Vacation Home

So I ended up doing a surprise visit home last week. It was so strange being back; everything from driving fast in TWO lanes of traffic, to stop lights (we have one on the island), to seeing the copious amounts of food selection in grocery stores, to being back in the land of $4 coffees at Starbucks and donuts at Tim Hortons. The biggest difference was the pace of life. Everything there happened so FAST! People drive fast, they talk fast, they eat fast. It’s like we are all in some kind of rush to get to wherever we are going next instead of enjoying the moment. The other thing was that it was all planned out. It seems everyone loves to make plans even if it is for something happening days from then. I guess the island life is wearing off on me! :) Also I FROZE!!! It was FREEZING in Canada! I woke up one morning to snow!...needless to say I was not very impressed..



I was able to surprise my grandmother, good thing we had doctors present! She was very happy to see me and it was good to be able to spend some time with her (going to Cirque du Soleil) and my Opa (working at the ranch with suicide willie…a squirrel). I spent most of the week in appointments and with family and was able to see only a few people. It was still nice to be home and eating wonderful home cooked meals. After I flew to Victoria to see Amy for a day, we spent most of our time sitting on a set of steps by the ocean. It was incredible to see her after over a year and realize that so very much has changed in my life, in me, but it has not changed us. I then took a ferry to Seattle to see Catherine, we found a troll under a bridge (it’s the one from the movie “Ten Things I Hate About You”). Then a flight to San Francisco, San Francisco to New York, ten hour layover in the airport in which I made friends with the security guard, then finally back to my island!

It was strange to be away but also strange coming back, it made me realize, more then anything, that I am meant to be here. Kelley picked me up from the airport and we screamed and bounced around when we saw each other. Everyone was happy to have me back and I realize how much of a life and community I have created for myself here.

Now that I am back Kelley and her sister and I have moved in to a new house together. It is back in Simpsons Bay and half a block from the beach. We live in a three bedroom on the third and final floor of a beautiful old building. It’s got distinct “island style” and I love it! We have a balcony, full kitchen (with a gas burning stover which means we will be able to still cook when its hurricaning), and two bathrooms. The neighbourhood is not wonderful but it is more that it is just poor then anything else. We joke that we wont ever get into trouble because this is where all the gangsters grandmothers live. I am happy to be back!

Routine Island Dream

I have fallen in to a new group of friends and a somewhat normal routine. I am close friends with Kelley Mae. She works at Dive Safaris, which is our main competitor so, its pretty funny. We will be out after work, both with out work shirts on, and people give us the strangest looks. We do crazy things and have a lot of fun together. Alex is a carpenter for the ships but an all around handyman kinda guy. He is an incredibly talented musician when it comes to just about any instrument. Dominique works with the beach horse riding for the tourists in Cay Bay and her and Alex have a parrot named DC who I love. Jammie is another friend and he works for Alex. Kelley’s little sister, Karie, has recently come to the island as well so its out little group that travels around together. It’s pretty funny doing introductions now “Hi I’m Cayley, this is Kelley and this is Karie. Now repeat that ten times fast!”


Our group is pretty active. We sea kayak a couple evenings a week and adventure to the French side to go surfing most Sundays. We hang out on the beach by LaBamba most nights and have a big bonfire and bring out the guitars and jembay drum. DC, the parrot, will sit on our shoulders as Dom spins her fire balls to the beat of whatever we happen to be playing. We've often had tourists come walking by and ask to take our picture or be in a picture with us...I guess we look like a bunch of island rug rats! :) The ocean tickles our toes as the moon rises and I often find myself taking deep breaths and feeling how happy I am to be living this life.

I've Been Adopted

06:50- hear constant mewing from under the equipment container...can't see anything.

07:40- see a small blur run out, across the sand, and into some shrubs.

10:30- Lu tells me she has called animal control for a kitten and that I should try and catch it.

11:15- catch kitten who turns around and bites me(damn kitten teeth are sharp!!), runs away.

13:00- catch kitten for the second time, put her in a box with some water.

13:01- decide she shouldn't have to stay in the box so long so take her out and discover she is the thinest, mangiest, dirtiest
kitten I have ever seen, and trust me, I've seen some bad ones.

14:15- decide I can no longer take the smell. Find some baby shampoo (which we use for mask defog) and give her a bath.
The entire time all I get is constant purring.

14:32- realize she's not the only one who got bitten today.

16:02- tell Lu to call the Animal Welfare people off, I will take her home for the night.

17:20- get off work and bring the kitten out to my car...she tries to climb up in to the electrical wiring.

17:23- get kitten out from a tangle of electrical wires and put her in my backpack to keep her contained.

17:25- realize I need groceries. Think "here goes nothing" and pull into the store, put my backpack on and start my shopping.


