One love

I was the one looking the most forward to our trip to the Bob Marley Museum, located in central Kingston. We took the bus to the museum at 10:30 am so we could spend as much time there as possible. The entrance was in multiple colours, which reminded us a lot about Bob Marley´s style. We paid $40 each and went in to experience the world of Bob Marley.

It was packed with people, and the museum was loaded with lots of colors, murals and pictures of him and his family which, in my opinion, really captured the spirit of his music and beliefs. We took a guided tour through the former home of the legendary reggae musician. Marley's room was preserved as he left it, with his guitar on the side of his bed. Among his personal items, his favorites were a denim shirt and his Rastafarian clothes. The tour guide gave us a lot of information about Marley, such as this: he was the one who made the music genre reggae, dreadlocks and Jamaica generally, world famous. His songs promoted people to stand up and fight for their rights, and were about politics, slavery and religion. He had a strong message of “One love” which refers to the universal love and respect expressed by all people, for all people, regardless of race, creed or color. Sadly not everyone liked that message, and we could clearly see that from the bullet holes that was remaining in his walls after a failed assassination attempt.

Because the message of “One love” hit me so hard, I convinced the others to join the cafe with the same name, which specializes in Jamaican dishes. Hedda and Solveig joined gladly, while I needed to bribe May Renate with an orange juice to come with us. The latter one was however very amused by the menu, where most of the beverages and juices were named after Bob Marley's songs. It felt good to get away from the sun for a while, with a cold drink in our hands. I ordered the drink “No More Trouble”, because it was the song i liked the best of the ones listed on the menu.
Solveig wanted to try Jerk Chicken, which we noticed had been on the menu of several restaurants we have visited. The cook told us that the dish is not only popular among the tourists, but also among the locals in Jamaica, so of course all of us wanted to give it a go. I, who is not used to eating food with spices otherwise, felt like gasping for air - because it felt really spicey. But for Hedda, who loves spices, felt disappointed that the dish was not spicier. Solveig later found out online that the dish of course contained rum. Ha ha ha.

After the cafe visit, we continued our tour to Tuff Gong, his personal record label. We explored the history of his career, saw clippings from newspapers and magazines, photographs and his collection of awards, such as the Jamaican Order of Merit. We can sadly not share any photos from the location, because it was not allowed with photography or filming. This was my favourite part of the tour, because I could really feel Bob Marley´s presens, picturing him in front of the microphones, recording new international hits.

Something we all noticed with the locals who was on the tour with us, was that instead of saying goodbye, they showed us the peace sign with their fingers, and said: One love<3
It is therefore safe to say that the spirit of Bob Marley has affected his native country - and now us!

xxx One love, Anette and the other Yardie Gyals