January 17, 2012

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Monday, I weaved all day, and spent most of that quiet time with the Lord.  It was nice.  In between weaving I made two loaves of bread, one white and one cinnamon raisin.  Fred could not wait for it to come out of the oven to cut into.  He was like a little boy, “is it ready yet?”.  I used Stevia in the raw instead of real sugar for the cinnamon raisin, although both had a bit of sugar in it for the dough.  I wasn’t sure if Stevia would make the yeast rise like sugar would.  It was wonderful.  I think we both could have eaten both loaves that evening but we didn’t.

Today we went into town to the clinic for Fred’s ear.  We had a few errands to run, ie trash, water and a bit of shopping.  We emptied all the jugs of water into the boat and loaded them on the dink.  Georgetown has RO (reverse osmosis) water free here and we try to stay pretty full while here for that reason alone.  It is good water.  Total water we can hold on deck is 37 gallons and the tank holds about 50 gallons.  So...off we go with 6 empty containers for water, two bags of trash and a backpack.  Halfway there I realized I forgot my camera.  “Darn”  I said but it was so windy and rough it wasn’t worth going back for.  We found the clinic, took the dink so a sandy area, anchored it around a rock, there was very little sand there, and went to the clinic.  “Oh Yes”  the young school aged looking Dr. with a surgery mask over his face replied as he took a look into Fred’s ear. “you have a very nice infection going on in there”.  He told him he was going to treat it and Fred left with a healthy shot of antibiotics in his bum and a box of amoxicillin and pain relievers and $56.00 less money in his pocket.  No insurance is taken here.  WOW...wonder how much that would be in the US?  Curiosity got the best of me again and I had to ask this adolescent looking Doctor, “Where did you get your medical education”.  He said Cuba.  That was surprising, although I don’t know what kind of answer I expected, I certainly didn’t expect Cuba.  That, to me, was like another planet.  He said he was from Nassau.  I was impressed.  I had heard of many islanders leaving and going to Nassau or further but never from Nassau to a smaller island.  To sum it all up, he was raised in Nassau, got into the medical field, which could have taken him anywhere in the world, and he came back to a smaller island with ONE doctor which was him, Jesse Fox.  What kind of dedication is that?  I loved it.  He is walking a life of truly giving back to his people.  I was glad I met him.  Most doctors I know in that profession make a lot of money.  I’m reasonably certain he is not in this for the money.  He truly is a dedicated man.

Now...we had to get to Smitty’s pharmacy to pick up my Rx that I couldn’t get in time before I left the states.  As we passed the dink, Fred noticed this was not a good place to leave it.  We took it back to Lake Victoria and started our journey to Smitty’s from in town.  It was about a 3 mile walk.  We stopped at the corner of the straw market and bought some green tomatoes and 4 sweet apples, a locally grown fruit, which Jeneice told me about on Sunday.  Of course I had to try it.  I was here and the opportunity was there for me to take.  Takes a few days to ripe and after Fred took a look at he he invited me to indulge in all four myself.  Out went the thumb, and the first car stopped.  “You need a ride as far as the clinic?”  he said.  I said we are going to Smitty’s pharmacy and he replied that he was going to the clinic.  Fred said “thanks, but we are going to Smitty’s and off he went, giving us a smile as he continued to eat his healthy apple.  I looked at Fred and said, “do you know who that was?”  “No, should I?” 

“Yes, that was the Doctor.  He was going back to work.  Why didn’t you accept the ride at least to the clinic?”  Fred asked me how I knew it was him and I told him I recognized the crisp ironed grey shirt he had on.  I knew not to ask again why he turned down the ride.  Fred could barely hear with his ear infection.  Out went his thumb, again.  So...for the first time in my life, I was picked up by a hitch hiker.  The guy actually apologized for his messy car but still offered us a ride.  I jumped in the back seat, Fred in the front and he had Bahamian music filling the car.  There was a cookbook between the seat and conversation rolled.  Turns out he was from Nassau too but it was too crowded for him so he moved to Georgetown and opened up a little restaurant next to Exuma Market called Bikini Bottoms.  That explained the cookbook.  We promised to go there before we left.  He took us all the way to Smitty’s.  Nice guy!  The pharmacy was closed for another hour for lunch.  Seems they have a lot of lunch hours on these islands but no special time to have them.  So noon means nothing here.  They, again, are on island time.  We walked across the street to a lumber store what has everything Lowes Home Improvement has except only one brand to choose from.  For that reason, it all fit.  Turns out they own “Top to Bottom” hardware store also.  I searched for a lookie bucket but it was $37.00.  I decided it would be cheaper to make one but once I priced it out, it was only $6.00 cheaper so I decided I didn’t really need one that bad.  We did pick up a few things we couldn’t find at the other store and by then, it was time for the return of the pharmacists.  Filled the Rx and on our way back to town.  It took 2 thumbs to get a ride back, and we were picked up by the guy who owns the Nappa store here, another nice guy.  He said he wasn’t going into town but after turning down the ride to the clinic, I said “as far as you go is fine by us”.  Turns out he is also a local artists also.  I was asking about another local artist I hjad met on the island but the conversation didn’t go far because he had arrive at his destination.  Things are starting to fall into place as far as how a living is made here.  They multitask with jobs. 

