Some thoughts on developing countries....

They really need some kind of industry here that will give people a decent wage and enable them to improve their standard of living. Many people here want to get to America where they can find work. You can't blame them, but it does make Hester's job fun. The roads here are terrible. But even if they could fix them, they are so narrow, that it would be a HUGE disruption to shut one down to work on/replace it, so there are patches on the patches and potholes in the potholes. The climate is not nice to most forms of building materials so it doesn't take long for things to deteriorate. Many of the homes are not much, but the climate is mild, even the villa we stayed in while nice, didn't have much glass in it. All of the windows were sort of like wooden Venetian blinds, open or closed, but no glass. The house was really designed to be an open living space with the air blowing right through it. And when the air wasn't moving, you could turn on ceiling fans.

Everyone seems to have a cell phone. I don't know how they pay for them but they are talking all the time. That's one cool thing about the technology, even back in the late 60's, early 70's, it could take months in England to get a land line installed. And I know that it was pretty hard if not impossible to get one in Bulgaria when Nate was there. Now all they need instead of a bunch of wires laid down, is to just pop a cell phone tower down and instant connection. Bypass that whole landline all together.

Port Antonio was a nice place to go, kind of a back water place, not over developed for tourists. but some nice things to see and do. More low key. I don't really like to do the touristy thing. I like to see places more from the local perspective. Our villa came with a cook for meals and another person who was kind of a grounds person/security. He slept on the premises. Kingston has some bad areas that are not safe, but on that side of the island we were away from most of that. The people were nice, and friendly.