Conversations I Have Had: 2nd Jamaican Edition

English is the dominant language both in my home country (USA) and Jamaica. Communication shouldn't be a problem right? 

Conversation #1

Setting: Restaurant in Kingston

Background info: Ting is a Jamaican grapefruit soda

Waitress: Do do you want to drink?

Me: Diet Coke, please. 

Waitress: No, sorry. No Diet Coke. You want a Ting?

Me, repeating my earlier order: Uh, yes, I want the grilled chicken sandwich. 

Waitress: No, do you want a TING?! 

(I thought she said, "Do you want anything?" and, for some reason. completely forgotten the order.)

Conversation #2:

Setting: Department store in Kingston mall, browsing in the clothing section

Staff: You t'rough?

Me: No, I'm still looking.  Is the store closing?

Staff: Huh?

Me: Is the store closing? 

Staff, who is clearly smarter than I: No! (laughs) Are you TRUE? Are you alright, need help?

(I thought she asked if I was THROUGH and was telling me I had to leave the store. At 3 pm in the afternoon on a workday.)

Clearly I have a problem with the "th" in Jamaica. 

Sligoville

Just so you don't go thinking Jamaica is all Caribbean shoreline.... Pictures from Sligoville, in St. Catherine parish. The founder of a foundation we support lives here.

Named for Howe Peter Browne, 2nd Marquis of Sligo, then Governor of Jamaica. The first free village in Jamaica.

We got there around 4:30 pm. By the time dark came, the temperature dropped to 55 deg. F and a strong wind was blowing. This, of course, was my favorite part of the visit:

For shame...

I'm currently in Jamaica and out of the Dominican baseball loop, so I am a little late to this:

Dominican Republic’s powerfully offensive team lost for the second time to the Netherlands, and is eliminated from the World Baseball Classic.

Oh man, I wish I were in the office to hear my coworkers talk about this! Bad enough for the DR to lose, but to lose to the Netherlands?!?!?! Ouch.

In good sports news, the West Indies beat England in the five-test series cricket match. I know absolutely nothing about cricket. Zip. But the only radio station I get in my Japanese car is KLAS, Jamaica's sports radio station. Test Cricket takes forever (5 days) and is very British, complete with breaks for tea. So while I've been driving around Kingston, I've listened to the series. I wish I actually undestood what was happening, because apparently it was quite a dramatic series.

Conversations I Have Had: Jamaica Edition

Riverton Community Center, Kingston, Jamaica

I rely heavily upon the map of Kingston while I am here. After a few days I get used to the place, only to forget it all again once I leave. Therefore I was disappointed to find it had gone "missing" from the car. So I set out to find a new one at the bookstore.



Me: Excuse me, do you have street maps?


Bookstore employee: Street maps?


Me: Yes, of Kingston.


...Blank look...


Me: Maps with the names of streets. So I don't get lost.


Employee: No, we don't have any street maps.


Me: Oh.


Employee: We only have road maps.

I went to visit our partner in Seaview Gardens, a rough and tumble neighborhood of Kingston. I had never really been out to visit the community before, so two of the formidable community liasons, Miss Effie and Carolyn, took me around. We stopped in at the local police station.



Me: Do you have enough police to handle to problems of the community?


Sargent: No man, we need more.


Miss Effie: They need a lot of things here. They need a new car, a new fence...


Sargent: Yeah man, we need a new kitchen.


Miss Effie: They really need a new bar.


Me: A bar? I'm sorry. What's a bar? [Thinking, this can't really be a bar, like, for drinking.]


Sargent: A bar, man, for drinking. [Pointing to 2/3 bottle of Appleton Rum on his bookshelf.]


Miss Effie: Yeah, for when they don't have anything to do.


Sargent: Yeah, we really need one.

Cocoa Tea Calls It

From The Jamaica Gleaner

A friend I work with- and who has traveled to Jamaica frequently for work- came over to watch the election results on Tuesday. As they called it for Obama, she said, "I can't wait to see what the Jamaican newspapers say tomorrow."

