I hear all the time when people return from Caribbean vacations how amazed they are by the friendliness of the people on the island. It’s true, people in the Caribbean genuinely seem happy. I think there are many reasons for it. Here are a few of my thoughts.
- Paradise – Who wouldn’t be happy living on a island where sunshine and beautiful beaches is something you can see on a daily basis? I know I start counting down the weeks, and days until my next trip to a Caribbean Island. Island citizens take pride in their home land. They care about the environment and most importantly the sea and beauty it brings.
- They don’t understand racism – I’ve spoken with many locals on the island and it truly seems racism is not a part of their lives. While there are many races on the islands they don’t divide themselves according to race. Socioeconomic is a bigger divider than race. One black Jamaican told me when he was kid he had Chinese and Caucasian kids in school with him. No one judged them on their skin color and they were happy to just be friends.
- Faith – The Caribbean generally leads the world in churches per capita. Unline America there is no separation of church and state. Most schools start out with devotion. Most people are Christian, but there are many religions on the islands. One is Rastafarianism. It is embedded in Jamaican culture as it is the only one to originate from the island.
- Music – Island music is fun. From reggae to calypso to salsa to soca, the music is fun. Dancing to this music helps keep everyone happy!
- Sense of humor – From my experience it seems those from the islands have a higher sense of humor than most places. I’m not sure why, but no matter where you are and what your doing someone is going to make you laugh!
On one of my trips to Sandals Grenada I walked around the resort and danced with the staff on video. Once word got out about what I was doing the staff got excited and were all begging to be in the video! It ended up taking a couple of hours to film everyone. It was really fun day and I made many great friends in the process. I edited it to the song happy which I felt represented them well and posted it on YouTube. The video now has close to 20k views. Take a look. You can tell from their smiles that these are people you would want to spend a week on vacation with!
Larry – EMvacations.com