Mates Log 1.24.09

We will mark last night on our calendar as a great night. We were invited to dinner and a shower. Who could ask for more! Victor, his wife Dina and their two children Halee and Erin were amazing. Victor does the supply ordering for the boatyard here in Marsh Harbour, so we have visited with him just a little in the office and maybe a minute or two while we are working on the boat.

Victor is a nice guy from Nassau who moved here with his family a few years ago to get out of the city and improve their quality of life. His wife Dina is a black Bahamian from the same area while he is a white Bahamian. They call their children “bright”, not referring to their intelligence, which of course they are quite smart, but due to their skin color. Most of the Bahamas are open to interracial marriages, although a few of the outer Cays are not. Dina was telling me that her family is so proud to have bright grandchildren and that in time they will become their own race according to “They” who determine race. This must be the “Race Committee” who sets these standards and preside “Somewhere”.

I enjoyed listening to Dina tell stories about her family, I felt taken back into a time where what family you came from was important and gave you admittance into someone else’s family. Some of it sounded like “Alabama” since no one strays too far from home, not that there is any practical way to leave or go anywhere else for that matter, so cousins marry cousins and no one thinks twice about it… and everyone is related!

Dina then sent me to the bathroom for what she called a tubby, which is a good soak in the bathtub. It was heaven, I love a good soak on a cold night and lately I had been dreaming about the long lost hot bubble baths that I once enjoyed as a landlubber but gave up for this life of…. Oh yeah…adventure. I felt a little awkward not having to rush, pump and hide (standard operating procedures on the deck of SongBird) but I managed to do my best at relaxing. I even attempted to put some makeup on, it had been so long that I forget the order of what goes on when and where so had one eye that was a little worse for the wear, regardless I did look and feel better!

We enjoyed grilled Bull Fish, which is a local white mild fish, conch fritters with spicy dip, a salad and the tiniest fresh corn on the cob I have ever seen, but so sweet! This family was just a joy to us, to offer us showers, food, and friendship was beyond our ability to express our true feelings of thanks.

We miss our friends, we can’t just call someone up and say hey, let’s get together or what are you doing, or anything else for that matter. We rely on the people around us to be friendly and open to strangers. This has given us a broader perspective of the big picture when it comes to strangers in a strange land. I love living free to invite anyone over at anytime… not the people you know but the ones you don’t. I love the freedom to give someone a bit of food just because they are working near your boat and look like they could use a hand of kindness. The people who offer us a ride, just because we are walking down the road and look like we need a ride.  The stranger who invites us to come to dinner and use their shower just because we need one, the people who offer the shower on their boat for our use just because they have one and we don’t... these are the acts of kindness that cannot go unaccounted for. We have to return the kindness, we are responsible to return the acts of generosity and we become driven to do the same for others. We may say we are strangers in a strange land but we aren’t, not really. We’re from the family of humanity, born on the same planet, breathing the same air, passing the same unfamiliar person who wants a friend and needs to be loved. Does our perspective grow small the longer we live in the familiar, the unchallenged, the unbothered, and the unthreatened? Maybe, mine did. So now living in the unfamiliar, full of challenges I am gaining a new perspective, or more accurately remembering an old perspective… hold your hands palms up, then you will be open to give and receive at all times.

Well, enough of that, I do really wish I was a wordsmith, had clear thoughts, could keep things in their right tense, be eloquent and well… make sense, then I think I would enjoy writing more and you dear friends would enjoy reading this blog much more betterer!