Spice Island (Grenada) Impressions: Installment 7

By: aromaproductions on 9:11 PM

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Spice Island (Grenada) Impressions: Installment Seven

Day eleven, Wednesday, 24 July, 2013

Carenage in St. Georges, Grenada 

        A gongoglo (millipede) lies curled up in front of the desk where I write and a big black beetle lies in front of the freezer. I have sprayed the millipede. It is not moving. It might be dead, killed by all-night air-conditioning or maybe it just lies in catatonic state waiting for the room to warm up.

The beetle is a different story. I step on, and it lies still, but later it turns over and crawls toward the door. My husband doesn’t know about the millipede yet.

Talking about the living and the dead, my Samsung phone has been resurrected after following the advice of my son, Michael and my daughter Malaika. 

I take the battery out as they suggested, put it back in and recharge it and it came to life. Boy, I am thankful. I have taken pictures of the "horrible" millipede and beetle with my resurrected Samsung.

 My Samsung has become a very reliable friend.

I thought mosquitoes were avoiding me but yesterday while sitting on the huge verandah at Andall’s Restaurant in St. Georges, and watching hungry birds having an afternoon meal and enjoying the sunny harbor view, I noticed that my arms were spotted with tiny red marks. These mosquitoes must have tiny, sharp lancers, minute enough so I don’t feel their sting. I am not yet itching after ten days. Am I lucky? God’s knows. The insects are the only downside to this island.

I have written another poem. This one is about the insects.

Things That Make My Teeth and Feet Grind

They are nosy,

sneak inside my home

despite wire-meshed windows

and closed doors.

.

Is my home better than theirs?

Are they escaping the heat,

crawling in because it is

air-conditioned cold?

Why don’t they burrow

into the cool earth? 

I would not arrive

without an invitation

to their homes.

Don’t they know that

to roam in my house

is to sign their death warrant?

Don’t they know

I am armed with sprays,

and swatters, and feet that grind?

Do not enter my house.

I am the KKK

to the insect world.

There lie my recent victims--

a centipede, a millipede,

a black beetle, a large roach.

This daily insect invasion

is not putting my fear at rest.

I have seen swift rats and snakes

fleeing in my presence.

They try to keep a distance.

I rather watch them in a zoo

and snare in distain,

pump my fist exuberantly

at their imprisonment

from behind the safety

of thick glass walls.

© Althea Romeo-Mark 24.07. 2013, draft 1

A photo of The Blue Danube Supermarket/Restaurant/Bakery seen from another hill.

One of my tasks today is to make a photographic and a written inventory of things in the studio as we plan to rent it to tourist after September. That task is now behind me. Photos are taken and inventory done.








I have only left our home twice today and didn’t go far—just to the Blue Danube to buy dishwashing liquid, salt-fish, coke and other bits and pieces. I needed the rest after spending most of yesterday out and about. I am well recuperated and ready to go again. The surrounding is relaxing, healing.

Dinner is done. Had forgotten how salty Caribbean salt fish (cod fish) is. We are having salty, salt fish (bacalhau as Puerto Ricans call it), boiled plantain and salad for dinner.

Salt fish (Cod fish) is often eaten with fungi or coocoo (cornmeal, polenta if you are Swiss or Italian). It is also eaten with boiled dumplins, or johnny cakes (fried dumplins with baking powder).

Nowadays, I eat my salt fish with Basmati rice or wild rice.  I tell myself it is healthier than boiled dumplins, but I am not sure if I am right about that. I have convinced myself that rice has less starch.

One can also enjoy a nice salt fish salad without a lot of oil. That is delicious.

Salt fish recipe: http://latinfood.about.com/od/maindishes/r/fried-salt-fish-recipe.htm

The workers, who are renovating our home, are hoping I would make them a Swiss dinner. I don’t think these laborers are ready for cheese fondue or raclette. When I first arrived in Switzerland, I thought, what is it with this fondue? You dip bread in hot cheese, twirl it around on a stick to absorb the cheese and hope the hot cheese doesn’t burn your fingers. That is not a dinner.

Cheese Fondue

Raclette was much better and has improved over time. It is melted cheese that you eat with boiled potatoes and pickled vegetables. They have now added thin, grilled meat slices (chicken, beef, pork) to the offering.

http://www.raclettecorner.com/raclette-recipes

But it is so much cheese. I am always suspicious that it is the cause of constipation. You are to swallow it down with a stiff undiluted drink like gin or schnapps (swallow) (- a strong alcoholic drink that will digest the cheese and probably melt your intestines).

I don’t think a grilled sausage (würst) and bread will satisfy the workers either. They will need a hearty meal that will stick to their ribcages.

If I am in a good mood, I might make potato stuffing, a Virgin Islands dish. This is the dish I make when I wish to represent, St. Thomas, US, Virgin Islands, my home since the age of eight.

I now have four homes: Antigua and Barbuda, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, Liberia (West Africa) and Basel, Switzerland.  All of these places are a part of who I am.

Potato Stuffing (US, Virgin Islands dish)

6 large white potatoes
4 tablespoons tomato paste
1 small onion, minced
¼ cup sugar
2 stalks celery
1 medium green bell pepper, minced
1 teaspoon hot pepper, minced
¾ cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup raisins
3 sprigs parsley
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons thyme, chopped

Peel and cut potatoes and boil in salted water. When tender, drain water and mash. Add cooking oil to a pan and sauté raisins, onion, green pepper and celery until translucent. Add pepper and sugar. Pour this mixture, in batches, into mashed potatoes. Some oil may remain which can be discarded. Spoon stuffing into a greased baking pan and bake in 350-degree oven for about 25 minutes.

