We started our week with a road trip to the far west end of the island and it is callled West End. Not too complicated this place we are living in. We stopped along the way at a number of beaches that you don't see on travel brochures. The ugly ones, covered in ugly smelly corral. We did manage to pick up a few conch shells which are truly beautiful. West End is a sleeply little fishing community. It was once a thriving place for fishing and tourism. Feeling so smug and smart that we had found 5 conchs I was amazed to see these huge piles of conch in many places in West End. This sea creature is so abundant that the disposal of shells is actually a problem. Mind you, I have seen some for sale for $10 each in stores. Love that entreprenurial spirit!!!! We came across the actual dump for conchs and really wanted to take some pics but the smell caused me to reverse the car out of there in a cloud of dust!!!
Another place we visited this week was the Rand Nature Centre. There were some great displays of local birds, shells and especially of interest to me, old locally made baskets. There was a trail to walk through with trees, orchids and shrubs marked. This turtle pond above was well stocked with little fish and turtles. We din't see any turtles eating fish but we did see one large turtle trying to eat one little turtle!!!
On Saturday morning we had the great pleasure of meeting our "Ambassador" Jerrisma. She is a volunteer with the Department of Tourism in their People to People program. She has now adopted us and will show us the island from a non-touristy perspective. Jerrisma makes wonderful straw bags and because I am artsy crafty too our first outing was to Port Lucaya to see articles that have been made here on Grand Bahama. She knew many of the vendors and was great as explaining how things were made and where. The building above shows one of the many pastel colours that are frequently used on the exterior and interior of buildings here. Very tranquil.
You can see Jerrisma here in the background. She had asked this young fellow to crack a conch for us to show us how it is done. OMG what an ugly piece of flesh that is!!!!!! I can't believe it is an island staple!!! You acutally don't eat the nasty black parts, just the orangey white part. It could be used in tire manufacturing but they cut it up real small and make everything else you can think out of it to eat. I mentioned last week - conch fritters, chowder, steamed blah, blah, blah. I've had my fill already and it only took about a week for that feeling to come over me. You are left with this gorgeous shell which can be crafted into bowls, spoons, jewelry. Love the colour!!
It has been so wonderful to have Judy and Anthony here to help us find stuff we need and to show us around to the places we need to see. We still haven't seen them all of course but we are making our way through the list. Judy has been so generous sharing her friends with me and above is a truly remarkable woman whom I have had the please to meet and spend time with. This is Doris Hamilton. Miss Hamilton teaches at the Beacon School for disabled children by day but by night she wears a completely different hat!!! She spends two and a half months every summer studying batick print making in Africa. She batiks but not just your regular old tree or fish. All of her designs have meanings. Every symbol she uses has a meaning. She has a large chart with them all on it which in my dreams, I would choose say two symbols, print my own cloth and then make my own shirt out of it!!!On Saturday I went to "help" but there were so many other women present and I knew that this material was being made for a customer that I was intimidated to try. She makes her blocks out of foam, dips them in wax to harden, carves them out and then dips them in wax again to print. We had such a good time. Her daughter was there with her 5 kids, her partner in business Porche and her daughter, Judy and her sister-in-law Ann and myself. We sat around the living room after eating cream cheese and crackers and having an icy cold drink. It was a wonderful experience. I can't wait to go back!!!
And now we come to the close of the week, yesterday at the Jubilee Cathedral. What an experience!!! It is almost hard to know where to start. As you can see, the building is huge. The stained glass windows are actually made from concrete which got my creative juices flowing. The sanctuary is round with a balocony above. There are flood lights for the tv cameras. There was camoflage material around some posts and around the alter. Soldiers for the Lord. As I looked at the program I was so disappointed to see only one hymn. Seemed a little strange. Hmmmmm. Things started off pretty tradionally. Announcements, Call to Worship, Scripture and then the one hymn and thats when everything went to _____ woops, better not say that!!! That is when everything got moving. They were jumping. They were running. They were shouting. They were raising their hands. They were singing and it when on and on. Wow!!!! There was litergical dancing better than I have seen anywhere before.
When we were introduced we had to stand, pretty normal BUT THEN the choir started singing this welcome song and the congregation were all clapping. It was wild. Part of the song was about how you would never be the same after coming here which only made me think, "Good grief. What do they have in store for us? The only white people in the midst of at least 500 blacks!!!"
The Bishop Godfrey R. Williams started giving his sermon when someone told him there was a two year old in the congregation that had swollowed a 25 cent piece and they were going to decide that day if they needed to do surgery. Well, up to the front went the little jewel all decked out in puffy pink, everyone stood, all hands were extended to the child and a healing was taking place. They even had the x-ray showing the quarter!!!! Then the Bishop started a healing for the whole congregation including for healing for stuff you might have inherited from your ancestors. He was prancing around all over the church. Sometimes yelling and sometimes speaking softly. What an amazing orator. Sure had my undivided attention!!! When he was done with that he moved onto his sermon that he said was going to be 10 minutes. Ok, sure.
Are you ready? The service lasted THREE AND A HALF HOURS!!!!!!!!!! I loved it and can't wait to go back!!!! And the people said, "AMEN!!!!!!!!"
Sounds like you are having a great time.
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