Barrel Strength

Your correspondent received the following travel story from a friend.

Last week we decided that we wanted to visit an island in Bahamas that was off the beaten path. Given the limited ferry routes, and our desire to spend only one night in a place with limited amenities , our choices were limited to the island chains of Eleuthera and Andros. We selected Eleuthera based on the logistical issues and set off for Spanish Wells, an island that is about half a mile wide and two miles long with a population of about 1,600. Other than that salient fact, we didn’t know much about this island.

On the way there in a ferry, my friend sat beside a black man and innocently enquired if he was going to Spanish Wells as well. He pointed at his forearm and said to my friend, “they don’t like my kind there.” Needless to say that this came as a surprise to us given that the population of Bahamas is 90% black. We disembarked the ferry and went into a restaurant to eat our breakfast. The waitress/cashier/hostess was white and that is when I started noticing similarity to Man-O-War cay in the Abaco island chain.

Both islands are populated by white evangelical Christians and both of them are dry. The proprietor of the only restaurant in Man-O-War cay, told me that he had a liquor license but didn’t want to serve alcohol, because the locals would ostracize him and he would lose business. He blamed it on “narrow-minded religious people” and said that with a straight face, as I gazed at the 6″ brass cross he was wearing around his neck. I was told that at one point they did have a liquor store in Spanish Wells, but it caused too many problems. Given that there is only one level of government, the individual cays do not have right to ban alcohol but societal pressures keep these two cays dry, although it is easy to acquire it with no prohibition on bringing it in, unlike some of the native communities in northern Canada.

Spanish Wells itself is a prosperous community that relies on fishing for its source of wealth. The fisherman on this island sell all their lobster catch to Red Lobster chain of restaurants in North America. It is obvious that this hard work has been rewarding. Houses are well maintained, roads are clean, lawns are pristine and there is very little crime. I was informed by the young lady to leave my rented golf cart in the front, with the keys in the ignition, if the counter was unattended. The beaches are amazing and one can walk a couple of miles out into the water and still be only waist deep. About 70% of the population goes to the three churches on Sunday and I heard more Christian music at the church fund raiser than I have in my entire life. This cay takes it cultural cues from US in many ways. They are rabid sports fans and follow New York Yankees avidly as if it is their home team. Golf carts are painted with various sports motifs.

Like the rest of the world, there is the usual divide between the younger generation and the rest. The friendships on the island are over a wider age group, because of the small number of people in each age group. In the 18-35 age group one of the things to do is to go to the beach at night, light a bonfire, drink beer and smoke marijuana. It is not enough to keep the two resident policemen on the island busy . Several of them had a desire to leave the island, as they found is boring and stifling, but they also understood that they had no means of doing it. The openly referred to blacks as niggers and opined as to what might happen to you in Nassau, the capital of Bahamas. Blacks are not made welcome here and that explains why the population is, in my estimate, 98% white. Rhodies would feel at home here.

Meanwhile back in the country formerly known as Rhodesia we find this:

I had lunch in Mutare yesterday, a town in Zimbabwe on the Mozambique border.

To give you a benchmark — bread is currently over 110 million a loaf; on 22nd April it was 40 million per loaf.

The lunch bill: soup — 50 million, oxtail — 600 million, coffee — 50 million, with no charge for the pink ice cream.

During the meal, one of my mates was drinking beer — 750ml bottles of Castle Lager (fondly called bombers). He ordered a fifth one, was advised that the price, which when he ordered his first, second, third and fourth ones was 160 million per bottle, had gone up to 340 million per bottle.

That’s right — during lunch there was a price increase…