Topic: The Caribbean
Liming is Caribbean slang for laying around doing nothing. It's one of my specialty subjects, so when my cousin needed a liming expert to accompany him to the caribbean how could I refuse. He was going there to run a Sustainable Farming Workshop. Me, it's winter in Melbourne, it has to be warmer than here. Quick trip to the travel agent, Thommo the global chef needs a crash pad for a couple of weeks, that's the dog sitter taken care of. I'm out'a here.
Saint Kitts and Nevis is only slightly further away from Australia than the moon, and the flight takes a similar amount of time. We have an overnight break in LA, then somehow mysteriously after arriving together at LAX in the same car, my companions missed their flight. I arrive in St Kitts three hours late because my flight was delayed in Miami, with no idea of what's happening. The others have all the arrangements, I'm just along for the ride. I rock up at their villa in a taxi, but their names aren't on the guest list. Well off to a hotel. Only problem, the plane was late. apparently the plane is never late here because all the staff knock off at 11PM. We try 3 different hotels before I get to the Marriott Hotel Casino. The should have we never close out the front. For the bargain price of $250 USD I get a room. The bar is even open so I get a beer and a feed too. The next day, my companions are still on route so I check out the pool,the bar, the girls around the pool, and the beach. I could get used to this. Later on that day the group is finally all in one place.
They have a villa that overlooks the Strip, a group of beach bars that provides night life for the island.The next couple of days vanish in a blur of activity. Well for the conference goers at least, you can read about it here if you really want to. I spend my days reading, liming, and enjoying the full cooked breakfast at the B n B I have moved into. Nights involve a swim and a bit of rum therapy on the Strip, generally followed buy a home cooked meal at the villa. One night our Saint Kitts local cooks us a traditional feed of chicken, beans, rice, slaw and mac. My cuz does some interesting concoctions mostly involving the load of eggplant that he scored from a farmer on his first day here. I'm thepâtissier, with staples like chocolate self saucing pudding, peach crumble, and muffins. I also provide technical support to the conference boffins showing them how to use complicated technical equipment like the oven, dryer, dishwasher ect. This generally involves finding the "on" button and making sure the door is closed.
When the guys are doing field trips I accompany them. We visit farms, and forest to check out some of the local land problems. Pretty much everything here is imported, except for some local veggies There are as many monkeys here as there are people, and the little buggers eat everything. Electric fences and dogs are deployed to try and keep them away from crops. My seventy year old landlady throws rocks at them to stop them eating her flowers. Nothing besides the rocks seems to be totally effective. The country has two main islands which run fairly independently from each other. One day we catch the ferry across to Nevis, the smaller of the two. The whole country was a giant sugar mill until 2005 when years of losses finally forced the industry to close. Their now pinning their hopes on tourism. The Chinese are building two huge new resort hotels here, and cruise ships bring in thousands of visitors on day trips. They love the monkeys.
Our last night is a bang up conference dinner in a local restaurant overlooking Basseterre harbor. I have the conch chowder, sea bass, and key lime pie. The Australian government has sponsored part of the event, and the ambassador has brought a pile of Aussie wine for promotional purposes. I finally feel like I'm getting some of those tax dollars back. Everyone seems happy with what they have achieved. My work here is done.
Australian Land Care International Is a tax deductible charity run by volunteers. You can check out their work, and maybe even give them some cash at https://alci.com.au/ if you like. Otherwise click the picabove for some more photos of the trip.
Posted by bondrj
at 12:59 AM NZT
Updated: Wednesday, 16 February 2022 6:12 PM EADT
