Just Good Enough
My cousin has come into the island as God's remedy for my recent bitterness. Normally I find visitors more than a little tedious but she is exactly what I needed to restore my love for this country. I've been trying to show off as much as I can in the short space of time and I'm allowing myself to share in the fresh eyed experience of BIM. It's wonderful! Everything looks so much more vibrant. Everyone seems so much more friendly. The rain is falling when the sun's not shining and the moon is almost full.
How could I have forgotten how quiet you get entering the grounds of Codrington? The way the place itself creates a sense of reverence? The pride I have for my Alma mater!
How long has it been since I've gone in the sea? Months. And yet it surrounds me. Why don't I go in the sea?
The talent we have in this country!! 2 nights out in a row and I'm watching alternative bands rip it up. But I also pay tribute to the intimacy... they're not just musicians rockin' in a club. I went to school with these guys. I know their parents. I'm not only impressed-I'm honoured.
I laugh when I get lost and the directions make me loster. I smile as my son hunts crab and harvests wilks. I notice the little boy with the sticks and plastic bag kite. I hear the crickets and frogs. I'm glad we don't have self-serve gas stations.
I make my visits to the special places and I'm relieved they're still secluded. I promise myself not to say where they are because they belong to me. And I take stock of the places which cater to the high life, greeting the crowd with their kids and their food and their mass of paraphernalia. They're not intimidated by the yachts- the beach belongs to we.
My cousin says this place has a charm of "just good enough" unlike up north where the poor souls suffer in a world that's "just in case". I laugh at her observation knowing exacly what she means. I have 4 and a half more days of therapy before God returns me to my life. I plan on savouring every moment of my honeymoon in BIM.
posted by BIM @ 10:23 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
Let me the first to tell you that I love this article. It takes me back to my childhood places.
Reading it gave me the welcomed cold-bumps. I felt the love for Barbados in the words. I cannot help but to say how privilege I was to have grown up in Bim. The article also made think about the novel, In the Castle of My Skin in an odd way.
Can I forget the guttaperk, which I hid in the garden on Sundays from my Grandmother? She never knew until a few years ago when I told her my cousin and I used to shoot doves in the church yard.
Can I forget the many downfalls (open box propped up with a stick which has a string attached to it) I set on the Biscuit Factory grounds to catch doves and ground-doves. I felt proud my uncle worked at the Biscuit Factory, and I would walk across the pasture to ask him for broken biscuits. You see, he was my inside source. He died 2 years ago. God rest his soul.
Can I forget kite flying season? I can hear my grandmother telling me to stop all the cussing. Let le tell you, running for a popped kite is liken to a 100 yard dash. Everyone wanted to claim a popped kite.
Can I forget Tamarind Lane in the Garden Land? We played cricket, pitched marbles, played road tennis, and became closed friends under those trees. I still know all these folks well today.
Can I forget dove hunting? We used to hunt as packs, sometimes ten kids strong. The hunt took us to the grounds of The Old Welfare Building in Country Road; to the dippie (canal) behind the Laundry and the Housing Authority Building; to the grounds of the Biscuits Factory; to Weymouth Pasture; to the land behind Lynch School; we would gut our kill in the then woods behind the Laundry in Country Road. Lime and salt would be applied the doves, then they would be roosted along with a breadfruit. And what a time we had.
Can I forget ridding my Chopper bicycle with a host of other kids into the country to brek (break) cane?
Can I forget fishing a t the Graeme Hall Swamp when it was just that, a swamp? We never ate the fish then. But we give the fish to the Chinese kids we use to see there. They ate them.
Can I forget the beach? On Saturday and Sundays the beach was ours. As I got older I used the body surf the waves at Accra Beach. But the beach at Hastings Rock was my hideout. Only folk who live near by knew and appreciated the beauty of this beach. Kids would dive beyond the reef for Conga, Conch, Plate Fish, and Sea Cat.
Can I forget the countless nick names we had for each other? Darn, if I knew half the kids real names. We had nicknames like Gigga, Pa, Rock Iron, The Saint, Sickles, The Prince, Cut Dickey, Senator, Bulla, Teethes, Paderk, Bercou, S hand, and many more. What a time we had back then.
I can go on for days as they would say. Barbados sweet fah days…
It's not as lost as some would have us believe. The childhood my son is having living in the country sprouting from solid country stock is glorious. I hope to never forget the image of my 'Coconut Leader' rousing from bed with the sunrise, a mere four years of age, naked as he was born save for a pair of rubber boots, shagging the bananas with a collins half his size. Some would find me unfit- I wouldn't have him raised any other way.
That is so true. Every year I am home I show my daughter things of my past. I think she enjoys them and finds them interesting. I am always saying how proud I am to be a Bajan. Now, she is saying it as well.
Again, your article was heart felt.
its good to know that some things remain the same in barbados. i completely miss the way things are so much slower than up north
*sigh* I guess being a "tourist" I've always found the beauty in BIM. The very first time I went there (despite the rude customs cussin' mi out) I knew it was one of the places I'd come to consider mine as much as JA is. :)
Umm, loster? LOL
Awww. I have these moments too, when it's like the world tilts a bit and my cynicism and frustration slide away and I love this place so damn much that I want to hug it.
Nix, your article has persuaded me that it's long overdue that I come home to see the fam...
'loster' lol yeh the spirit wanted to cruise with her literary license-
Good to have evoked a little nationalism for a change. And you goat boy COMMON' DOOOWN! (Actually mums was just questioning your next descent this evening).
pics, Bim pics!
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