First, let me say that we as Americans are spoiled. You may all ready know that, but since I have now been to two other countries and have seen how people live in them, it has been confirmed. I don't think, however, that we have anything to apologize for. We should be thankful that we are blessed enough to have the things/opportunities/country that we do. I also don't think that the people in Jamaica are unhappy with their situation, which to most Americans would seem hard. For example, most if not all, of the people that live in Ridge, don't have hot water. Now, that isn't much of a problem unless you are a woman with long hair or a man. A woman with long hair has to wash it and then rinse it with cold water, very cold on the rest of the body. You are exposed to the cold a lot longer, than say me, with no hair. I can rinse much easier. That brings me to the being a man part. I'm not going to give any anatomy lessons, but you know that things on a man "disappear"when they get cold. Now, once the body warms up, they reappear, but we guys are literally and figuratively attached to them. When they are no longer there, we become concerned. Lets move on. Example #2. The electricity is, shall we say, not reliable. This may be a situation were it is normally always on, except for the week I'm there, can't say for sure, but we lost power on several occasions. While at Michelle's, it was warm, not overly hot, but warm. Now, as a spoiled American, I'm use to air conditioning, but that isn't an option in Ridge, they use fans. Again, I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think anyone has air conditioning in Ridge. This poses a problem for someone who is say, overweight, out of shape and who sweats easily. (Me) On Sunday morning we were helping get ready for the fun day, so we were out working and I was sweating. Just before it was time to go to church, we went in to shower. Well, low and behold, the power was off. I thought, no big deal, right? I can take a cold shower with no lights, there's a window in the bathroom, I'm adjusting just fine. I was slightly set back when I realized that the water is pumped into the house via an electric pump, which we now have no said electric in which to run said pump. Problem. Michelle provided us with a bucket of water that she was able to manually scoop out of the tank and all seems to be moving on swimmingly (I've always wanted to use that word) I'm showered and getting dressed when I realized I had a new problem, and no it isn't that I'm missing part of my anatomy, which I was. No, the new problem was, since the electricity was off, the fans weren't working either. That cold shower that had set my body temperature to a non sweating level, was now being forgotten by my pores and I'm beginning to leak like the Titanic. I'm trying to fan myself to cut off the flow, but with little success. I put on my light blue shirt that now looks like I played in the sprinkler and we head off to church. I'm not very comfortable with people seeing my bodily functions. I don't want anyone to see me throw up, or blow my nose and I have an irrational fear of people watching me pee, so I don't want people to see me and wonder if I just ran a marathon before church. Once we got on top of the hill, there was a nice breeze, so some of the leaking was cut off and was able dry off a little.
A few other things that would make life in Ridge interesting are, lizards in the house(this little guy was in the kitchen every night),
the before mentioned cockroaches, dirt with the reddest tint I've ever seen, which I'm sure stains like no other, and the craziest political situation I have ever been witness too. I don't think I spent too much time on it before, but they don't have set election dates in Jamaica. I'm not sure what sets the wheels in motion to have an election, but when they decide, its only a month or so from the day they announce until the day they vote. Why, you may ask? Cause they will shoot your ass if you don't want to vote the way they want you too. I mentioned in an earlier post that there was a shooting in Junction and that some dude let two go outside my window. Now, in America, I don't know that there have been very many shootings based on your political position, unless you are a Kennedy, but I'm sure there have been some. If it happens in the States, you can bet that the person doing the shooting is a nut bag, but in Jamaica, I would say they are passionate. I'm not trying to say that it is OK to shoot someone for any reason, but you have to consider that the time to campaign is short, now add that it's a poor country that the people are trying to improve and improve their situation. You can throw in lots of other factors, I don't know what they all are, but since you don't know when the next election will be, you don't want to miss out on the opportunity to put your party in power. Politicians in America wish their followers had the passion, not the violence, of the Jamaicans. There were rallies going on in towns all around us and one day one of the parties came by the house in a caravan of 20 cars or more, all wearing the party color, orange. Here are some pictures (again, no idea why these are small again, Ive really got to figure out how to fix that).
Lets just say that I wouldn
't have wanted to be standing on the
side of the road with a green shirt on that day. (Green was the other parties color) I heard the violence was much worse in Kingston, which is the capital of Jamaica. I would think the combo of a white American in either an orange or green shirt in Kingston during this time would have been like signing my own death certificate.
