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Wilde International Network Newsletter June 2013
Vitamin D Needed! 
 
Your June newsletter was compiled in May during my stay in beautiful, sunny Jamaica. Being my place of birth, I visit at least two – three times a year, for business and also for serenity and organic creativity. I’ve found an off the beaten track river and water fall in Westmoreland that only the locals know about. They bathe and wash their clothes at this river, and I noticed that their white clothing seems extra white. Now I have a blouse I bought in Monsoon some six years ago that I love dearly, but being white, it now looks a bit worn. Well after watching the women and men beat their clothes against the rocks in the river, I brought my Monsoon blouse along and paid one of the women to wash it for me. Do I need to say any more? The blouse is white enough for a soap powder advert, no kidding.

June Issue
Ginja in Negril
Novel on the Rise

The river was also an ideal place to sit and feel and just be. I have a timeline to finish my debut novel, which my agent called to remind me about is fast approaching. I’m on it!
 
I was also in Jamaica to promote the Every Woman Inspired Retreat and Expo taking place in November. Two women that I met with was Darlene Jones and Jean Lowri-Chin, both awe-inspiring women in their own right and women you would love to meet.
 
Darlene, director of Jamaica Institute of Financial Services, took me along to Scotchie’s, a Garden of Eden type restaurant where I enjoyed an amazing lunch of jerk fish, sweet corn on the cob and roast breadfruit. That was washed down with ice cold coconut water . . . and all the time the sun was my companion and the cool breeze my best friend. I was very impressed. I did not miss sunless London!
Darlene said this about Every Woman Inspired:

The concept of Every Woman Inspired is amazing – just thinking about having so many women under one roof inspiring each other is something I look forward to. I look forward to meeting you all and being inspired by all.
Next I met too briefly with Jean Lowri-Chin, business woman, journalist and author, who gave me a signed copy of her poetry book, Souldance. I would have welcomed a longer chit chat with Jean, who slotted me into her very busy schedule that day. I look forward to seeing Jean in action at the Every Woman Inspired Retreat and Expo in November. Here’s what she said about the concept of Every Woman Inspired:
“Congratulations for starting Every Woman Inspired, it’s a wonderful concept, and with that collective will, we women of the world can join our forces to make a change for our young girls who are suffering too much because of the imbalance in this world.”
I drove through quarter of the Island on Labour Day, a public holiday where the communities come out together and volunteer to clean up their streets, neighbourhoods, schools and public spaces. I saw groups of people painting schools, cutting down bushes, volunteers patching up the road surfaces. It was of course carried out with reggae music playing in the background, giving a real feel of camaraderie and fun.
 
I stopped off at Border, where St Elizabeth meets Westmoreland, and where you are greeted by streams of mainly business women, all chasing your slowing car until it stops, and then you are presented with cling film wrapped plates of fried fish and bags of steamed or fried or bammies. As I fly the car door and step out, the enthusiasm wanes and I get fairly warm, polite smiles and a few voices shouting; ‘Miss Ivy, it’s your customer.’

For anyone who travel to Jamaica and are familiar with the culture of the Border business women, you’ll understand what I’m talking about here. You see years ago, when I first stopped to buy my fish and bammy at Borders, it was Miss Ivy who served me, gave me her business card and claimed me as her customer. All her contemporaries accept this and will not entice me away from Ivy’s service, unless she’s not around.
 
As I entered Hanover, the heavens opened and it rained buckets, slowing down our journey but not dampening our spirits. We stopped off at one of those off beaten track places, one with no names, just customers hanging out, rum drinking, Ludo - playing folks, and of course reggae music is our backdrop. I eavesdrop, which isn’t hard really, everyone talks loud enough for you participate in their private conversations if you so wish and I hear a young girl bragging to the shop keeper that, ‘my man beat me, him beat me,’ she boasted. No one blinked or looked horrified at her admission or the fact that she said this as if it was to be celebrated. I asked my driver what he thought and he said as casually as a Sunday morning; ‘some women like being beaten – it makes them think the man loves them.’

Still? Is my response.

Entering Westmoreland, the dazzling sunshine returned and driving along the beach road, glimpses of the turquoise Caribbean Sea was a delight to my senses. We continued into the hills of Westmoreland, where a friend of mine lives on acres of fruited land. She presented me with a bag of washed mangoes of all kinds, Julie, Black and East Indian mangoes, she also gave me an old tee shirt and a chair under her avocado tree to sit and devour my bag of mangoes. And mangoes are best eaten at dusk so that not even the presence of a worm will interrupt your enjoyment. 
Every Woman Inspired Expo... The Launch

We’re having the UK launch of Every Woman Inspired Retreat and Expo at the Jamaican High Commission on 18th July 2013, from 5:30 – 9pm. For those of you who don’t know what EWI is, take a look at the website,
www.everywomaninspired.org  

If you haven’t booked your holiday for this year and you’re considering where to go in search of sun, sea and inspiration, consider coming to Jamaica with a group of inspirational women. We’ve had a number of queries from women who say they don’t have anyone to room-mate with – don’t worry about that because if you enjoy making friends and don’t mind sharing with a like minded woman, then your problem is solved. 
Protect the Girl Child Campaign

The Protect the Girl Child campaign continues with the Wilde annual sponsored walk, taking place on Sunday 30th June, from Little Venice along the canal to Primrose Hill.

Please feel free to join us in raising funds for rural women and girls in Jamaica, whilst losing any extra pounds that needs a little help to shift. And even if you can’t join us, you can still raise funds for us.
And that’s me for now . . . I leave you with this quote: Success is my destiny.
 
More health, wealth, love and joy!
 
Rasheda ‘Ginja’ Ashanti Malcolm,
Author, Broadcaster, Activist, CEO of WIN and The Wilde Foundation and director of Every Woman Inspired.
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