SJ log for Feb 29 - "Sports" contest and the return of our stove

Friday, February 29, 2008

Today was a short day of school at the Sunshine School. On Fridays school ends at 2pm anyway, and today we were dismissing even earlier because the students were going to watch a sports event for one of the local public schools at the large stadium up the hill.

After school I ran a few errands, including grabbing a “take away” lunch at the Salty Dog café where I ran into my friend Lisa. We chatted while I waited for my order, and I noticed a television in the corner of the restaurant tuned to CNN. This was the first television I’d seen while in SVG, which means it was also the first TV I’d seen in almost a month. Some people who can afford it here have televisions in their home, but you simply don’t see them in hotel lobbies (most hotels are pretty small) or in stores the way you do in the US, and somehow it just looked out of place to me. It was strange to see it and I realized I hadn’t missed seeing all that “input” from television in the slightest.

When my lunch was ready I said goodbye to Lisa and walked back to the other side of town and head edup the hill past the hospital and police station to the large playing stadium across from the high school, where I could already hear the crowd cheering long before I reached the stadium. When I arrived the events were already well under way, and the local school was competing in teamed races on a large dirt field. The stands were filled with parents and siblings and other students who were watching the games below, and when I was looking for a place to sit I ran into my friend Annette who worked at the school which was competing. She and the ladies she was sitting with were all wearing bright yellow shirts, and she explained that all the students competing were from their school. The students had been divided into teams or “houses” designated by the color of their shirts (yellow, red, green).

The event seemed to be a tag team relay type of event, where one team member ran around the dirt field and then passed a baton to the next runner and so on. The kids were all running barefoot on the dirt track, and I found it refreshing to see kids that can participate in sports without fancy Nike tennis shoes or expensive coaches. What a concept. The crowd was very supportive, and the cheering when there was a close race was awesome – with students and parents alike standing and jumping up and down. It was great to see that kind of engagement in a good spirited kind of way. In the end the green team won with more than 300 points, followed by yellow and then red.

Afterward I slowly made my way out of the stands along with the rest of the crowd. It was another warm and humid day and hurrying just makes it worse – I’m finally starting to understand that. After walking down the hill back into town I stopped at a local market to buy a large bag of ice for SJ’s fridge, and then I quickly carried it to my dinghy and motored back to SJ, racing against the sun to avoid too much melt.

Once I arrived at SJ, transferring the heavy and awkward bag of slippery ice was tough because the wind was howling again and creating swells that rocked the boat up and down and made landing the dinghy and holding on to it to unload treacherous and difficult. I pulled away once to wait out an especially strong gust and the resulting waves, and then took my time and tried again. It took my full concentration and strength, along with a death grip on the ladder holding me to the boat – to unload my computer bag, sailing bag and ice onto the swim platform on the stern, and then I carefully stepped up onto the platform, bringing the chain to lock the dinghy aboard with me.

After starting the engine to charge the fridge as I did every afternoon, I decided to go for a short swim to cool off and get some exercise. However with the wind howling the water was choppy and it made swimming difficult, and the current moving out of the harbor was so strong that it was difficult to make any forward headway without my swim fins (I had taken only my snorkel equipment today). Due to the strong wind and current I decided it was best to stay near the boat today, so I swam over the anchor again to see if it still looked well hooked. It was a pretty tiring swim, especially with the chop out there smacking me in the face, but it seemed a pretty good workout.

Robin (“Fixman”) arrived later in the day to return and re-install our stove in the galley. He tested the stove and both burners to be sure everything was working okay before he left. I was very happy to have cooking abilities again, and to celebrate I boiled some eggs and fried some locally grown okra rolled in cornbread for dinner (weird combination I know, but that is what sounded good to me). I took the rest of the night off to read and relax and just enjoy the quiet evening.