Life Lessons from an Island Girl

Our first night in the Virgin Islands was spent in an empty house; except for two beds and a wicker sofa with no cushions. It was heaven. No traffic noise, no sirens, no buses spurting exhaust all over the street. All I heard that first night and many more to come were crickets, an occasional dog barking, roosters crowing and birds. The sun on my face woke me up and the first thing I saw was the big beautiful Caribbean Sea framed by the lush green hills. It was the first of our new life.

I was excited to begin the work of setting up our home. My husband and I, along with the help of our five year old daughter began to clean. Our stuff was coming all the way from San Francisco in a truck, then a ship, then another truck. We wouldn’t see it for three or four weeks. We didn’t ship a lot of furniture so we had to buy some things and right at that moment we needed hangers for clothes and cleaning supplies.

Water and dish soap would have to suffice for now but as I was working on cleaning the kitchen the water stopped running. I called to Glynn and asked him if he had any water in the bathroom. No. Then I realized the ceiling fan had quit. (We had no air conditioning. Most locals didn’t use A/C – too expensive. They said we would get used to the warm days). I flicked some light switches and realized the power was out. In the islands there are no underground water pipes. Water is stored in a cistern under the house that collects water from the roof when it rains. So a pump is used to pump water into the home. No power, no water. I yelled to Glynn, “No power. Let’s call the electric company.” Just then Sarah yelled, “Mommy, it’s hot here.” I was beginning to lose that feeling of ‘living in Paradise’. I took a deep breath and suggested to Sarah that she go jump in the pool and cool off. After a few frustrating phone calls I learned that the power was cut off because we hadn’t been to the power company to switch it to our name. Frustrating calls because I had such a difficult time understanding what the person on the other end of the line was saying. I was fine understanding the Caribbean accent in person but over the phone it is a different story. This I had not expected. We had to go to the electric company with a lot of paperwork and cash. Wishing that our Realtor had told us this we consulted our map and Glynn was on his way. We were lucky – we didn’t have to wait the usual three days. They promised it would be turned on that afternoon.

In about three hours we had power. Great. Now we could get back to cleaning. I turned on the faucet and still – No water. Glynn was a businessman, not a handyman by any means so we looked at each other daring the other one to come up with a solution. At a loss I said, “Let’s look in the cisterns.” To our surprise there was almost no water. We had looked at the house about two months ago and the cisterns were full. We had 10,000 gallons cisterns. How could one man (our tenant) go thru all that water? Glynn was getting ready to go yell at the tenant when I said, “Let’s just fill them up. I’ll call the water company.” Another call which was successful until I had to give directions to our house to the driver. Our island had no street addresses. The driver was asking me about streets and landmarks I knew nothing about; “Are you off Donkey Hill? You by Bolongo? You at the turn by the goats?” He may as well have been speaking another language. He finally asked me who used to live in the house, I knew that answer and as soon as I told him the name he knew where I lived. I was quickly learning I had a lot to learn about island life. Water would not arrive until the next day. Electricity was still not on yet I was hot, frustrated, annoyed and crabby. All of us were. Sarah said, “Mommy, it’s hot here.” And went to her room to play. Glynn glared at me like it was my fault. I walked out on the deck to look at the beautiful water. That is when it hit me and I yelled, “Let’s go to the beach!” We couldn’t do anything at home anyway.

So we did what any family who had just moved to the Caribbean would do. We went to the beach. We swam, snorkeled, saw sea turtles, rainbowfish, and beautiful coral. We had a picnic on the beach in 85 degree weather. If we got hot, we jumped in the ocean. We spent that afternoon having fun, loving each other. And the next day our water came and we could flush our toilets and clean.

The lesson? Life will put obstacles in your path which will frustrate you, make you angry, might even throw a wrench in your plans. We are not always in control of these obstacles. When you have are up against a brick wall; go to the beach. Or whatever is your ‘beach’. Feed your soul with what you love and you will come back refreshed and ready to face whatever life has to offer. You may find that the obstacle is a blessing in disguise. I learned later that Glynn couldn’t figure out how to get to the electric company so he called the man who had inspected our home when we first made the offer. This man and his wife became some of our best friends and despite our distance fifteen years later our families still stay in touch. When you are frustrated and feeling like beating your head against the wall find a way to feed your soul.