I first arrived in Jamaica in late 1967. Born and educated in the UK, I held degrees in geography and civic design from Liverpool University and had worked as a town planner in England and a university lecturer in Ghana. Following that, I spent two years as a Commonwealth Scholar at Hong Kong University. For reasons that had nothing to do with geography or town planning, I left Hong Kong and travelled to Jamaica. There I found temporary employment as a geography teacher in Kingston where later I joined the staff of the Jamaican Government Town Planning Department. In 1971 I became a part-time Lecturer in the UWI Geography Department at Mona, subsequently being appointed as a permanent member of staff. Apart from a period between 1982 and 1983 when I was seconded to the Government of Grenada as Physical Planning Advisor under a European Development Fund scheme, I remained at UWI until 1985.

My work with colleagues and students at UWI was a delightful and rewarding experience. I treasure happy memories of academic and social life on campus and on field study trips that characterize the work of geographers. Some of these excursions were organized as an essential part of the UWI Geography programme, notably the annual field trip which was normally based at centres such as Munro College, Hampton School, Knox College and Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College. These field trips lasted several days. Other excursions were organized by the Jamaican Geographical Society (JGS), in which UWI staff usually played a major role. I was President of the JGS in 1971-72 and 1984-85.

When I arrived in Jamaica, Dr. Barry Floyd was Head of the Geography Department. In 1971 he left UWI to join the staff of Durham University in England. To mark this occasion, the JGS organized a field trip which took the form of a return railway journey between Kingston and Port Antonio. It was a privilege to have this experience which is no longer possible because most of this line has since been closed. The JGS hired a whole train which would stop wherever the field trip leaders desired. I believe that this was possible because there was no scheduled rail service on the Sunday when the trip took place. The driver of the diesel locomotive entered into the spirit of the occasion and suggested one or two stops that he felt were worth making for the benefit of the geographers on board his train. I recall the driver enthusiastically leading his passengers from the stationary train through lush countryside on a track that took us to the mouth of a small cave.

Years later, one of the UWI annual Geographical Field Trips started with a rail journey from Kingston to Montego Bay. Among the memorable events on this journey was the sudden appearance of a preacher man and his boy assistant who distributed hymn sheets among the passengers whom he encouraged to sing praises to the Lord. This rail journey, too, has become a thing of the past. One other field trip by rail that I remember involved the hire of a single coach attached to the scheduled train. This took its geographical passengers to Appleton where the subject of study was the cultivation and processing of sugar cane and the production of rum. For some, it also involved the consumption of the celebrated product, leading to very high spirits among passengers on the return journey.

Most of the geographical field trips required travel by road rather than railway. While small groups could be accommodated in the Geography Department’s VW Minibus, it was usually necessary to hire a larger vehicle for the students. The accompanying staff travelled in the departmental VW. At the wheel was usually Head of Department Dr. Vernon Mulchansingh, wearing his hard hat, but occasionally other staff members relieved our expedition leader by taking turns at driving.

My classroom memories are too many to record in this short piece, but I will conclude with one of my favourites. At the end of one of my classes I asked the students for some feedback so that I might learn how successful I had been in communicating the information and ideas I hoped they would gain. From near the back of the room came the comment, “Is a irie lecture , Suh.”