percent. Those condos start at over 3M inBarbadosdollars, which is 1.5M US. We get a
table and order the refreshing Banks beer. The Bajans and her sister order the beef stew
while we each have the pricier local flying fish, a sandwich for me, and the salad for her,
with the flying fish on top. The stew dish is superior and I would have it on my last night.
By8pm, unlikeLong Island, there is no light in the sky, but we stay, we laugh, we talk,
we drink the10 ozbaby Banks.
In the morning we walked north down the beach for a swim, going past the table where
fishermen cut up the catch and the old man tells me tuna run about a mile off shore. He
is not as friendly as those hawking watercraft. We pass the spot where the trailers come
to deposit boats to rent. On the beach is a small14 footHobie cat that we would later see
demasted about a half mile out and get rescued by one of the big catamarans that work
the area, taking tourists to the turtles, taking them for a sail. We would start each day this
way after a cup of coffee, the walk to this place, a long luxurious swim. The four of us
would recant what had happened the night before, the people we met like Sean, friendly
with his dreads at the waterfront bar. He told us about a local place called The Golden
Anchor, and later while walking there I see a tall fellow with a limp catching up to us and
for a moment I am concerned. “What a coincidence” said Sean as he caught up to us and
I chastised myself for my concern but I did not know he was that tall, or that he limped
from an accident, we had been sitting down when we met hours before.
The last day we had a fine lunch at the water’s edge, just the two of us. That night the
steel band played at the waterside place and I had the beef stew. We talked about the
highlights of the our visit, remembering sheep that looked like goats, the warmth of the
place and it’s people, the way the traffic moved like the pulsing bloodstream of a small
cellular organism,\the monkeys we saw by the side of the road, the trip to Oistins for the
fish fry where over 1000 people milled about, ate all kinds of fresh fish, listened to music,
drank Banks. For her a highlight was visiting a former prosperous plantation hacked out
of the rough country nearly 400 years ago, now a landmark, where sugar cane was grown
and Mahogany trees first imported, where the English extracted wealth from the new
world, made rum that remains a main export today. The former manor lords and
overseers had a very different life than those that toiled after a hellish trip in chains, or
maybe even worse, getting born into slavery. The trade winds served a different purpose
centuries ago, and this was a delicate subject that we avoided with the locals we met.
Rain was threatening as the plane went west over the spine ofLong Island, with golf
courses and highways below. We landed, cleared customs easily, got home by10pmand
found a poltergeist scene. Things knocked over, a painting hanging askew. Something
was in the house and it took some looking to find the exit hole in a screen upstairs, big
enough for a bird or a squirrel, that likely came down the chimney.
I have good news and bad news, what do you want asked my assistant on Tuesday
morning when I went into the office without the walk and swim, but with two strong cups
of coffee. Good news was that a loan had been approved, great! Bad news was the person
who hired me over 10 years ago, formerly my direct report before he was promoted to
