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My wife and I are teachers in Texas. We have two young children. I have a friend at the high school where I teach whose husband works in oil. One of their stops before Houston was in the Cayman Islands. She taught grades 7 -12 there, and said it was absolute heaven. Surprisingly, she told me that her teaching salary six years ago in the Caymans was better than her current Texas public school teaching salary.
We very likely would never make such a leap as to move our family to the Caribbean and teach there, but it sounds sooo inviting.
I'm curious, what does anyone out there know about teaching and living in the Caribbean? Any particular islands that are appealing?
You're probably asking yourself why no one has responded yet.
Look... the Caribbean is like a mini-Europe, minus the white people (OK, most of the white people live on three islands - Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Cuba -, but lets be realistic; only in PR and Cuba white people are quite abundant everywhere, in Dominican Republic they are more visible in the north-central part of the country and everywhere else in the Caribbean they are so few, we can say they hardly exist).
But other than that, each island is very unique. Those that belonged to the British Empire have a very strong British cultural imprint, the former Spanish colonies have a strong Spanish cultural flavor, the former French, well, you get the idea.
In terms of development the islands are all over the place. It ranges from the extremely low levels of Haiti (among the 5 poorest countries on earth) all the way to the Cayman Islands or Saint Barts, which are among the wealthiest places on the planet. Some of the islands have a serious trash problem while others are spotless. Some islands are flat and boring while others are mountainous, lush and exciting; the larger islands are both, depending where you go on each island. Some have bustling metropolises where all your wishes can come true and all the comforts of the world are within reach while others are dotted by nothing more than sleepy villages, sometimes not even that, but in both cases rather backward and that could pose a challenge for someone used to US style living.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that you have to narrow down and be more specific as to what Caribbean you envision as appealing to you, because this part of the world comes in many different flavors.
You're probably asking yourself why no one has responded yet.
Look... the Caribbean is like a mini-Europe, minus the white people (OK, most of the white people live on three islands - Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Cuba -, but lets be realistic; only in PR and Cuba white people are quite abundant everywhere, in Dominican Republic they are more visible in the north-central part of the country and everywhere else in the Caribbean they are so few, we can say they hardly exist).
But other than that, each island is very unique. Those that belonged to the British Empire have a very strong British cultural imprint, the former Spanish colonies have a strong Spanish cultural flavor, the former French, well, you get the idea.
In terms of development the islands are all over the place. It ranges from the extremely low levels of Haiti (among the 5 poorest countries on earth) all the way to the Cayman Islands or Saint Barts, which are among the wealthiest places on the planet. Some of the islands have a serious trash problem while others are spotless. Some islands are flat and boring while others are mountainous, lush and exciting; the larger islands are both, depending where you go on each island. Some have bustling metropolises where all your wishes can come true and all the comforts of the world are within reach while others are dotted by nothing more than sleepy villages, sometimes not even that, but in both cases rather backward and that could pose a challenge for someone used to US style living.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that you have to narrow down and be more specific as to what Caribbean you envision as appealing to you, because this part of the world comes in many different flavors.
Point taken, though I think he did give enough information about his situation to show what he would probably want (Haiti is pretty much out of the question, right?). He had heard about teaching in the Caribbean and getting a good salary and it being a wonderful place, so I'm guessing he wants to be somewhere that hires and pays teachers well and is a wonderful place.
I myself don't know enough about working in the Caribbean to tell you anything useful, but why not go to wherever in the Cayman Islands your friend loved so much and start from there?
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