Barbados

Barbados. I could easily live there for several reasons. I was privileged to visit Barbados in November this year (2007). I arrived 1 November and left 8 November. The trip from Uganda was of course a long one with a one night stop-over in London. The total flight hours from Entebbe (Uganda) is about 16-17 hours. Stressful though it was, I think the nature of the destination paid it all in full. No regrets.

The people in Barbados (the ones I interacted with) were very hospitable. I got ushered to this immediately I arrived at the immigration desk at the airport. Throughout my stay, this factor did not change. The staff at the three hotels I had something to do in were excellent. Within that short time, I stayed in two different hotels and had meals in three different hotels. They all had wonderful staff. My speculative conclusion is that this country being one of the tourist destinations in the West Indies, the citizen learn early in their life to be excellent hosts. Could it be true that both at home and at school the children are taught some skills in handling guests? Maybe it is introduced so early in their life that it becomes a lifestyle and not a professional practice. What lessons can we draw from that?

The 'strange' experience I got was the heat. I thought Uganda was hot (maximum temperature of 28 Celsius on a hot day) but I discovered it was relatively cooler. At the time, Barbados was 30 Celsius and a bit humid. I felt it immediately I disembarked from the plane. The drive to the hotel was good, of course in an air conditioned vehicle that suited most of us visitors. The environment looked familiar - suggestive of a tropical weather. It almost looked like home.

I met very many nice Barbadians (famously called Bajans) including the legendary Wes Hall, the Cricket legend (middle in the picture below - L-R: Sam Okech, Wes Hall and Nick Gumede). He is such a good orator and was a good choice for a speaker at the opening ceremony of the 4th Pan Commonwealth Veterinary Conference I had travelled to partcipate in (as speaker in the conference; moderator of a group session on animal welfare and invited observer in the CVA Council). Wes is a clergyman, a politician and leader (I believe that the latter two words can and should not necessarily be used to describe the same abilities, especially in Africa).

Rev. Hall shared with us his vision for the revival of Cricket in the West Indies and one of the many things I recall in his speech was that they are developing cricket right from the 'bottom upwards' - harnessing talent from the communities and growing them into international standards. I am totally persuaded that is the best way to go - it seems to be more sustainable.

My confession is that before I met and heard this gentleman speak about cricket, I had no interest at all in cricket but now I am very interested in learning how to count the points. What do these terms mean: wickets, runs, overs, etc and how do they happen?

Surely this page is not exhaustive of my Barbados experience. I will come back with more soon. Although I did not taste rum, I will write something small about it. I should also share something about the ship experience. I missed seeing the black belly sheep so do not expect much in that direction.