h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If you're an expat and you're planning a move to Jamaica, you have probably spent hours scouring the internet for information use to help make the transition. (If you're a Jamaican who has been away for more than ten years, this may apply to you also.)

You have probably discovered that there is a great deal of information for tourists, with pictures of beaches, waterfalls and breath-taking vistas from hills and mountains.



At the same time, you may also be suffering from a shortness of breath after what you have heard about the crime rate. And the poverty. And the hurricanes. Not to mention outbreaks of dengue fever, potholes, corruption and the like.

Yet, in spite of the negative stories you decide that you are still coming, either because you know better, or because you are coming for a job. You have probably realized that practical information for those who want to move to Jamaica to live is very hard to find

Here are 3 tips to keep in mind before making your final trip with your suitcases (or container) packed. it's some of what my wife and I have learned from our many conversations with expats here in Kingston.


1. The Transition Will Be Harder Than You Think
I think our island is intoxicating. It helps us forget some of the stark facts that I won't repeat here, that scare most people away from either living here or returning. The beauty, culture, music, people, community, fo

What happened there?
Venomous spider? Boa? Gangsta? Hit by a tour bus?
Or just a bad web connection?

As a retiree fed up with Canadian winters and afraid of
USA lifestyles I remember fondly Trinidad and Tobago
and often dream of an idyllic Jamaican life.


~jwf~

2. The culture is so laid back that people just drift off in the middle of doing something and don't come back to finish it for da

As long as you don't get it confused with the recent television adaptation of 'Jamaica Inn'. I don't think there's an English-Jamaica Inn dictionary:

Mnnr mrmr mmmr hrr nhm = I'm just going to mumble so no-one knows what I'm saying.

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