As we got out of the car, there stood the artist I was talking about.  I had a short chat with him and knew we would hear from him again because I am interested in a piece of art he did.  I love to collect artwork.  Our next ride was from Kendall, the guy who tends the bar here at Chat and Chill.  This is a small world!  He dropped us off and Fred led me into Bikini Bottoms and as promised, we ate there.  He was happy to see us and the food was great!  While there, we met a couple who is planning at trip to the Dominican Republic like us and up walks the artist I had just seen earlier.  He sat down and we talked about his art, his life and his island.  He said to come to his boat and see what he has.  I would like to take him up on it.  He lives on a house boat, has for years, with his wife and son Nate (I think).  Anyway he is a cute little blonde about 13 or so.  His oils are too steep for my budget but he does have a signed and numbered litho I am interested in.  We parted and promised to see each other again.

The trip back to boat was something for the books.  The water containers were full, garbage disposed of, backpack in the cooler seat and we literally crawled out of Lake Victoria under the bridge.  Fred warned me I was going to get a little wet on the way back.  Understood with the wind and the rough waters but I could take it.  Just as we came out from under the bridge, wham...a huge burst of water hit my back, paralyzing me from the cold shock.  The wind make it colder but I made it through the initial shock and knew it would only be less than 5 minutes until we got back to the dry Casa Mare’ waiting for us.  We couldn’t get any speed without water coming in the dink.  It was getting deeper and deeper but Casa Mare’ was in site and I knew we could make it.  I wanted to do something to be part of the survival team so I offered to pump the water out with the foot pump we use to put air in the dinghy when needed.  I was thinking I could somehow put it in reverse so we wouldn’t sink.  He replied with a grumpy “no”.  He said we needed to put a few of the containers in the back so I hauled two, full, 6 1/2 gallon jugs over the cooler to the rear.  Guess that was too much weight because now the water was coming in over the back of the boat.  The wind was blowing us all over the place and it didn’t matter if we were anchored at that very spot or creaping along, the water continued to find a way in.  I was thinking about dumping the water overboard after Fred said I may wish I had my snorkel.  I found the whole thing funny from the beginning and it got funnier and funnier to me as it became a comedy of errors.  He gave me the pump and said, blow up the dink.  I picked it up and it was in two pieces, the hose in one hand and the pump in the other.  “I can fix this” I said.  Give me your knife.  I fixed it and started pumping my heart out, laughing still.  It wouldn’t get hard and I looked down and saw the hose had cracked again at the connection.  This time I held it together with one hand and pumped with the other hand.  Still not getting air into the chamber.  This time I looked down and saw another crack in the hose and handed the whole thing to Fred and said, “Here, you hold it here by the connection and here by the second break and I will pump this by hand.  By this time I was laughing so hard I peed my britches but it didn’t matter, I was soaked anyway.  Finally, success!  We got the chamber filled enough to keep the water from coming in the dink and afloat.  Fred didn’t see anything funny about it at all, but it would have made a great comedy movie.  I saw the stern look on his face as we creped to Casa Mare’ and by then we were only halfway there.  I said, “Do you think I need my lifejacket yet?” remembering him telling me at the beginning of our trip, I don’t need to worry about a thing until he tells me to get my lifejacket.  He just gave me one of his stern looks captains get when you suggest something to him.  He’s the captain, I am the crew.  Period.  We never got the life jackets out and my sides hurt from laughing so hard but we made it back, wet, floating and with all the water we started out with.  Later I told him I wasn’t worried a bit because he had promised my Dad he would take good care of me and I knew he wouldn’t let me drown in a dinghy.  He smiled and gave me a hug.  Another note to myself, ‘NEVER take all the water jugs ashore at one time in the dink to be refilled ’.    Efficiency is not always the smartest thing.  And...some things that I think are funny, really aren’t.  But I did put that whole incident in God’s hands and trusted Fred along with it.  It could have been worse.  We could have lost the dinghy, which is our lifeline to shore.  Not long after we got home, there was a call over the radio, a boat just next to us was sinking.  Thank goodness someone had a gas generator on their boat and immediately dinked over and pumped him out.  I imagine there was damage but everyone was okay, just a bit shaken I am sure.  It’s amazing how fast that happened.  This is quite a boating community here.  What ever problems we had were nothing compared to theirs.  I am glad to see how tight these cruiser's are.