Welcome to Barbados!
I think I have at least put one foot into the life of the Bajan people as of today, 48 hours after arrival. I was treated to the traditional Bajan food saved for Saturdays because of the extensive preparation: "Souse and pickle" is a cucumber type relish with hot peppers and pork strips that is used to spice boiled yams (white and milder than the yams or sweet potatoes that I am used to in Canada) along with a spiced mashed potato that is served as a sausage, called "Pudding". Before too many mouthfuls I needed a glass of water and was wiping my nose from the spices - but it was really delicious and I had a second helping along with a second glass of water!
This meal marked for me a self-understanding of my journey into the bowl of life here in Barbados. (The image of a bowl is of particular importance to me as a way of understanding and talking about my engagement with life in all places - more on that another time). The bowl that I have stepped into is a somewhat familiar one - the bowl of family life.
The generousity, warmth, laughter and activity in the kitchen of the Forbes household is amazing! My hosts for the duration of this journey are Mary and Basil Forbes. They live in Rose Hill Plantation which is very close to the infamous Gun Hill on the north-east side of Bridgetown. Rose Hill Plantation was about 68 acres when Basil Forbes purchased it. It is less now since portions are being sold off for further development of houses. The
home is a wonderful blend of 150 year old elements and new construction. Ceilings reaching 15 feet high on the main floor arch over doorways that are likely 4ft wide by 8 feet tall, with those that open to the glorious veranda being double the width. All the rooms have large windows, many of them with window seats - a favourite place, I would imagine for many a book readin
g hour or two! The kitchen is large and just oozes with the joy of family life. Never quite without the smell of cooking food or recently consumed meals, it is the central gathering place of the large Forbes family. Extended members of the family come and go with wonderful ease, the children always wanting to talk with Basil, the grandfather and Mary the grandmother. Today it was wonderful to see the youngest Forbes - Nathan, age 4 months, alongside cousins Naomi and Matthew along with a Mom, a Grandmother and a great-Grandmother. What a bowl of blessing this kitchen is!
These last 48 hours have been a change - warmth a given (with a delayed winter bearing down on Southern Ontario), clouds a blessings and brief rain showers a relief for this Canadian person! But beyond that, sights are familiar and different and sounds are familiar and different. There is the splendour of gardens, the sight of laundry crisply fluttering on the clothesline, people sweeping porches and raking yards, children playing ball hockey on the street, teens hanging out and chatting in a car pulled to the side of the road, cars being washed, babies being fed and women making meals - all like home, in fact very much like home on a summer's day. How much humanity does human things the same!
Sure, there are palm trees that gracefully sway in the warm breezes - but they remind me of the old cedars growing from the rock of the Niagara Escarpment above my house. Those plants that are
indoor plants for us Canadians grow wild and in gardens, only they are 10x the size here in Barbados! People lean on their porch railings and talk with each other with laughter and yelling erupts from the children playing in the yards and on the streets.
Young men laugh and prod each other over their vehicles as they wash their "pride and joy" together in front of houses. Dogs bark in the distance and radios play in the houses. And babies gurgle and smile the same the whole world through while adults burst into smiles in response. The sweetness of human life is universal!
This morning while meditating on the veranda with the hummingbirds in the
bougainvillea, I read Numbers 18: 29 "You must present as the Lord's portion the best and holiest part of everything given to you". My whole day has been one of experiencing people giving the best to each other in those ways that so often our society sees as mundane - gifts of laughter, a loving touch, presence, sharing, celebrating - the essentials of human life lived together as each lifts up the love that has been graced to them. Life is not a commodity in these experiences that I had today - each moment stands as if in resistance to a global empire that is trying to shape them as secondary, secondary to the human abilities to produce and consume things. The sounds of gurgles, the sense of joy, the scenes of creation bear testimony to the goodness of that which God has given. Now I am challenged to see this place, be in this place and live from this place as my offering back to God.
