The "Nassau's Ambassador" Story

Foreword:  My wife Carol and I, along with traveling friends Jere and Just Sue, recently traveled to the Bahamas for a vacation.  We stayed at the Melia Nassau Resort and the young man at check-in was such a remarkable person.  I had a chance to talk to him on quite a few occasions.  This story is about him, but I don't happen to have a photograph of him to share with you.  Twice I sent a request to the resort asking if he could send me a photo of himself.  I'm sure that my requests were never acted upon by the resort, since I did have a few complaints I addressed with them.  Therefore you unfortunately will not get to see a photo of this wonderful young man.  But, getting to know him, through me, will be a treat for you.

It was an ordinary day.  Sitting with my wife on a cramped seat on Bus #10 as it pulled to a stop along Bay Street in the city of Nassau.  The squeaky door opened and up stepped a smartly dressed young man who immediately sat directly across from me in the single seat along the window.  As soon as I saw his face I recognized it, but couldn’t place where I had seen him.  He smiled while looking at me and said, “How’s the new room?”  Oh yes!  He was the fellow who helped me last evening when I needed to be be relocated in a new room at the Melia Resort.  Seems the TV reception in room 214 wasn’t working the entire day and we stopped on our way to supper to ask if someone could check to see what may be the problem.  After our meal we retreated to our room and found we still had no reception.  I headed to the front desk to see if anyone had made a visit to our room.  I was told by a young girl at the desk that she would have someone take a look as soon as they finished with another TV problem.  Wasn’t long before a maintenance man knocked on the door to take a look.  We told him the room next to us was being remodeled and we had heard drilling noises during the day in the wall where the cable was located.  Immediately knew they must have damaged the cable since the room directly above us also had no reception.  Said someone would call us in a few minutes to make arrangements to move us to another room.  Half an hour later I headed back to the front desk to find out when we would be moved.  I was greeted by Durante who asked if he could helped.  I told him my story and he immediately found us a new room.  Not just any room, but one on the top floor of the resort with a fantastic view of the ocean and coastline.  A room that had just recently been upgraded with a huge TV, new carpet and furniture.  Wow!  What a nice treat.  He also made arrangements for someone to come to our room and help us move our luggage and belongings.  Happens to be the same young man now sitting next to me on Bus #10.  I finally had a chance to thank him for the room he had placed us in last evening.  We began a very interesting conversation that gave Carol and I a chance to learn about the life of Durante.  Seems he was headed along with us back to the Melia for a work shift after his day at school.  He happens to be in his third year at the University of the Bahamas with a double major in Biology and History.  He had received a scholarship to go to college based on testing while in high school.  His future educational plans included heading to post-graduate school to study to be a veterinarian.  He had plans to head to either the island of Barbados or to Canada to study.  Carol asked him why not the United States and he said he didn’t think he could do that as long as President Trump was in office, since he didn't feel safe in our country knowing our President was a racist.  Our conversation came to an end when Bus #10 came to a stop across from the Melia and we all exited the bus.  Told him I would stop later to get a photo of him and my reason for the photograph.  Durante was truly a remarkable ambassador for the island of New Providence.  I’m sure his family must be proud of him.  When I taught school years ago I would have loved to have had a class full of students such as Durante.  I enjoyed so much having the time I did talking with him and getting to know a bit about this young man.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.