101 Random Remembrances From Childhood

1. Rocks caught in the lawnmower and rock candy

2. George and May

3. The first book I owned: Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights

4. Aunt Vivien and Bud and the Indian Reservation

5. Uncle Ozzie drowning

6. My mother singing

7. House fire at 48^th Street

8. Following the fire truck up the hill and the fear I felt when it stopped in front of my house

9. Paper bag Halloween costumes with Jimmy in Hollywood Park Projects

10. Playing in the street with the neighborhood kids

11. Wetting my pants in front of all the kids

12. Lipstick tube hitting me in the face on Christmas morning

13. The IGA at the bottom of the hill

14. Trick or treating

15. Camano Island

16. Crabbing

17. Waterskiing

18. My mother waterskiing

19. Burning my hip on the wood stove

20. Miriam Loucks

21. My love for reading

22. My parents fear during the Cuban Missile Crisis

23. My father’s bar/recreation room

24. My mother and father dancing at their house parties

25. Phil and Phyllis Haskell

26. The string game my parents and their friends played

27. My mother discovering that I was reading Peyton Place

28. Mr. Geyer

29. My dad listening to jazz

30. My dad drinking rum and coke

31. Jimmy spitting in my milk

32. Mr. Mott

33. The day John Kennedy was assassinated

34. Playing in the woods

35. The two story tree house my brother and his friends built

36. Sleeping in the tree house

37. The woods across from my house

38. The creek in the woods

39. The Tarzan swing we used to cross the creek

40. Stump rot fights

41. Following the creek from our neighborhood to the airport

42. Angle Lake

43. Lily pads in Angle Lake and getting caught in them

44. Sneaking out of the house through the basement window

45. My grandpa Ben and the oxygen tank

46. Grandpa Ben unhooking the tank so he could smoke

47. Uncle Darryl and how handsome he was

48. Teresa as my best friend

49. Spending the night at Teresa’s house

50. Going to seminary with Teresa early in the morning

51. Santa Claus in the window of the Fredericks and Nelson in downtown Seattle

52. Driving home from my Grandparents house on Christmas Eve

53. My dad singing We Three Kings

54. The Christmas tree on Christmas morning

55. The magic of snow falling

56. Winning a pink Schwinn bike at an Albertson’s raffle

57. Being left in the woods

58. Riding my bike down 216^th

59. Getting caught stealing Red Hots with Teresa

60. Riding my bike down 216^th with my brother Mark on the handlebars when he put his foot in the spokes and flipped the bike. 

61. Mark breaking his leg and me being scared half to death

62. Des Moines Field House

63. Breaking my toe playing softball in bare feet

64. Winning most Inspirational Player in Basketball

65. Changing elementary schools

66. The green shoes with the hole in them

67. Standing in front of the class at a new school being introduced as Constance while wearing clear plastic rain boots with no shoes

68. Burgundy hip-hugger dress

69. Kirie Peterson

70. Cutting through the pastures walking to school in the rain

71. Trying out for cheerleader…and losing

72. Waterland Festival – every year

73. The birth of Mark

74. The birth of Matthew

75. My mother getting sick

76. Donna Jacobs

77. Lance and Lynn St. Laurent

78. The neighbor who spoke Korean and molested my brother while I was babysitting

79. Linda Jensen

80. My mother calling my name from the deck of our house telling me to come home for dinner

81. Stamping prices on cans of food at Albertson. 

82. Babysitting for Meredith’s twins the summer I was twelve

83. Buying my first pair of contacts with babysitting money and scratching my cornea and not being able to wear them

84. Charlotte wearing wet underpants on her head

85. Listening to Jimmy and the St. Laurent boys through the floor vent in my room while they talked about my how flat my chest was

86. The McMartin boys from next door

87. Des Moines Terrace

88. Teresa and I flirting with Ed Tonseth

89. Learning that Teresa was a lesbian

90. The cool stuff Teresa’s dad brought home from his job as a Purser for PanAm Airlines

91. The smell of fried pork chops

92. Avocado green shag carpet

93. Raking the carpet before my mother came home from work

94. The smells of the Indian bakery

95. Tuffley’s market

96. Spending my lunch money on candy at Tuffley’s – six different packages for a quarter

97. Walking to the corner store on Des Moines Way feeling like Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird

98. The weeping willow tree along the way

99. Des Moines theatre – Saturday movies for 10 cents

100. Eczema covering my hands and arms and the way kids teased me

101. Being a tomboy

And so it goes on September 28, 2012.

