Easter was Festival del Mar time in Island Harbour, their one big event of the year, and we were there!!! There was loads of fun, food and meeting old and new friends. We watched the traditional sailing boat races, saw the contestants of the fishing competition come back, and enjoyed a lot of life music! The beach was all built up with little stalls and there was fish and lobster on offer in large quantities, any style you could imagine! I tried the lionfish- first time ever for me- and I have to say it was really tasty! We should export it to the UK and use it for Fish’n’Chips, giving the good old cod and haddock a break!!!

On Sunday I had some conch soup, which was absolutely amazing and in the evening Sarah and I shared a lobster- it was huge- expertly prepared by the Jackmaster, self proclaimed “King of the Sea”. Very, very nice indeed, fresh from the BBQ.

I enjoyed watching the kids model boat races: They built the boats themselves, in the same fashion as traditional racing boats are built, then the boats are taken out to Scilly Cay (and island situated in the harbour), they fix the sails, and off those little boats race towards the shore, powered by wind and steered by the set sails! Really great! Then we watched the kids dancing competition- the girls dance like the adults- the beach volleyball tournament, the swimming competition (it was a relay and I did not know in advance, otherwise I would have tried to find a partner. I would have had a really good chance as well, judging from the teams that started-only 5- and that the first 4 got money prizes, medals and cups).

The cups were just ridiculous… every competition had huge prizes, cups and medals, the girls dancing competition had a prize money of a few hundred US Dollars, for the 6 year old!!!

We also watched some traditional Calypso music and in the evening went to see a great concert with an amazing international female reggae singer! Finally we got home- tired and happy- at 3 am!

What a fantastic weekend!

I really do not know, how we actually could get up on Thursday morning! But it was to be another long and intensive day. We had our second community meeting planned, again for Sandy Ground, and again in Roys’ bar. We spent the morning, from 7 AM, analysing all the data that we had collected over the last six weeks, writing reports for the people in Sandy Ground and North Hill, preparing the presentation, and there were just so many things to do. It just takes longer than you think. In the afternoon, I started doing my baking, and I must have totally overestimated what we were going to do! I had so much go for my cheesy biscuits (Kaesfuessle) I could fed an army was it! Half of the dough went into the freezer for the next meeting. Then I made brownies, and we still had a cake from the day before. Finally made it down to Roys Grill, fully prepared, with all our notes, sticky walls, presentations, and come 6 o’clock, nobody was there! So we waited, Sarah got herself a wine, and waited, and eventually Lindsay and Aristo turned up! That was it! Apparently, we had chosen the day when their worst just too many other things going on – the house of assembly was debating life on radio, it was absolutely exciting from the pieces that I was listening to, whether they would be able to pay their civil servants outstanding salaries, or not. It is unsure, how much longer the current government is going to be in charge, so everybody was listening to the radio. We had no chance against that. So, at around 7:30, we gave up and packed! For dinner, we deserved it after long, long day’s work and we were back for our community meeting another day. Bad thing, I nearly ate all the brownies, and felt rather sick. But there were just so tasty. And I will let Sarah tell you what happened next…

So what to do, after a successful hard and long day? Best idea: relax on the beach. So off the team went, down to the beach for a sundowner. We really deserved this. Selina and Sarah decided to go for a swim, while I went for a little hike to enjoy the scenery from the cliffs. Luckily, we were in time for happy hour at Roys’ , so that meant some wine for Selina and Sarah, and I decided on something special. So I wanted a “Dark and Stormy”, I always like them, but I only found out on that day, that the dark and stormy is with ginger beer rather than ginger ale. Never knew there was a difference between ginger beer and ginger ale. So I opted for the captain’s rum with ginger ale rather than a dark and stormy. I think I prefer the ginger ale. Anyways, there was not much ginger ale, generally they fill the glass here with 2/3 of rum, and one third of ginger ale.

So Selina wanted to have some decent seafood, we decided to go to Tasty’s restaurant, even though it was only 5:30.

