January 9, 2012

Monday, January 9, 2012

What a glorious day!   Georgetown adult daycare is pretty well organized.  In the morning at 8:00 they have announcements of the days events, people announcing their services, the weather, items people need to get rid of, services people are looking for help with, announcements of new boats arriving since yesterday morning and boats departing today. I have not a clue who heads this up, probably a designated person for the week or month but they have it down pat.  I don’t think anyone lives here permanently.  I’ll learn more as the days go by.  They even have an outdoor church service here on Sundays.  Come as you are, sit on benches and praise the Lord!  I love it!  This reminds me of my childhood days at a campground except your domain is on a boat, not a tent or camper.  There are children here, I can hear them on the radio and occasionally laughter from ashore.  I hear there are eight kids here, the rest of us are surrogate grandparents.  It’s really safe here for the kids!  I wish my grandson Zack was here.  I know he would love this trip.  Hopefully someday God will open up the opportunity for him to do this also.  Until then, I embrace him in my heart.  Fred and I went to town and I had heard of a bridge connecting Georgetown to Lake Victoria and never thought another thing about it...until today.  Now I have seen the smallest bridge in the world that sailboats can go through in Bermuda.  I believe it is less than 10” wide, maybe 12” but it’s small enough to get a mast through if one precisely navigates their sailboat through it.  The bridge here is probably less than 15’ wide and only dinghy’s can get through it.  It was pretty interesting.  The dinghy dock is on the other side giving access to all the shops and stores there.  Our first stop was a hardware store called ‘Top to Bottom’.  They had everything you would need except a fishing planer, a funnel and a caulking gun.  Interesting store.  I really think they don’t have room to display one more thing in there.  Walked to the bank then had lunch.  I found that most menus are pretty much the same through these islands.  Peas and rice, conch fritters or conk sandwiches, macaroni and cheese and chicken, mostly B-B-Q’d.  My friends would love to take me to these places since I have such a hard time choosing off a menu and this is pretty much it for these islands.  Pigeon peas seems to be a staple around here.  The cost…$11.00 a plate for the BBQ chicken.  ($12.00 for conch) People, mostly locals were lined up fore that.  Mercy, that’s a nice meal back home for that price.  I think Golden Corral is less than that.  I watch these people live their lives in a normal fashion and go on like $11 or $12.00 is nothing to spend for lunch.  I saw people running around in cars, a few worked in the stores, most sat and chatted on their porches or in the streets.  What in the world do these people do?  So I asked.  I had a conversation with the lady who seemed to run the island grocery store here and she said it all depends on how much experience one would have.  Most of the time, people get $10.00 an hour.  I personally thought they would get at least 20.00 since an economy box of cheese-its is 17.00 here.  Maybe they don’t have mortgage payments, or maybe water and electric is free, I am not sure.  They have cars.  I am just curious how they budget their money here and for what.  It’s just that food is a necessity and it is so expensive.  Even with the prices at home, I only eat what is on sale for the week.  Most of my freezer items have orange sale stickers on them.  I heard that once the children get out of school, they leave here for Nassau and beyond.  I didn’t see many children here but I did see a play ground.  The basketball court had one basket hoop, the other was broken off.  There were bleachers to watch the game which would be fun to do.  There were two sets of swings, 3 out of perhaps 10 swings worked, the rest were suspended by one chain because the other rusted through.  My head was already spinning.  I wondered how much some eye bolts would cost to fix them.  My heart is telling me to look into that.  Maybe they don’t have the parts here on the island...maybe there are no kids here at all, it just makes me sad.  I need to pray about this one.  Speaking of, Mary and Roy from “Gideon” came by this afternoon and Mary told me about a ladies bible study they are having tomorrow at 12:30.  I am excited about that and plan to go.  Dee came by and the two of us dinked over to the Volleyball beach to check it out.  I met two ladies who were weaving, which is something I would love to learn.  One of the ladies, Sandy, knows Fred who was back at the boat napping.  Guess this is a small world or islands at the least.  I am anxious to get in the dinghy and head for the islands and explore.  I can’t say much about Georgetown, it’s a party beach.  I don’t drink but they do have activities like basket weaving, conch horn making, people playing the guitar, volleyball, and I am sure much more.  I guess this is the last stop that has things to offer until we get to Long Island and I am not sure they have this much either.  I am going to start making my own bread.  Bread ranges from $4.00 to $6.00 a loaf in these islands.  Guess I’ll break down and get a bread pan or something to make it in.  My prize catch today was a piece of pink Plumeria a lady gave me.  She was sitting in her living room, door wide open and I started talking to her and asked if she would mind sharing a piece of it.  She told me to help myself.  I think I have my potting situation figured out.  There are 4 cup holders at the helm over the table and a solo cup fits nicely in them.  Punch a few holes in the bottom and walla...flower pots.  ‘Top to Bottom’ hardware store didn’t have flower pots in their garden section either.  Fred is such a sport and he keeps calling them weeds.  I continue to correct him!  I bought myself a book today, “Winds from the Carolinas” by Robert Wilder.  It’s about English loyalist of the British Crown family from the plantations of Carolina, Virginia and Georgia who came to the Bahamas because they wanted nothing to do with the American Revolution and it’s theory of democracy.  It’s pretty dead on with the history of these islands.  Tonight is a reading night.  I want to thank God for allowing me to see this way of life.  I love these native people and their kindness.