Transitions

Sometimes change is hard, sometimes change is as good as a holiday – as the saying goes. Last week I made a move – I left the newly familiar shores of the Turks & Caicos and headed south to St. Lucia. My life is all about new experiences – it’s something that I love. I crave the unknown, new destinations, new adventures. New mountains to climb, new physical boundaries to find – the draw of the unknown is immeasurable. But just because the unknown is so desirable – doesn’t necessarily make it any easier.

I was in the groove in T&C – I had it down pat, life was easy. Maybe it was too easy, because the transition to St. Lucia was a bit of a steep learning curve. Where the former island was easy to travel around with tourist infrastructure and a geography that was dead easy to navigate – things are a bit different down south. All of a sudden I’m back in the developing world.

Granted, I had a bit of a rough start to things. It’s quite ironic in fact – I’m a real champion of technology. I love gadgets, computers, cameras and so on. But I’ve been up against it for the past few weeks – my computer is dying. Shortly after arriving in the Caribbean my little Dell has started to act up to the point that the death rattle is eminent. I won’t bore you with the techno-babble but I’ve become all too familiar with something called, “The Blue Screen of Death”. Nothing that ends in of death is ever a good thing…

So after I arrived in this new and strange place my travelling companion, workmate, potable cinema, digital photo album and link to wi-fi, blogs, news and communication has been a glorified paperweight. The tech-trouble didn’t stop there. My bank card wasn’t working in the local ATM’s here, so until I travelled to another town to a different brand of bank – finances were getting a bit tight. This all added up to the world being a bit half-full for a few days.

Now don’t get me wrong, St. Lucia is a beautiful place – amazingly striking to be honest. Massive Tahitian style mountains jutting up from the sea towering over the tiny island. The blue-green Caribbean water lapping on the dark sand beaches. Rainforest covering the hillsides with microtowns bustling with colourful locals…

But it never really clicked until yesterday. There I was riding in a local bus – no different to any other bus I’ve ridden in while in the developing world. Not a bus by western standards but a van crammed to capacity with locals – and me shoved into the back corner. Maybe it was the way the towering Rasta was driving – like a complete lunatic, maybe it was the road – the windiest stretch of highway I’ve ever been on (and yes that includes NZ and Peru) maybe it was the dancehall reggae blasting through the speakers at full volume. But what I really think it was the granny in the seat in front of me. As the bus rocketed around the corners with reckless abandon I could see her head bobbing to the beat of Sean Pauls distinctive voice. In that instant I knew it was time to chill out, go with the flow and no matter how up and down the road is - remember to enjoy the ride…

Merry Christmas everybody – to you and yours I wish you the best over the holiday season and a great start to 2008! But don’t worry; I’ll be in touch before the end of the year!

Cheers
~Scott