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A glimpse at a hurricane moving in….
0 Comments | Posted by Rosalyn in Bahamas, Island Living
Not every day is sunnny in the Bahamas...Tippies before the hurricane
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Saved by the blood of Christ….a peek at religion in the Bahamas
1 Comment | Posted by Rosalyn in Bahamas, Bahamas News
Saved by the blood of Christ………
Thursday is the best day of the week in the Bahamas. Friday has its charms as everyone shortens their normally hectic four hour day to well, three or four actual hours, but Thursday is the day of the Nassau Tribune Supplement ‘Obituaries & Religion’. You hardly need get past the front page to know it will be time well spent. The cover illustration of a dewy dove taking flight from an outstretched hand sits above an advert for Video Solutions: “When LIFE throw’s that unexpected “death” curve at you, taking away your loved one, throw one back at LIFE by capturing their last moments on earth by video taping their final journey. R.I.P”. Now there is a film to remember.
The Obituaries are the cornerstone of Bahamian life, status and religious dedication. No time better than in death to show how well you are connected and just how good a sending off your family will stump up for. Bahamian fervour for religion is poised delicately against deep-rooted superstition, class structure, tribal affiliations and a Constitution that protects not the freedom of speech but the freedom of worship.
In a country where there are as many churches as bars and where gay cruise ships are not permitted to dock as God fearing folk block the quay side, there is a scrambled love for religion.
Endless hours of Sunday morning public broadcasts still drone on with spoken obituaries listing every single surviving extended member of the family. And by family Bahamians mean both ‘inside’ or legal family and ‘outside’ or adopted families (mistresses and their children from the adulterous husband).
It is an honour to be invited to a funeral. Once you get past the three-hour sermon the drama can challenge East Enders any day. Sadly I missed the one where the wife was so enraged by the brazen behaviour of the mistress and her ‘outside’ family at the graveside that she grabbed the machete from the gravedigger and chased the strumpet around the graveyard. A policeman finally arrived and whilst wresting the machete from the wife fell into the open grave and broke his arm. A good funeral by all accounts.
Full-page obits confirm that the dearly deceased had status. On page five, Terrell Antionne R.
Island Graveyard Bahamas (usually near the sea in soft sand.....)
is only 41 and his smiling photo sits amongst a sea of text. There is a night of tribute for all friends and family, the funeral and two days leading to it in which they may pay their respects at the Funeral Home and crematorium. Like Northern England years ago, a good laying out and being seeing to pay your last respects is still important. Even in the heat.
Left to cherish Terrell’s memories are a cast of thousands with fantastic names. His wife and daughter (and her son), son, mother, father, three brothers, three sisters, father-in-law, mother-in-law, five brothers-in-law, six sisters-in-law (did they lose a brother in law I wonder?), three uncles, 12 aunts, a grand uncle, two grand aunts, nine nephews, numerous cousins, other relatives and friends are all named – all 141 of them (not including ‘and family’ or ‘neighbours’ or ‘and numerous friends’. Everyone from Rashad, Tyisha, Paris, Reudon, Reumae, Coolie and Miea are named. But connections are important and poor Terrell was obviously a clever and successful man so endless work and business colleagues are singled out too. Worthy of a special mention are Anthony Longley and the Toastmasters Club International 600, Nassau Christian Academy graduation class of 1987, Northern Caribbean University (formerly West Indies college Class of 1992), the management and staff of First Caribbean Bank and The Hon. Kenneth Russell, M.P and Minister of Housing with responsibility for the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation (BMC). Religious connections include Deacon Cordell Roberts, Rev. Merian Roberts J.P; Rev. Dr. Philip McPhee, Bishop Neil Ellis and the Mount Tabor Family, Pastor Mark & The Dominion Community Church family, Pastor Elva Johnson and the Amazing Grace Missionary Baptist Church family, Pastor Wilber Outten and Pastor Karol Roache and the Freeport Bible Church family and Father Rudy.
49-year-old Wilson Z (‘affectionately called “VINCE’) displays in his quarter page obit on page 9 that he was not so well connected as Antionne in either life or death. Along with the cast of family, extended family and loved ones, his ‘Other relatives and friends’ include: The Mudd, the Peas, Muphy town, Dundas town, Marsh Harbour, Hope town and Guana Cay communities. Relatives and friends may view the remains at the church in Abaco’.
