byGinene

Here we are, exactly one month until I leave this little island and go back to… I’m actually struggling with what to call it… my real life?… reality?…the great expanse that is Canada?… Not really fair to call it reality or my real life, my life has been pretty real here. This has been a very important chapter of my life. So very difficult but also life changing. How many people can say that they picked up and started a new life? Or that they’ve lived abroad, especially on a little island paradise? And how many people can say that they spent 8 years healing and growing and preparing for new challenges?

So what I will say is this… one month until I go home to friends, family and a homeland where I feel like I belong. Gotta say that even when I was having fun here I’ve never really felt like I belong. I remember my first summer here, the Non-Mariners Race. Let me explain…

Every year, usually around the end of July, there’s an event called Cup Match. Thursday and Friday are holidays, actually commemorating emancipation. But, Cup Match takes place on those days, it’s a two day cricket event where the Somerset team faces the St George’s team. Go Somerset, red and blue! Almost everything in the island shuts down for 4 days (Thursday thru Sunday) and it’s a huge party. Things really shut down on Wednesday so people can prepare to camp for the next 4 days.

OK, so Cup Match takes place the first 2 days then on Sunday there is the Non-Mariners race. Once again, an excuse to party and have a huge raft-up. A raft-up is when loads of boats line up next to one another and tie themselves together. Then it becomes one huge party boat. People go from one boat the the next, share food and beverages etc. The actual Non-Mariners race is a fun event. Basically people build boats out of things that wouldn’t normally be part of a boat. Then they race them. In most cases, they don’t make it to the finish line.

So anyways, now that you know what it is, let me return to my story of not belonging. It was my first summer and I didn’t really know too many people. I had worked the rest of Cup Match so I took the Sunday off to go see what this Non-Mariners race was about. A friend of mine, Dell, went along. I figured he would hang out with me in the water but the air conditioned bar called his name. So off I went on my own. I was hoping that I might see someone I knew… nope. I was a sad sight. Swimming around, by myself, watching all these people seeing friends and family and having a great time. I was literally swimming around crying, incredibly homesick, desperately looking for someone I knew. In hindsight, I realize that if I had just swam up to some people and said hello they probably would have welcomed me but I didn’t.

So anyhow… looking forward to returning HOME!