Not everyday was remarkable or worth commenting on. I had become totally part of the normal life the caretaker’s family and friends. For brevity, I will include a few things that happened on different days as if occurred on only one day. Also, I have a few comments on various subjects.
MONEY. The most frequently used word in Jamaica, in my opinion. Mostly the lack of it and sometimes the expectations of getting some more by a remittance, work or winning the lottery. When I arrived the exchange rate of US to Jamaican was a little over $1.30 and by the time, I left it was a little over $1.40 and the relative prices of goods just continued to rise as if everyone was living off that rate increase. The problem is that a maid making as little as $5,000 Jamaican per week was making the same at the beginning and end of my vacation while the prices were rising.
HOUSE. Before I left last year from Y Worry Cottage, I made a deal to partly pay for this stay in advance. The major problem with my staying at my caretaker’s home was a steep hill I would have to walk up to get there. I paid $900 US so my caretaker could move her house from atop the hill down to an existing pad by the road. How? By using a saw and cutting it into three sections and have a tractor jitney transport it down the hill and reassemble it on the pad. Sounds crazy, huh? Well, this is Jamaica, and everything is possible.
Well, as they were cutting it, it was decided the wood was too old and brittle so the money was added to other money and a new indoor bathroom along with two additional bedrooms to an existing one, a living room and a kitchen were built with new wood. All this construction was completed within two months. Now, the formerly one-bedroom outhouse and verandah, is a three-bedroom house complete with a new indoor bathroom, kitchen and living room.
SOE. The SOE or State of Emergency calling the soldiers into action to stem the crime that has been spilling out of urban cities onto the island is, in my opinion, a necessary step but not the solution to the problem. Violent crime in Jamaica is akin to air in a balloon. When you squeeze it here or there, the air just goes to other areas of the balloon and, in this example, into otherwise peaceful areas of the country. The solution involves letting the “violent crime” air out of the balloon or it just moves to another location. Reforming the money laundering laws and getting tougher on lottery scammers is one solution being implemented and a lot more police corruption reform needs to be undertaken. Soldiers acting as police will sometime emulate the police by petty extortion of money from drivers at check points. That happened to us coming from Accompong Town for a paltry amount of $1,000 Jamaican Dollars.
