Nothing is Ever as it Seems
Earlier this year I relocated to Montego Bay to fulfill a work contract that I scored and was so excited to get started on! Who really gets paid to go to Jamaica and tour luxury villas? THAT still remains a good question because it sure wasn’t me! It just wouldn’t be “Jamaica My Way” without a severe mishap turned learning experience turned great success in the end.
In the post highlighted above I included images of where I was supposed to be living but from day one that was not the case. When I arrived I was promptly redirected to Seaview Chateau as an interim solution to a plumbing problem at the original place (or so I was told). Regardless, I loved Seaview Chateau and did a wonderful review for them. They were gracious hosts and all was well until my week there was over and again, I had nowhere on the agenda to go. The company I was working for was fully responsible for my accommodations but seemed to be scrambling to figure themselves out. HOWEVER…..I was thoroughly enjoying my new job! I was in Jamaica and I knew things would work themselves out. How could I not love touring places like in the following photos?
By the second week it was clear to me that there was no alternate living arrangements because 3 days of my “weekend” were spent driving around looking at villas my employer wanted to acquire for themselves. After 3 long and stressful days (stressful because me having a place to live completely rested on whether we found a villa they liked), they settled on a cute villa that had a separate apartment which they assured would be mine once all the papers were signed. That never happened either, of course right after I put the photo of it on Facebook announcing my new little place.
Regardless, they took the villa and I had a bedroom in it for the time being…..UNTIL they told me they have guests booked for this villa arriving in the next few days. That put me out yet again and I got to sleep in the helpers quarters. Some of you may remember a post I did wrote entitled “The Help”, which has since been deleted from my blog (it is now re-posted). I wrote that post because by living in helpers quarters for a week along with the actual villa staff I was enlightened about their jobs and it was a different perspective. Aside from the fact that this was NOT in my contract at all, and I had no internet access which WAS a requirement in my contract (otherwise how could I do my job?), I didn’t suffer. I was just banished to a small room and I think my employer forgot about everything they agreed to before I quit a job in Canada to go to Jamaica to work for them. But I was still viewing amazing properties such as the one pictured below….awesome.
My saving grace was going to arrive in Jamaica shortly which made things a whole lot more awesome. My friend, a travel agent was coming in and she would be whisking me away to Sandals resorts with her. She was going there on business and I got to be a tag along. While her and I were basking in the marvelousness of Sandals in Ocho Rios I was still scheduled to be working, I had appointments booked to view villas on that end of the island. So our first morning waking up in Sandals her and I had our morning coffee and set up our work stations like so:
It was at that very spot on that balcony that I received the news that my employment had been terminated, after 3 weeks of working, due to the blog post “The Help”. It all happened by email and before they actually terminated me they asked what my intentions were with that blog post and I simply answered, “The same as with all my blog posts….to write about unique things I do in Jamaica”. In my mind, who else that travels to Jamaica gets to hang out with the villa staff and learn about what they do? It was prime blogging material and so totally up my alley as everyone who reads this blog would know. So after asking what my intentions were they asked me to delete the post because it was destroying their business << Now THAT one I couldn’t figure out at all. How was my blog post that mentioned no business names and no addresses in it, destroying their business? It was a generic blog post about villa staff. Period. But I deleted it as they asked and their decision was to terminate me anyway. So I re-posted it lol.
I don’t stress about much in Jamaica and I can fly home anytime I like for $200 so they didn’t ruin my life but I, along with my travel partner sitting at that table with me were dumbfounded. I think mostly I was just taken aback by the stupidness of the situation. But here I was sitting at Sandals with amazing coffee in front of me thinking, “Woohoo! Now I can completely enjoy the Sandals experience without having to leave the property and go to work!” I can say I was a little sad that I thought I might be leaving Jamaica 3 weeks into the job when it was supposed to be around 8 weeks long but I wasn’t about to stress it just yet. It just made me sad that I would not be viewing outdoor showers such as this one anymore….I loved touring villas!
I returned to the villa I was “living” in and the guests had gone so I moved back into a room there and told my employers they HAD to give me a reasonable amount of time to find a place to go, which they agreed to. But in a whirlwind faster than I could blink the villa magically changed hands and they no longer were responsible for it. Some investors stepped in and took over the lease, moved in and allowed me to stay. The bonus was that I had a free place to live still….the un-bonus was that I lived in a house full of people I didn’t know but so it goes in Jamaica! You make fast friends there and living styles are different so people just live with people. It wasn’t the best situation but I was the one choosing to stay rather than fly home.
Karma Turned Some Things Around
I’m not going to lie, I was basically miserable living in that house for 5 weeks with the guys who also lived there. I was the only female, the only foreigner and it got tired really fast. But I DID make some amazing connections somehow, that I would not have made had I not gone to Jamaica for this job. I had plenty of visitors from my blog readers and personal friends. I met some amazing people and made great connections, such as the American photographer who put me in contact with his publishing company, who in turn gave me 4 segments to write in the tourist board magazine. I had some amazing offers to stay at villas and write reviews, I assisted some of my readers in planning their vacations and in turn, made some pretty decent commissions. And I won at the casino!!
I would have gone back to Canada with my tail between my legs MUCH sooner had there not been a major travel group link-up planned for the end of May which I was planning to attend. Blog post on that will come down the road. I guess the biggest tragedy of the entire situation was that my employer didn’t pay me what they owed me so I was basically just hanging out in Jamaica, useless for 7 weeks. I tried several times to appeal to their human side and tell them I’m not asking for a dime more than they owe me but they just didn’t want to pay up so I let it go. I believe in karma and I made more money off the connections I found than I would have ever made from the employer. So…..I’m not crying.
The one thing I wish is that I didn’t have a conscience because I’d really love to splash them all over the place as a company not to do business with but I just can’t do it. As I said I believe in karma and I already got my good karma in return. I have yet to see their business launch so I’m assuming their karma is taking care of itself.
In total, I was in Jamaica for 7 weeks on that go-round and it left a lot to be desired. But I was still there and all the subsequent timing of everything else has worked out just nicely. OH and remember in the post I did right before I left, I said I was hoping to start doing something with a purpose rather than just travel for travel’s sake? The purpose has presented itself and it will fulfill itself shortly. So all things work together for the greater good. Amen.
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