Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

rsl12 · 04-07-2004, 10:19 AM

mr. mephisto--make no mistake, the reason the us govt funds peace corps is in large part because the peace corps serves a diplomatic function. it offers a chance for people in other countries to get a favorable view of us citizens.

mr. skettios--jamaican is not even considered as corrupt as creole, and everyone understands you if you talk the king's english, which is what is used in schools. however, a person's ability to understand jamaican requires a few months of careful listening. there was very little language training, which is just as well, if you ask me, since it's more polite to use english with strangers anyways. it's ez enough to pick up on your own after a bit.

1st year i was stationed in the finance district (i use the term lightly) of kingston, where i lived in very 'luxurious' circumstances--hot showers, cable tv, a maid who cooked and cleaned for me, in a neighborhood full of doctors and shopowners. my job consisted of implementing an environmental management plan (iso 14000) in a government tourism organization. this included getting energy audits and doing integrated pest management for golf courses. to me, this was not what i wanted at all and it was really depressing. the people i associated with were not save the world people at all, and were actually a bit contemptuous about that kind of thing.

2nd year i was living in port royal, which can be considered a suburb of kingston. it takes an hour to get there by bus, 1/2 an hour by ferry. it's a community of about 2000 people, and it's TIGHT. so i had a community of people with whom i could become part of, even though i was still working in Kingston (now for the Ministry of Health). This time my work consisted of organizing the wastewater treatment plant workers to form a national ww operators association (my idea completely, and i'm proud to say still in existence). so it was more working with people at a grassroots level, even though there was still a technical bent to it, and i had the best community ever to live in at the same time.

re sickness: not too much happened to me--one time i got (i think) amoebic dyssentary for some reason--i spent a day on the toilet, and was fine after that. jamaica has chlorinated water (kingston has it piped in most places) so that's not an issue.

re hooking up: i was a good boy--partly i have problems hooking up with people who aren't at the same education level as me--is that snobbish? the two or three women i was interested in turned out to be 1. married or 2. prone to attacking ex-boyfriends with a knife when she got upset. there were enough offers that came my way however--if you want to fuck like a bunny, it's ez enough to do.

again, you might find this interesting, but i doubt your experience will be anything like this. everyone's is different (mine more so than many others). also, you haven't even gotten a country yet--there's a large difference between parts of haiti and parts of jamaica! so don't expect anything yet. knowing you're going to the caribbean shouldn't mean very much to you yet, other than that it will be ez to travel back to the US if you want. (also: i was assigned to go to asia, and ended up in jamaica, so take it all with a grain of salt.) what kind of job are you being placed in?

04-07-2004, 10:19 AM	#13 (permalink)
rsl12 On the lam Location: northern va	mr. mephisto--make no mistake, the reason the us govt funds peace corps is in large part because the peace corps serves a diplomatic function. it offers a chance for people in other countries to get a favorable view of us citizens. mr. skettios--jamaican is not even considered as corrupt as creole, and everyone understands you if you talk the king's english, which is what is used in schools. however, a person's ability to understand jamaican requires a few months of careful listening. there was very little language training, which is just as well, if you ask me, since it's more polite to use english with strangers anyways. it's ez enough to pick up on your own after a bit. 1st year i was stationed in the finance district (i use the term lightly) of kingston, where i lived in very 'luxurious' circumstances--hot showers, cable tv, a maid who cooked and cleaned for me, in a neighborhood full of doctors and shopowners. my job consisted of implementing an environmental management plan (iso 14000) in a government tourism organization. this included getting energy audits and doing integrated pest management for golf courses. to me, this was not what i wanted at all and it was really depressing. the people i associated with were not save the world people at all, and were actually a bit contemptuous about that kind of thing. 2nd year i was living in port royal, which can be considered a suburb of kingston. it takes an hour to get there by bus, 1/2 an hour by ferry. it's a community of about 2000 people, and it's TIGHT. so i had a community of people with whom i could become part of, even though i was still working in Kingston (now for the Ministry of Health). This time my work consisted of organizing the wastewater treatment plant workers to form a national ww operators association (my idea completely, and i'm proud to say still in existence). so it was more working with people at a grassroots level, even though there was still a technical bent to it, and i had the best community ever to live in at the same time. re sickness: not too much happened to me--one time i got (i think) amoebic dyssentary for some reason--i spent a day on the toilet, and was fine after that. jamaica has chlorinated water (kingston has it piped in most places) so that's not an issue. re hooking up: i was a good boy--partly i have problems hooking up with people who aren't at the same education level as me--is that snobbish? the two or three women i was interested in turned out to be 1. married or 2. prone to attacking ex-boyfriends with a knife when she got upset. there were enough offers that came my way however--if you want to fuck like a bunny, it's ez enough to do. again, you might find this interesting, but i doubt your experience will be anything like this. everyone's is different (mine more so than many others). also, you haven't even gotten a country yet--there's a large difference between parts of haiti and parts of jamaica! so don't expect anything yet. knowing you're going to the caribbean shouldn't mean very much to you yet, other than that it will be ez to travel back to the US if you want. (also: i was assigned to go to asia, and ended up in jamaica, so take it all with a grain of salt.) what kind of job are you being placed in? __________________ oh baby oh baby, i like gravy.