More questions than answers...

As the Kittitian and Nevisian people prepare to celebrate Independence Day, I hear corners of conversations on the street, in the bus, and muted in hallways outside of closed office doors; a measured question:  Are we better off today than we were before?

The state of the union then and now; not unlike an issue political pundits are currently debating in the United States as President Obama and Governor Romney continue their campaigns and the 2012 presidential election nears.

I think  people here in the Federation are proud of their heritage, and proud of their country, but  often troubled by the challenges the country faces as it struggles to find its twenty-first century balance.

First and foremost, as in many parts of the world today, is the troublesome economy.  St. Kitts and Nevis is suffering from huge debt.  While policymakers around the world are renewing the debate over government borrowing and spending, St. Kitts and Nevis ranks second in the world with the largest debt to GDP ratio; a primary indicator of a country’s economic health. 

And that unwelcome designation brings with it the potential for huge default.  The question is what can be done?  And that’s when things get sticky and answers become rank with politics.

As an outsider, I think the future for economic stability may lay in the cane fields; rich, fertile land abandoned when a shrinking sugar market forced the closure of the industry and the country re-shifted its economic priority to tourism. 

But it seems there is an aversion to agriculture as a livelihood, in a historical context an aversion I do understand, but from a vantage point of necessity, non-sugar agriculture holds great potential for economic growth.  According to the Ministry of Agriculture, “tremendous opportunities are available for commercial farming as local demands continue to outpace local supply.” 

Too often governments base their budgets on the projected number of cruise ship visits or pending hotel projects that in reality have little direct impact on those citizens struggling to make a living.  But there is a pressing need for the country to feed itself, and if the opportunity for commercial farming is there, it seems like a more independent course from which to build an economic foundation that will lead to a solid and sustainable future.  It takes a lot of hard work and enterprise to be a farmer, but the land is here, the need is here, and fundamentally, farming offers an alternative and the potential for independence.

So the questions I see hovering in a bubble over Mt. Liamigua as the citizens of this proud nation prepare to celebrate the 29^th Anniversary of their Independence are these:  How are we going to answer the awesome development challenge of 2012?  What path will we take to put human needs at the top of the political agenda and build a more prosperous and sustainable future for us all?  And will we, as citizens, avail ourselves to those opportunities already here?

And so it goes on September 18, 2012.

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride..but this one wasn't fun

I smacked the front part of my head on the bus door doing one of the get on/get off the bus routines this morning - unfortunately I had the second row jump seat and had to get up and off whenever someone next to me or behind me wanted to get off - and of course, the person in the jump seat in front of me and next to the door didn't move, expecting me and the exiting passenger to squeeze by him.  Needless to say it had a dizzying effect on my brain, and on the third round of "musical chairs" I whacked my head hard trying to get back on again, knocking me off my feet and onto the ground, wearing a dress no less. I felt light headed and dazed. Not one person offered to help; the man in the front seat still didn't move as I recovered from my fall and tried to get back on the bus, and once I was seated, the trip to town resumed as if I were invisible. I suppose I should be grateful the driver waited for me to recover and get back on the bus.  Real friendly people.

I'm still picking the gravel out of my ass...

I continue my love affair with the papaya, scanning the markets for sightings.  Friday morning I thought I'd hit the papaya jackpot- a vegetable stand on the main road near my village, with three papaws as they're called here, still very green, but with a promise from the merchant that they'd ripen within a few days. I bought all three, took them home and put them in a dark place as she'd told me to do, hoping they'd ripen faster.  It's almost a week later and there isn't even a hint of yellow on any of them.  I was punk'd by the vegetable lady.  She sold me papaws that would never turn yellow; good for soups and stews, but not for breakfast.  So...I gave them to Max this morning; he was delighted.

