What a very tiring day. We were up at 730a, ate breakfast and got ready for the day. Our driver Denis was here by 9a and we were off. We went to the ministry of labor to get my visa only to discover that the original document I needed to give them is on campus in the HR dept. Once I get that paper I take it to the immigration office where I will collect another piece of paper get my passport stamped (and pay a US$140 fee) that I bring back to them and they will issue me a card. Then I will be legal to work in Jamaica.
Since that didn’t work out we decided to go pick up the barrel that I sent. WOW! That was an ordeal. First I had to go to the office pay a JA$1950 fee and be told I couldn’t get my barrel until I had a TRN number. We drove downtown where I waited for about 45mins to get a TRN number (the process was easy… just fill out a form and show them my passport). Once I got the number we went back to the shipping area. I had to go upstairs to window #1 then the #2 then across the hall to #3 then back to #2 then downstairs to watch them empty out my barrel and get the ok then back to window #2 then back downstairs then to window #4 then back to #2 then back downstairs to let the same person who signed off on the contents of my barrel sign off on the release all while paying a fee of about JA$4000. That is no exaggeration. It was very frustrating going back and forth and barely understanding what was being said to me. Not to mention that at 12p EVERYONE in the building dropped what they were doing and left for lunch. We left also and our driver took us to this great little restaurant for lunch. The kids loved the curried chicken, peas and rice and vegetables. I had cornmeal dumplings and bananas and vegetables and some of the kids rice and peas. It was very good… the kind of good where you leave feeling very satisfied. After we finally collected our barrel (it’s was around 230p at this point) we were finally able to head home.
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| Nay and Averie after taking a pic of the frog in the yard |
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| You can't tell from this photo but this frog is almost as big as my foot |
Once home we were able to unpack the barrel and put everything away. After that the kids were restless and wanted to go the park, so we walked to the neighborhood park. We all had a good time at the park and enjoyed the walk around the neighborhood. After the park we came home and decided to explore the yard where we discovered the biggest frog I have ever seen.
The kids had to take a quick bath… cold water and I poured some boiling water in there to warm it up (which believe it or not did not warm it up that much). I made a quick dinner and now the kids are playing with the electronic gadgets that I can’t seem to break them away from. Kenric just left with the driver to go to the store to pick up some things we were not able to get yesterday (I love that man because he knew I would not be able to handle toting three kids through the store after the long day we had).
Tomorrow I will venture onto campus to check in with HR and my department. I’ll let you know how that goes.
Still loving Jamaica!!!
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