I would have to serve it with a baked chicken or two baked chickens. No surprise there. Now where would I get fresh chicken? We are not in the countryside where you can chase the chicken down, wring its neck, pluck its feathers and prepare it for dinner.

Can’t believe the day is over. It is past my usual bed time (9:00) in Grenada.



One of the birds that sing in the trees in our garden.

Day twelve, Thursday, 25 July, 2013

           The modem my husband ordered, when he arrived in May, hasn’t yet arrived. Heard it is stuck at customs. Money has to be paid. This island gobbles up money. The modem has been arriving ever since I arrived. Ha! Ha! This is the Caribbean for you. Every day is a day of “wait and see”.

I killed my first giant roach, I think, stunned it with insect spray. It is lying on its back in the bathroom. I’ll check in on it later to see if its legs are still moving. 

I have been washing in one of those outside partitioned cement-made washing basins with a built in scrubbing board. Our duvet is so large, it couldn’t fit into the washing machine. I had to fall back on washing pre-machine days.  It is kind of fun. I feel like someone’s house servant doing the washing in the yard in the early 19^th Century, or much later, depending on where you grew up. I am an island girl. I remember those washboards which have now become museum pieces in some quarters.

           That reminds me. I took a photo of an outdoor latrine. I don’t think it is still in use.

Galvanize outdoor toilet surrounded by wild bush.

I go to connect with the outside world in St. Georges. I buy chicken There is no time to chase down a chicken and kill it. Don’t think I want to. I also buy potatoes and aluminum baking dishes for Monday’s dinner. I look for celery, an important ingredient for the potato stuffing dish, but there is none in the supermarket. I will have to go to the market to find it. I hope the workers will like the potato stuffing.

Back from St. George’s. My husband’s cousin who’s supposed to pick us up at 1:00 p.m. hasn’t arrived. It is now minutes past two.

She finally arrives at 2:30 p.m. and takes us in her car to see one of her houses. Margret solicits my husband’s opinion on where she could extend her two story house. She can’t do it at the front because it would block the view of the harbor and there is a huge breadfruit tree standing in front of it.  They agree that she could build on the side of the two-story apartment.

Breadfruit tree

In the meantime, my husband points out a mahogany tree. It is huge and I am wondering how I will distinguish it from similar looking trees. I don’t remember seeing one before or if I did, it has slipped my memory. I feel the same about the calabash tree that is bearing two calabash fruit. I am sure I must have seen these when I was a child.

Later, they will become a hallowed out gourd that will be turned into decorative bowls sold in a souvenir shop.

 I take a picture of this one and hope I can identify it later—the tree whose fruit is green and looks a little bigger than a breadfruit. I have deleted pictures before because I couldn’t remember what kind of tree I had taken a photo of and my husband was also clueless.

My husband’s cousin, Margret, drops us off at our place after the brief consultation, but soon I am out again to buy a bottle of Rivers rum, Grenada's  best known. I remind myself that I should buy a bottle before I leave. It costs thirty-six Grenadian dollars ($13.00).

There are cheaper Grenadian rums. I only buy rum to make rum punch or once in a blue moon have a rum and coke—the only way I will drink it. Today I discovered a mauby drink. Another drink I can add to my list of discoveries. The first is Angostura (lemon, lime and bitters) which is non-alcoholic and delicious.

I must say that I miss some childhood drinks that I found difficult to find at first. I associate drinks like, cream soda, with my British Caribbean childhood.   Of course, there were medicinal drinks like "sena," "Ferrol,"and "cod liver  oil" which were spooned out weekend purges that still make me shudder just thinking about them.          

I am thinking however that our parents and grandparents were already sailing on the good health ship.

I have already had pawpaw, sour-sap and three mangoes today. That is still under the required number of fruit you should eat to maintain a healthy life but they will do.

It has been reported that many people on the island Okinawa in Japan live to reach a hundred years or more.  They eat at least seven fruit a day and maintain many healthy habits. It is also said that in their dialect there is no word for "retired." And they are never in a hurry.

neighbor's house

I have checked my duvet which is ninety percent dry but the bath rugs are still wet because of the short heavy rain that fell earlier. I decide to pick them up tomorrow after moving them to a sheltered area just like my neighbor. Tomorrow I will wash again and so will my neighbor.

My husband has gone to Courts’ Department Stores to ask for a copy of the washing instructions. I hope the machine will work correctly after this.

When I go out onto the street I am amazed at the number of new homes and number of new cars that ply the roads.

Grenada has 30 percent unemployment, yet there is an abundance of new SUVs. I haven’t seen an old dilapidated car yet.










      I am now thinking about a young man who came up to me near Grand Anse Beach and said he was from St. John’s Parish, and unemployed. He asked me for $2.00 GD to buy something to eat. I am always suspicious of beggars, but I give him $1.25. It is enough to buy a roasted corn. It is filling.

Dinner time is here.  It is a nice Caribbean vegetable  (yam, plantain, carrots, dasheen, dumplins and pigeon peas) and meat soup made by my husband.

After dinner I read and read and read —no internet, no TV. Good night. Sweet dreams.