Friday, January 6, 2012
Dee hailed us and wanted to know if I wanted to dink it over to the laundry mat to do some wash. I heard the conversation but was still trying to wake up/get up. I love mornings but for some reason I slept later than usual. It was 9:30. She was here at 10 and we were a sight to see I am sure. Two ladies in a dinghy full of clothes, pulling up to the special laundry mat dinghy dock. I climbed up and Dee handed me all the clothes. The sandstone steps were hand carved leading up to the famous facility I had heard so much about. This was the cleanest laundry mat I have ever seen. Tokens were all they took so I said 3 loads. She came back with $21.00. Yikes! Along with everything else it seemed to be in harmony with the cost of living on this island. Fred said no more hand washing, we are using the laundry mats along our way. Such a luxury I always took for granted. Not any more. While we waited between loads Dee and I strolled the neighborhood streets and found the clinic, police station, the school and the grocery store. They were pretty low on things and the mail boat was coming at 1:00. It only comes in once a week, which confused me. Today is Friday and when I passed the post office they were only open on Wednesday. Guess if you didn’t get your stuff mailed by Wednesday, you missed the boat, literally. I look forward to getting fruits and vegetables this afternoon. Waiting for the last load to finish drying, Lorraine walked over from her café and said Fred was hailing me over the radio. I called him back over the radio and he couldn’t find his checkbook. I had never seen it but after tearing the boat apart, we decided he left it in storage with his other stuff. They don’t take charge cards here, only cash and checks. No credit either. He dinked it over to meet me and we went back to the boat, had lunch and went back to town. The mail boat had just arrived and the dock was full of local people, golf carts and pick up trucks. One would have thought it was a celebration over there. We went to the clinic because Fred had injured his knee and couldn’t bend it. I was worried and I am glad he listened to me and agreed to have it checked. Miss Gayl is the nurse here. She did what every nurse would do and asked his history and had him fill out paperwork. $30.00 for all cruisers to see her. It’s the law. She said to take Tramadol, which he had back at the boat and gave him an ace bandage for $5.00. I asked her if she could fill a sinus Rx while I was there and she did, a 90 day supply. $15.00 for me. This is the only time on this island I found things reasonable. We decided to walk part of the island, his choice and I thought maybe it would help his leg, who knew. We came across this man weaving bands of palm the sell to other people who make things like purses etc out of them. He said he used to work the tower just across the street but retired and wanted to weave. I will never look at a straw basket the same again. There’s a lot of work doing that. I hope they get paid well for it. Further up the road we came to Regatta point where they have sail boat races in August. It was a beautiful view of the waters, turning from dark green to sky blue. What a vantage point for a picture. Of course, had to have one of George too. He was quite a guy. I asked him about this tree I had seen around with some kind of fruit on it bumpy green. Never saw it before and he explained that the fruit is squeezed and the juices are used for medicinal purposes. I never could get out of him what it was used on, but he had me convinced it was not edible but a valuable thing to have. OK….my mission on this trip is to find out about this tree. He walked with us until he got to his house and bid farewell and we continued our stroll up the hill to see Willy. Willy does garden tours and I was anxious to see it. Fred always has a surprise or two up his sleeve and this was one of them. We came to a field per se of driftwood and Fred stopped. I was taken back by this determination this guy had to give something back to the community and draw people that far into the island. Driftwood everywhere, strategically placed. We wandered down to his home where a lady was also weaving strips of palm. She called for Willy and he came out proudly offered us a tour. We had to walk back to the street though because this is where the tour started. He was pretty organized about that. He told us a story of how 2 people/animals etc. are alike and we each see them in a different way. For instance, if someone said Jesus died on the cross, you would picture what you believed Jesus hanging from a cross would look like. Then he pointed and said, over there, that is just another way of seeing the same thing. It was a big piece of driftwood shaped like the crucifixion. This went on through the entire garden. This was a clever man and so willing to share what he saw in life. He had birds, a lion, lizard, snake, ladies, men Mothers, it went on and on. I forgot to ask him how long it took him to do this but it was clearly a long time and lots of meaning went into the placement of one piece. After we passed his home in the back were trees. Lots of them. Papaya, guava, almond, banana, mango, sweet apple, grapes, sweet potato, tamarind and had us try an almond, which was almost ripe. He had us bite into it and it was interesting to say the least. The skin was yellow, the pulp was raspberry pink and very stringy. I personally thought it was a bit bitter but he said the local children loved them at that stage. Never did see the almond pit or nut but I took his work for it. He broke me off a few pieced of lemon grass and some flowers he wanted me to take home and plant the seeds and think of him. I accepted, we bid our farewells and headed back to Lorraine’s where she had internet, a bit slow but this is island time anyway. You just gave a donation as you left. Fred walked over to the laundry mat while I walked a bit to take some pictures
Before the sun set. He was going to buy a sump pump they had there. Yes, the laundry mat sells things there also. It was closed. Goodness...guess we will just have to wait. We went to Lorraine’s again and they had everyone looking for the laundry mat lady. This is a small town. 1/2 hour later she showed up, Fred bought the pump and we headed back to the dinghy in the dark. We had agreed to play games with Dee and Pete tonight but we had not even eaten, clothes were still not put away and we were tired so on the way back to Casa Mare’ we stopped and chit chatted and agreed to give it up tonight and play tomorrow. We had soup and crackers and coconut bread which Lorraine’s mother made. Bless her heart! $6.00 a loaf! I love these people. They practically become family. I will miss this place. It’s definitely a piece of work in progress. I haven’t seen a house completely built, and other homes were abandoned. Dee told me they never tear a house down if someone passes because it is their belief the souls or spirits still live in them. Plenty of that was evident as you walked the streets. The building process here is somewhat of a lesson on patience. Everything that is brought here is imported. They have to pay import fees on everything here which makes it quite costly to build all at once. The trick is to wait for a storm and the government waives the fees during a certain window, which created an opportunity to save money on their materials. If they have not had a storm in 6 years, the dwelling remains in the same condition as the day they put the tools down. One thing I can say though, nearly every home, no matter what shape it is in, has a really nice front door. I only saw one fence here and that was around the grocery store. Doesn’t seem like there is much crime here is any at all. The school children must wear a white shirt, black tie and pants or skirt. They all seemed happy and very friendly. Very religious here also. It was so acceptable to say have a blessed day. It made me wonder what ever happened to that in the US. This culture is tight!
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