I stayed on the northeast coast of Jamaica for two months in 2001, working on a midwifery project. Small town, Oracabessa, and smallish-city hospital in Port Maria. It's funny the things that bug you about another culture. Nobody said, "bless you" when someone else sneezed. Nobody except me. It was getting (unexpectedly) really irritating as the weeks passed.

Near the end of my stay, I attended a birth in which the baby's grandmother was British. She said "Bless you" when her son-in-law sneezed. I commented that I hadn't heard anyone else do so in my whole time there.

The Jamaican son-in-law said, "Nah, man, in Jamaica dem say 'bless you' when you give dem money!" We all laughed. It's true!