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Published: August 2nd 2008
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6:30am I wake up and decide to go for a jog heading south of my house toward Le Pompe and Paget Farm. Its my first time in that direction and the hills are rough. Going down is not a problem, but uphill is a bear! At one point I begin to DOUBT I will make it home. Le Pompe and Paget Farm look to be the poorer side of the island. Very few vacation homes. On the way back home I meet Todd and his son, Logan. They had done some mission work pouring concrete at a church in Paget Farm a few days earlier and a member of the church had offered to take them spear-fishing, but he appearantly forgot. They are from West Virginia and Todd used to be a white water rafting guide. They are staying at the Sugarapple Inn about a half mile up the road to town from me. It was nice to talk to some Americans and it set a good tone for the day to come.
I find out that today (aug 1) is Emancipation day. A national holiday remembering those who were repressed by slavery and celebrating those who survived. Knight's food
mart is closed and I can't get anymore of those coconut cookies. (I feel a nervous twitch coming on.) I spend most of the morning in the villa office charging my computer, phone, and camera (to no avail, RIP) Sandy and Alethea are so polite to let me hang out there. I'm there for about three hours answering emails and writing the day's blog. A guy walks in named Al and wants to rent snorkel gear. Alethea asks how many? and he responds 21. Twenty one!! I haven't seen twenty one visitors since I got on the island. They're a group of college students from Chicago who were doing some mission work on St V and came over on the ferry for a day at the beach. Alethea rounds op 10 sets for them and they are fine with passing them around.
A little later on in the morning a man comes in and wants to buy 15 foot of the big roll of rope they have in the corner and one of the "Hammock-in-a-bag" things. Sandy has to call Allen to see if the rope is for sale and how much. I get the idea that Allen is
the boss. They have nothing to measure the rope with so I chime in and explain to the girls that your reach from fingertip to fingertip is about the same as your height. They give me a look of DOUBT and I hold the rope to the center of my chest and extend my right arm out five times-three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen. The girls laugh and try it for themselves. If we only had a tape measure we could confirm my formula and remove all DOUBT. Satisfied with my measuring methods the rope buyer asks Alethea to model the Hammock-come-Backpack so he can take a picture and send it to a freind who is interested. Sandy and I aren't sure if the friend is INTERESTED in the hammock or Alethea. She reluctantly gives in to his persistant requests and models the bag/hammock. When he exits the store, Sandy and I agree that he just wanted a picture of Alethea.
With all the electronics fully charged I head down to Lower Bay for the afternoon. Lower Bay beach is not quite as nice as Princess Margarett, but there are 3 or 4 bar/restaurants there so its a more popular
hangout. While floating in the water, I have a lady ask me if I'm having a good day. I think for a minute and respond, "yes, I am having a good day" She is a 60-ish native of Trinidad who currently lives in Key Largo. She's an all-in-one beach wedding planner/decorator/florist/minister. She tells me she plays the traditional "here comes the bride" on her CD boom box, but concludes the ceremony with "there goes the bride" in a steel pan version. She adds that her thick Trini accent ads an authentic Caribbean tone to the ceremony.
With clouds looming on the horizon, I decide to exit the water to be closer to my things. In twenty minutes time it starts to spinkle and I gather my things and head up to De Reef. No sooner am I under the shelter of the bar, that a monsoon blows in with driving rain and gail-like winds. The Chicago students are still outside and come scrambling for shelter. Bequians smile and welcome the rain since there is no other source of fresh water on the island. All the buildings have gutters with pipes leading down to cisterns where all the rainwater is
collected and stored. Water is a very precious commodity here.
The rain lasts about an hour, so I have a delicious hot ham and cheese sandwhich. When the rain lets up I walk back to the villa office and ask the girls opinion on whether to send home for a camera or try to find one in St V. When I mention the shipping one here from home idea I can tell the girls get that "good luck" smile on their faces and cut their eyes toward one another. I'm advised that I should catch the 6:30 ferry in order to get into town and shop and still have time to catch the noon ferry back to Bequia.
5:00pm With clouds still looming on the horizon, I DOUBT that there is much more daylight left so I head to my house and spend the evening writing and relaxing in front of the TV. Before bed, I call home and Marcia informs me that I should spend a bit more time proof reading my blog before I publish it. No DOUBT she is correct.
Till tomorrow,
David
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KC
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Awesome pics!
I wasn't going to say anything, BUT, since Marcia brought it up, why don't you use spell check? ( : Regardless of the typos, I'm really enjoying reading your experiences. Hopefully you'll have a new camera soon!