There is so much more to Jamaica than what the world sees from a distance.
Travel has made me appreciate home even more. I still remember being at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium decades after the 1976 Games and seeing the Jamaican flag flying there. Donald Quarrie had won Jamaica’s 200-metre Olympic gold in that stadium in 1976, and seeing our flag so far from home was a simple but powerful reminder of how often this small island leaves its mark.
What has always fascinated me about Jamaica is how much life, ambition and character can come from such a small island. We have never seemed content to be limited by our size. Jamaicans have a way of taking what we have, adding imagination, determination and our own unmistakable personality, and making something memorable from it. We compete with the world, embrace new ideas and technology, create music and language that travel far beyond our shores, and carry a confidence that sometimes seems wonderfully out of proportion to the size of the country itself.
Yet the Jamaica I love most is found away from the headlines—in conversations across a domino table, the smell of Sunday dinner, the humour in a Jamaican expression, the stories our forefathers passed down, the communities that shaped us and the history that explains how we became who we are. LimeGrid grew from a desire to bring more of that Jamaica into one place and share it with Jamaicans at home, those living abroad, and anyone curious enough to come in and lime with us.