"Hello young man! Hello young man! Come here to me!" I spun around, trying to find out who was speaking. I was walking, alone, I thought, on a red-dirt stained roadway in a place called Bamboo in St Catherine. I knew the name of the place because I had spotted a rusty old road sign some ways back.

"Is you mi talking to! Come here to me!" I finally spotted the woman. She had dark skin and was wearing sandals with a skirt. She was standing on the verandah of a small home. Her head was wrapped with a handkerchief.

The woman was gesturing wildly. I hesitated, at first, but when she gave me a stern look-over, I hurried over to where she was standing.

Quick sip

"I see you walking up the road for a long time now in di sun hot. You mad? Dis sun will melt yuh out. Come outa di sun and come drink some water!" the woman said.

As she spoke, she hurried to the side of her home and lifted a water hose from the ground. It was attached to a black water tank. She fiddled around with something and then water started pouring out of the hose.

"Come and drink some water before yuh fall down, for mi nuh able fi carry nobody go hospital today," she said.

I felt I had little say in the matter, so I took a quick sip of the water and thanked her.

"Put some pan yuh face, man! Di sun hat!" the woman said. She then wet her own hands and started patting my forehead, vigorously. I was quite alarmed.

Cool off

"Alright now, come in pan di verandah come cool off. Me is Hazel. What is your name?" she said.

I told her and she went on to ask what I was doing in the community.

"For is di first time mi seeing yuh around here," she said.

I explained to Miss Hazel that I was there just trying to find out about the community and the people who live there.

"Well, Bamboo is a cool, quiet place. Mostly older people live around here. It well out of the town, so we don't get a lot of crowd and those things. No crime," she said.

I asked her how long she had been living in Bamboo.

"Well, is about five years now. I was really living somewhere else, but I get two vision from God that I must come here to live and to minister to the people and to continue my spiritual work," Miss Hazel smiled, proudly.

I asked her how that was going.

"Well, you have your ups and downs, but I just continue to do the work. Sometime people will listen, but some people don't. But anyway, who don't hear, dem will feel!" she said, waving her finger.

"So tell mi something, have you been saved?" she said.

Baptist church

"I ... er ..." was all I could get out before she cut me off.

"I believe that you were sent here. You look like you come to this place with a message for the bretherin!" she hollered.

I was getting uncomfortable. "You need to visit the baptist church on Sunday and share the message. Do not hold on to the message!" she yelled.

I promised her I wouldn't, but was still unclear as to what the message really was.

"Yes, go now and prepare the message for the people and return to this place with the message," she said.

I gave an uncomfortable grin and went on my way. As I walked off, quite bewildered about my next move, I heard Miss Hazel chanting Psalms in the background.

"Let the message be told!" she said.

robert.lalah@gleanerjm.com

The Roving with Lalah book is available at bookstores islandwide.