The electricity has been going out randomly this past week, often several times a day.  For some reason dark seems darker here, the darkest black, uncomfortably so.  I'm grateful to Liz and the hurricane lamps and D batteries she sent when I first arrived.  As long as I can reach one of them, I know the boogey centipedes/lizards/and/or tarantulas won't get me.  I'm much braver in the light.

And so it goes on September 12, 2012,  the day after the 11th anniversary of the worst day.

Profiles in courage..right here in St. Kitts and Nevis

I've spent the last few months interviewing nominees for the second annual Remarkable Teens program - this year expanded to include Nevis - selecting recipients, and gathering information that will help me tell the story of each honoree.  I've finally finished writing the profiles, and as always happens during this process, through telling the stories of these young people, I have come to know courage, commitment, determination and faith that has moved me beyond words.

The generosity of spirit, the personal responsibility, the capacity for connectedness that they not only manifest in their own lives, but invoke in others, inspires me to be a better person.  By choosing what they can do with a positive attitude even in the face of adversity, they have chosen the freedom to own their life;  by choosing meaning and purpose, they have made their young lives matter.

I thought I'd be home in October after a stop in New York to see Sarah, but there's been a new development here. I’ve been asked by the Minister to extend my commitment until after the 25 Most Remarkable Teens in St. Kitts and Nevis program is completed.  The date for the Federal Parliament Presentation is November 21, 2012. Since I’m the program lead they feel my presence is necessary both for the continued training of youth department staff in program operations to ensure sustainability, and for the successful 2012 program implementation. 

 

It's only an extra few weeks, but I know it's disappointing to the girls, especially when I've been gone for so long and the presentation falls on the night before Thanksgiving.  But they have always been supportive and are proud of the work I do; understanding that it matters to the kids here that I follow through too.

 

I'd like to give you a little back story on how this transpired, but  I can't really get into the politicking behind it all, though I can say it's been potentially divisive and definitely influenced my decision to extend.  It will be interesting to see how it plays out, but in the meantime the Peace Corps has approved the extra month and we'll be able to leave St. Kitts and Nevis on a high note which is important to all of us. 

 

For me personally, it was a difficult decision, because I’ve been ready to go home for months now – I miss family, friends, and all things familiar– and I need to find a paying job a.s.a.p., but I also have a lot of time and emotion invested in these kids and the promises I’ve made to them – and if another month here will ensure that those promises are kept, I don’t see that I have any other choice but to stay.

 

There is another interesting twist too:

 

One of the recipients we selected as Scholar Athlete for the 25 Most Remarkable Teens program in 2006 (Tyler Clary) - the first year I started the program in Riverside – won the Gold Medal at the Olympics.  I told the Minister about him – the Minister was actually at the Olympics and remembers seeing Tyler swim.   Anyway, he asked if I could get Tyler to come to St. Kitts – travel and lodging at the Marriott courtesy of the government – to participate in the Federal Parliament presentation on November 21; reading the profile for the 2012 Scholar Athlete from St. Kitts in Parliamentary Chambers.  I contacted Tyler’s mom last week, and she spoke to Tyler and emailed me back that he is very interested in participating.  She said she'd let me know for sure regarding his schedule today or tomorrow.

 

Personally, I think this is so cool, inspiring for the kids here – dream big, work hard, never give up kind of inspiring – great PR for the program and the importance of youth recognition, and a real boost for community buy-in, a valuable component to ensuring long term sustainability.  It really feels like the program's come full circle to represent  the best of what these kinds of efforts can accomplish.

 

This will be the last Thanksgiving away from home – and I will be back for leftovers, which are always best anyway.   

 

And so it goes on September 10, 2012. 

Interview with the Honorable Sam Condor, Deputy Prime Minister St. Kitts & Nevis

"Servce, commitment to service, community service in particular.  I think that will be the legacy of the Peace Corps - service to humanity."

