A Moment

We are now in Bequia, a small, relatively unknown island in the Caribbean. It is beautiful here! We got the opportunity to go to a turtle sanctuary which was amazing! It was started by a man who hunted turtles "back in the day" but then realized how endangered they are. He goes out and collects baby turtles as they are hatch and then takes them, raises them, and then releases them back in to the wild so they have a much better chance of survival. It was pretty amazing to see.

They had rain for the first time in four months while we were there. When it started I had just finished lunch with Cat and Spike and they were on their way back to the ship to start making dinner. I was at the end of a small peir, eating ice cream and sitting with my feet in the water. The sun went behind the clouds and suddenly the sky opened up. I barely had time to slip on a shirt over my white tank top before I was completely soaked. It was a warm rain and it felt like I was being washed clean. It was a truly incredible moment. It took a women in a taxi boat driving by calling me crazy to finally stand up and walked back in to town. The streets were empty save for one fruit stand from which I bought a fresh mango. Now for everyone who knows me…think of a typical Cayley moment…it went something like this: jean shorts, blue, slightly oversized long sleeve, clothing and hair soaked all the way through, bare feet, flip flops in hand, African bag over one shoulder, mango juice dripping all over my free hand, walking in the rain on a dirt road beside the ocean on an island in the Caribbean. Yes, that actually happened =)


Later that day I had another moment. I got my hair braided (in the hopes of making dreds…don’t worry, it didn’t work out) and the lady who was braiding my hair was telling me all about her life on the island and I asked her if her family was with her and she said yes except that her sister had died the previous day. We talked about love and loss for over an hour. I don’t even know her name. It was remarkable how two people who had never met before, and most likely will never meet again, were able to have such an intense conversation. After she was done I paid her (less then $25 US for my whole head!!), gave her a hug, wished her luck, and we walked out of each others lives.