But such status is of little matter to God. Well according to hundreds of sermons that will stupefy the congregations on any given Sunday, as the superstar ministers arrive in their fleets of limos to talk of equality and good living. Stay tune (sic), as there will always be a good few editorials at the back of the Thursday supplement. This week, along with 20 pages of obits, news of the enthronement of Bishop Laish Zane Boyd and a summary of the final sermon delivered by Bishop Drexel Gomez is a hard hitting piece on gambling in which Pastor Matthew Allen hopes that he: “will upset the religious mindset so badly that within the days or weeks to come their religious ignorance or hypocrisy would compel them to respond and stop crying and fighting against gambling and remain silent on casino gambling for the tourist as..you are nothing more than a big hypocrite”. Who needs soap operas hey.
More to follow…………watch this space for news on the exorcism course I attended…
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Island farm living pics to cheer up a cold British day…..
0 Comments | Posted by Rosalyn in Island Living, Memoir
Rusty the bassett and my morning coconut delivery
My watercress bed. The dogs loved to lay on it as it was cool and damp!
Well here is an old entry I had totally forgotten about. I was asked to plant a tree at a local school (clearly they couldn’t get anyone else so choose me!)
March 13 VIP tree planting at H O Nash school.
An indolent and yawning Sherry S gave me jumbled directions on the phone and said I’d be billed as a “corporately minded citizen”.
After driving around guided by her rough notes and the compass on my Ford Explorer I finally arrived at the school to find thousands of kids drifting around, all very casual and chaotic as so much of the Bahamas is (can’t actually detect any order or sense of anyone in control).
A radio broadcast was in full swing and Sherry was rushing around shouting to the kids to: “Go get the daddies, it’s daddies day we need to speak to daddies, now where that daddie I had lined up gone?”
I was met by Principle as I was putting on my make up in the car. Great. Then introduced randomly to several more suited and booted people with no sense of who anyone was or why they should be there. Introduced to Rev? (never did catch his name) – a man of about 5ft 4 ins, white shirt and clean attire but no dog collar or bible. Very remiss for Nassau. Leading me to severl huge metal pots on a makeshift stove top, he asked if I would like breakfast as they had boiled pigs feet and soused chicken with Johnny cake – I declined.
The tree (a sort of spindly bush) was right across a dirty expanse of gravel and dried mud in a corner by a fence. It was leaning badly in a hole which had old tin cans and debris in it. I was carrying a cardboard sign with its name written in felt tip (didn’t catch it but something botanical for good measure). Then without seeing who from, an enormous shovel was thrust into my hands and I was frogmarched across the playground by the radio broadcast team and an entourage of parents, preachers, teachers, councillors and kids. I reached the random hole, staggering with the shovel, in the heat in my increasingly damp best cotton trouser suit and shiny full make up. And still only 9am in the morning!
The broadcast began (we had all shaken hands so that was the end of the formalities), Rev shortman blessed the tree (live on air, what magic at drivetime), Sherry said some words (and froze and forgot all the names etc) as I huffed and puffed with the big shovel and threw in some dirt and debris around the twig. Then a parent – another small man of about 5.3 with silver hair, a moustache, white hat and striped golf shirt with badge proclaiming ‘Proud to be a parent at HO Nash’ grabbed the shovel, the Principle jumped in and snap. There was the shot for the newspaper photographers. I was told my words were wonderful and invited for lunch. I left.
Is this what the Queen has to do? As I drove away I saw two wizened old ladies walking with umbrellas in the sun and listened to a news story in which the police spokesman described the man at the centre of a double murder and suicide as someone: ‘who lack conflict resolution skills’. You don’t say.
Couldn’t wait to get back into my Island uniform of tatty denim shorts and halter neck top at home. This heat is stepping everything up a beat. The tree frogs are getting really noisy now and there are clouds of moths as big as bats. A raccoon has taken to throwing bananas from my neighbour’s tree – another hazard along with the falling coconuts (one of which fell down whilst I was unloading the Explorer and dented the open boot door – luckily not my head!).
What a Bahamian journey this is proving to be!
Back in my 'island unifom' of halter neck and shorts
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A New York photographer discovers my art and island!
0 Comments | Posted by Rosalyn in Island Living
This is from Leigh Miller, photographer’s blog in 2006 (http://www.leighmillerphotography.com/blog/2006/04/19/a-few-pics/).
Sadly the links to the photos are not working and she takes beautiful photos. But posting it anyway as it is a good ‘external’ eyes view of Eleuthera where I lived AND her husband (clearly a man of fine taste and discernment) bought one of my paintings as her on honeymoon present!
April 19: from our Bahamas honeymoon. What a trip it turned out to be. It was fun, but I learned a lot!!! So here you go -
1.) They don’t show it in all the travel brochures, but it can rain, I mean pour, for 5 days straight in the Bahamas.
2.) If you are flying Bahamas Air, make sure you have “time to spare,” apparently everyone knew that but us 
3.) Bugs may eat you alive despite the amount of Mosquito Quietus you slather on your body.