Deputy Prime Minister, Sam Condor, has been active with the Peace Corps for as long as he has been involved in public service.  In addition to his role as Deputy Prime Minister, the Honorable Sam Condor has also served as Minister of Education, Minister of Youth and Minister of Community and Social Development.  With the impending 2012 closing of Peace Corps in St. Kitts and Nevis, I sat down with him to talk about Peace Corps, its contributions, and its legacy in the Federation.

1.    CH: In 2004 the Peace Corps returned to St. Kitts and Nevis, focusing primarily on youth and community development, small business development and promoting HIV/AIDS education and awareness.  What do you consider some of the most significant achievements of St. Kitts and Nevis Peace Corps Volunteers during the past eight years? 

DPM:  I think 2004 was really significant for us.  It was the time I went to the Ministry of Education and at that time I also had as part of my portfolio, the Ministry of Youth and Community and Social Development, and so I was basically at the forefront of welcoming the Peace Corps and setting them to work.  Really, I would say the most significant achievement was the way Volunteers became integrated in the community.  I know in the past it was sort of a government effort and we didn’t have the outreach and the intimate involvement of the community.  In 2004, the way Volunteers lived among the community was more intense.  The presence of the Peace Corps was real, it was palatable, and the people felt the impact. And so I think that when the Peace Corps returned to St. Kitts they came back with a different more meaningful, more community based approach and that was a significant achievement.

Another contribution of Peace Corps would be with the issue of HIV/AIDS.  As you are aware, the Prime Minister is the lead CARICOM spokesman for HIV/AIDS, not just regionally, but also internationally.  In this capacity, the Prime Minister was able to get tremendous assistance and support from Peace Corps Volunteers.   

2. CH: Peace Corps Volunteers have worked at the individual, organization, community and national levels, building the capacity of all stakeholders.  How sustainable do you think that work will be after Peace Corps leaves in October 2012.

DPM:  I think right at the beginning the Peace Corps sought as their role to build capacity so that their programs would be sustainable.   They have lent their expertise, in fact they have done a number of training courses on how to write projects, how to organize events and plan events and so on.  Really, in my view, the purpose of the Peace Corps has been that when they the leave, the programs will continue.  It was really the purpose and the emphasis and the focus of the Peace Corps in coming to the Federation, sort of a train the trainers program, assuring that these programs would be sustainable once the Volunteers leave the country.

3.   Question: Has another organization been targeted to take over some of the initiatives introduced and implemented by Peace Corps volunteers?

DPM:  I think that while the Peace Corps has primarily gone into the various Ministries and created opportunities, they have also implemented some outreach programs with a number of organizations, for example the Red Cross, the Central Bank, Youth Entrepreneurial Business Development, and of course the schools; and so they’ve gone not just into Ministries and Departments but community organizations to make sure people are properly trained.

4. CH: What do you feel are the most pressing issues facing youth in the Federation today?

DPM:  You would know that we have had a problem with delinquency and youth crime.  We think that maybe one way we can deal with that is creating employment opportunities for young people because we have very high unemployment among youth. And so I see, as a pressing problem, youth unemployment and the subsequent fallout of that in terms of crime and violence. The question is how to get young people to walk the straight and narrow and to protect them from the evils and the many distractions that exist.

5.     CH:  How do you see the role of government in addressing/providing solutions to these issues?

DPM: Of course government must always be involved, maybe even playing the lead role, but government cannot solve these problems alone.  We need community organizations to help, and again here’s where organizations like the Peace Corps assist tremendously in our efforts.  We also want to see the venue of the church and civic groups have a role in addressing this problem. Solutions must have a multi-disciplinary approach, especially by including families. I think that is something we have to focus on – parenting.  I believe that good parenting and consistent community involvement is the foundation of building a good society.
 

6.     CH: What do you think the concept of altruism -the instinct to do good deeds or show kindness to others - means to young people today?

DPM:  I think people usually live by example and if they see people doing good things, it influences them.  We need to be good role models for our young people, that is why we can’t leave it just to the parents, to the family alone, but need to involve the community.  You know the African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child that was popularized by Hilary Clinton; it is something we have known from time immemorial.

