What’s it actually like being a Jamaican doing enterprise in Colombia? For Anasia Reid, the journey started with journey, curiosity, and a eager for the flavours of dwelling, and ultimately led to constructing a thriving Jamaican restaurant in Medellín.
On this episode of Jamaicans Doing Enterprise Overseas, Jamaicans.com founder Xavier Murphy sits down with Anasia to discover her journey from company engineering to entrepreneurship, and what it means to plant Jamaican tradition in South America.
A Jamaican Roots, World Journey
Anasia is British-Jamaican, born to Jamaican dad and mom who migrated to the UK within the Nineteen Sixties. Whereas she grew up in Britain, Jamaican tradition was all the time central to her life, from the meals and music to household gatherings and group.
Professionally, Anasia skilled as {an electrical} engineer and spent years working within the company world. Alongside her profession, she developed a love for journey, residing and dealing in locations like Dubai and Canada earlier than ultimately turning her consideration to South America.
In her early 40s, Anasia determined to take a break and discover someplace solely new. She arrived in Colombia with plans to remain for six months, be taught Spanish, and expertise life outdoors the acquainted Western world. That quick keep became seven years.
Residing in Medellín, she discovered herself more and more lacking Jamaican home-cooked meals. Every time homesickness crept in, she cooked Jamaican dishes for associates, who shortly took to the daring flavours and seasoning. That response helped her recognise a transparent hole within the native meals scene.
Opening Jamaiquita in Medellín
Two years in the past, Anasia opened Jamaiquita, now generally known as Medellín’s solely Jamaican restaurant. The title displays her imaginative and prescient: making a small however genuine piece of Jamaica in Colombia.
Regardless of having no formal culinary background, Anasia leaned on years of being round her mom’s cooking and her personal problem-solving mindset as an engineer. Establishing the enterprise moved surprisingly shortly, helped by her familiarity with the language, native methods, {and professional} networks she had constructed over time.
At the moment, Jamaiquita serves Jamaican staples like jerk hen, oxtail, and escovitch fish, introducing Colombians and visiting Jamaicans alike to the flavours of dwelling.
Life in Colombia and Constructing Neighborhood
Residing in Medellín has required cultural adjustment. Anasia notes variations in communication types, tempo of life, and social norms, however describes Colombians as heat, welcoming, and community-oriented. By means of meals, music, and even domino video games, Jamaiquita has grow to be a gathering area for Jamaicans, locals, and guests.
Past the restaurant, she enjoys Colombia’s way of life, vibrant festivals, and pure magnificence, all of which remind her in delicate methods of Jamaica.
Recommendation for Jamaicans Considering of the Transfer
For anybody contemplating shifting to or working in Colombia, Anasia encourages taking time to grasp the tradition, choosing the proper location, and constructing a enterprise round one thing you genuinely care about. Whereas language helps, it’s now not a serious barrier, and alternatives nonetheless exist for these prepared to be taught and adapt.
Wanting forward, Anasia hopes to develop Jamaiquita and discover franchising, persevering with to share Jamaican tradition far past the island’s shores.
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