Kingston Jamaica

One of the infrastructure finance projects I worked on when I was with Price Waterhouse was a water and wastewater finance project for the city of Kingston Jamaica, and the project necessitated several trips to work with Claudia Hunter (the manager at the National Water Commission there) and a water expert from South Carolina whose name I do not recall. I do remember that he and Claudia often had trouble understanding each other's english. He couldn't understand her Jamaican accent and she couldn't understand his Southern accent. So I would translate English to English for them. Anyway, when we visited Kingston we stayed at one of the only business hotels in the city, I believe called the Pegasus hotel. Kingston was and I believe still is an increidbly dangrous city, with very high crime rates, and the hotel was surrounded by a 20 foot high barbed wire fence. When we first arrived at the hotel I recall being very surprised that we were met by a driver that would take us the 8 blocks to the NWC offices for meetings. On Day two or three I decided it woudl just be easier to walk and arrived at the offices ahead of our meeting. They were all very suprised as they hadn't sent a car over and asked how I got there. They were horrified that I had walked and impressed upon me that I should NEVER leave the hotel alone again and not walk anywhere in town. I don't recall if I was running much at that point, probably not, but it wasn't ideal to be trapped in the hotel whenever I wasn't working. One thing I remember though is that the water commission had a map of the city with certain zones marked off in red - these were the zones where they wouldn't send anyone in to collect payment because it was simply too dangerous. As I got to know a few of the people working at the NWC a little better I learned that they all had full time, armed security guards stationed outside their homes to protect them from breakins. The juxtposition of the tropical climate, beautiful flowers and armed guards everywhere was odd, to say the least. One weekend one of the team members, a Jamaican guy named David I think, offered to take us up to Montego Bay to stay in a condo he owned there. I don't remember much at all about where we stayed, but I do remember going to the famous falls that you see in all the postcards - Dunn's River Falls. The falls themselves are essentially reinforced with bags on concrete or something to make the steps that you walk up - so they look great in pictures but close up it feels very artificial. And there are two different rates to enter the falls - one for tourists and one for locals. That seemed fair enough to me, but it was interesting that it was listed so clearly on the sign as you entered. I also recall that there was a huge rainstorm and the resort lost power. We wound up at a bar drinking all afternoon and they served everyone free Buffalo wings while we sat and watched the rain. The beaches there were beautiful but full of ladies who would come and ask you if you wanted your hair braided or a massage, and men who wanted to sell you a joint or have you pay to have sex with them. Apparently lots of American women wanted to sleep with a Rastafarain and they were happy to oblige. The funniest part of the trip was that one afternoon back at the Pegasus hotel pool, I struck up a conversation with a guy that I assumed worked for the hotel. He asked me how my stay was, etc. and I wound up talking to him for half an hour or so. Apparently after I left the hotel someone there must have given him my contact information because he started calling me at home in Maryland. He wanted to be friends and come visit - and while I had little intention of inviting him to stay I was hesitant to be totally rude and tell him to buzz off. One night he called at 1am and I answered the phone from bed and said without thinking "do you have any idea what time it is?" He said simply "Ya mon - same time as 'ere." I did finally tell him not to call me anymore.