February
16th. Today
is “the get out of the boat day”. Jim has just rented a car for
24 hours. A small Suzuki, very comfy. He went to the police station
and bought a driving permit and now is in the bank exchanging money.
The bank seems to be busy, but... in the islands life is very slow too.
We
are anchored in Portsmouth Bay, west side of Dominica and our plan is
to drive to Calibichie, on the east coast. In our way there we want
to stop by the medical school for lunch, they have very good food stands.
We
get to med school just in time to skip the crowd of students getting
out of the class to buy lunch. The food is outstanding and the fruit
juices take us to freshness land.
After
lunch we head south and turn left in a steep road, that is not in the
map, but Jim seems to know pretty well. It is the farms hill. Along
this trip we stop and talk to the farmers and buy oranges, grape
fruit and bananas.
This
is definitely a small world, we are driving higher up the hill when
this young man, called Jerry; who buys the oranges from the farmers
to take them to the port and export the to other islands; stops the
car to give us some free oranges. We park the Suzuki and start
talking to him and the owner of the land, Louie. As soon as I mention
that I'm from Cuba Jerry says: “I spent one month living in
Cotorro, Edificio 88”. This place is one of the oldest communities, located in the limits of Havana City, near to the National Botanical Garden. “How come?” I ask
surprised. The answer is even more stunning. “I went to the youth festival...” “...In 1997”. I finish his phrase. That was a huge
event organized in Cuba, where people from 136 countries got together in Cuba with the motto: "for Anti-imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship". I worked in
that event as an voluntary organizer and I also had a participant
living in my house.
In
the meanwhile Louie gives Jim a very sharp knife to cut an orange, I
say good bye to Jerry, who leaves smiling, some usual in the natives.
We stay talking to this old man that I'm having a hard time to
understand and pretty soon I know we are following his truck on this
steep road to visit his biggest land. Jim looks at me, I notice some
tension on his voice when he asks me if I think it is OK. “Don't
you worry, I know kung-fu.” I joke. He says: “they really know
how to sharp a machete”.
I'm
not scared.
AnechyNotes