4.) You really can live off peanut butter sandwiches and cheese and crackers if you have to.
5.) Eventhough you look for the cabbie without a beer at the airport, he may still stop and get one on the way to your destination!
Feel free to contact me if you are considering a trip and want more info, I have lots more to share.
We spent the first 4 days or so in Freeport hanging out with Kelly and Jon and shooting their wedding. After that the real adventure began. We were supposed to take a flight to Governor’s Harbour, but our flight was delayed by 4 hours or more (but they only tell you this in 45 minute increments, I guess so you will continue to be hopeful that in the next 45 minutes you will have access to a working bathroom, but I’m not really sure why) so we ended up in Rock Sound looking forward to a hour and 1/2 or so cab ride to our rental house. Thats where we met Buffalo, our cab driver. A really nice man and he looked the most promising because he was about the only cabbie without a drink in his hand at the airport, but alas he did stop for a beer on the way to our house
By the time we got to our house it was so dark we couldn’t see a thing and were locked out. Everything looked a bit more promising in the morning but within a few hours a major storm blew in and decided to hang around for the next 5 days. But we still had a great time!!! And we would go back again in a heartbeat. We were miles away from almost everyone (except the 4 adults and five kids who were renting the other house on the property!) had really crappy food (but good booze!) no TV (but a bunch of old VHS movies to choose from) but it was our honeymoon so who cares!!! It was awesome.
The round house we rented for the week. It was pretty rustic but we still loved it. I found it about a year ago on www.vrbo.com, a great resource for vacation rentals.
One day we took a day trip up to Harbour Island and on the way we crossed the Glass Window bridge, where the land narrows to little more than the width of a one lane road. On the one side is the Atlantic. Above you can see the storm clouds and waves crashing.
One the other side is the Caribbean, calm and clear. It really is surreal.
The painting my sweet husband bought me while we were in Harbour Island. I think I’m going to put it in my new studio. Its called It’s Getting Wet and the artist is Rosalyn Palmer.
All over Eleuthera and Harbour Island there were chickens and roosters running around. This little family was right outside the art gallery. I kind of felt bad cause a few kids were kind of terrorizing them.
But when we came out of the art gallery I felt worse. At first I thought “oh good someone put them behind the fence away from the bad kids” but then I looked harder and saw there were fenced in with a bunch of cats. Now the kids weren’t looking so bad after all !
The first painting I ever did! I still have this one........
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The sounds of the island at sunrise…..Bahamas style
0 Comments | Posted by Rosalyn in Island Living, Travel Writing
Two choruses, at 6am and 6pm, punctuated my meandering days in Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera, Bahamas.
I resented the 6am one at first, pulling a pillow over my head to shut out the crowing competition from the dozens of cockerels who strut along the dusty streets. In true island style, I mellowed quickly, choosing to hear the noise as a herald for another beautiful day. I also loved the way their noise was joined by soft singing of Vodun spirit songs from one or other of the Haitian itinerant workers. They wait patiently each morning by the harbour wall for a lift to whatever toil they have secured for that day.
The 6pm sound of rhythmic chopping was always welcome. The fishermen, Dennis and Arron and their crews, had landed their catch for the day and were busy wielding their sharp machetes to cut and fillet Grouper, Snapper, Hogfish, Shark or Tuna for the locals and the smattering of brave tourists.
I had long ago made friends with them when I had told them, “Don’t be chargin’ me dem tourist prices an’ tinkin’ me a bank!”. My custom was now greeted with smiles and laughter and an exchange of crumpled Bahamian dollars when the t-shirt and shorts brigade of passing boat owners had moved away. Then it would be back home ready for an ice cool Kalik beer, sipped whilst waiting for the green flash of the evening sun sinking into the evening sea on an island called ‘Freedom’
Governor's Harbour Eleuthera
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Fishermen, Tarpum Bay, cleaning their catch (Hogfish, Grouper, Shark, Conch…)
0 Comments | Posted by Rosalyn in Island Living
Landing the Catch
Found this, in my five years of journals during my time in the Bahamas. Thanks to whoever penned it. Brilliant. Love the way the Bahamians can be self-effacing:
30 Ways:
Drift wood painting...........Bahamas
1. Ya older dan ya uncle or aunt.
2. Ya Mummy still holdin ya passport and ya 33 years old.
3. Ya know what ’spry’ is.
4. Ya go ta a funeral to see da person face, but ya don’t know dem.
5. Ya call parts of ya body, bubby, bungy, and bread.
6. Ya ask for da worm outta da conch.
7. Potcake is a dog or burnt rice.
8. Ya say current instead of electricity.
9. Ya start shopping for hurricane supplies the day before the hurricane.
10. ‘Vel mudda sick’ means something to ya.
