WHEN Aron Wohl left England for Jamaica in 1991 because he “wanted to go to Reggae Sunsplash”, little did the self-confessed roots reggae fan know that more than 30 years later, he would be calling the land of reggae music home. At the time, Wohl was a year and a half out of college and was working in the United Kingdom as an optometrist but wanted to travel. “My plan was to come here, do Sunsplash.
If I liked it, I would stay however long I felt,” Wohl said as he outlined how he ended up in Jamaica. At that time, Wohl was 25 years old and had no responsibilities except to take care of himself. He had also planned on going to India, when he left Jamaica, but those plans were put aside.
But with his eyes set on attending Reggae Sunsplash — the now-defunct annual music festival held in Jamaica from 1978 to 1996 with additional events in 1998 and 2006 (and a virtual event in 2020) — Wohl said he also found a programme that allowed him to do voluntary work as an optometrist at the Foundation for International Self-Help (FISH) Medical, Dental and Eye Clinic, located on Gordon Town Road in St Andrew, over a three-month period. During that time, he would be paid a third of his return airfare each month, get a place to stay, and a box lunch. “That was my introduction to box food,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
He arrived in April 1991, worked from then until June, attended Reggae Sunsplash in July at the Bob Marley Centre in Montego Bay with “a few mates” who arri.