Noni

Every now and again, a co-worker of mine or of HB's will give us an interesting piece of fruit, something we have inevitably been unfamiliar with up to that point. The marmy apple one of the gardeners at work gave me is probably the most appetizing of the new fruits we've tried, although the genips this past summer were pretty good, too.

A few days ago, HB received this:

Called a noni, this russet-potato-sized fruit is, as HB's coworkers promptly informed him, not good for anything. Apparently, the flesh is far too bitter to be worth trying to eat. One person told him he could put the fruit in a jar and let it ferment. After fermenting for several weeks, the juices would apparently make an excellent health-tonic, due to the large quantities of micronutrients found in the noni.

Having done battle with so much mold and other spores since living here, I was reluctant to let the noni ferment in the house, so HB and I left it sitting on the counter for a few days until we could come up with a better use for it. Unfortunately, I did not read that wikipedia link earlier, and woke up this morning with a full understanding of why the noni is sometimes called the "vomit fruit".

Into the trash and out of the house it went. Hopefully the next intriguing fruit will be less odoriferous.

Creepy Creature Feature

Just in time for Halloween, today's creepy creature feature is a story that would never happen in the States.

Yesterday morning at work, I was trying to send a fax. I placed the pages in the document feeder, dialed the number, and pressed "Start".

The first page went through with seemingly no problem, but the second page jammed -- an unusual occurrence for our fax machine. Thinking little of it, I grabbed the page and pulled it out of the feeder, clearing the jam. As I turned it over to put it back in the tray, I noticed a long red streak on the page, punctuated at the end by a tiny lizard arm.

Apparently, a small anole had thought the document feeder on the fax machine was a great place to sleep, and was taken unawares when I started faxing yesterday. I had to pull the bodily remnants out of the feeder, but the tail of the anole was caught in something, and I was unable to get the tail out of the feeder, even though I spent an unsuccessful hour yesterday trying to disassemble the fax machine and get the tail out.

The tail is no longer providing enough resistance to jam the document feeder, but every third page or so, we get little pieces of anole skin on the paper as it passes through the fax machine.

If that wasn't enough of a gross out for you, I also found this giant centipede on the property yesterday:

6:15 am

I started a new schedule at work at the beginning of the month. Instead of 9-5, I'm working 8-4, and it's been amazing what a difference an hour makes in my day. Perhaps my favorite change is the different side of the BVIs I get to see when I'm forced to get up at 6:15 instead of 7:15. As the days are getting shorter, and my waking time comes closer and closer to sunrise, I am more and more astounded.

This morning, I walked out on our deck and watched this squall move in.

While I walked the dogs, the squall passed from east to west, "across our bow", as it were, only ever bringing a few small drops to shore. Well to the west, the rain wall and the sun met to form a rainbow.

The longer I watched, the brighter the rainbow became, until it was so bright, it was reflected in the ocean below, giving the strange impression of a rainbow turned on its side.

The whole show was over by about 6:45, and were it not for my recent schedule change, I would have missed it all.

Elections

It is election time in the BVI. With November 7th, election Monday, moving ever closer, the most noticeable aspect of the upcoming elections are the candidate signs sprouting up everywhere.

For a non-belonger like me, the campaign signs are the only part of election season particularly relevant to me. My work permit status, unsurprisingly, does not carry with it the right to vote. I have recently heard a little bit of rhetoric from candidates on the radio, suggesting that all non-belongers should be expelled from the BVI, in order to allow belongers to take their jobs. The economics of this proposition make it extremely unlikely, however, as the government garners far too much revenue from non-belonger work permit fees.

In a territory with a population estimated around 27,000, there are approximately 11,000 registered voters, divided into nine districts. Each district elects one member of the legislative council, which also has four at-large seats, voted on by all voters.

Stakes are high in this year's election. The UK has recently indicated that if the BVI government can't get it together, the UK may require all budgets be submitted to the UK government for review before being passed by the BVI government. Very few BVI-islanders want this kind of intervention, and so the incumbent VIP (Virgin Islands Party) is placed in the awkward position of justifying their continuing in power, having led the BVI to this potential consequence.

The opposition NDP (National Democratic Party) seems to be reveling in pointing out the incompetence of the VIP in budgetary matters, but unlike the VIP, has not yet released their "manifesto", being the written version of the party's platform.

Long-time BVI residents say they are impressed by the unusually high numbers of independent or third-party candidates that seem to be doing quite well pre-election. Many, though, are disillusioned by the entire election process, claiming that the only noticeable difference between governments is in who is awarded the government contracts. The general belief is that contract corruption runs high.

VI News online has a page dedicated to ongoing coverage of the BVI elections, for those interested in learning more.

Recreational Driving

I am really loving living in the BVI right now. A day of swimming and tasty sandwiches on Sunday only reinforced that.

Nonetheless, there are a few things about the US that I miss. Right at the top of the list, competing with fast food for thne top spot, is recreational drivig -- driving for fun.

Driving in the BVI is pretty much never fun. I've written several times before about some of the obstacles inherent in using the roads on Tortola. Livestock, hairpin turns, steep grades, bad traffic, all combine to make driving a stressful daily necessity. I miss hopping in the car and finding a smooth, curvy, empty road. I miss miles and miles of straight interstate at 80 mph. I miss not having to worry about how long the guy stopped in front of my is going to stay there, chatting with his buddy, while traffic builds up around him.

In Tortola's defense, I do experience brief moments of joy while driving here. There's an especially fun bit of hill on the Ridge Road near SkyWorld that is supremely roller-coaster-esque. On a good day, when I'm not stuck behind a diesel truck or a tourist in a rental car, carving up the coastal highway can be entertaining -- at least for the four miles or so where there aren't any speedbumps.

But I find that I am never relaxed behind the wheel here, and that I never want to just get in the car and go for a drive. There's nowhere to cruise, nowhere to speed, nowhere to evade the stress of the daily commute, nowhere to engage in recreational driving.

Just one of the little sacrifices for living on an island in the tropics.

Fence Creatures

A slightly different take on today's creature feature.

As it was in Florida, it is pretty common in the BVI to see sculpted pelicans standing guard as finials for fence posts.

This house along the road to Josiah's Bay takes things a bit farther, though, alternating pelicans with a bird that, perhaps, better represents the BVI.

The diversity of chickens on Tortola is also well-represented in the fence of this household.

Apologies for the late post -- I'm getting accustomed to a new schedule at work, and more than likely, the blog schedule will change over coming weeks as I settle in.

Black and White Mural

I think I like this mural on the road leading west out of Cane Garden Bay even more than I like the Zion Hill mural.

The black and white line-drawing style of it always makes me think it's been done with charcoal, or with pen and ink, rather than with paint, as it must have been done.

 There's such an unfinished, sketched-out look to it, like the stencil for a tattoo. I especially like the smudginess in the representation of the sea.

The left side has hints of color, as though perhaps this truly was a sketch, and some comic book colorist never got around to finishing the job.