Chats, Days of Mourning and Visitors

Another week has come and gone. Last Sunday, Dale and I thought we would take the day to go exploring. We took a maxi (a fifteen passenger van that is kind of a cross between a taxi and a bus, the cheap, everyday, but not Sundays, way to travel) and tried to head south. Got part way only to find out that they only go so far on Sundays so we started walking north, slowly heading towards our new home (we move in this Tuesday :0 ).

We decided to head down to the beach and follow it back home. This is an island after all. As you can see in the pictures, the beaches are beautiful and only occasionally did we, as forged northward, have to resort to either a walk in the water (kind of cooling anyway on such a beautiful day) or a path through the woods to avoid a rocky outcrop.

A brief stop along the way at a beach front restaurant for lunch taught me to avoid “jerk” pork...definitely a spicier meal than my taste buds enjoy. We were tired, slightly sore and a touch more tanned when we finally did arrive back at our present address but happy at having done the walk.

School week started and I quickly noticed I had a problem with my Grade 11’s. They are doing on-line courses from New Brunswick and along with the courses they have access to the communication tools that the other on-line students use. Some tools though can be abused and that was what they were doing with their pagers. The tool should be used to ask quick questions and get answers from your on-line teacher or classmates.

As the excerpts below show though, they were not always chatting about school topics. Btw, (which is how they would write “by the way”), if you have trouble getting the gist of the conversation below, you are surely not alone :) Bonus marks given for anyone who can give me a complete and correct translation of what follows.

r : zobiee jajaja
s : want i want to ask u sum ee..
s : u eh deh mun...?
s : woyyyyy YUTE !!! where u base oye???
r : you knw...
s : im aiight n u?
r : wats de vybz uh gyal..ask i askin u ee wah
s : vibe wit who? or with what?
r : wats de vybz??

Now Tuesday was an official day of mourning with everything on the island closed. Banners, posters and flags at half-mast covered the island. For ten days now, local television has covered nothing else but the passing of Sir John. I, on the other hand, took advantage of the day to remove the pagers from their courses.

The closure of all St. Lucian also kept my friends from Slovakia from arriving last week. They needed to get visas from the St. Lucia High Commission in London England, but even the High Commissioner and his staff far across the ocean mourned the loss of their beloved Prime Minister. My friends will arrive this Wednesday now instead of last and they will be our first visitors in the new house.

Yet, the week was not entirely without visitors as you can see in the photo here. Coast Villas is where Dale and I are presently staying and although not daily happening, a frequent sight are the local horses that come to graze in and around the local area. Driving down major thorough fares (that is almost an oxymoron when I consider that I am speaking of St. Lucian roads) we often see horses, cows, goats, chickens, etc., leisurely eating away. The local police offices even keep goats as a green alternative to lawn mowers, making sure to move them around the yard in a strategic fashion to ensure a nice even cut.

One of the teachers at our school is a retired police officer/supervisor/trainer with the London, England police force. Judith is pictured here with me with the harbour in Castries behind us.

Her husband, Paul is working here on the island as a police officer. He is part of a British team here to support and help train local police. And he is a wealth of stories. He had us in stitches telling us of the meeting they had with the locals discussing how officers should dress when they attended the state funeral. Time does not allow me to recount it here but I will gladly give a rendition if and when I cross paths with any of you and we are F2F.

Paul and Judith came by yesterday to help me find my way through Castries which I need to do when I go south to pick up Palo and Marta on Wednesday. They took me on a beautiful tour of Castries showing me not only the touristy look-offs, Government House from several different angles and a collection of fine restaurants hidden away down sometimes obscure roads, but also a amazing array of hidden gems or not-so-gemmy (if I can use that word) places that only a police officer might know of.

When they dropped me off at the end of the tour, Sue, her husband Carl, who arrived the previous day, and Dale were around and the six of us sat and talked for a while. When everyone was on his/her way away, someone mentioned an odd smell in the air. Paul, fountain of information that he is, informed us of the passing of one of those horses pictured above. He added that although the horse had passed away the night before, he had yet to be picked up some eighteen hours and one hot day later. Luckily, it had rained, off and on as it is apt to do here in the rainy season. We are saddened by the loss and we are holding yet another day of mourning but we are also hopeful for a speedy burial. And I am left wondering how my Gr. 11’s would have recounted this passing and delayed burying, had they discussed it in their chat.

Ah....such is island life in the Caribbean ;)... it is now time (no, not just now, it is always time) to go jump in the pool or the ocean. Till next week then.... and thanks to Paul, Sue and Dale for pictures this week.