They did say this:

Barack Obama's victory should now instil a higher level of confidence in
Jamaicans, says reggae artiste Coco Tea who, through his musical tribute, had predicted a win for Obama several months before the presidential elections.

Yes folks, Cocoa Tea called it! We should all listen to him.

Reggae Superstar for Obama

Folks, let's face it. The world has Obama fever. The other day on the news here they were interviewing Domincans, asking who they would vote for if they could vote in the US election. "Obama! Porque parece a nosotros y nos entiende mejor!" (Obama! Because he looks like us and can understand us better!) It doesn't help that McCain's father led the US invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965. (Just read the comments on that second link to see how people feel about it.)

I haven't been to Jamaica since August, but even then everyone had Obama fever. I was cruising the Jamaican on-line papers and found this article about Cocoa Tea recording a reggae song in honor of Obama. I dare you to listen to it and not like it.

Crocs in the Sewers

On my last full day in Kingston I went with one of our partners to visit the community resource center my organization funded a project for. It is located in Riverton Meadows, a very rough and poor neighborhood in Kingston. As we were touring the health clinic we funded, we heard a huge ruckus outside- lots of excitement and shouting. The head nurse ambles over and says, “They caught a crocodile.”

Something was going on...

There is a large open sewer that runs through the community, and the community is located right next to a trash dump. Apparently the croc came up through a river connected to the sewer. What was truly amazing is that some of the men in the community hopped right in a wrestled the croc out of the sewer. They thought it was too dangerous to have it loose in the community and the police or animal control certainly doesn’t go into Riverton, so they had to take matters into their own hands. It looks small in the pictures, but this thing was huge!! Huge and angry!

The sewer that runs through the community, from where the croc came...
I was as curious as anyone else, and ran over to take pictures. Some people were like, “Who’s the whitey mon” (even though I'm a woman I'm still a whitey mon, apparently) but most people were too excited by the croc. I asked the center manager what they were going to do with the croc. “Are they going to eat it?” Boy, did I ever get ribbed for asking that! Apparently crocodile meat is not the delicacy in Jamaica it is in Southern Africa! In my defense, the croc was being strung up right in front of Jerky’s Jerk Center! Would have been convenient...

The view from where I worked today

The view from our partner's office in Montego Bay.

The scenery around here

Not too much to report these days. The first week or so of this work trip has been full of financial matters, which is not exactly exciting. I spent about three days at the office of one of our project partners. I spent all day going over receipts and invoices, listening to Jamaican gospel music blasting out of this little store right next door to the office. The woman who owns this store probably picked one of the worst locations, but what she lacks in location she makes up for with great decorating. I love the colors!

Jamaican Sprinters

Here's an interesting article from the New York Times about the high quality of Jamaican sprinters. Track and field is a huge deal in Jamaica. Jamaicans talk about track and field with a level of technicality that would equal football or baseball in the US. It really is amazing that such a small place with poor facilities can produce such stellar athletes.

Translate my car

Because Jamaica drives on the lefthand side of the road, it must import cars from the other countries that do the same. The car that my organization bought for me to drive while in Jamaica is imported from Japan. It's a newer car and has a fancy GPS system and DVD player installed in the dashboard.

The problem? It's all in Japanese.

There are a few helpful English words like "On" and "FM" and "DVD." I have at least figured out how to turn on the radio; however, Japanese radios don't go above 90 on the FM dial, so I am stuck listening to gospel stations and KLAS, Jamaica's sports station. KLAS is interesting, at least. I've learned more about track and field, horse racing and cricket on my Jamaica trips than I ever could have before.

The funniest, however, is the GPS system. Since it is a Japanese car, the GPS system is set to Japan. So when I turn on a car, a map of Japan pops up!

Help at the supermarket

A few weeks ago I was at the supermarket doing some shopping. I tend to go to nicer supermarkets because they have more American and "luxury" products like veggie burgers and tend to be close to my house.

I was in the toothpaste section when an older woman approached me. She handed me a piece of paper and asked me to help her find what was written on it. Not quite sure why I was chosen- in spite of speaking fluent Spanish a lot of people here speak English to me because they assume i don't speak their language (although I almost speak their language better than they speak mine!) and I wasn't wearing the market's uniform, but I was happy to help. I quickly gathered that she didn't know how to read and that she must have been an empleada (cleaning lady) sent to the store by her employer.

