Family Gatherings (or why they are necessary)
Let’s see… Our last post was the
15. Oh my, I have 10 days to cover. Bear with me if it’s not too detailed (that is honestly one of the weirdest expressions humans have come up with. I really don't want a bear with me). I
can’t even remember the days we were there. Actually, I wouldn't even know what
today is if it didn't show it on the bottom of the computer screen. And even
then it’s complicated, because it doesn't actually say what day of the week it
is. It’s a hard life.
So, on some date or other around
the 19, we dropped Mom off at a taxi car to be driven off to the airport
(basically she preferred visiting her family over Dads side) while we drove the
boat over to a smallish island called Great Guana Cay, where our grandparents
had rented a house for everyone to stay at for a week (we were still in Marsh Harbor). Luckily, the house came
with a slip, so we didn't have to worry too much about that aspect. So, with the grandparents, our family, and
our cousin’s family, it would be a total of 10 people staying in the house. (This
is the leading reason why mom deserted us (actually, she left to visit her mom,
who was on the last week of cancer radiation treatment)).
Seeing as the house was surrounded
by coconut palms, on our first day we attempted to do something with them. With
the help of a knife, a bamboo stick, some rocks, the conch shell, and the coffee
strainer(s), we managed to get the water and meat out of the coconuts. First
you have to peel the husk away until you get to something resembling an
oversized onion, you then have the fun job of trying to break open said onion
thing. Only, you have to do it in such a way that the items inside are not
damaged or lost.. This is much harder than it sounds.
The house was a 2 minute walk to
the beach, which is where we spent a lot of our days. The wonderful sand, large
waves, and big rocks was the perfect combination for everyone to hurt
something. The waves the first couple days were way too big for boarding- 5
feet or so- but still awesome to swim in.
Then the next days the waves were
too small for boarding- we tried, however, and broke the boards- yet you could
body surf them. Body surfing is a strange phenomenon when the wave catches your
body, and, without the help of a board, carries it forward into the waves and
spray and finally, into the sand. If you are lucky, you don’t hit sand, but
instead get spun around and can’t breathe for approximately 10 seconds. Either
way it’s quite disorienting.
(On one of the days I had invited
a friend-Kashara, who is a girl who has been living on a catamaran for 6 years- over who I had met one of the days we were in Marsh Harbor, and who
happened to be visiting this island for a couple days. So if in some of the pictures
you see more kids than there are supposed to be in the family.. That is why.)
One of the days we were there, we took everyone out on the big boat. Some of them speared a couple lion fish, and one of them a lobster. We also went to a small island, where we found hordes of hermit crabs, and the boys built a thing out of wood. We found a small flounder in the water, but it was too fast for the knife.
Anyway, since the waves weren’t working
too well, the parents were thoughtful enough to rent a couple bikes instead. So
we biked around the island and tried to stay on the left side of the road and
avoid the very intimidating golf carts. Then of course we had to take a break
at the 10x4 foot convenience store, complete with a security camera.
Since the bikes were only with us for a day, we had to find something else to occupy ourselves with. So the parents, the foolish, crazy parents, got us a golf cart. And only one of the kids is actually legally allowed to drive. But we didn’t care, because, who would complain if someone gave you a large, motorized vehicle?
So the girls took turns driving
it first- we only had one backfire, and no collisions- and passed many local
people driving around on their converti-carts, their beach carts, their high-end
carts,and their military carts. Did I mention the cart had at least 6 signs on
it stressing that “absolutely no one under 18 can drive”? This is what caused
the inevitable problem, when we just happened to drive by the really crabby bug
eyed lady who rented us the golf cart… Oh, and we were also breaking another
rule that stated only 4 people allowed on the golf cart- we had five kids.. and
some of them were breaking the “no people allowed on roof of cart at any time”
rule…So, needless to say, we then had to continue our golf cart driving in
secret.
Now I need to tell everyone a story. One day, 3 lonely girls out in the wilderness of the front yard decided to make torches out of supplies they got off a coconut palm tree. They made 5, although some of them were slightly lacking in fuel, because they got really lazy after making one for themselves. They slaved all day gathering wood, dragging it out onto the beach in a last survival attempt. Finally, they stole some marshmallows from the people in the big blue house, while they were absorbed with their video game-something called “minecraft”- and they didn't notice when 3 girls crept in.
(AN. actually they didn’t. It was quite sad. We even ate the leftover chocolate filling from their pie. We weren't even very quiet about it. But don’t tell them that)
And finally, as night fell, they gathered their family, and created fire. Then they proceeded to run around with flaming torches, eat marshmallows, and roll a flaming coconut down the beach. The end.
For the last two days we were together, the wind started picking up, and there was a front coming down, so we had to take the boat back to marsh harbor. Dad, Meridian, and I carried out this duty, and back safely in Marsh Harbor we proceeded to make pies, eat chocolate, and watch very bad movies. We also invited Kashara back over-as they happened to be back in the harbor and just can’t get rid of us- and had pizza and stressed over this impossible video game.
So the next day they had to leave us, and fly back to the mountain in Colorado they call a mountain. If we summarized the amount of good food we had over this trip- because it really is an impressive number- the result would be:
-5 pies (coconut, chocolate, butter tart filling type creation, and 2 key lime)
-3 brownies (that I know of)
-2 pizzas
-biscuits- homemade
-meat (pork chops, bacon, ham, lobster, fish, imaginary steak)
-bacon
-grilled cheese…
-sawyer
-and probably more that I can’t think of right now.
There you go, I did my duty, and provided you all with a relatively detailed report on our life the past couple weeks. And the worst part about it is I couldn't even report about steak. But I do have to admit, 5 pies might be a good substitution.
These are now the pictures from two cameras. There is one more group, which needs to be emailed to us as they were taken on a phone. So these will hopefully come at a later date.
In : Abacos