{"id":1552,"date":"2016-07-15T21:54:52","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T21:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/islandoutpost.com\/outpostings\/?p=1552"},"modified":"2023-10-09T13:09:26","modified_gmt":"2023-10-09T13:09:26","slug":"study-abroad-cape-verde-led-new-life-jamaica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.islandoutpost.com\/outpostings\/2016\/07\/15\/study-abroad-cape-verde-led-new-life-jamaica\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Study Abroad in Cape Verde Led to a New Life in Jamaica"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo via Ashley Hyde<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Travel has a way of changing your life in an impactful way. That\u2019s what happened to Ashley Hyde, who runs one of Jamaica\u2019s most promising new travel companies, <\/span>Touch the Road Jamaica<\/span><\/a>. In 2011, Connecticut-raised Hyde visited Cape Verde with her college for a program on migrant workers who\u2019d been deported back to the island nation. During her senior year, Hyde applied for a Fulbright scholarship to continue her work with deported migrants. Fulbright didn\u2019t have any Cape Verde programs, so she opted for Jamaica instead.<\/span><\/p>\n

Outpostings sat with the savvy entrepreneur at her home in Kingston. Here\u2019s what we learned.<\/span><\/p>\n

She chose Jamaica because Cape Verdean migrant workers felt a kinship to Jamaicans<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI was looking for opportunities to help deported migrants when they returned home,\u201d she says, \u201cand to use a skillset they might have developed either in prison or on the streets.\u201d But when Cape Verde wasn\u2019t an option, she recalled Cape Verdean migrants mentioning they had identified most with Jamaicans. \u201cJamaican deported migrant workers had a very similar situation when they arrived back home\u2014they were stigmatized and disenfranchised…so I erased Cape Verde on my Fulbright application and wrote in Jamaica.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She left grad school to make an impact on the Jamaican community. <\/b><\/p>\n

When Hyde\u2019s year-long Fulbright scholarship came to an end, she returned home to pursue a graduate degree in international development. But after three months, Hyde decided her time was better spent on the ground, and made her way back to Jamaica in 2012. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Touch-the-road-jamaica-outpostings\"<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Photo via <\/span><\/i>Touch the Road<\/a><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

She founded an ultra community-minded travel company. <\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cTouch the Road was like a culmination of my Fulbright,\u201d Hyde explains. The company sends travelers to destinations (Hyde calls them \u201cpockets\u201d) all over the island. \u201cThese creative pockets were not people with a whole heap of money that were able to build something, and it wasn’t pretty, glitzy or glamorous.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One of her favorite examples is a hidden bakery behind a rasta shop, where the owners used a coal stove to bake pineapple cakes. \u201cI said to myself, \u2018This is the craziest cake I’ve ever had in my life. Why aren’t traveler’s seeing this? And how do they see this?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So she created Touch the Road to facilitate the process of Jamaicans showing visitors their island. \u201cI wanted to show the rest of the world the hidden Jamaica, and I wanted to show them that with Jamaican tour guides\u2014in part to create more jobs, but also to build upon this idea of people actually helping people.<\/span> The world can go to places like <\/span>Ibo Spice<\/span><\/a>, places like Trench town and Gordon Town. These are the small places that are no where on the map right now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She also started the country\u2019s newest music festival<\/b><\/p>\n

Hyde teamed up with local band Raging Fyah<\/a> to launch <\/span>Wickie Wackie Music Festival<\/span><\/a>. The two-day concert fair is all about \u201csocially conscious music,\u201d says Hyde, referring to the musical movement to impart positive social messages into the lyrics. \u201cIf you\u2019re making conscious reggae music in Japan, you should be at the festival,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Grammy-winning group Morgan Heritage, Jesse Royal and Kabaka Pyramid all graced the stage at last year\u2019s festival, and while Hyde can\u2019t share details for this year yet, she promises the lineup is nothing short of \u201cepic.\u201d The festival is set for December 2 – 3, 2016.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She loves Jamaica\u2019s take on life.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cIn Jamaica, you can take the time to get to know yourself and other people. It\u2019s really taught me to just sit and relax,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

She\u2019ll always feel at home in Jamaica<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hyde suffers from \u201cthe travel bug,\u201d as she explains, but she\u2019s not planning on parting ways with Jamaica any time soon. \u201cI\u2019m always going to have a place here in Jamaica. For the rest of my life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Follow Hyde and her adventures on Instagram at <\/span>Touch the Road<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo via Ashley Hyde Travel has a way of changing your life in an impactful way. That\u2019s what happened to Ashley Hyde, who runs one of Jamaica\u2019s most promising new travel companies, Touch the Road Jamaica. In 2011, Connecticut-raised Hyde visited Cape Verde with her college for a program on migrant workers who\u2019d been deported back to the island nation. During her senior year, Hyde […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":1582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-interview","category-jamaica"],"yoast_head":"\nSocial Entrepreneurship Helps Cape Verdean Migrant Workers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ashley Hyde visited Jamaica on a college program dedicated to helping migrants. 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