The employer wanted a specific type and size of toothpaste- they had the brand of toothpaste, but not the large size, only the smaller one. I showed the woman where it was and explained that they didn't have the large size that was written on the paper, just the small one. She got very worried and said, "Are you sure they don't have the large size? That's the one I have to get." Again, I explained that they didn't but it shouldn't be a problem to get the smaller size since it costs less. "No, if I don't get what they want then they will be unhappy and fire me." I offered to let her use my cell phone to call the person but she didn't know the number. She decided to risk it and got the smaller one.

I'm not sure if she was exaggerating or worrying for no reason, but the situation made me grateful for two things:

1. I have been lucky enough to be born in a country where I received a good public education and don't have to rely on others for the most basic of things.
2. Thanks to this education, I have been able to get jobs with good supervisors who respect me and don't make me afraid to lose my job.

Pics from Jamaica

I haven't had much time to post because I don't have internet at home yet and I am insanely busy at work, so I don't have much to report. By popular demand, here are some pictures from my trip to Jamaica a few weeks ago. (DR pics to come soon!)

These pictures are for my friend Loren, still in Angola! :)

This is from a beach in Montego Bay. I am probably one of a handful of people (non-Jamaican, of course) who go to MoBay for work, not pleasure. This is a hotel beach, right along the "Hip Strip", the tourist stretch. It was expensive- over $10 for a chair and umbrella, but with a view like this it was worth it.

Not pictured is the Official Jamaican Bobsled Team Cafe. Yes, such a thing exists. I admit that I had a veggie burger and Red Stripe there. This is the big Red Stripe sign on the way out of town.

This is a house we visited near Mandeville, in central Jamaica. It's a beautiful area. This house belongs to an elderly woman. She received boards and zinc from us but then hired someone to fix it and supplemented it with hurricane straps. (Hurricane Straps are simple bolts and metal straps that can reallt keep a roof together in a strong storm. Slowly I'm getting used to this emergency repair talk.)

The road leading up to the house.

Just one of many differences between Angola and Jamaica

Yesterday I had one of those experiences that made me realize that Angola really is a different place and that it changed me- in this case for the worse, I fear!

The Lobito ShopRite was both satisfying and frustrating at the same time. On the one hand, it was great because it was a Western style grocery store that let me kill some of my consumer urges. On he other hand, like every other establishment in Angola, it was plagued with problems. For example: I would see a new product on the shelves and there would be no price attached to it. I would ofen decide it was worth it, take it to the cashier and attempt to pay. Usually the cahsier would try to scan it 5 or 6 times and call up a supervisor when it would not scan. The supervisor would usually say it wasn't in the system so I couldn't buy it. Some version of the following conversation would usually happen:

Supervisor: It's not for sale.
Me: So, it's on the shelf but it's not for sale.
Supervisor: Right.
Me: So why is it on the shelf?
Supervisor: Because we will sell it eventually.
Me: Why not wait to put it on the shelf until it has a price?
Blank looks all around...

This happened all the time and what was most frustrating was the total indifference and unwillingness to help the customer in the situation. The first time it happened I didn't say anything, but it happened so often I began to say something, trying to express my customer dissatisfaction. Never seemed to make a difference, but then again, as the only big supermarket in town, there was no real incentive to listen to customers.

Fast forward to Jamaica. With the proximity to the US, supermarkets here stock tons of American products. I'm currently in Montego Bay- for work, believe it or not. After 2 weeks of traveling, I'm quite tired of eating in restaurants, so yesterday I went to a large supermarket to get something for dinner. I was quite excited to see some mozzarella string cheese, so I picked two packs and some crackers and veggies.

