In New Jersey, pizzas are considered to be a kind of pie, and are called pies. Walk into any Italian restaurant in Newark and ask for a pie. A pizza will be at your table shortly.
Oh and most of the independent plaes around me just serve local food, which after half a decade gets old. There are food courts where half the places are serving the exact same local homestyle cooking like pelau, callaloo, roti, mac pie etc. I’m told it is because most of the customers are single male workers who miss mom’s cooking.
You find more variety in other areas but it is a long way to go. I was shocked at how hard it is to find “real” indian food here versus the Trinidad versions like roti.
I have never had an issue with Papa Johns local stores before, I hadn’t had pizza in a while so it slipped my mind to check for sauce before going home. It is a stupid sticking point mentally I feel silly paying double for what it costs in the US so I don’t get it often.
(Background info for the post is that although some places have customer accessible soda machines, no one offers free refills locally on soda.)
My wife and I were dining at a place and she got a combo and chose Sprite, sat down she took a drink and found it was carbonated water, no syrup. She was like ah I don’t want to pay for a drink separate, I said are you crazy?! Go tell them and get something else, she seemed unsure and returned saying they told well you picked that tough(paraphrased).
I grabbed the paper cup and went to the soda machine and made sure in full view of the clerks, just WAITING for them to say a word. Dumped it out in the drain on the machine and refilled with coke while making eye contact with the employees, they did not say a word.
Sat down and gave my wife the drink, she was like you know they’re going to go telling all their friends and family about the asshole white guy and I was like I DO NOT CARE!
You joke, but what you’re saying is the truth for the public health system.
One of my BILs got badly burned by his car’s radiator, yea he was being stupid but anyway. Went to the burn ward in the public hospital, they had his family going out and buying bandages and saran wrap since the hospital had none.
They give pregnant women an appointment for ultrasounds 11months in the future with a straight face, since there is only one machine.
My wife insisted on going to the public hospital for delivery, long story but she was blind with pre-eclampsia and a doctor told her they weren’t going to do a C-section and she didn’t care whether she died or not. I arranged and jumped through hoops for a private hospital and had to make a scene getting her out since visiting hours are one hour a day and they don’t want patients to have cellphones she still argued with me about leaving,even though after all was said and done and she and our son were alive she said “you were right” I said oh please speak up. She was worried because everyone she has ever known has told her if you go to private hospitals they just send you back to the public system, and they won’t take you back and treat you like shit. She realized later it was just that everyone she has known could not afford private hospitals and were lieing.
Absurd malpractice cases come out of port of spain general public hospital at regular rates, like a surgeon lobotomizing a baby during a C-section(guess the woman should have felt grateful to even have one!)
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/DEEPEST-CUT--OF-ALL-250266431.html
Unrelated recent horror case below:
Anyway in the interest of full disclosure I found the staff of the public health system professional and fine when I woke up in the ER due to an asthma attack, although other patients waiting were protesting that a white guy brought in not breathing was given priority and given an injection when they had been waiting there 12 hours with an infected toe, I was too wiped out to argue my position. And it isn’t like I had any choice where I was taken when I was unconscious.
Anyway my point is public health system here is terrible, but there are private hospitals and surgeons and doctors available that are reasonable in cost.
Cheese isn’t a topping. Extra cheese is. A pizza doesn’t HAVE to have toppings, but if it doesn’t it’s a pretty shitty za.
And chilli isn’t a soup, goddammit.
Most of what the OP is decrying as Trinindad- or Island-specific is simply the way the poorer 85% of the entire world works.
Stuff is always broken, stuff is always running out. Nothing works smoothly except by a rare and random alignment of the planets. Sloppy, close enough / good enough work is not just in customer service; it’s essentially universal in all workers in all jobs.
Everybody understands that’s simply the way the entire society operates. So nobody gets bent about it.
