This #Throwback is to my tour of Bob Marley's tour of his property last spring. My wife booked this tour particularly for me. I was really inspired by the wonderful storytelling by the guide who shared intimate stories as a friend would tell secrets to another. The guide sang songs in his raspy voice in way leaving me curious of his own journey to this place, and how he was entrusted with these gold nuggets. As explained in the first picture I posted last May, Marley is a Jamaican national treasure nearly 40 years after his death. Yet, it has little affect on the cost of living in Jamaica as the average yearly salary of a regular working person runs between $1700-2400 - if they were paid regularly. Shamefully, small business owners often cheat their workers and at times, don't pay them for their work. If pay day was on Friday, the worker who comes to the office after their shift that day finds it closed. For some reason, bureaucracy makes it impossible for Jamaicans to get money from someone who has more. Western Union, cash apps, or Venmo has limitations and it's difficult to send money to someone you want to have let's say $20. One waiter from the hotel, who said he was 25, had started building his house. In Jamaica, sadly, it means one room at a time to physically do it himself. One his salary, he may be finished by 40 years old. The way he looks at it: It's not how much you have, it how your spend it. Amen. Seemingly, it doesn't exhaust their pride nor quell their spirit. The stories of the islands its people told to us by hotel employees, bus tour guides, and particularly the guide at Marley's estate shaped my curiosity in wanting to know more. As people laughed when Marley suggested weed should be a legalized and marketed widely in the late 70s, in 2019, Illinois government has made it legal in 2020. Some believe Marley was a prophet among other things, not to be worshiped, but a hero musically and politically. The raspy-throat guide said Marley is looking down on Jamaica as this picture suggests as a Sheppard minding sheep. One day hopefully, as in one of his songs, the captives will be set free...from poverty. #bobmarleyfoundation #bobmarley (at Chicago metropolitan area) https://www.instagram.com/p/BzxUsuLAIHl/?igshid=135e44fnfzx8b