DAY SIX: Thursday, 13
May 2010
As the plan
was this morning to breakfast at Mango Reef (which didn’t open until 8 am), when
Dave woke up at 6 am he just wandered the beach in front of RWI to watch the
cloudy orange sunrise. Dave also went
between the “mystery dock” and the one at Club Med just soaking up the sun,
until Lee woke up.
Dave did find a conch shell about
the size of both of his fists that had washed up on shore just a short distance
up from RWI. It was rare to come across
a shell in front of the resort areas.
Dave would’ve kept it, but something appeared to be still living in
it. Conchs are snail-like critters, but
this was probably some sort of crab. So
back on the beach it went.
Coming back to the RWI beach, Dave
took some to talk to Eddie, the gentleman who sets the chairs and umbrellas out
in the morning. Eddie’s actual name was
“Eddy,” which in his name Creole in Haiti , sounds like “Ed-wah.” Now that Dave knew how to pronounce the name
correctly, he made sure to say “Ed-wah” each time.
Eddy has been with RWI since 2008,
when he arrived from Haiti . Eddy makes money here, and sends it back home
(which is about a 45 minute flight to Haiti from TCI). Eddy showed Dave his wedding pictures, and
pictures of the kids at his orphanage.
Eddy is a pastor, and has about 70 kids at his orphanage. Eddy also showed some pictures of how the
recent earthquake had demolished his house.
While no orphans were lost, Eddy’s niece died being buried in the
rubble.
Eddy wrote his name out on a piece
of paper, which was also the name of his orphanage foundation. This was written on Eddy’s clipboard of
important papers, so Dave wasn’t able to get a copy of it. Dave would’ve liked to give Eddy’s name to
Mum’s church, to see if they could form some sort of assistance and/or
partnership.
Eddy knew French, of course, as
that is mainly spoken in Haiti ,
which is very similar to his native Creole.
Eddy gave Dave a basic Creole lesson.
The equivalent of “My name is” in Creole was something like “Koman eui
pele.” Dave was both trying to say it
correctly, as well as remembering the spelling so it could be later written in
this journal, so he may not have captured it completely accurate.
Dave made sure to thank Eddy and
tip him for all the great service. Eddy
thanked Dave for taking the time to listen to him. Dave is sure Eddy appreciated being conversed
with as another person, as opposed to being talked to like a simple
employee. Many of the guests would
rudely tell the staff “Get me this” or “Move that,” which was completely
unnecessary.
With Lee now up, we had cinnamon
French toast at Mango Reef. Then we
headed down to the beach where Eddy had reserved chairs for us. See again, being nice to the staff can pay
off. It was a little cloudy, and the
breeze was still making some choppy waves (although not as big as yesterday),
but still fun to frolic in. Lee sat on
the beach mostly. Dave was about
half-and-half in the water and on the beach.
After noon, Dave & Lee came
back to the room to get the majority of the packing done (so it wouldn’t have
to be done the next morning). We also
walked to Ports of Call to get some ice cream from Giggles. Instead of following the road back, we took
the beach access for Seven Stars across the way, and walked back to RWI via the
beach.
Dave was hoping to run into Eddy on
the way back. Having mentioned him to
Lee, Dave thought it might be nice to ask him for some contact info to pass on
to Mum. We didn’t see Eddy when walking
back to RWI.
As Dave & Lee had some
leftovers in the fridge, finishing those off was dinner. It made no sense to buy dinner one more time,
and let the other food go to waste.
With the last of the packing done,
it was time to go down to the beach for the last drinks at sunset. While Dave was getting the drinks, he heard a
voice say “Still working on those rum punches.”
Dave turned to see Jean-Luc working the tables. Dave stopped a moment to chat with him and
thanked him for all the great service he had given him. Dave let Jean-Luc know that he would be
visiting the bar one more time after this for the final drink. Dave also wanted to give him a good final tip
too.
Down at the beach, there was
another great sunset. Still had some
clouds, so we never got to see the post-sunset green glow (something for next
trip). But we did run into Eddy one more
time. Lee got to talk to Eddy, and Eddy
thought Dave’s idea of passing his info on to his Mum’s church was a great
idea. While Dave couldn’t promise anything,
Eddy appreciated the gesture. Phone
numbers, emails, and addresses were exchanged.
One more rum punch and raspberry
breeze would be required to end out the evening. Down at the bar, Dave spoke again to Jean-Luc
and thanked him again for the great week (and gave him a good tip).
Dave & Lee would’ve loved to
stay up later, or even remained longer, but the time in paradise was coming to
a close. Since we knew we had to get up
at an unnatural hour the next morning, it was time to get all the rest we
could.
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