Art & Leisure

As a primary school teacher working in a tough inner-city community, Janice Spencer-Francis knows a thing or two about facing challenges. She's the literacy co-ordinator at Trench Town Primary in St Andrew, and deals every week with all sorts of obstacles. But last week was particularly difficult for the fourth-grade teacher.

In a small seaside bar, Maas Jabez sat on a high stool sipping white rum. Cindy, the new barmaid, reclined in a green plastic armchair near the entrance facing the main road. It was Sunday evening, and oldies music played in the background.

For 37 years, Pamella Henry has been living on luck, in a house built on the banks of the Rio Cobre in Thompson Pen, St Catherine.

Cuddly puppies I adore, but as they get older, I stay far. I really am not into dogs.

In mid-October, the Jamaica Association of Dramatic Artists (JADA) will put on two acts of kindness - literally - at the Theatre Place on Haining Road in New Kingston.

They start at the beginning, as they always do. Hands linked, shoes in hand, feet bare against the warmth of the asphalt.

I am dress, I am dress in my gold, green and black pondering lyrics

"Happy birthday, darlin!" Zara winced and pulled the phone away from her ear. She had been wise not to take this call. As she listened to the voicemail message, she shuffled over to the breakfast nook by the window, plonking her coffee down as she sat. As her mother's voice screeched...

Clip-clopping their way along Old Harbour Road in St Catherine, it's hard to miss them. Joyce Simpson, 56, and Gloria McCalla, 65, make an unstoppable pair as they travel about on their trusty donkeys selling produce to customers in different towns.

A group of retired teachers from Kingston and St Andrew has fashioned craft based on fruit to take the top spot islandwide in the annual competition for retirees from the classroom. And after that victory at The Ruins, Ocho Rios, St Ann, the group's craft was put on display in the foyer at the Institute of Jamaica, East Street, Kingston.

So there we were, hungry as hell, and needing sustenance before collapsing. 'We' refers to the Jamaican journalists who telecoms provider Flow were hosting for a few days at a swanky hotel. Under normal circumstances, we'd just identify an eating establishment that we trusted and chow down.