We were the first! And we thought, it was still closed – but, far from that, there was a film crew making a film about Anguilla and the places to go. As we were so early and the first victims, they said we would be fantastic to be in the film. So we sat at the bar, I had the microphone, and we had to order our cocktails. Imagine me, just having had this strong rum and ginger ale, which is not a dark and stormy, and now a cocktail… This little camera was on rails and wheels behind us, and they had this funny light umbrella on the left and we even had to talk. But what is easier than ordering a cocktail? So I chose a Cosmopolitan Martini, Sarah went for a simple Buck Fizz (orange juice and champagne and something red- grenadine?), Which they call here at Mimosa, and Selina had the a deadly Long Island Iced Tea. And then we were watching Hilly, the bartender, to mix our cocktails. On film. I was a bit disappointed, because he did not throw the cocktail shaker and did a little dance. I have seen that on TV. But the cocktail was fantastic. And the rest of the night was a little bit of a blur for me. I guess Selina as well. But after all, again, we are on TV! Next time will charge and anybody wants an autograph, just tell us! We shall soon have a fanclub and please apply to Sarah if you want to be our manager 😉

Finally we get to order food and we thought we had escaped the TV crew, it is hard to be such a celebrity, but still they came back, and filmed us on our table.

The food was excellent, had an amazing seafood pasta, Selina had a huge lobster, all for herself (I always think lobsters are so hard work to eat) and I don’t remember what Sarah had. I was just too far away was my Cosmopolitan Martini. Somehow I got back to my bed and slept.  What an exciting day!

After a week with many many interviews, some interesting, some scary, some weird, starting work at 7 am, finishing at 20:00, going to bed at 21:30, we deserve a nice weekend!

On Friday we finally managed to go for our first dive wish Shoal Bay Scuba. After a little refresher in the water we went out to dive on one of the wrecks that they have positioned around Anguilla for the dive tourists, and it was a fantastically easy dive, 20-25 m, great visibility, no currents or anything, and a wreck with quite a number of fish; there was  even a car still in the wreck! We saw turtles, parrotfish, damselfish, barracudas and some other things, and tiny little pieces of coral.

It was then a lazy afternoon, and I ventured out for a hike, that was on my map… the only way  could go was along the beach, so, I was quite disappointed, but on the bright side I found a place very close to where we live that rent out paddleboards!!!

Saturday was another busy work day, got loads of things done, scheduled some interviews, and did some… one in probably the poorest place in Anguilla, with a single mother with 7 children squatting in someones shed, and one with a big dog- though there was a fence around the house so he jumped against the fence to get to me and tried to get through. But lucky for me the owner of the house protected me from the dog J

Sunday we were invited to go out with Captain Rolins on his Catamaran Chocolat, and we did not capsize! We had a fantastic trip to little Prickly Pear Island, an excursion on the Island (while Sarah went snorkelling) and on the way a trip to little Sandy Island for lunch. Again, Sarah went for a snorkel, while I was talking to Roland,- and she nearly gave him a heart attack diving too shallow and being hit by waves!

After the trip we went to pick up Selina… and off we went to the Dune  Preserve to see Bankie Banx – and Angguillan International Reggea Legend -at the Moonsplash Festival 2013 http://www.bankiebanx.net/ ! Amazing! It was absolutely amazing!

So much for now… not to talk about our next door neighbour, an 84 year old reverend who mixes a mean cocktail, Kashers birthday, and many more things…

Pia

Time is flying….

And I am still trying to catch up on our weekend adventures!

After a long night in the Pump House, with a life band playing and people teaching me Caribbean style dancing- will have to practice soon if I can still move my bum without moving either my legs or shoulders next time- we had a lie-in on Sunday. We then decided to explore a bit more of the South coast, and take our snorkelling gear (I just bought new mask and snorkel on Saturday, and went for a nice swim in Feathers Bay. Sarah was lucky enough to see a barracuda following her, but sadly as soon as I turned around he was gone!!!

Next we decided to go to Savannah Bay, further up in the East- and this took our low lying black pimp car to a real test! Off the road it went- and let me tell you, I really really now miss my little blue car!!! Little Blue would have loved it, black pimp car had to work very hard to go across all the rocks, drains etc… into the middle of no-where. And then we arrived, at the end of the road- and there was a small little remote beach cafe, complete with a 1 day old baby goat resting behind some chairs. And there I had some absolutely amazing fish (to eat). The little goat was very curious and came to say hello and nibble on my fingers, very brave little thing.

Well fed we went to explore the beautiful empty beach, and went snorkelling… there were plenty of fish, and we were just about skimming over the remains of the reefs. And suddenly I got trapped! I had no idea where to go any more, the waves slightly pushed us up and down, but I was so close to the bottom, and all the crevices were covered with spiky sea urchins! This was the first time ever in my life that I got really panicky in the water- and that in 30 cm deep water!

However, once out of there I have to say it was a fantastic day it was!

And the black car did a good job- I guess it never imagined it would ever be challenged that badly in its life!!

