My Job - yes, I do have one...

Ok, so by now most of you will be wondering if I’m actually doing any work in Jamaica. Well, I am. Just not an awful lot. And I can’t work out whether to be worried by this or not.

My department is officially titled the ‘Disaster Preparedness Office’, dealing with the 128,000 strong Parish of St Elizabeth on the south west coast of Jamaica. We don’t seem to have an official job description: Renee, the young woman in charge, is responsible for identifying risks; initiating strategies to minimise the disruption caused by disasters; coordinating relief efforts; making building inspections; and delegating responsibilities at various meetings. We play a major role in developing St Elizabeth’s economy and infrastructure, working closely with the Planning Department to ensure things are done sustainably and with disaster in mind. And then this runs alongside random day trips for career workshops in schools and first aid courses for fishermen – an extraordinarily large job description, and all managed by one person.

There are four volunteers in the office to help out – three students from the UK (including me) and one mature student from Australia. Our current job description – the thing we have to do when we’re in the office – is work on the vital community profile of the south coast of the Parish: a summary of the demographics, economies, environment, health and public safety, and education of nine communities which will form a brand new administrative unit integral to the Parish’s thirty year development plan. This combined profile will show planners what the area already has, what it is lacking, and What Should Be Done.

So you’d think that in such a large, vital department, things are permanently busy and very intensive, run off our feet with phone calls, emails, and Things To Do – particularly during the current hurricane season. But not so. Much of our work relies on other departments, and Jamaicans – lovely people that they are – aren’t famous for being workaholics. It’s against their culture, and you wouldn’t want it any other way. Here, the car park of the Parish Council doesn’t fill up ‘til 11; it is empty by 5. Our work on the development plan, a vital piece of work for the Parish and involving close collaboration between multiple departments, relies on receiving certain pieces of information from the Social Development Commission in Santa Cruz; the information takes achingly long to arrive. We have received five community profiles already, but may be unlikely to receive the other four by the end of the month. Nothing happens here in a hurry.

Hence, our work at the disaster department involves lots of sitting around, riddles, random chats about our differing cultures, games of hangman, and procrastination on YouTube. Such a vital department reduced to doing crosswords.

So this is what we do, Monday to Friday, 9 ‘til 4. Then on the weekends, it’s off on exotic adventures to the tourist resorts. Work hard, play hard. Except balanced in favour of play. Let’s hope we aren’t hit by a hurricane.