Like this:

I don’t mean that in the sense of TGIF! especially for me. I mean that in the sense of what I (we) experienced during our trip to town today. Seems as though Friday night in St. Vincent is no different than the attitude of many party-ers in the states. 

We headed for town at 2 and were dropped off at the botanical gardens, about half a mile up one of the many hills. No entrance fee, outside, it was beautiful. So many tropical trees, flowers, and plants on either side of a winding path or sometimes paved trail. There was even a set of cages housing parrots native to St. Vincent. But it was like it always seems to be with me and  my timing when I attend a zoo in the states. Pittsburgh, San Diego, St. Louis, Louisville, wherever I have gone to a zoo, it seems that the animals are always far across the tundra or fake African plain, or inside a cave cozied up and sleeping , probably with smiles on their sleeping mugs because of all the dollars paid by humanoids that will not see them! So it was with the parrots. They, being intelligent, were huddled at the farthest part of cage away from us in the shade, and with the caging being a tight mesh, the siting was minimal. And me, I had not known about the birds, or I would have brought a saltine. I heard that Polly is attracted to crackers. But what I did see of them, a head or an eye and once a full-body profile (she was vogueing) was very beautiful. Today was 90 or 91 degrees (sorry you northerners) and very humid, so even though it was a stroll and very quiet and pleasing to the artistic heart and eye, we were hot. One of the girls had brought her umbrella to ward off the sun, and it made me think of Michael Jackson for a minute. Just for a minute. Is he really dead?  Both girls had brought small towels to wipe their brows and faces should the need arise, and the need did pop its head out. We left the gardens and headed down the hill for a mile to a mile and a half walk into town. And I was so happy that the walk was down the hill and not up!!!! When we finally reached the bottom, Gregory (Roni and Sueanna,teenage females from Guyana, and Gregory and Makenson, late 20′s from Haiti were with me), but as I was saying when I was rudely interrupted by the roster, Gregory asked me the ridiculous question, “Brother Rob, are you hot”. I looked at him with the sweat sheen gleaming off his black skin and laughed. At the bottom of the hill is a poor section of town. Very poor. We walked through that into town and headed for KFC. I had to try their chicken to compare to the U.S. Plus, the girls love KFC. 12 pieces of chicken and 6 biscuits only cost me $49.50! Yes you read that right. Now of course that is e.c. (eastern Caribbean) currency. But still, in the U. S. that is about $27!!! That also included a two liter of Pepsi. Yes, my friends, Pepsi, and it was tasting good!! especially after the heated walk. The chicken? Just like the good ol’ US of A! The mother company for KFC, YUM! brands, is located in Louisville. David Novak, the CEO attends Southeast Christian (of course) and if I see him I will be sure to tell him that in St. Vincent, the Colonel is safe!

So, after eating, we walked around town a bit, and as I said, it was Friday night! It is the biggest market day. Some streets are shut down, and by 3 p.m. people were already lit up from drinking and smoking the weed. People with coolers of beer of various types, and carts with hard liquor lined the streets with reggae music blaring, and it was a zoo, except these animals did not retreat for sleep, they were out in the sun and cranking it up. I have never heard the F bomb said so many times in so short a span of time in my hearing for a long long time. Well, except for when my church secretary gets upset. Lol. Now these guys, though they speak English, are very difficult to understand with the Caribbean accent (Yo mon!) and the fact that they slur and speak very quickly. I sit with the students at the table at night when we eat, and I still have to ask them what they are saying! I could not hear much of anything, but I sure could hear that F word loud and clear. And the party was just starting! Right now, as I write, it is 9:31. I can only imagine, maybe I can, what it is like down there now.