7.     CH: Youth volunteers worldwide contribute 3.5 billion hours annually, thereby contributing billions of dollars globally to local economies.  Volunteerism also promotes a sense of empowerment and connection to the community among young people.  Studies show that youth who participate as volunteers learn new skills, develop relationships with like minded peers, and as a process of experiential learning, helps to develop social competencies like empathy, leadership, and confidence.  Do you think young people have that sense of communal spirit and attachment needed to drive the idea of volunteerism forward?

DPM:  I believe so. I mean the things that we do we would not be able to do without that spirit and that intuitive quality towards volunteerism.  Carnival, the St. Kitts and Nevis Music Festival, International Cricket Competitions; all these events take tremendous planning and human resources and couldn’t be done without volunteers.  I mean, with our small population, if we didn’t have that commitment and level of volunteerism, we wouldn’t be able to do these events.  Community volunteerism is something that is admirable here in St. Kitts and Nevis.  I see that attitude of involvement from our people as a strength in the Federation.

8.   CH: What do you consider the potential of volunteerism in both empowering and building capacity among youth in the Federation?  What role do you think the government can play in encouraging and supporting young people towards a volunteering culture?

Answer:  Volunteerism builds capacity. The annual residential summer camp by the Department of Youth has a number of people who volunteer every year.  Many of the young volunteers were campers for years and continue on, serving now as camp leaders.  Adding volunteerism as a component for graduation from school could encourage this culture; it is something to think about.

9.   CH: The Peace Corps has as its mission three primary goals:  to provide skilled workers to the host country;  to help people of other countries gain a better understanding of Americans and our multicultural society; and to promote a better understanding of other people and their cultures on the part of the Americans.  Do you think the Peace Corps volunteers serving in St. Kitts and Nevis have accomplished Goal #2?

DPM:  It can’t help but do that. In fact from the beginning with the home stays, to independently living in communities, Peace Corps Volunteers see our villages, how we live from day to day, and they’ve been able to exchange and to interchange ideas about our real lives.  It is in this way we learn about one another, not just in classrooms or at the Departments and Ministries, but in our homes and our neighborhoods.  With this kind of integration one could only learn and understand more on a personal level.

10. CH: What do you consider will be the legacy of the Peace Corps in St. Kitts and Nevis?

DPM:   Service, commitment to service, community service in particular.  I think that will be the legacy of the Peace Corps - service to humanity.

11. CH: Now that the post in St. Kitts and Nevis is officially closing, what message would you like to give to Peace Corps and the scores of volunteers who have served in the Federation?

DPM:  I would like, on behalf of the government and the people in the Federation, to express in accordance, our thanks and appreciation to Peace Corps and the many Volunteers who have served here.  I would like to say that we have benefited tremendously from your service.  I would also add that I think building capacity is an ongoing process and that while we are now in a position to implement and do a lot of things we were taught, these multicultural exchanges and involvement must continue for the benefit of all humanity.  Life is a dynamic process, it’s an ever changing process and the advancement takes a continuous human interaction at all levels. So as a leader, I do not believe that this should be the end of your service to humanity and to our country.  We’d like to see a continuation of this lifelong commitment to service.

12. CH:  Is there anything personal you would like to add before we conclude the interview?

DPM:  We were very happy to have Peace Corps here and we want to thank you for your outstanding contributions.  I think the 25 Most Remarkable Teens program is a truly amazing program and I am certain that it is a program that will stay with us forever. It not only recognizes the positive behavior in our youth, but it also shows us that you must not give up on anybody - everyone has redemptive qualities. I believe this is going to be etched indelibly in the history of our young people.

And so it goes on August 20, 2012, as Peace Corps begins its last two months in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.

A True Tale of a Snake Oil Salesman

I returned to St. Kitts from the Peace Corps Close of Service workshop that was held on Antigua last week and found everything in order but the restlessness of my spirit.  While the workshop was both an opportunity to learn the logistics of winding down after two years of service and a chance to reunite with the 24 other Eastern Caribbean volunteers who began this journey back in August 2010 - and where both objectives were met – for me it also brought an unexpected feeling of being left without a tether.     