17:40- grocery attendant asks if I have a cat in my backpack, "uhhhh....no?" "then why is it moving and purring?" "uhhhhh...okay-i-just-found-this-kitten-and-dont-want-her-to-be-put-down-so-im-taking-her-home-for-the-night-but-cant-leave-her-in-my-car (said all in a rush)" "oh. do you want a bag of cat food?" "yes please"

18:08- get home. release "cat from the bag"

19:00- fall in love.




Now what?

Lion Hunting

Last week we received news that there had been two seperate sightings of Lion Fish (an invasive species that consumes most fish and has no natural predators here), one on the French side of the island and one on our side. All the dive shops had been asked to be on the lookout and capture it if possible. The French side had caught theirs within 24 hours and, not to be outdone, the Ducth side put together a team to try and capture the Lion Fish.

I ended up diving with one of the Marine Protection Officer's today. Tadzio and I found the fish, later names Marten, and, after fourty-seven long miutes of an aggressive hunt, finally managed to capture it. Lion Fish have venom in their spines that is so poisonous it feels worse then being shot (I was told this AFTER I helped catch it).

We are on a small island and this is big news for us, Lion Fish are a huge threat to our ecosystem here. As a result Tadzio had an article put in the local papers and he mentioned me, kinda cool! If you would like to read the article the link is

http://www.sxmislandtime.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11298:nature-foundation-staff-capture-venomous-lionfish-will-be-holding-an-information-session-on-wednesday&catid=31:general&Itemid=76

This article appeared on page four of The Daily Herold and page three of The Times...can you tell it's a small island?

Reality

Now that I am finally settling down I have had a bit more time to reflect on my travels and experiences. I recently started reading my journal from my time in Africa and I found some things that I would like to share. Part of the following is an excerpt from it...

The beginning…Africa. I said in my other blog post that the only way to describe Africa is “real.” I stand by that now more then ever. I had to learn to steel my heart. It sounds harsh but looking back if I hadn’t, everything I played witness to would have broken me. Take for example my daily drive. Imagine a family (mother, grandmother, and four children from ages 2-12) living in what I can’t even call a hut. Their ‘home’ consisted of a rotting kitchen table flopped on its side, a piece of sheet metal as a roof, torn garbage bags as one of the three walls, and an old car door as the last wall. They have to enter on all fours and only the youngest can stand. Six people sleep like this every night, through winters bitter cold and summers overwhelming heat. This is home to them.

Now imagine, if you can, tens of thousands of these homes all crammed together, and on top of each other sometimes, in what is called a Township. There are a few proper buildings scattered in no particular order; some are schools, some are gas stations, others are bars. There are lots of semi truck trailers here as they serve well for grocery stores, barber shops, and mechanics. Some homes are better off but they rarely have proper roofs…it’s usually scrap metal. There are beggars begging their beggar neighbors, children playing on the street amide condoms and needles, thieves stealing from each other, everyone trying to make some kind of living. There are no white people here. This is the Africa we don’t see.

The orphanage that I worked in was smack in the middle of Khalitshya. Any time we had to go for groceries, pick up donations, go out for a night…literally anything, we had to drive through this. Looking out at my surroundings felt surreal; how can so many people, all who have families and life stories, live like this every day.

It made me reflect on my life at home. It is something that I have thought about a lot, trust me, and I have come to the conclusion that it's not how much we do or do not have, what experiences we have, or the people in our lives…it is our perception and attitude towards those things, whether or not we appreciate them, that create our realities.

About the only way I can describe my experience in Africa is to tell you that I had a shift in reality.

Laundry

There are quite a few things that change when you travel but there will always be those essential tasks that need to be done. Laundry has become something that I have to plan out, it is no longer the easy walk downstairs to get it done. Since leaving home I have had quite a few "laundry experiences"...who knew getting clean clothes could be such an adventure!

While staying at the orphanage we would have to go down to the baby house and guard our clothes while they washed because otherwise the children would steal them. We would then have to either hang them outside (this time keeping an even closer watch) or hang them in our room.

On the ship we usually did laundry on passage. We would often end up wearing the same thing for days at a time (I know that sounds gross but for those of you who have lived on a ship you will understand) so there wouldnt be too much to do at one time. First, we would take one of the buckets and fill it halfway with fresh water and add soap. We washed our clothes in that, then used the deck as a washboard, then soap again before rinsing in another bucket. Leaving our clothing to hang on the life lines was always a bit risky with the wind...there were more then a few t-shirts and other articles of clothing that were lost to the ocean.

