Blogs from Jamaica, Central America Caribbean - page 20

I arrived in Jamaica after flying through Barbados and Antigua, meaning in a five hour period that morning I was in fact on four different Caribbean islands. The Norman Manley airport in Kingston is at the end of a long strip of land jutting out into the sea, with which it is level. This basically means that when the water rises, the sole road to the airport is usually washed out with flights cancelled or changed on a regular basis during the rainy season. Despite a rainy forecast the skies were clear and sunny when I landed which basically put me in a fantastic mood for what became a very random four days in Jamaica! I was in town gatecrashing the work and hotel room of my friend Derek, who was in Jamaica for the week ... read more

Get up this morning. Turn on the shower. No water pressure. Don't slip. Ask to turn on the water pump. Get down to breakfast. Pour myself a cup of coffee, pick up the cream container and accidently drop it all over my plate of pineapple, the table, myself and the floor. I'm too tired and hot to react. I sit there dumbfounded. I did this in front of Jeff, 2 other guests and one of the staff. I pathetically mop up the spill with a napkin. I go change my clothes. Not a drop of cream actually made it into my coffee. Apologize to everyone that works at the guesthouse, and eat my breakfast. Rocky takes us to work. Half way there we hear this weird noise -- I think it might be a flat tire? ... read more

Get up this morning. Eat breakfast -- get excited because we think its the vegetarian meal (my favorite so far) -- turns out there is fish hiding amidst the veggies. BOO! So dissapointed. Jeff the other guest joins us for breakfast -- he announces that he is moving to Houston, TX. I share how much I hate Houston...(I got stuck there last summer). Rocky arrives early. Go to work. Go downstairs to meet with our supervisor for the Ministry of Health to go with him over to the psychiatric hospital (the only one in all of Jamaica). We arrive and both he and his secretary are MIA. Sit awkwardly in the middle of a hallway on folding chairs (mine is broken and the seat is collapsing). They eventually arrive. We sit there for 45 minutes before ... read more

Got up this morning, and had breakfast -- Keith and I decided that it is ground up corned beef and cabbage (it most closely resembles raw ground beef -- which I am a HUGE fan of) -- this is actually the second time we have had this meal, and its one of my top two favorites for breakfast! I try to focus on the flavor not what it looks like. We eat breakfast with the other guest we have become friends with, Jeff (a late 50's American born in Pittsburg, PA that works IT and has spent the last 20 years living in Bermuda). I sit uncomfortably at the table while he recounts tales of the weekend that might include a night at the strip club(?)/lack of employment/history of depression/insomnia/and advice seeking on IT jobs in ... read more

Get up early, Clifton will be here between 7:30 and 7:45am to pick us to to be at the office at 8am. He arrives at 7:35am. The woman that runs the guesthouse asks if she can speak with our driver because when he picks us up so early we miss breakfast. We tell her no. Go into work at 8am (as we were told to), and NO ONE is there. Get locked out of the PAHO/WHO office b/c our security badge only gets us through one set of locked doors. Wait until our driver comes in and gets us in the second set of doors. Work. Email. Eat lunch (cup o' noodles -- keith has the Jamaican version that comes with the fold-up fork -- I am super jealous. Again we discuss the brilliance behind the ... read more