">No AC!
Was having a chat with a sistren of mine on Monday. She mentioned how a colleague of hers had given her a call from ‘foreign’ on the weekend to let her know that she is planning a trip home in July or August. (Note: Summer….at which time it hot in Jamaica…it is almost always hot here anyhow)…..Anyway, Mi sistren says first of all, her hubby had answered the phone and at the time when she had called, she really wasn’t in the mood for any telephone conversation….hubby told her is someone whose name sound familiar, but the voice don’t sound like who he remember the person to be. She takes the call.
“Hi Maria” (name changed for blog sake)…”How are ya?” Maria pauses…answers in quite a flat tone, “I’m fine.” “Sounds like you don’t remember who you’re talking to. This is Donette!” Maria….. quite taken aback….”Oh…..hello Donette. I really did not pick up the voice at all…….you are sporting such a heavy American accent now!” Donette replies…..”Really?? You know, people tell me but I can’t say I notice it. Anyhow, I just wanted to let you know that I’ll be coming to Jamaica in the summer for vacation and I’d love to meet up with some of you guys from med. school. Don’t know how I’m going to manage in the heat though….I find it so hard to live without AC now! Maria’s response to that statement is…. 
After a bit more chat, they hang up.
Maria who is like me, don’t deal wid dem kinda false values at all. She goes on to give me a bit of history about Donette, who I know also, but not very well. “D, she grow in rural St. Elizabeth…’country’. Of course, nothing is wrong with that. Her parents were humble people who worked hard to educate her and raise her with decent values. Donette used to have to wake from early morning hours and milk goat and cow and collect egg weh de hen dem lay to go sell. Is that put her through school. And now she a buss big accent and a chat ’bout she cyaan live widout AC!? If is dem sorta style she going pop, she can don’t bodda call me when she reach!”
I have to agree with Maria. Don’t forget your roots people. Everything is relative. First world living has its pluses and minuses. Is not everything about ‘up so’ that is ideal. Don’t forget the humble beginnings that have helped to make you what you are today.
Actually, is this quote ….”ahh the smell of a third world country”….. that I saw over at JDid earlier that brought this chat with Maria back to mind. Any of you know any such people? Dem get pon my nerves. Anyhow, off to work. No AC on my ward either btw! Later.
May 11th, 2005 at 9:22 am
May 11th, 2005 at 10:16 am Hmmm… if it wasn’t for the fact that they hadn’t been in touch for a while, I would say is just generic talk… I tell people all the time I would die without ADSL - is not ‘neva si, come si’, is just that you get so used to the luxuries that you find it difficult to imagine life without it. Me woulda seh tek time wid har still… Of course, mi nuh know har, and I could be wrong… but just wanted to put in a different perspective - get mi? As for me - I have a VERY good friend who migrated to the US pretty soon after high school… she sounds properly New York-ish now… as if she grew up there - but I realize that some people just don’t keep their accents all that well - I put it down to adapting to your environment… *shrug* Life too short yaaa man to condemn people for what looks to be differences between you and them. *gets off soapbox*
May 11th, 2005 at 10:35 am Fyr, I’m right there with you! I have found it difficult to maintain my hometown accent all the time since moving as when you’re in Rome, you find yourself doing as the Romans do - in the business world, it just becomes easier to be understood! Its not something I’m proud of - i try to speak in my hometown accent, but it happens sometimes without you’re even noticing that you’re adapting to fit in. In fact, Midas even takes on a spanish accent whenever he’s speaking to a Latin American (the women in particular
May 11th, 2005 at 10:36 am Yup.We all know someone so.What I hate most of all is when you live abroad for a while and then come home(on vacation) and critical of everything single thing.I mean you know it is not the same things you have grown accustomed to but at the same time is things you grow with.So no need to bitch about everything.
May 11th, 2005 at 11:35 am agree with kami here, i dont like the critical thing from people when they return home. I try not to do it myself. as for the accent thing yep some folk keep it some lose it. I kinda switch mine around alot, at home i use mine and whe i’m talking to west indians otherwise i dont use it cause i duz get tired a igrant north american poppits sayin dem cat understand muh lol. I grow up widout ACt and accustom sleeping in the middle a summer in the heat so i dont think i wud ever mek a statement like that. I feel as you saying that one should always remember ya roots fa real. is only stupid people dont do dat. ya shud always remember and respect those that try to get ya ta where ya are. i always remember buju song deportees “But ‘im neva did a look back, neva did a glance Neva know ‘im would a tumble ova like an avalanche Mama dung inna di hole, an’ ‘im don’t buy her a lamp Not a line, not a letter, nor a fifty cent stamp”
May 11th, 2005 at 11:59 am Well, I have A/C here, but as long as you house design right (i.e. build so that the windows can catch the breese) then you can lock off that rass. As to Accent, well, I may have picked up a phrase or two, but me still chat kinda ‘bad’. Guess what though. People still understand me. If they look puzzled, I repeat in the Queen’s english.
