A homeless gentleman in Port Antonio, Jamaica, risked his life to provide food for his counterparts. His daring act of kindness did not go unnoticed.
He was a young man who greeted the day with a warm smile and a gentle gait. Wearing only shorts and a hat, the backpack in his hand contained everything else he owned.
It was early in the morning in Port Antonio, Jamaica. My family and I had just bargained for a breakfast of fruit and vegetables at the local farmer’s market. A short walk later, we were relaxing at Neville Antonio Park next to the Errol Flynn Marina, munching on our meal in the Caribbean breeze. I was working on a carrot when the young man made his way under the coconut trees.
He stopped to talk to a gentleman nearby, and their voices were within easy earshot. After a few minutes of banter, he got around to telling his story, the one that left him sleeping under those same trees.
The young man had lost his family, leaving him alone to fend for himself. He had a girlfriend not too long before. Things were good for a time, and she gave him a roof over his head and a regular schedule of meals. Life’s tenuous, though, when you’ve got no one else to depend on. For whatever reason, she kicked him out, leaving him homeless.
How many sleeping on corners here in America have similar accounts? Casting stones of judgment is a whole lot harder when you hear a story like that.
Despite his tribulations, the young man was reflexively an optimist. He rebounded quickly, laughing a little as he spoke of the upcoming mango season. Everyone in Jamaica loves mangos, and a fruit-bearing tree is a valuable resource to those with the worst form of food insecurity.
Throughout the conversation, he never asked the gentleman for anything. At the end of their talk, he went on his way with a friendly farewell. We soon finished our meal and started walking back toward town.
We spotted the young man again just as we were about to clear the park. He was speaking across a distance to two other presumably homeless gentlemen. The next thing we knew, he was shimmying up a nearby coconut tree.
We stopped to watch, and my wife had the wherewithal to film the momentous occasion. The young man displayed exceptional athleticism, scaling the precarious 30-40 feet (~10 meters) to the top of the tree in seconds. He shook loose a few coconuts then lithely found his way down.
Meanwhile, his two counterparts sat in the shade, watching it all happen like they had seen it a thousand times. The young man scooped the coconuts off the ground and carried them over to them. A few drops of a machete later, breakfast was served.
Incredulous, I could only shake my head. Here was a homeless man, his immediate future perilously uncertain, who took the time to provide food to some of his similarly destitute yet less physically able brethren. And he had done it after not asking for anything from the obviously better off gentleman he shared time with in the park.
If only more of us were willing – simply out of kindness of heart – to get a coconut in a tree for our fellow man. The world sure would be in better shape.
Related Content
– Click to read my feature article “Jamaica: The Road to Redemption.”
– Click to watch my high-definition video of sunset at the Caribbean island of St. Maarten.
– Click to watch my high-definition video of our plane on approach to Gustavia, St. Barts.