The "A Real Treasure" Story

It was an ordinary day. Carol and I as well as our traveling friends, Jerry and Just Sue, were on our way to the Divi Southwinds Motel in Barbados. We left the airport and found the van that the Divi had sent to transport us to our residence for the next 2 weeks. We were on the “Best of Barbados” plan which was supposed to include free meals, trips, discounted shows and free transportation to some places. And it did! We were pleasantly surprised with all the extras that were included. Our third night we were given free meal tickets to the Oistens Fish Fry. Oistens is a small town about 20 minutes from the Divi. It borders the beach and has a large fresh fish market as well as the large carnival area known as the Oistens Fish Fry. A real treasure we were told. We needed to provide our own transportation to and from Oistens, but how bad can that be. It isn’t far away. We asked at the motel’s front desk where we can get the bus. They told us directly in front of the Divi was a bus stop. We were told to look for a bus with a particular prefix on the license plate and we should be heading right as we exited the parking lot. Well, we walked past the guard station to the street, but didn’t see a bus stop. By now it was dark and we weren’t sure what the sign might look like. All of a sudden a bus came down the street and went right past us. We were on the wrong side of the road. Hey, we forgot that in Barbados you drive on the left side of the road. The bus stop was on the other side of the street. Across the street we went to wait. Shortly a VW type van screeched to a stop in front of us, the door slid back and a long haired man yelled, “get in, Mon.” We couldn’t even see the license plate. The 4 of us entered the van and realized it was packed. As we were about to tell him we would take the next one, the door flew shut, he told the driver everyone was in and the van accelerated. The van really was a taxi, I think, and the man who operated the door was called the conductor who collected the money and announced to the driver when and where to stop. The driver steered the van as well as blew the horn at everyone he knew, which seemed to be everyone on this route. The van had two rear seats that were meant to hold three passengers each and a middle seat that was meant to hold two while the conductor rested on one knee by the door next to the seat. Three more could occupy the front seat. I counted 17 in the van after the door slid shut. IT WAS PACKED! We were all going to the fish fry. Jerry and I were in the two seats near the conductor so he picked a conversation with us. “You like dancing?” he wanted to know. Didn’t give us time to respond before he proceeded to tell us he was a two woman man. One woman who did his cleaning and cooking, and one woman to go dancing. Interesting!! Another block or two later he pointed to a building and said to us again, “you like dancing?” Jerry said he couldn’t dance and received the response, “you don’t have to, Mon! They dance on your lap!!” Hey, novel idea. Luckily we arrived at our stop before we were told the rest of the dancing details. The fish fry consisted of fried flying fish (you read that right since these fish fly across the water and are caught with nets placed above the water, or so we were told), macaroni pie, fried beans and rice, fried plantains, fried chicken and Carib beer or Ting (a Caribbean grapefruit soda). Really tasty! And everything was free!! After the meal we walked the carnival grounds and then realized, WE HAD TO RETURN IN A TAXI! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.