There are a lot of changes and choices I need to make, which is not a bad thing, just unsettling as the changes are imminent and I'm no longer insulated by the many have to do's of Peace Corps service.  The first order of business is to find a job; where I live will depend on where I work.  And when I open that compartment in my brain where job search has been tucked away for the past two years, anxiety and frayed nerves settle in. 

In thinking back on most of my adulthood, I remember being a remarkably decisive person, making decisions straight away and following through without hesitation.  These days I more often find that I put any kind of personal decision making aside, too many what ifs to consider.  I’ll think about it tomorrow has become my calming mantra.

The mother of one of the students I mentor stopped by my office yesterday. Standing in the hallway when I arrived for work, she greeted me warmly. She asked if she could come in for a few minutes and offered me one of the two cups of tea she held in her hands.  I settled in the chair behind my desk while she pulled a chair closer, and then I listened as she began to tell me her tale of a broken heart and a shattered life. 

It was really a story of survival - emotional survival - of going through hell for too many years until finally finding herself on the bridge to healing.

She said she had met Kishona’s father 14 years ago. A fraud, a bully and a charismatic manipulator is how she described the man who had nearly destroyed her.  He told her it was the titillation that made him take risks, he liked commanding the lives of others, a serial abandoner he enjoyed the secondary gain he got by inflicting pain on those who loved him; for him creating emotional devastation was his way of demonstrating power. Of his four wives, two sets of biological children, and one set of stepchildren, he said, “I walk away when I get bored, find someone else.  There's no shortage of needy, gullible women."

He reinvents himself with each new ‘family’, changing the back story to fit the new identity, but always appearing needy and vulnerable; blaming childhood abuse by a teacher for his personal failures, feigning unconditional love as though his very life depended on that love, threatening to kill himself if love was lost; I'm nothing without you, desperate and sorry, forgive me baby girl, always forgive me baby girl.  That was his hook.

A serial cheater, he had never spent a moment without ‘a someone’ in his life; each wife replaced by the mistress who eventually became the wife, and then soon became the ex, abandoned and betrayed, another human sacrifice heaped into a life-long pile of discarded lives; collateral damage of an emotional predator.  No one could ever love him enough.

He recently remarried, this time to a woman he said he was bored with already; wife number five.  “A mercy marriage,” he tells others and laughs. “She doesn’t even know her number, thinks she’s the fourth, as if that really makes a difference. What’s one wife more or less?” 

Co-dependent to an alcoholic, she’d always made excuses for him because she'd been told alcoholism is a disease.  She even tried to help him get sober.  It worked for a while, but his sponsor said he was too narcissistic, too arrogant to stick with it; and he had a big problem telling the truth, honesty is a must when you’re in recovery; too much ugliness looking back at him in the mirror she guessed, and he was after all, most notably a coward.

She told me she was finally able to forgive herself for wasting all those years thinking he was more important than her.  She was mindful of the road she had traveled to get to this place, and grateful for the strength to have made it.  She was ready to move on.

She said she was telling me her story because she wanted me to talk to the young girls I work with about the debilitating effects of emotional and verbal abuse.  It is a story that has a lot to teach and a story that needs to be told. Damage from emotional abuse may be harder to see than the broken bones and bruises of physical abuse, but it is just as painful - and just as wrong.

If I were giving recognition awards to adults instead of teenagers, she would receive the award in the Courage to Overcome category; it’s not easy resuscitating a life tossed into the heap. 

I gave her a sticker with a yellow happy face like the one I give to the kids.  It made her smile. And I gave her a hug for her courage and for sharing her story with me. And of course, I promised to pass her message along.  

Some things cross the cultural divide with clarity of purpose first, and lead to clarity of understanding.

And so it goes on the island of St. Kitts, August 1, 2012.

