If you could leave your current life behind for three years to live in Barbados, what do you think you’d treasure most about being on a paradise Caribbean island? The slower pace, smaller scale, and easier lifestyle? The warmth of the sun?
The music of the waves and gentle wind in the palms as you sip your rum? Awakening each morning to the mind-blowing blues of the sky and sea? Or perhaps the windsurfing, surfing, cycling, hiking, swimming, snorkeling, and sailing?
Greg and I had dinner last night with an American family who has lived in Barbados for three years and is now moving back to the U.S. They’ve become good friends of ours. I will miss them so much, particularly Sharon, who’s become such a dear friend.
Sharon taking photos in Barbados: never enough.
We’ve been crowding in a lot of togetherness as they count down their last few precious days in Barbados. Last Monday they came over to our place – we live in the St Lawrence Beach Condos in the St Lawrence Gap (where I rent out Barbados vacation rentals) – and strolled down the colorful Gap to the casual Southern Palms restaurant on Dover Beach. The family is a regular at Southern Palms on Monday nights, when a band called the Redmen plays country music.
Peter came to Barbados on a 3-year contract as an executive with an international firm. Sharon, a physician, took a hiatus from her practice to be here. Their son was 11 when they arrived; no longer a kid, he’s a mature 14 now with a deepening voice and young man’s confident gait.
As we sat in the warm evening air next to the Caribbean Sea dangling over rum drinks while awaiting dinner, I asked each member of the family what they’ll miss most about Barbados.
Peter said he has valued the business environment in Barbados because he’s been able to form relationships with people that in the States are far more difficult to form because of the more competitive corporate culture that prevails there.
Sharon said she’ll miss our day-to-day friendship, which included excursions through the island together. She and I have prowled this island in her Subaru, fooling ourselves we were taking the “scenic route” when actually we were hopelessly lost; visiting an illegal “suitcase merchant” for party dresses; indulging our shared penchant for new cleaning products at Carter’s hardware store; and taking photos of the mind-blowing physical beauty all around us, which we land-locked Yanks can’t get enough of.
Oh – and the American holidays; only a fellow Yank understands the tender childhood memories triggered by a roasting turkey and cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving.
The son said his favorite part of Barbados is his friends at school. He’s formed deep attachments at his all-boys school in Barbados, where, by the way, he’s far ahead his equivalent grade in the US educational system.
Even though they’ve enjoyed other aspects of Barbados, including sailing in Barbados, none of them mentioned those things. It’s the friendships they’ll miss most.
Warm breeze enveloping our table and the Redmen crooning, dinner arrived. I guess I wasn’t surprised by their answers. When it comes down to it, what matters more than the people we treasure? It’s as true in a tropical paradise as anywhere else.
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