Who in the US has a screaming fit every morning because they can’t drive the speed limit on the clogged freeway? We simply accept that urban / suburban freeway driving at peak times includes slow and go / stop and go. Yes, we all try to avoid it. But if somebody was going postal over it every day we’d wonder what was wrong with them, not with us.
For somebody who’s wound as tight as our OP, 3rd world living has to be a great personal challenge every day.
Grude,
Why are you in Trinidad?
Were you born there?
If I was you, I would get out as soon as I could.
Can’t you get out?
It sounds like a garbage dump. You wouldn’t want to live in a garbage dump. Would you?
For someone who lives in the Caribbean (born, raised, and moved back to another country), not just visit, that sort of thing ends up being annoying. Running out of things you need, and they know you need, but don’t care to stock up, is silly. Island charm bollocks, you can still be charming and keep a good inventory.
JKilez, I can vouch for grude about the hospital situation. All of that makes the news.
I can also vouch that in general, customer service is not good in Trinidad, when compared to other Caribbean places. I’ve not had the extremes mentioned, but I’ve had enough close experiences and been told by my friends enough that I know it’s truth.
OK. I believe you. But why? Why would they not stock up on things people will need?
I can think of a few reason. But they all are stupid. Stupid reasons. Why would they do that? Or fail to do that? It just blows me down!
Remember the old Pirate shanty? “Blow me down and blow me away”. I think Popeye used to sing that.
Ugh. It’s making me sick just to think about this thread. I’m gonna go puke now.
I would say puking is an exaggeration. And the answer is “I don’t know”. It’s not as if I’m the only one who notices it. Even the locals dislike the fact that the supermarket offerings are unreliable. Go there one week, find the product you want, go there the next week(s), and it’s not to be found. Go there again, thinking you’ll never see it again, and there it is. It is frustrating how they apparently screw up inventory.
Granted, they’ve learned (and so did I) to cope with it. Solution: If you see the product you want, even if you don’t need it right now, buy it. Sigh
Also, I’ll again point out that I live in a different area, closer to the university. Different set of people that are seen in both Port of Spain and in the expat enclaves.
There is really no excuse for the poor public health system here, it very simply exists because no one in power cares and they can neglect to fund it. They and their family and friends all go private so no one in power cares, even though a few million in supplies not stolen would vastly improve the system.
I paid for a private pediatrician for my son to avoid 12 hour wait times, and I will not offer any identifying info because it would be too easy to figure out but the doctor was related to one of the highest political offices and was considered one of the best in the country.
They told me with a wink about how they were stealing immunizations from the public hospital system, where they also worked. Private doctors are in a system I little understand often either paid to work at public hospitals or required to as part of their medical training offered by the government. I am sure they did not know we had experience in the public system, I was disgusted by them telling me hey I’ll have this immunization a few weeks from now because they are getting it in at the public hospitals so come back then when I can grab some 
They were pricey but avoiding outlandish wait times was somewhat worth it.
I must ask one more time, “Why do you stay in that country?”
Is there no way you can move to another country?
Do you not wish to do that?
Is there some reason you are forcibly being detained?
If you do not answer my question this time, I will assume there is a good reason you are not answering and I will not bother you again. I apologize if my questioning has caused you any embarassment.
I agree it sounds like generic third world living imo.
I had a similar ridiculous situation in the carribean (forget the island, I was young, possibly Barbados?) Anywho, my mom, stepdad and I went to a pizza hut. They advertised a buffet deal that was quite a bargain in the window, $5 for a lunch buffet.
We sat down and all ordered the buffet. Oddly, there was no buffet line to get your onw pizza. The waiter or owner seemed miffed we ordered it, and said he would bring us out the pizza. After much waiting, he brought out three plates, and put three TINY slices of pizza on each plate. Literally I have never seen such sad looking slices. We eat them in like two seconds and ask for more, and after a huge wait, we get another round of tiny pieces. Waiter gets furious and yells at us for trying to get thirds. My Stepdad asks why they call it a buffet, and after a huge argument where the waiter accuses us of trying to take advantage of the deal and his country’s poverty, allows us to just pay per slice.