When I got to the check-out, the cashier tried to ring up the string cheese but it wouldn't go through. The bagger tried to track down the price, but he came back with a familiar reason- it wasn't in the computer so they couldn't sell it.
Me: So it's one the shelf but it's not for sale? It shouldn't be on the shelf if it's not for sale.
(Here's where things go differently...)
Cashier: Yes ma'am, I'm so sorry. That shouldn't have happened.
Bagger: We're very sorry. You're right
Cashier: Sorry for the inconvenience.

Whoa! I immediately began to feel very badly for making an impolite comment. It was just so nice to have decent customer service after almost two years of horrible customer service. I guess I can drop the defensive shield I developed in Angola. At least until it happens elsewhere!

Why Jamaican Kids Are Awesome

This morning I went to visit a partner of ours in Old Harbour. We were working in the office of a school auditorium. It happened to be Teacher's Day today, so there was a little ceremony to honor them. At one point, the place went nuts- at first I thought the kids were screaming "CHOCOLATE! CHOCOLATE!" but it turns out they were screaming "DOMINIC! DOMINIC!"

I asked the accountant what they were screaming for, and she said this kid Dominic was a guitar genious. Sure enough, Dominic, who looked to be about 10 years old, grabbed a guitar and hopped up on stage. And then, in a momen of awesomeness, proceeded to play RHINESTONE COWBOY, by Glen Campbell! And then a lot of the kids started to sing along! Awesome, Dominic.

Jamaica at the movies

For the best 4 days I've been battling a nasty head cold that has largely sidelined me from anything outside of work. This is unfortunate, considering that Kingston is only an hour away from some great beaches, but I really couldn't drive myself anywhere. I rested all day yesterday and this afternoon decided to go see a movie.

I saw "Iron Man"- pretty impressive that Jamaica gets a new movie the same weekend it is released in the States. About an hour into the movie, it comes to a grinding halt. The lights came up, and a commercial for nachos came up on the screen. Intermission! Half the audience left to get snacks. 10 minutes later the picture came back on. Weird.

Jamaica so far

With my new job, majority of the projects I manage are located in Jamaica. The last week I've been going around the island getting to know the various partners and projects they run with our financial assistance. Luckily I was able to travel with the colleague who had been managing the projects temporarily. He brought his wife and it was great to have fun people to go around with.

I'm probably one of a handful of people who have traveled to Jamaica without setting foot on a beach. I'm surrounded by water but since we work in poor areas, we go far away from the water. Although I've yet to see the ocean from anywhere other than the plane, I have been able to spend a lot of time in the mountains, which are absolutely beautiful.

The largest of our projects here are reconstruction projects in response to Hurricane Dean, which hit Jamaica in August 2007. Although many houses here are made of concrete, roofs are often made of just zinc sheets and wooden boards, so when the storm hit many people were left without adequate shelter. We distributed zinc sheets, boards, tarps, construction materials, etc through our local partners.

We began the visit in Kingston, meeting with all the big-wigs. We visted one of our projects with Mustard Seed Communities, Jamaica. They work with mentally and physically disabled children who have been cast out from their families.

After two days in Kingston, we went to Mandeville. The Mandeville to Kingston trip was my first test of left-side driving. I drove to Mandeville and later around Manchester Parish. I thought I was driving well until our poor partner contact, Kevin, said to me, "Leslie you are making me very very nervous." Whoops! Apparently I was driving a little too close to the left side of the road. Eventually I got my spatial judgement back, if nothing else to put Kevin at ease.

Our next stop was Montego Bay. MoBay is better known for its resorts and tourism, but it is also Jamaica's second largest and most dangerous city. We visited a high school where our partners run an after-school education project.

This trip gave me my first taste of Patois. Although we all technically spoke English, I could barely understand pure Patois. I love the sound of it and hope to learn a bit of it. Here are some examples:

Patois: Were dat ol'daddy? Him dat live up der hill?
American English: Where's the elderly man who lives up that hill?

Patois: Da wind done come and mash up dis 'ere 'ouse.
American: The storm came and ruined this house.

Now I'm back in Kingston, this time alone, my colleague and his wife having gone back to Ecuador. I'll make the same loop next week, this time tackling the much less interesting issue of financial management. Exciting! I don't have my camera cable with me, so pictures will have to wait until I get back to Santo Domingo.