Citizenship for Sale

I met Jedidiah last Christmas.  I had friends visiting and we needed to hire a taxi to take us from Cockleshell Beach into town.  Jedidiah was standing by the parking area next to Reggae Bar looking for a fare.  His smile was immediate as he caught my eye and hurried us into his mini-van before the other drivers could intrude.  Once settled in the van, he began to talk non-stop about the island, all the places we should see, and all the places he would like to take us.

When I told him I lived here, a whole new picture emerged. The smile faded and a look of consternation took its place.  He began to talk of the very real struggles he and his family faced every day, the difficulty in finding work, the expenses for food, housing, utilities and transportation, the frustration of living in a country where the government seemed to turn its back on the needs of its citizens, choosing to ignore the importance of diversifying the economy away from tourism and finding effective solutions to restoring debt sustainability.   He was clearly an intelligent man.

He was a hustler for sure - in a good way - offering tours, making and selling jewelry, doing electrical work wherever he could find it, having skill in that trade; and he was a proud man, never portraying himself as a victim, but as a man creating opportunity through hard work. 

He shared the taxi business with his friend Deon; he couldn’t afford the cost of owning a taxi himself, and the partnership worked for both of them as one would work at Port Zante trying to get business from the cruise ship passengers, while the other made a local run, doubling their efforts and some days their profits.  Sometimes, catching a fare to the beach, Jedidiah would ride along with Deon, then walk the shore mingling with the tourists showing his hand-crafted jewelry for sale, while Deon took passengers back and forth from the Port.   

During the tourist season – October to May – things worked okay, though competition had increased, especially this past year as more and more Kittitians started to drive taxis as a way to get in on the tourist trade; everyone competing for the same shrinking dollar in a suffering global economy.

We all look at the world around us in accordance with a certain paradigm.  The paradigm we use depends on what we believe is reliable and true.  As a group, Kittitian vendors seem to harbor a very real resentment for the tourist upon whom their livelihood has come to depend, and many tourists sense this resentment. A paradigm shift needs to occur for a more rational understanding of this relationship.

Local vendors complain often and loudly that the only money tourists bring in is to the merchants at Port Zante, and those merchants are not even Kittitians, but foreigners who have emigrated to St. Kitts.  If cruise ship passengers do find their way to Fort Street, the main street in Basseterre, they aren’t looking to buy anything more than a bottle of water to stay hydrated as they walk through town, passing time before their ship departs again for another Caribbean island offering the same kinds of excursions and similar local wares.  While their complaints are valid from their perception, it is irrational to blame the visitor who remains oblivious to these expectations.

Tourism contributes less to the long-range economy than one might think, requiring a larger capital because of the infrastructure necessary to sustain the amenities Westerners expect when they vacation.   This has led to the government of St. Kitts and Nevis borrowing large sums of money from foreign governments and paying off these loans has stretched them to the limit.  St. Kitts and Nevis has a debt of almost 200% GDP – second highest in the world.

It is hurricane season now in St. Kitts and Nevis – May to October - a time when few tourists come to the islands and only one cruise ship docks at Port Zante on Friday. It is a grim period of struggle and survival for many Kittitians.  

A few weeks ago, I invited Jedidah to dinner at a local restaurant and listened as he talked of his family, his wife and his daughter.  His daughter had recently won the spelling bee at her school and his smile was infectious as he proudly showed me a picture of her receiving a trophy for her efforts.  I asked him what he thought of the announcement last week by the Prime Minister on his trip to Dubai of a hotel project with Range Developments, a company based in Dubai, which will be granting foreign investors the right to become eligible for citizenship of St. Kitts and Nevis.  “Citizenship for sale,” he said.  “I don’t like it.  Our land and our culture should not be for sale.” 

In spite of the many challenges he faces, Jedidiah is a happy man. “Where there is life, there is hope,” he says sincerely, bringing his smile back to the conversation.

Living in a country on the edge of bankruptcy in a world on the brink of an economic meltdown is a complicated mess, one beyond my ability to understand; even the solutions confuse me.  But somehow the uncertainty of the world and all its complexities has moved me to live more fully in the present.  It is one thing I know I can count on.

And so it goes on July 16, 2012.