Now our “real” work begins… no more scoping and wandering about!
Excited and all prepared we went down to Sandy Ground Bay to find our first victims, ehm, interviewees… we should call them ;\… This first Monday morning we found 3 fishermen, sitting outside a bar – perfect. We started the interview with one of them… but half way through he got called away… will have to complete this interview another day. The other two were a bit frightened off by that time (but we will interview them ;-))
The trials of a social researcher… what to do when you go to one of your random households to do an interview, and suddenly a pack of dogs comes charging towards you? You stay in the car!!! But, as we needed to get to the door, or somewhere closer, I ventured out- and I DO love dogs- and they seemed all right at first, but then they were all around me- there were 5 of them, plus, at least, six puppies (could have been more), so when the big chief dog decided to growl at me, they all started charging towards me!!! So I jumped into the car, we closed the windows, and Sarah took us out of there with screeching tires. This house is off the list!!! Even now I hear them barking, as the house is quite close to ours… wonder which poor person they are chasing now!!! We need doggie Biscuits!!!!!
So we then decided to do essential shopping and preparations for community meeting and other vital things, and in the evening decided to check out our random household locations to make “appointments” for the next day. After being chased by dogs out of one house, we will go back there, we finally found two households for household interviews for the next day, two resource users and one KI (key informant) interview.
Tuesday!!
BIG interview day! Our first interview was a KI interview with the superintendent of Ports… we got through his security, handed in our driving licences, we then realized we had forgotten the folder with the questionnaires in our kitchen!!! So he, nicely, printed out his own interview questionnaire 
The next interview was a bit of a not-very informative meeting, but at least at 12pm we were ready for lunch at the beach, get changes and off to our next interview (the one we, or at least I, had been looking forward to –or actually not really the interview itself…). We met Paul and his cute dog Camber (a Portuguese Waterdog- apparently the same as President Obama has, though he called it something else because he supports Romney!!! Damn Republicans!), who is the manager and single employee of the Anguillian Youth Sailing Club, operating out of Sandy Ground. So, after the interview they (him and Camber) took us out for a cruise around the harbour on a little Hobie-Cat (a little fun catamaran) – fantastic fun (so that’s why I was so excited about the interview ). Eventually he got us capsized and all floating in the sea! I was going after some water bottle and Kemba wanted to be rescues by me and tried to climb on my shoulders!!! I AM a lifeguard, but have you ever had to do with a big “drowning” dog?? And hey, once she realized I would not carry her, she could swim faster than me after the drifting off boat! In the whole chaos Sarah lost her sunglasses as well!-Later we heard from his boss that this seems a common thing for him with girls… he only had to get rescued the other week.
Great fun and sooo exciting!
Just my kind of interview!
The next interview (and our first random household interview) was with Ann, a retired teacher who also runs a small lodge/hotel on Sandy Ground. She had a lot of knowledge on the history of Anguilla, and told us some fantastic stories about an animal with tentacles that got washed into salt pond. Anguilla has a number of massive salt ponds which were used over many years to harvest salts. It would be pumped off and processed and shipped to many places in the world. Nowadays the salt pumps have stopped working as there are cheaper ways to get to salt, and the ponds provide a unique habitat for many seabirds. One of those salt ponds just harbours onto Sandy Ground, the sea is on one side, then the beach, some houses, a road and the salt pond. At some times of the year there is access from the sea to the salt ponds. This was how this animal got from the sea into the salt pond where it bit her grandson and seems to be killing birds.
When the boy came past later he said he said that the mystery creature was actually a stingray!!
Ann had a huge knowledge about how people used to live in Anguilla with the hurricanes over the years. Now, all the wooden houses that used to line sandy ground are replaced by cement based houses to make them less susceptible to hurricanes.
The last interview of this really long day, which we decided to turn from a household interview to a KI interview (after recommendation), we had in a pub in the evening. The pub is the Pumphouse and is actually the place where the salt was pumped out of the pond… there are still the actual machines inside! I should take a picture, this is so cool.
And, after a long and fun interview, we indulged in some drinks (dark and stormy for me, rum and coke for Sarah) we had time to enjoy some fantastic life reggae music!
Such a fantastic and long day, and we learned so much! One of the facts, for example, that the reef outside Sandy Ground was formed by boulders that Portuguese sailors brought in the 18th century as counterweight for when they picked up the salt from the salt ponds. Another interesting fact is that turtle meat is apparently very tasty and that the turtle fishing ban is apparently one of the best working marine regulations out here.
After so much fun on Tuesday, we spent Wednesday mainly in our accommodation transcribing interviews, and now I am still sitting here at 9 PM writing…
For the first time we had Roti today, which is a Caribbean/local street food- and it surely was delicious (if we have this every day we will be able to roll everywhere instead of walk ;-))