11. Ya point wit ya lips.
12. Ya refer to people as boss or chief.
13. Ya refer to the lunch lady at school as Mum.
14. Ya can direct an American to the nearest Walmart, Brandsmart or Florida Mall.
15. Ya call Coca-Cola, coke soda, and everything else sweet soda.
16. Ya say ‘reverse back’
17. Ya know what ‘pants gunin’, and ‘gun casin’ mean.
18. Ya use da word ‘destroyful’.
19. Ya buy food from a place called ‘Dirty’s’ and go dancing in a place called ‘da Zoo’.
20. Ya MP have more case in court dan you.
21. Ya only buy da Thursday paper (to see who dead).
22. Ya start off gossiping wit ‘chile guess wha’.
23. Ya call all dishwashing liquid ‘Joy’ and all washing detergent ‘Tide’.
24. Ya put dettol in da water da bade wit.
25. Ya grammy is clean house in pulled up slip or night dress.
26. Ya best comeback in an argument is ‘You like man hey’.
27. You get outta ya bed at 1am ta watch junkanoo, but can’t make it t owork fer 9am.
28. Ya go to da beach , not to swim but just wet ya foot.
29. When ya talk ya pronounce v’s like w’s and w’s like v’s, eg .vomen, wulgar.
30. Ya go Miami every month but have never visited another Bahamian island.
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Book synopsis – A Hummingbird on the Noni
0 Comments | Posted by Rosalyn in Memoir, Travel Writing
Mention the Bahamas & a glamorous image of James Bond, fast boats, bikini clad beauties, sand & azure sea, tropical drinks and smiling locals comes to mind.
After 20 years in the fast lane running one of London’s top PR agencies, I discovered over 5 years the REAL Bahamas: going increasingly native from the relative civilization of Bahamian capital Nassau to living on a 10-acre farm on a sparsely populated out island (run by former politicians and a network of extended families the source of whose money is never openly discussed).
See behind the gates of the millionaire communities in Nassau. A capital boasting the sophistication of giant casinos but with shanty towns. Open any daily paper & read stories of witchcraft and sweethearting (adultery) and fist fights in parliament.
Recovering from major surgery in the USA, I choose ‘Eleutheratherapy’: recovering on an organic farm on a pink sand beach on the island of Eleuthera. Here I discovered a Bahamas rarely seen by visitors: of nefarious locals, the displaced and forgotten and an eclectic mix of winter residents and ex-pats each with a funnier and stranger story to tell.
This is a vivid and engaging story of the real Bahamas and the characters who wash up on her shores. Scruffy billionaires and eccentric recluses who rub shoulders with local fishermen and a land, charming and frustrating in equal measure; a place at once quiet and more exciting than any invented story!
Coming soon (fingers crossed) to a bookshop near you…………..A
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It’s six months into Bahamas living
0 Comments | Posted by Rosalyn in Bahamas, Travel Journal
Sunset in the Bahamas
Nassau 2001……..
So here we are, six months in already. Finally felt at home last weekend when over the bank holiday weekend it rained non stop for five days. There must be a special Bank Holiday weather curse, which works throughout the world. Difference here is that it is still humid and in the mid 80s (which means in a clever, adjusted, sort of way it is really about 99 degs), and I am constantly getting caught out without a brolly or so much as a piece of paper to hold over my head so impersonate a drowned rat on an almost daily basis.
As I start to type this I am watching the golf course being bulldozed. It now resembles a sort of desert oasis. There is sand and soil everywhere, much of it in large dune-like piles and the one remaining lake in the centre of the course has had all the palm trees deposited around its edges to keep them alive before they are moved back into place. No prizes for guessing how it has affected the mosquitoes. The noisy frogs are also pretty unsettled. The constant sound of diggers has followed hot on the heels of the disruption caused by the building of our new conservatory and the major renovations on the entire block we live in. Not very conducive to writing a best seller I must say. So….we are moving at the end of June to a fab five-bedroom house that is literally on the sea. I kid you not. When you look out of the lounge and back bedroom windows all you see is turquoise sea, it is like being on a boat. When the sea is rough it splashes up onto the patio and hits the lounge windows and leaves behind a film of salt when it dries. Needless to say it will be horrendous in a hurricane which is why our rent agreement has a clause that the landlord has six hours in which to board up the entire house once a hurricane warning is issued and we get to move out to a hotel (they do special hurricane rates here and evidently it is quite a laugh being hauled up in a Key Largo sort of way for days in the howling wind and rain). No doubt a later letter….. (more…)