Till next time.....blessings!
I think I have at least put one foot into the life of the Bajan people as of today, 48 hours after arrival. I was treated to the traditional Bajan food saved for Saturdays because of the extensive preparation: "Souse and pickle" is a cucumber type relish with hot peppers and pork strips that is used to spice boiled yams (white and milder than the yams or sweet potatoes that I am used to in Canada) along with a spiced mashed potato that is served as a sausage, called "Pudding". Before too many mouthfuls I needed a glass of water and was wiping my nose from the spices - but it was really delicious and I had a second helping along with a second glass of water!
This meal marked for me a self-understanding of my journey into the bowl of life here in Barbados. (The image of a bowl is of particular importance to me as a way of understanding and talking about my engagement with life in all places - more on that another time). The bowl that I have stepped into is a somewhat familiar one - the bowl of family life.
The generousity, warmth, laughter and activity in the kitchen of the Forbes household is amazing! My hosts for the duration of this journey are Mary and Basil Forbes. They live in Rose Hill Plantation which is very close to the infamous Gun Hill on the north-east side of Bridgetown. Rose Hill Plantation was about 68 acres when Basil Forbes purchased it. It is less now since portions are being sold off for further development of houses. The
home is a wonderful blend of 150 year old elements and new construction. Ceilings reaching 15 feet high on the main floor arch over doorways that are likely 4ft wide by 8 feet tall, with those that open to the glorious veranda being double the width. All the rooms have large windows, many of them with window seats - a favourite place, I would imagine for many a book readin
g hour or two! The kitchen is large and just oozes with the joy of family life. Never quite without the smell of cooking food or recently consumed meals, it is the central gathering place of the large Forbes family. Extended members of the family come and go with wonderful ease, the children always wanting to talk with Basil, the grandfather and Mary the grandmother. Today it was wonderful to see the youngest Forbes - Nathan, age 4 months, alongside cousins Naomi and Matthew along with a Mom, a Grandmother and a great-Grandmother. What a bowl of blessing this kitchen is!These last 48 hours have been a change - warmth a given (with a delayed winter bearing down on Southern Ontario), clouds a blessings and brief rain showers a relief for this Canadian person! But beyond that, sights are familiar and different and sounds are familiar and different. There is the splendour of gardens, the sight of laundry crisply fluttering on the clothesline, people sweeping porches and raking yards, children playing ball hockey on the street, teens hanging out and chatting in a car pulled to the side of the road, cars being washed, babies being fed and women making meals - all like home, in fact very much like home on a summer's day. How much humanity does human things the same!
Sure, there are palm trees that gracefully sway in the warm breezes - but they remind me of the old cedars growing from the rock of the Niagara Escarpment above my house. Those plants that are
indoor plants for us Canadians grow wild and in gardens, only they are 10x the size here in Barbados! People lean on their porch railings and talk with each other with laughter and yelling erupts from the children playing in the yards and on the streets.Young men laugh and prod each other over their vehicles as they wash their "pride and joy" together in front of houses. Dogs bark in the distance and radios play in the houses. And babies gurgle and smile the same the whole world through while adults burst into smiles in response. The sweetness of human life is universal!
This morning while meditating on the veranda with the hummingbirds in the
bougainvillea, I read Numbers 18: 29 "You must present as the Lord's portion the best and holiest part of everything given to you". My whole day has been one of experiencing people giving the best to each other in those ways that so often our society sees as mundane - gifts of laughter, a loving touch, presence, sharing, celebrating - the essentials of human life lived together as each lifts up the love that has been graced to them. Life is not a commodity in these experiences that I had today - each moment stands as if in resistance to a global empire that is trying to shape them as secondary, secondary to the human abilities to produce and consume things. The sounds of gurgles, the sense of joy, the scenes of creation bear testimony to the goodness of that which God has given. Now I am challenged to see this place, be in this place and live from this place as my offering back to God.Till next time.....blessings!
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