I’ve never gotten over how idiotic a situation that was.
I can’t answer for **grude **specifically, but for many Americans living abroad it comes down the US Immigration law and the family ties of their spouse.
Picking up and moving the family to the States is not easy. Visas are not automatic for your spouse or step-children and you may be separated for months while that gets sorted out. The American needs to secure a job with a sufficient salary to support the family before being able to sponsor the immigration visa for the spouse.
Your spouse may have a disruption to his/her career in moving to the States. He/she may not have a professional license recognized in the States. And the spouse may have to wait several months to get permission to engage in employment after arrival in the States.
And, of course, pulling the spouse away from friends and family is at least as difficult as getting a spouse to move cross country in the States. Picking up and leaving everything behind is only more difficult with an international move with potential cultural differences coming into play…
Charlie Wayne, you also assume that anyone can find a job anywhere, pick up and leave. That they do not have ties (of any sort), and that the job they’re trained for can be easily found everywhere. All those assumptions are incorrect.
For my part, I stay because I do like my job very much, and I find it a good learning experience. I’m not expecting to die of old age in Trinidad, it is not my culture and not my cup of tea in many cases. But for now, it works. If I get another offer in a place I would like better, I will reconsider. For me, what is being described here is outweighed by my job and the ties I have formed (and the awesome place where I live). But it is part of the reasons I don’t want to live here for the rest of my life.
Along with what was said they used to have DCF here, but no longer which means months to get go ahead for spousal immigration.
Sorry to make it seem like a total hellhole, I had an elderly black man confront me to tell me…he found I was a loving father, and to ignore what stupid local culture said about being a father.
I’m from the USA, met a woman online from Trinidad, yadda yadda years pass…marriage.
Her mother at the time was terminally ill and she was caring for her, I moved here to Trinidad. Then her mom died, and then we had a kid. My parents basically disowned me because of this, so moving back to the USA was a big deal logistically and financially.
I don’t care about Trinidad or particularly care to live here, the climate is nice 70-80F year round. I care about my wife and son, and she was kind of attached to Trinidad and her remaining family until recently.
I’m really not a stickler for customer service, I don’t care if employees are rude etc. What drives me batty is outright borderline fraud, like expecting someone to just drink carbonated water instead of soda and accept it, or eat pizza without a topping paid for without mentioning it stuff like that. I’ve never complained in my life about rude employees or stuff like that, but if I pay for a damn pizza I expect it to have tomato sauce.
Aside from that I assumed public services were just like the USA, but it isn’t in practice as I found out. Hell my wife once wanted to try to get our son one of his immunizations at the local health office she had hers at, and she feels she is entitled to as she is from here and he was born here. She told me not to come, because there was already going to be an issue made since he was mixed race but if confronted she would make up a story about his father being foreign and leaving. They wanted records she had been in the public health system from birth, and why didn’t she have these and why she was there with a foreign child. And the wait was not kidding 8-12 hours or more, said the waiting room was filled with women and kids. She ended up giving up on it and we paid for the immunization.
I guess both of us were kind of naive in our own ways.
I do think the bizarre public school system deserves a downvote though because they basically have the power to reject your kid, there are public schools but they can decide whether they want your kid or not. If you have a kid with special means you are out of luck basically. Also they are religiously affiliated but funded by the government so they can do whatever they like, and are under no obligation to educate every kid. This as you can imagine leads to a LOT of corruption and payments to principals under the table by parents. And like everything almost here it is who you know that matters.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Start-corruption--fight-in-schools-226082521.html
Most of this wasn’t a factor in my life before we became parents.
You parents basically disowned you because you fathered a mixed race child?
:eek:
Wow.
Im guessing its because:
1)It was an online romance
2)in a foreign country
3)Forcing him to abandon his family and country and
4)Give up his future
from his parents POV