May 11th, 2005 at 2:20 pm Hi Dr. D. Would “hurry come up” be another appropriate phrase to describe Donette??? Me no know people like dat-rather-I don’t associate with people like dat. Dem too affected fe me. Plueeese people, Donette need to remember whey she come from and humble thyself. As for the air conditioning part-well I can see where she coming from but I for one cyann tek heat and cyaan sleep in heat unless there is a breeze and fan. Driving around Kingston is unbearable, but I’ve done it and i’ve wanted to implode to ratid, sweat a drip from me back foot, but I grin and bear it. As far as talking with an accent-plueeese save me from dat ra$$. Yu know howmany foreign people try talk like us-eeee. Whole heap. De only reason me have fe “tongue” dem (speaking Queen English) is so dem can understand what me a seh. Other than dat, it’s patios fe me. Maria should a tell Donette seh she no have no air. Have a great day.
May 11th, 2005 at 5:52 pm Well, seems I have folks wih differing views, but I ‘preciate them all. First of, Scratchie’s ‘never see, come see’ is perfect. Before Donette lef Jamdown, she was what I would term a ‘normal’ individual. But, to me, if something as trivial as AC is what determines life for you, then stay weh you deh. If AC is what determines if you a ‘tek life’…..you well shallow. Life is about your people, friends and family, quality of life etc etc. AC….Kiss Teet. Regarding the accent. She lef yah as a woman in her early thirties. If she waan twang when she up so…fine…but don’t bring that shit come gimme. Is you owna people you chatting to. I know full well that when you live in ‘Rome’ as 7 saying, sometimes you have to tone down the ‘dry’ Caribbean accent in order fe de people dem up so to understand you. Yes, they do claim that dem don’t understand what you saying nuff time as JDid seh…if only they would jus damn well listen! (Who speaks better English than folks from the English speaking Caribbean who went school here?) When I was in England, I had to do so myself when chatting to some of the Brits. But, acquire their haccent…no way! As for AC, I personally hate living in it. Dries out mi skin and mek me get all stuffy. Yes Seven and Sunny, Florida’s horrible humidity and heat makes it a must. That place don’t know nutten name night breeze. When driving inna hot cyar..yes. But, having lived in the Stony Hill area for at least 75% of my life, even in summer, we get a reasonable natural breeze coming in through the windows at night….so tun off that rahtid fe me….I doh defend it. Anyway, enuff o me. Nice chat all.
May 11th, 2005 at 11:44 pm Well D. I have to disagree with you there about the AC thing….Canada can well hot in the summer, some of the hottest weather in my life has been here, but dat don’t mean sey mi hav fi like it….I find the heat more and more unbearable each year….Mi nuh have AC either….Popsy don’t like di “artificial air” never mind sey him a work in AC all day while we a sweat out our daylights….Mi have problems though, because as much as mi cyan stand di heat, mi cyan stand di fan a blow pon mi either…give mi sinus problems….what a chile fi do eh? But when in Ja do as the Jamaicans do…..sweat to ra$$!!!!!! As to the accent…I know that I talk more slowly when talking with the North Americans and sometimes I tend to use their phrases too, but as I get older I return more and more to my roots and I often find myself not even making that (once unconscious) effort to speak slower or more the Queen’s language….especially if dem goin’ on like dem cyan understand mi when I dun know dem can! I had a lady tell me once that “fear” should be pronouced “feear” but as I calmly told her…I had pronouced it “fear” all my life and I was not about to stop now just to suit her!!!!! We actually became good friends too
May 12th, 2005 at 2:13 am I did watch ‘The Amazing Race’ the other night and was taken aback when the comment “the smell of a third world country” was made - I thought “you stupid ass you… think that the old US of A is above all others? Anyway… as for air conditioning, we all don’t have it up here in Canada, and can get some horrific heat, in the summer time. I do like it when it truly is hot, but in warm, decent weather can live just as well without it. When we were on the cruise ship this past winter in the Caribbean we did sleep with our door open so the air conditioning would be shut off and we’d have the fresh, sea air to sleep with… so so much more enjoyable.
May 12th, 2005 at 9:22 am Excuse me???? Was that the Bull Family’s Ms. Cananda talking????
May 12th, 2005 at 9:29 am Ummm….pardon me S-E-V-E-N…..are you implying that you did not understnad what she was trying to C-O-M-M-U-N-I-C-A-T-E???
May 14th, 2005 at 7:22 pm But look yah nuh! Look pon how dem a diss mi sar!