On the 4th. day of Christmas a Jamaican gave to me – The Gift of Belly Busting Laughter

It has been said that laughter is the best medicine. But be cautious with that adage as Joan Hutchinson usually will have you in stitches!

However, there is much brawta in her presentations as she also delivers a high sense of cultural heritage and pride like no other.

But let’s not underestimate Joan as “just a comic” – although she certainly is one of the most prolific Jamaican humorists of all time.

Joan Hutchinson is a fantastic entrepreneur who is building a profession on the strength of her personality, intuition, innovation, drive, and determination.

In addition, she presides over a business encompassing authorship, professional
speaking, plays, and television projects fueled by her incessant invention of self and boundless creativity.
The latest demonstration of her ingenuity can be found in her latest work,

Kin Teet Kibba Heart Bun

The book and the CD document the creative and resourceful practices of ‘not so well off’ Jamaicans in the past, as they found interesting ways to survive and raise their families on a shoe string budget.

The book and CD will be released a few days before Christmas.

Many Jamaicans who grew up ‘poor’ did not realize that they were supposed to have been poor, until later in life they realized what they did not have.

The experience of growing up with people who knew how to ‘tun yuh han meck fashion’ and ‘tan pon crooked cut straight’, taught us all how to survive hard times, skills which are proving very useful at this time.

Jamaican parents wasted nothing, and were guided by the principle that everything has a second purpose. We carried half exercise book and half pencil to school, used newspaper to stuff big shoes and then cut out the toe when they became tight, used and reused tea bags, converted butter tubs and plastic containers to dishes, ate condensed milk and bread, and learnt very early to make our own toys.

Girls whose parents could not afford dolls converted a coconut, an ear of corn, a tuft of grass or a mango seed to their ‘dolly baby, and boys made fish tanks from old car batteries, raced board horse in dirty water and played cricket with coconut bough and green orange.