I have rarely seen a population so happy to party. Music come out of every window (sometimes very loud music even). People parc litterally meters away from the sea, open their doors and let the radio scream whatever zouk, reggae or mix of both currently runs on it (which leads to obvious music contests).Today was the national day on StLucia. At 6:00 am, a truck loaded with loud speakers parked at one end of the town and turned the music ON (and damn loud), only to turn it OFF late in the afternoon.
Whatever the time of the day, people are sitting in the streets, listening to the music, singing along while smoking (including marijuana), drinking ; simply having fun. Of course they will not miss any opportunity to whistle when you walk by and engage the conversation ; either to inquire how your trip is doing and if you need anything… or to offer to sell you the “best ganja in the world that if you don’t smoke any, that simply means you don’t like life because ganja is what will unite all nations someday”… Somehow – to make a parallel with my previous post – I dreaded those encounters at first… but soon realized there is nothing to be afraid of ; those big muscular guys really just want to talk :] and love to tell you all about their Rasta way of life.
At night, beside the dozens of people packing up the streets, enjoying the BBQs set up at every corner, you need to add up the cars cruising around. Cars are obviously a social status symbol. They are completely cleaned up, nicely polished, with shiny tires, often have smoked windows and in place of the rear bank you’ll find a wall of loudspeakers (again playinf music LOUD). Those monsters (oh I forgot to mention that those cars are either 4×4 SUVs or Toyota busses) are so present that at some point we wondered if people were walking around at all or only driving from A to B.
Tonight (every wednesday) is a special BBQ evening planned in town. Fish and scampi are on the menu… I’m looking forward to it, while at the same time wondering how it could be any different than all the BBQs we’ve seen sofar.
That said, off we go to the marketplace!