While we were in port we could always try and find a laundry place but this also was at our clothings risk. Often times we would not be allowed to do it ourselves so we would have to drop it at a laundry place and pray that it was done in time for when we left (the ship would not wait for laundry to come back!). One of my favorites was when we were in Forteleza, Brazil. Cat and I decided we were going to do laundry so we got in a cab and he began driving. Turns out our cabbie was a typical Brazilain (no English whatsoever and very little Spanish) so we basically played this giant game of miming things out to him. We would take out an atricle of clothing and pinch our noses and then pretend to start washing it. He finally understood and about twenty minutes later we pulled up to a laundry mat. The next obsticle was trying to figure out how much we pay, how long it would take etc. Luckily there was a man with a bit of English so between us we managed to figure it all out. Once we had finished the washing we figured we might as well get them dried as. We placed our clothing into the dryer and the lady walks up with a lighter and lights something on fire in the machine, which started roaring to life. I was convinced I would never get my clothes back in one piece but turns out the fire also had incense so it was one of our best laundry experiences! One of our worst was in Antigua when we took our laundry to a private home to have it done and picked it up the next day to find all of our clothes tinted blue.

Since being on St. Maarten I have taken to doing laundry in a different way. I have discovered something very important...if you act like you are supposed to be somewhere, usually, no one will question you. I have taken to walking into one of the fancier hotels in Simpsons Bay, the Royal Palm Beach Resort, putting my laundry in the wash and going for a swim in their pool. After about thirty minutes I borrow one of their towels and make my way back to put the wash in to the dryer. Next I go lay out in the sun for a bit...one day I even got a free drink! The only problem to all of this was on my first time I was asked by a security guard which room I was staying in. I said 316...turns out they have four digit room numbers so I was kicked out. So since then I have had to be careful not to go when he is on shift. I have been asked twice more and my answer has been "room 8010" followed by a big smile. After collecting my laundry (which for wash and dry I pay $4 for compared to the $12 it costs anywhere else) I make my way out the back entrance and walk home.

Who knew I could write a full blog entry on doing laundry!

Things I Have Learned

If you get that creepy crawly feeling like you have something on your arm…you probably do.
If you are craving a specific food…there’s a guarantee it will be out of stock.
If you are considering making a sandcastle out of the sand in your shower…you should know there is enough.
If you think you will ever get the saltwater taste off your lips or out of the back of your throat…wrong.
If you think you can walk down the street without getting cat called…also wrong.
If you decide after six weeks that you would like a proper drinking glass…don’t buy the tall one because you will most likely end up smashing it against the open cupboard door.
If you are attempting to light the gas stove hot plate “thing” to make food…make sure you run water over your hand first otherwise it’s a burn to your thumb…every time.
If you think you finally have the mosquito net completely patched up…look again, you missed a spot.
If you forget about your midmorning reapplication of sunscreen…you will look like Rudolph for the next two days.
If you can’t hear your own thoughts because your ears are ringing too badly…you were probably at a Brazilian World Cup match.
If you get kicked out of the fancy hotel for doing your laundry there…it’s probably better to leave off mentioning they have too much chlorine in their pool and the free drinks have too much ice.
If you decide to buy a coconut…it’s a good idea NOT to hold it above the toenail that got shattered by a scuba tank…it’s going to hurt a lot (!!!!!!!) when you drop it.
If you get rid of one spider…five more arrive, let them be.
If you find a giant roach, the biggest one you’ve seen since living here…it’s probably going to be sitting on your can of Raid.
If you want to go out but it’s pouring with rain…wait ten minutes and it will have stopped….but make sure the place you are walking to is within a ten minute walk otherwise you will be jumping into random stores for another ten minutes.
If you are trying to buy street mangos…don’t…three out of seven times they will have some sort of bug (including fire ants) in them that will take you forever to get out of your flat.
If you smile first…locals will always smile back.
If you are new in town…make friends with the owner of your favorite bar…he might happen to own half the buildings in town and seriously offer to rough anyone up who gives you a hard time.
If your fan breaks…it will be on the hottest day…but don’t worry, it will be fixed by the time it starts to rain and cool off.
If you decide to buy a plant…keep it outside.
If you lose your cat…two more will move in…now you have three.
If you listen…you will learn.
If you are at the point where even the water bucket is feeling heavy… that means it’s Saturday..
If you are assisting with a discover scuba class…try not to laugh when the lady asks if sharks can climb on boats, that’s rude.
If you weren’t allowed to dive with your favorite co-worker, Astrid, by the end…that’s because all you did underwater was crack up when you were supposed to be showing customers stuff.
If you don’t watch where you’re walking when you get home...you will get attacked by the #@$%ing(!!!!) chicken that has a life goal of clawing and pecking you every chance it gets.
If you are defending your bikes greatness to somebody…don’t mention that the soles of your flipflops are almost gone from lack of brakes.
If you sweat soaked, waterlogged, and covered in sand…it’s 07:30.
If you need to go to the doctor…don’t bother, you probably know just as much as he does.
If you quote yourself as “living the dream” when you have a full set of scuba gear on while are carrying two more tanks during the hottest part of the day and are seven hours in to a thirteen hour work day…you are going to get some odd looks. ☺