The woman behind the Jamaican Linguist
Published:Sunday | December 8, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:Thirty-one-year-old Author Stacey 'Prettyface' Nembhard denies crisscrossed rivers; white, sandy beaches, and sun-drenched sand depicting the picturesque scene of Jamaica was her world, growing up in Jamaica, and she may just be right.
Although she lived between the middle of the 'Capital of Casual', Negril, and the tourism capital, Montego Bay, Nembhard's world seemed far more exhilarating than the 'No Problem' Jamaica sold to visitors.
Hers had its own beauty, coloured by the adventure of hunting stray cows while her nostrils played host to the undeniable smell of sugar cane being burnt during harvesting, climbing or sliding down trees, and birdhunting.
For this country tomboy from the district of Little London, in Westmoreland, there was no other way than to open up and pen those exciting childhood memories in her first book, The Jamaican Linguist - I Remember When.
The book, which Nembhard was convinced she was going to publish in "straight Patois" before she was dissuaded by friends, has been making the rounds at several Jamaican events throughout the state of California, and was officially released on November 16 at Coley's Jamaica's Best Cuisine in North Hollywood, California.
The former Mt Alvernia High School student, who possesses degrees in math, biology, English literature and United States and world history from UC Berkeley, and who works as an educator with the Antelope Valley High School District, describes her latest project as an autobiography/cultural heritage book that focuses on the idea of the past, the present, and the future.
"I finepointed the important role my culture played in my upbringing," she told Outlook.
SCENE TO BEHOLD
Indeed, her memories are filled with smoky skies from her grandpa Maa U's burning of his sugar-cane field in preparation for harvesting.
"Sugar cane being burnt and harvested was a scene to behold," she reminisced, explaining that, for her, this was the only time there was 'snow' in Jamaica.
"The fresh black ash slowly rained delicately like snowflakes from the sky, accumulating on anything that was outside. This Jamaican snow would fall on my grandmother Joyce's two-bedroom wooden house in the fishing community of Broughton in the district of Little London."
The excitement that punctuated her life alerted her, from as early as age 10, that she was adventurous and spontaneous.
Today, she admits that, as a free-spirited creature who was unrestricted to roam, she was inspired to share her experiences because of her daily conversations with her mom.
"My mom reminds me often of how she had to punish me while I was growing up," she recalled, stating that, at age 15, she would always sneak out of the house to go to the Reflection disco at the In Thing Plaza in Savanna-la-Mar. However, one fateful night after making an escape from a good Jamaican beating from her dad's cow-skin belt, she received a guava-switch surprise the next day from her mother.
Today, that beating serves as an example to other youngsters, including her son and nieces, whose lives have been touched by her mother.
Married at age 17, Nembhard's story speaks about finding love at a time in her life when it was very necessary, but not in the form she would have liked.
"My life was filled with both hardships and excitement. It was like a roller coaster - sometimes up, and sometimes down. For me, the hard times were realised, but it did not control my personality and wanting to discover who I was and finding out what my environment had to offer," she said.
GROUNDED BY GRANDMAS
Always a hard worker, whether in school or in the home, she said the foundation she got from her two grandmothers was instrumental in helping her to choose the direction her life would take.
"They both had different ways of showing me who I should choose to be, why I should act a certain way, why I must love reading, the way to dress for different occasions, as Granny Rachie - as we called her - was a postmistress who loved attending tea parties, while Granny Joyce was very feisty and would tell me how to stand my ground," she quipped.
Having got older and had the opportunity to write about her life, Nembhard says she has had to question whether the times have indeed progressed for an improved society.
"In my humble estimation, I wish for a return to the times of old. A return to the days of normality, where the chaos of today's society is not so loose."
She uses her son and nieces as example of a generation which is mostly into easy work and playing games - "not interactive games with friends, but by themselves and not sharing their toy, or if they do, it's for a moment," she argues, adding that she wants back the days "when the only fear to roam would be from the stories our grandparents told of the rolling calf".
Stacey 'Prettyface' Nembhard, plans to release The Jamaican Linguist: I Remember When in Jamaica, and is looking to host book-signing events in Negril, Montego Bay, and Kingston in early 2014.
The book is available at Amazon.com, Amazon.uk and Createspace.com. ISBN# 9781492259770.54.