Trench Town Rock
on George Hamilton (Jamaica), 11/Aug/2010 02:30, 34 days ago
"Trench town rock, you reap what you sowTrench town rock, and everyone know nowTrench town rock, don't turn your backTrench town rock, give the slum a tryTrench town rock, never let the children cry"Bob MarleyToday a group of the new recruits and some of us who hadn't had the chance to visit Trench Town before went on the most amazing tour. We visited Bob Marley's garrison home where Bob grew up in a tiny room about the size of a small bedroom with his mother and siblings. The garrison is now a historic site called Trench Town Culture Yard, where they keep his VW van, one of his guitars and the bed in the kitchen where he slept with Rita, his wife, and conceived their second child. Bob and Rita between them had 11 children.One of the Culture Yard guides was painting when we first arrived. Later he brought us a large cut marijuana plant and explained the various uses of the plant such as hemp, smoking ganga and medicinal purposes for curing glaucoma.Below is an eternal flame being kept by the local rastas in the Culture Yard. It's the logs just to the right of the wall. The rastas come and sit by the fire and drum on a regular basis as a tribute to Bob Marley.Trench Town is a vibrant community with children playing in the streets and everyone talking to everyone else. The whole area seemed friendlier than anywhere we've seen in Jamaica so far, with no barbed wire and gated communities. What else was encouraging is that Trench Town's murder rate has dropped 65% in the last five years. Our host, Dr. Morgan at the Agency for Inner City Renewal (AIR) said he never hears gun shots any more in the area as they used to in days past but he did say that there are a lot of machine guns still in the area. You can see the bullet holes below in the side of this building at "no man's land".Dr. Morgan's assistant took us on a guided tour in our van to 7th Street where he told us that in days past crossing 7th Street would guarantee that you would be shot dead. While the area called "no man's land" is safe today, many people still have never crossed 7th Street pictured below.One of the interesting facts about Trench Town is it is no longer politically controlled. Residents can now vote for either party whereas in previous years this was not the case. Other areas like Tivoli Gardens where the Don, Dudus Coke, was recently arrested are still controlled by the political parties and everyone in the community has to vote for the party connected to the Don.Dominic Ali has only been in Jamaica for a couple of weeks but he pointed out to me the practice of using old containers for buildings. Below you'll see a container converted into a restaurant in Trench Town. Interestingly enough we saw containers being used to make inexpensive homes at Toronto's all night art show, Nuit Blanche a couple of years ago. So it's a trendy form of recycling and Jamaica's right on it.I loved the laundry hanging on the street side of the wall.We also visited the Trench Town Reading Centre where they desperately need people to read to the children in the beautiful library opened in July 2000. Several children were playing on the street by the entranceway and asked us to take their photos as they posed in front of the wall. Two of the little boys were wearing only their underwear so I won't be posting any of their photos.Above is the new housing for residents in Trench Town. It's solidly built and described as a typical middle-class dwelling inside. And below is similar housing being built in Denham Town next door to Trench Town. After touring the Culture Yard, the garrison where Bob Marley lived, you can see immediately that there has been a huge improvement in housing for the people of Trench Town.A very interesting community. It's so interesting, I've volunteered my services to help in the Reading Centre. Trench Town rocks!