Laborie and off to Soufriere

Now it is Tuesday. We’ve just had lunch, on our expansive porch. The other family, four from Toronto, have left, and we expect there will be others arriving later today. The folks in both apartments share the porch and infinity pool, although it is right outside the owners’ apt, now ours. So we just have to step outside our living room to be on the porch. There are lounge chairs as well as a couple of tables and chairs. That’s where I am sitting and writing now. As of this morning the fridge in the downstairs apt where we were originally has not been fixed. Hopefully for the owner they will have it fixed by Friday, when we leave. But for the new occupants, it might be better if they don’t fix it, then they, like we, will have the bigger and nicer apartment. Loring has just gone out to get a few more grocery supplies. He has already been out for one swim this morning, and will no doubt go for another one later this afternoon. He gets fidgety if he sits around for too long. I, on the other hand, can sit on the porch, here and also at home, for great portions of the day. We haven’t done too much here, aside from walk around the little town, walk down the beach, go in the ocean, go in the pool, play rummy, read, and for me, write. And that’s just fine. We did have an interesting experience the day we arrived here. It was a service, or at least a gathering, at the Catholic Church just a couple of blocks from here. The only way we knew about it was because of a chance connection between an old friend from the Bronx (who I have only been in touch with thru fb, and very sporadically) and a friend of his. He saw my first fb post saying that I was in St. Lucia, and wrote that he had friends who spent several months here every year and were involved in the music scene. He contacted them and found out that they are in Laborie right now. I don’t know if we will actually meet up with them. But the woman, Neti, wrote that there was a gospel event at the church the day we arrived. Indeed there was. We’d been told the event began at 6pm, so we headed there after dinner at Mama Tillie’s. But things were already in full swing. There was a man, an mc of sorts, who spoke and sang and had the audience singing and chanting and dancing with him. If he was a Catholic priest, he was certainly not like any priest I’ve ever come across. I am guessing that it wasn’t a Catholic event, per se, but just using the church, but who knows. It was certainly a religious event, with Jesus being invoked frequently. Neti, the friend of our NY friend, had said that there really wasn’t much of a music scene, and what there was was mostly at the resorts. So it’s uncertain whether we will come across any more live music. Meanwhile, we’ve got reggae blasting from some locals on the beach right in front of our porch. Accompanied, appropriately, by the strong smell of weed. And yesterday when we were on the beach there was obnoxoiusly loud recorded music coming from a house down the beach, which we could estill hear from our porch when we got back here. We’ve eaten breakfast and lunch here, and supper out every night, so far at Mama Tillie’s. We do want to go to Mama Rosa’s, hopefully tonite. She has only been open for breakfast and lunch since we arrived, but is supposed to be open for dinner tonight. Now to decide – back to the pool, or off to the beach? Tough choice. Actually, no bad choice. And we will certainly do both this afternoon.