Interestingly, as we were walking along, a white lady came out of a store and began a conversation with Makenson who was walking behind me. Now the other day I saw white people and thought they might be from the states until I heard them order food with a French accent. Then one day I asked a policeman if I could take his picture in his spiffy uniform ( no I was not in his spiffy uniform, he was!) and another white guy and his wife came trolling up with a camera. I thought this might be kindred soul until he opened his mouth and with a voice like Prince Charles asked, “May I take a photo?” Blimey, it was Johnny Bull from the motherland! But today, I heard the young girl sounding like a ‘Merican. And she was. She was a young lady who graduated from the Arizona State and was serving two years in the Peace Corps teaching literacy.  She was from Scottsdale,  which is where Lisa and Sean live now. That is my daughter and son in law for those of you who may not know. Ok, I am thinking it and so are you probably, so let’s go ahead and make it official by putting it in print. Are you ready now? on three. one. two three. “Small world isn’t it?” There, now do we all feel better?

And speaking of Lisa, she gave me permission to let everyone know that she is expecting my first grandchild (happens to be their first child, too, but that is not as important as being my first grandchild) in September. I told the Arizona girl that fact, and her question was, “Has she ever endured a Phoenix summer?” To which I answered the negative. To which she just chuckled. To which I also chuckled. To which….oh you get it.

As you can tell, we did arrive home safely. Sueanna made some Festival, and it was wonderful. Anything new on the food front, Rob? Well, at lunch we had mutton. Sueanna cooked it in curry, so it looked jaundiced. Yuk. I ate some though I am not fond of jaundice, I mean, curry. When they had supper tonight, which I did not eat because I was not hungry one to two hours after KFC, they served the leftover curried mutton.But there was another bowl of meat next to it, and I asked what it was, to which Marshall replied, “Mutton”. To which I replied, “Mutton?” To which Marshall replied, “Yes, mutton.” To which I replied,”Mutton without curry?” To which he replied, “Yes.” To which I replied,”did you have this at lunch time?!?” To which he replied, “Yes!” To which I cleverly replied, “You mean you had mutton with nuttin?” To which they all laughed, and not just polite laughs, I might add.

I had a great compliment today. Sueanna is a high b student, but today she really messed up a quiz. When I gave her her quiz paper she said, “You are a really good teacher.”  To which I replied…. ok, no more of that “to which I replied” stuff. I told her that she may not think that when she saw her paper. She looked at her paper, then looked back at me and said, “No, really, you are a good teacher.” She made my day.

Ok, time to quit. One last group of thoughts, then I am going to call my main squeeze whom I greatly miss while not missing the snow around her house.

As I reflected on today, I thought about the Mount of Transfiguration experience for the disciples and Jesus. up on that mountain with God and His glory, then having to return to the valley and the arguing crowd and impotent disciples below. It is one of the few times we read about Jesus actually getting frustrated.

Well, the botanical gardens were not the Mount of Transfiguration, but the visit was a moving experience for me with the beauty and the quiet and the peaceful walk with new friends. Then the walk into the heat of the valley with the poverty and party and filthy language and the buying and selling, etc. We would love to live on the mountain, and one day we will when God restores all of creation and we live with Him in eternity, but the valley is where we must go and where we must live. I don’t know if the girl from Arizona was a Christian. She did not respond with any excitement when I shared why I was in town for 3 weeks, but if she is not and cares enough to leave her home to help people gain a foothold in this life by teaching them to read, then why should we not be willing to walk in the valley with the Gospel to give people a foothold in this life and the next by teaching them about Jesus? There is no reason we should not, and billions of reasons why we should; one reason for every red, and yellow, black and white person that God loves in this world. If you are not reaching someone with the Gospel, is there a reason or is there an excuse?

Here is something that I recently read in a book entitled Simply Christian written by N.T. Wright (from England, the land of “may I take a photo?”) He wrote: “Sin is not simply the breaking of a law. It is the missing of an opportunity”.  And I will shut up and not comment on that. I will leave it with you to ponder and to think about your part in taking people to the opportunity of their lives.

Be God’s, ok?

Love ya.

Rob (grandad to be)

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