town. No one thanks you for going on vacation. Tourists don’t usually get gifts and praise from locals when traveling, but people often thank you and show genuine gratitude for coming to build a skatepark. These projects are one of the most fun, rewarding, and fulfilling experiences I could imagine. Thank you to everyone out there helping build around the world.
