Given my medical situation (Type 1 Diabetes and now breast cancer!), I know that I would never be able to live in Jamaica. After this latest diagnosis, even Costa Rica, a place that Don & I thought that we'd eventually retire, I think is out. When I retire from the public school system in 3 years, my health insurance will be here in Arkansas only....so I must stay.
Beyond that......a very thought-provoking question.....I still think that living/retiring in Jamaica would be very, very difficult. I know a few that have done it, and done it really well!!! My hat is off to them, for sure. But I'm not sure that I have the energy, stamina & patience that it would take to do it. The problems with electricity, water, etc. sound insurmountable sometimes. For instance, I am shocked that The Animal House Jamaica does all that it does, taking care of nearly 100 dogs, with their water interruptions!! And they have been trying to get dog crates that were donated to them delivered for weeks/months - still not there!! It seems like living there & trying to do things to help vulnerable people & creatures would be like pushing a HUGE boulder uphill!!! Not sure I could do that.
I do love Jamaica; her people, her culture, her music, her food, her tropical beauty & many of her attitudes. However, I do have huge problems with the government there. It seems so corrupt & not in it "for the people." In particular, the education situation really bugs me. So short-sighted, for the only way for a society to really succeed is to educate its people, when they are children! My 80 year-old mother noticed this after talking with mothers & grandmothers down there & she had a big problem with it. It seems like the working people are really on a "hamster wheel," spinning round & round, not getting very far in life for the amount of energy they expend. So unfair!