Turn 30 and You Are Out

Walking around Sandal’s I noticed that every single employee, whether a pool boy, a bartender a maid, or a grounds keeper is under 30 and good looking. I wondered what happened to the employees when they turned 30 and started asking. Everyone looked at me, made a joke and changed the subject until one brave soul, confirmed my suspicions.

I won’t say what job this person did or even make up a name for him/her because if I accidentally use a real name or even mention a real job, this employee can become unemployed, so I will just use the name X. X told me that Sandals’s gets rid of the majority of their employees by the time they turn 30 because they don’t want to pay retirement benefits or even give major wage increases. There is a union, but the Sandal's is bigger than the union and talking to them might mean immediate dismissal from the job.

Mayor Moneybags would like to use this model for NYC schools. He wants to hire them young, keep them smiling and working like dogs for a few years and then, as soon as they get wise and experience, he would fire them. I'm not so sure the UFT is strong enough to hold out.

Business and education do not mix.

Pictured above are some of my favorite Sandal's employees. (None of these guys spoke to me about Sandal's employment policy.) Since they were constantly trying to take my picture, I kept taking theirs. One even gave me some photography lessons.

Jamaican Roadside

My new camera lets me take shots I could never come close to getting with the point and shoot. These were all taken from the bus window as we made the hour and a half trek from the airport to Sandal's White House.

This guy was just walking along the road balancing his package on top of his head.

Beautiful new house being built on the side of the road. A guy at our hotel told us that most Jamaicans make their money abroad and then come home to build. The ones who make their money locally are either drug dealers, doctors or policemen on the take. (His words, not mine.)

More houses look like this than the one above and even this one is in pretty good shape. The car is a luxury that most Jamaicans cannot afford. A major part of their paychecks is spent on cabs to get back and forth from work as the public transportation system is almost no existent in most parts of the country. (I'll never complain about our subway system again.)

Wonder how these people made their money? This is more mansion than house.

This one is probably being built by some laborer, maybe a resort employee or an employee of the government It is small but nice. Jamaicans seem to like bright colors.

You see homes like these next to big homes and new construction all over the place. There are also plenty of partially built homes. The people build when they have money and

wait until they have more to continue.

Typical dwelling. The houses are all built on some sort of stilts and they have bricks on the roof to hold it in place.

There are bars, stands and grocery stores like this all over the road but the sign on this one I found most interesting.

Playing With My Shots

I played with my camera, taking the same shots a couple of times, sometimes moving and shaking the camera. I liked the results. My husband thinks they are stupid. Here is the only place they will get shown off.

My Art Work

I always loved art and dreamt of a career in this field. Unfortunately, the talent needed to pursuit this is something I am sorely missing. So, to entertain myself, I use my camera to draw pictures with lights. I know they will never hang in a museum (or even grace a wall in a 99 cent store) so I will have to settle for showing them here.

At Last

A vacation with perfect weather end to end.

Meeting The Fellow

(Getting caught at the end of each line by this guy was almost the best part of the adventure.)

Flying through the air is a great way to meet people. As we zip lined across the Jamaican Hills, I started a conversation with a nice young teacher from Manhattan. After a while, he admitted to being a teaching fellow. I gasped! How could this bright, caring, obviously good teacher be a fellow, a teacher whose sole mission in life is to steal the jobs of tenured teachers? How could I even admit to liking this guy? Here he is, a first year teacher, with four weeks of student teaching under his belt and he has a job while my ATR buddies are still floundering away, searching for that impossible to find teaching position.

Well, first let me say that this guy is a special education teacher, one of the few new teachers actually hired this year. And, let me say, he is a great guy that does not deserve the bad press and bad feelings he gets from people like me.

Getting back to my conversation with him, we both agreed that they system created the hostility between the old and young teachers. We both agreed that the students are the losers because of this. He told me his school had been closed and then reorganized recently. The paras got to keep their jobs. All the teachers were let go. This school teaches life skills. How bad could all the teachers have been that they all had to be let go? Where are the veteran teachers these young people might need to go to for advice? Why are the veteran teachers sitting around without classrooms? How long will this type of situation be allowed to continue?

Posted from Delta airline, on my way home from a wonderful vacation. Now to catch up on all the blogs I missed all week.

I Feel The Time Is Coming

I'm starting to feel like I'm not any good at what I do, or, I am at least not nearly as good as I used to be.

I feel like people are thinking of me as a good teacher because of my reputation, not because of my deeds.

I'm tired.

I'm sick of NCLB and watching kids sit through classes that are way beyond their understanding and ability to comprehend and learn.

I'm starting to get sloppy and say things on this blog that should not be said.

I'm sick of everyone who think they know it all but know nothing.

Maybe the Jamaican sunshine and the ice cold Red Stripes will help. I really need that swim up bar. Winter break is too far away.

Maybe it is time for me to say goodbye. I don't want to be one of those old, senile teachers who should have quit 10 years ago. Am I still making a difference or will things be better if I turn the reins to a young newbie?

My Peeps

Anyone who knows me knows that if there is a Jamaican around, I will sniff him out.

I fell in love with this reggae band that played every day under the track. and I hung out nearby all day (except when I was eating.) The guy on the keyboard is great, but I was in love with the DJ (the one in the middle) and the guitarist. Oh, to be young and single again.

(My husband knows about this obsession and knows I am all talk--no action, so he has no worries.)

A few pictures of the group.

One Love, One Heart

The smile on every tourists face. Happy feet
Fountain at night--in front of my favorite restaurant.
Driftwood--I have 100's of pictures of the wood and dead trees on the beach.
Santa arriving by ATV
Crane enjoying a breakfast of sausage and eggs
Apple martini from the martini bar

Creamy chocolate martini--yummy!

The blue water

No trip to Jamaica is complete without the fire dancer

Jogger footprints

Red stripe bottle--no garbage cans in the nature reserve

Empty sun tan lotion container--a must to refill in this climate

Sandman

The pastry chef--he made all kinds of yummy desserts and a special chocolate bread for us to bring home.

Bird on the beach

Ocean hitting the shore

Leaf on the beach

This guy weeded his little area all day. I wanted to bring him a drink but he told me he is not allowed to drink on the job--one of the things I hated about the place and plan on writing to them about.

Parade on Christmas day. Christmas was the only day of the year the slaves did not have to work. They wore masks to cover their identities and prevent any retaliation from owners.

Chocolate Fondue from the chocolate buffet.

Sunset

Hermit crab in a conch shell

Lovers dessert for two
Lights reflecting in pool

Salad--so pretty it needed a picture before eating

Bird--waiting for pizza leftovers

Peacock, also waiting for leftovers.

Boat used by a local to hawk conch shells. He didn't sell many. Tourists in Jamaica don't carry cash.

Vine along beach

Lost sandal

Swamp with a crocodile that I did not get to see.