Readjusting Definition of a “Successful Day”

October 22, 2008

I have been trying to slow myself down and realize that I need to take pride in small accomplishments since I have been down here in Jamaica. Today, I think I finally made progress towards this. I am in Port Antonio for a few days trying to help a small community up in the mountains, Bellevue, finish construction of their community water system. This project has been going on for about six years and has had no progress in the last six months. After finally getting pressure from some members of the local government and some higher ups at JSIF, myself and a JSIF consultant, Nevil, were sent here to help the community finish the project.

We were initially supposed to meet the community members yesterday to go over the list of required materials, go to the bank to get money and then go to the hardware store to purchase the material. Unfortunately, this meeting fell through (not totally unexpected) and was rescheduled for 9 am this morning. This supposedly gave the community members plenty of time in the morning to make the hour long trip down from Bellevue to Porti. Luckily, this meeting happened except it started at 10:30 instead of 9, which is on time in Jamaica time.

A person would think that this meeting would be very simple: looking at the previously approved list of materials, making small adjustments for recent breakdowns, going to the bank and making the purchase…you would think. Instead, as soon as the meeting started, the community members started arguing that the list of materials was wrong and we had to go through each item (type of pipe, fittings, valves, hack saws and so on) and decide what was the actual amount they thought was needed. This new, more “accurate” list was made through a negotiation between the community members and Nevil who all had different opinions as to what was currently installed at the site. “I don’t think 3 fittings are enough, make it 6.” Either way, after about an hour, a finalized list of materials was agreed on and was submitted to the hardware store for pricing. The level of accuracy of this list is will be tested when construction starts next week.

Then came the negotiation on price with the owner of the hardware store. 90% of the prices were accepted without question. The other 10% took about 45 minutes to negotiate, resulting with Nevil calling his contact at his distributor in Kingston to get all of the pipes for about half the price. I’m still trying to figure out why this took 45 minutes, but I have stopped asking questions.

Next came the trip to the bank. Coming from the States, I thought this would be quick matter of 10 or 15 minutes without much hassle, so I stayed at the hardware store while the community members and Nevil went to the bank. After talking to the hardware store owner for over an hour and a half about his travels around the world as an employee for the cruise ship industry, they finally show back up and took another 30 minutes to pay for the material that they have already agreed on.

Now its about 2 in the afternoon and we’re all a bit hungry. We went around the corner to a small cook shop expecting that they would have some fried chicken or curried goat still on the stove. Nope. They had to cook up a new batch of chicken and goat for us, taking another hour. Finally, at about 3 the community members went off to finish some errands before heading back, myself and Nevil visited the Parish Council and made a few other stops on the way back to the Hotel.

I can’t explain why, but after spending an entire day just to purchase some material to finish a water line, I actually felt that something had been accomplished. Back home, this would have felt like an unproductive and a wasteful day. But here, it seems perfectly reasonable that it took all day just to purchase plumbing materials. We’ll see how this new definition of accomplishment holds during my service.