8/25/02

I just got back from a weekend in the south of the island, in Micoud. My host family has a weekend house there (think up north). Most of Monique’s family is there too, and I met all of them. It was neat because the whole neighborhood was family. The old family house is at the top of the street, a brother of Monique’s and his son live across from each other. Three sisters and Monique have houses down the street.

This weekend was a special occasion. It was a triple going-away party. Two of Monique’s sister’s children left tonight for England for school, and another of their cousins left for a five-year tour with the British military. There was a huge party last night. We got there on Friday night and two of the sisters had filled a tub with skinned chicken for a barbecue. The next day, they made 3 9x12 pans of macaroni and cheese and a 5-gallon pot of green banana and saltfish salad.

Saturday morning, Monique and I got up early and went to Vieux Fort, the second largest city. We walked around and went to a few stores, and also looked at some of the produce vendors. Vieux Fort was really interesting. It’s totally flat and right at sea level, unlike Castries. Also, a significant portion of the population is East Indian. I could see that in the faces of some of Monique’s family. Later in the day, Monique’s brother, Henry was taking his family to the beach so I went along. The family trees here are really insane and complicated. I didn’t know who everyone was at the beach with us, but they were all related and live in the neighborhood. It was really windy there, so not very hot, and I didn’t swim very much. Near the beach in kind of an orchard of sea grape trees, we had a picnic with more chicken and mac and cheese, two kinds of juice and about seventy five coconuts. I drank three coconuts-worth of water and ate jelly in one. I think the wind and temperature made the sun deceptive because I ended up really burned on my back. It livened up my tan.

We got back from the beach at about 5, and I thought we’d be eating before very long. By about 9 I was really curious, and they said that typically at a party people don’t eat until midnight or so. After trooping around Vieux Fort and being at the beach all day, I crashed before the actual eating happened. This is what there was to eat: chicken parts soup, fishcakes, pastries with cheese or tuna spread, baked chicken, macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and banana and saltfish salad. There was also a full bar, including rum and peanut punches.

This morning there were leftovers to eat and a lot of new stuff too. New fishcakes, and deep fried WHOLE fish, including the eyeballs. I had a hard time hanging around while that was going on. Not much else happened during the day. I read the book that Kristy gave me, The Last Time They Met. It was really good and I finished it in just the two days.

Tomorrow I’d need to get my bank visit taken care of. Also I’d like to go up to Babonneau and pick up my stuff, and I had made beach plans with Deb, Lauren and Margaret. I’m hoping to get it all taken care of, but the beach might be out. My sunburn could use some rest anyways.