On my last trip home, a Maroon friend laughed at me when I was reminiscing on how much I wished for the "good old days".Originally Posted by sonja
She said, "Good old days were good for you but not so much for us. You could travel cheap. Eat cheap. And bargained for what you wanted."
"For us our money bought just as much as your money converted did. The only difference? We made less of it when we worked"
She went on to tell me that she liked having things. A cellphone or two. A car. A house and a so-so job. "We couldn't afford a nice place to stay overnight in Negril before and definitely not now."
She said, "You live like a Jamaican. Travel and eat like a Jamaican but you do it on US dollars and we don't."
She reminded me that not that many of the 2,000,000 or so visitors who come to Jamaica to vacation would ever want to come here if they had to live like you do. "No disrespect!", she added.
I laughed and nodded.
She went on.... "The more people who come here with more money to stay in more expensive places actually helps more than those who come an live like a Jamaican". "We already have enough of them!", she laughed.
"Come on. Let me buy you a drink you cheap-azz Jamaican".