the before mentioned cockroaches, dirt with the reddest tint I've ever seen, which I'm sure stains like no other, and the craziest political situation I have ever been witness too. I don't think I spent too much time on it before, but they don't have set election dates in Jamaica. I'm not sure what sets the wheels in motion to have an election, but when they decide, its only a month or so from the day they announce until the day they vote. Why, you may ask? Cause they will shoot your ass if you don't want to vote the way they want you too. I mentioned in an earlier post that there was a shooting in Junction and that some dude let two go outside my window. Now, in America, I don't know that there have been very many shootings based on your political position, unless you are a Kennedy, but I'm sure there have been some. If it happens in the States, you can bet that the person doing the shooting is a nut bag, but in Jamaica, I would say they are passionate. I'm not trying to say that it is OK to shoot someone for any reason, but you have to consider that the time to campaign is short, now add that it's a poor country that the people are trying to improve and improve their situation. You can throw in lots of other factors, I don't know what they all are, but since you don't know when the next election will be, you don't want to miss out on the opportunity to put your party in power. Politicians in America wish their followers had the passion, not the violence, of the Jamaicans. There were rallies going on in towns all around us and one day one of the parties came by the house in a caravan of 20 cars or more, all wearing the party color, orange. Here are some pictures (again, no idea why these are small again, Ive really got to figure out how to fix that). Lets just say that I wouldn
't have wanted to be standing on the
side of the road with a green shirt on that day. (Green was the other parties color) I heard the violence was much worse in Kingston, which is the capital of Jamaica. I would think the combo of a white American in either an orange or green shirt in Kingston during this time would have been like signing my own death certificate.I also mentioned that we spent a little time in the hospital in Mandeville, now let me tell you how th
at happened. Here is a picture of Michelle and her machete, 
and a picture of her bandaged toe, you do the math. Just kidding, it wasn't the machete, it was actually a log, but the machete sounded so much cooler.(yes, I figured out how to make the pictures large again, but I don't know how to go back and fix the ones I all ready did, sue me) So we drive her to the hospital which was about 45 minutes away. I could be wrong on the time because I was busy watching my life flash before my eyes, so I was distracted. We had a near head-on collision that even had me nervous. We had been involved in some near misses before that didn't particularly scare me, but they were 20 to 30 feet away, which doesn't sound bad but figure your going 60 mph and that makes it a little closer. On the way to Madeville, we had a near miss of about 2 feet, I about shat myself (yes I said shat, its English, look it up) We arrived at the hospital to a sign that requested no shorts and proper dress. I was wearing shorts and I don't own anything that would be considered proper. It didn't appear to be a problem, they let us in. When we got to the door, we were met by Omar, who just happens to be Shirani's cousin. He works there and was able to get us to the correct desks for processing. I will say that the process was confusing. We stopped at a desk and Michelle described to a nurse her injuries (I know she was a nurse because she was wearing all white, including that little hat you see in movies form the 50's). Then we went to a booth in the lobby while Omar spoke into a hole in the glass that was bellybutton high, that lady gave us papers to move to the other side of the booth to another bellybutton high hole in the glass for Omar to talk to another lady. Then Michelle paid. Now she has paid, but hasn't seen a doctor yet, seemed odd, but it gets worse. She then goes into the office to be looked at, her toe not her, and from what she tells us, everyone got a shot to see, but no diagnosis. She then was told what they were going to do, so back out to the booth to pay again. Then, back in to actually have the work done. When they started to give her a shot, she found out it was for tetnus, which she was all ready good with. Back out to the booth for a refund. When it was all done, we had been there about an hour and a half, I would guess, I was still shaking from the car ride and terrified of the trip back in the dark. As soon as we walked into the lobby of the hospital, all I could think about was One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. If you've seen it, you will remember the nurses in white with the little hats and the whole place was white. That's how this was, very sterile, plain and kind of scary. Our hospitals in the US are starting to soften a little bit, adding color, plants and paintings. Not here, white, hard and cold.
at happened. Here is a picture of Michelle and her machete, 
and a picture of her bandaged toe, you do the math. Just kidding, it wasn't the machete, it was actually a log, but the machete sounded so much cooler.(yes, I figured out how to make the pictures large again, but I don't know how to go back and fix the ones I all ready did, sue me) So we drive her to the hospital which was about 45 minutes away. I could be wrong on the time because I was busy watching my life flash before my eyes, so I was distracted. We had a near head-on collision that even had me nervous. We had been involved in some near misses before that didn't particularly scare me, but they were 20 to 30 feet away, which doesn't sound bad but figure your going 60 mph and that makes it a little closer. On the way to Madeville, we had a near miss of about 2 feet, I about shat myself (yes I said shat, its English, look it up) We arrived at the hospital to a sign that requested no shorts and proper dress. I was wearing shorts and I don't own anything that would be considered proper. It didn't appear to be a problem, they let us in. When we got to the door, we were met by Omar, who just happens to be Shirani's cousin. He works there and was able to get us to the correct desks for processing. I will say that the process was confusing. We stopped at a desk and Michelle described to a nurse her injuries (I know she was a nurse because she was wearing all white, including that little hat you see in movies form the 50's). Then we went to a booth in the lobby while Omar spoke into a hole in the glass that was bellybutton high, that lady gave us papers to move to the other side of the booth to another bellybutton high hole in the glass for Omar to talk to another lady. Then Michelle paid. Now she has paid, but hasn't seen a doctor yet, seemed odd, but it gets worse. She then goes into the office to be looked at, her toe not her, and from what she tells us, everyone got a shot to see, but no diagnosis. She then was told what they were going to do, so back out to the booth to pay again. Then, back in to actually have the work done. When they started to give her a shot, she found out it was for tetnus, which she was all ready good with. Back out to the booth for a refund. When it was all done, we had been there about an hour and a half, I would guess, I was still shaking from the car ride and terrified of the trip back in the dark. As soon as we walked into the lobby of the hospital, all I could think about was One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. If you've seen it, you will remember the nurses in white with the little hats and the whole place was white. That's how this was, very sterile, plain and kind of scary. Our hospitals in the US are starting to soften a little bit, adding color, plants and paintings. Not here, white, hard and cold.We'll, I think I have exhausted my Jamaica trip. I have lots more in my head, but maybe I will toss that into other posts in the future. I hope I gave you a little idea of our trip and I hope you could pick out when I was kidding. We loved it there, the country is absolutely beautiful and the people were fantastic. We got to see a lot more of the country than most people who visit, not a lot of tours of the hospital offered with a brochure at the hotel lobby desk. "Honey, we can white water raft, ride a zip line over a canyon or visit the Mandeville hospital?" Tough choice. I did want to put a link to the hotel we stayed at, so here it is. http://www.elgrecojamaica.com/ Lisa had asked about our green bracelets from the picture with Troy. They are issued by the hotel to show you belong on the property, problem is, now everyone on the street knows where you are staying. In fact, when Troy walked up to me, he said "So your staying at the El Greco." Hard to lie with a bright green wristband on, screaming out EL GRECO!!!!!!
And finally, here is a picture of two babes I had the pleasure of spending 7 days with in paradise.
That never hurts a guys rep!
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