After the pastor said a few words, his body was laid to rest. Even in nicely ironed dress clothes, I still grabbed a shovel and helped toss the dirt to cover his casket. We don't just make the burial ground even with rest of the ground--it becomes a mound that creates perhaps a 3' high dome of dirt. Then the mound is covered with little flowers, various leaves, and small plants that are just rammed into the loose dirt. We dance in circles around the mound while holding lit candles that are then placed into the dirt to burn themselves down. From the cemetery we have another 'jump-up' back down to the village for refreshments.
It might be just me--but I don't think I've fully acclimated to the West Indies weather here yet. Sure, we have our cool spells and all the rain we've been having has helped, even though that spiked the humidity. :( So even in my white shirt and under my umbrella, I was still cooking. You can imagine what sort of mess I might have looked like after a couple jump-ups. Maybe I'll be next....
Even still, I managed to find good times dancing in the street. I'm pretty sure the locals who were looking on had a good laugh and great time. There was a very old woman doing a little dance to the steel pan and the crowd was smiling at her and gave her space. So what did I do? I jumped right next to her and mimicked her every move, causing an eruption of laughter and surprise. Just my style I suppose. There was another good laugh as we were coming back down and one lady started to wind up on me (local style of dance--most easily identified by front to back dry humping, intensity varies). Integrated as I am and not really giving a hoot, I joined in and again it seemed I was a crowd pleaser. Oh the things I do for integration...
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But yes, the wet season is coming in force. Today there were like rain sprinkles, even though the clouds looked happy and fluffy--so strange. Friday night and Saturday brought with them torrents of rain. Now that I've gotten myself a scuba mask and fins (YEAH! ^_^), I was supposed to go with a couple guys to go dive fishing in our bay. Too bad all the rain clouded the waters--from the stirred up sand and the dark runoff coming in heavily from the river estuary in our bay. So diving was rescheduled till further notice. boo.
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Finally figured out what was wrong with my throat and got a cure.
Actually, that would be too easy wouldn't it? Went back to the ENT doctor Wednesday. Said good news is that red swelling on the vocal cords seems to have abated, however the polyp is still there and has become more refined and pronounced. He didn't say if the latter was good or bad... For now, I get to wait until my inhaler comes in the mail and use that for a few weeks. If significant change isn't seen, the doc is recommending a surgery to remove it and then send it to the lab for analysis. The procedure he says is rather easy to do and he has done several at our local hospital in Kingstown. Until then, I'm still very hoarse but need my voice to work.
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St. Vincent and the Grenadines is currently undergoing a draft bill to propose a new constitution for the country. The constitution currently in place for almost 30 years now ever since SVG gained independence from England. The current government has been gathering and reviewing information to develop this new version. Much of it is the same, but there are several big changes. I won't got the drawn out stuff, but I did see a few things I wanted to note. It seems that SVG is trying to do like many states back home and put a legal definition for marriage.
The proposed constitution defines marriage to be allowed between a person who is born biologically male and a person who is born biologically female. My dear readers--let's not hold debate on this, as I'm sure opinions are split. I am doing my best to stay apolitical, but I must raise an eyebrow at the determinate of being 'born biologically'. What about those few people who are born to both genders? I suppose their intention is to rule out those who have changed genders, but it still makes for a messy hot-button issues. Certainly not as hot-button as back home, but there are those who disagree with same gender marriages that yet don't think it belongs in the constitution.
Actually I had an enlightening discussion with a Vincentian about this topic. This person, who is qualified to speak on such matters, told me that the EU offers quite a bit of funding for various projects. However there is a large quantity of that funding that has some portion of it with requirements that relate to LGBT issues--a sort of if you want the rest, you'll have to include this type of funding. He spoke of increasing pressure on the West Indies islands to reduce the homophobic attitude, but it appears the majority of people simply are not interested in that sort of change. So while he did not say it directly, such constitutional clauses like a heterosexual only marriage and retention of buggery laws would allow a country to reject the sections of such funding as it might challenge sovereign constitutionality.
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Not sure what it is, but for some reason my bathroom seems to be the base of operations for an army of mosquitoes. Ok perhaps not an army, but surely enough to be very annoying. I thought I found a spot near my toilet that led to who knows where and I thought they were coming in from there. I plugged it up with a towel and that seemed to keep them to a minimum. Now, they're back and I see them flitting about in the corners of my eyes. So for now, I am hunting them one by one--trying to keep ahead of the reinforcements.
It will be an epic battle.....
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Lastly, I recently read another volunteer's blog-->Karen on St. Lucia, where she credited some photos to her friend and linked to a site displaying all sorts of trash issues. More than 9 months here and I'm glad that I still get ticked off as seeing all the garbage here on the streets, rivers, and beaches. It isn't as bad in my village as compared to the larger town areas or Kingstown--where some streets smell terrible from it. However, the trash situation here was put into context when I saw some of these linked pictures. Sure, I know garbage is a problem in many countries--developed and developing alike. Not too long ago, Italy had it's own garbage crisis where it was piling high in the streets of Napoli and much of it got shipped up to Germany. Unfortunately, the rise of populations, consumer habits, and mass production are contributing to a booming catastrophe just waiting to happen. The answer isn't as easy as reduce/reuse/recycle or use less packaging--the economics and politics of garbage goes much deeper.
Check out the photos I saw by clicking on this picture below:
Stay safe and happy,
ciao tutti
~your local wannabe jedi
~Shawn
3 comments:
Hey Shawn - Your description of the funeral is great. I find it fascinating to learn how different cultures grieve. Thanks for passing on the trash link. It's something we all need to be reminded about. I hope your throat situation doesn't have to end in a surgical procedure!
Haha, it was funny reading an account of the spontaneous white foreigner joining in in a dance from that white foreigner's perspective. :P
If the constitution is approved, I suppose the implications of that provision on the intersexed will be decided by parliament when it passes laws motivated by section 17, and by the courts whenever someone decides to challenge such a law.
The European Union funding thing is interesting. I'm sure that, for now, the EU won't care to pressure us to make gay marriage legal, but it may only be a matter of time before it does that. (Or, if not same-sex marriages, then same-sex civil unions.) But I don't see how section 17 could be used to defend the laws against sodomy that are still on our books, nor do I think it can be used to justify not having legislation against the discrimination of people based on their homosexuality. I guess we'll see, though.
whoa! do you mean an actual polyp? an invertabrate? a cnidarian? related to the jellyfish? tough luck man. feel better! :)
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