Island Fruits

St Martin is not known for its agriculture. The focus is solely on tourism; I've heard that since water is so expensive, local farming has died out almost completely. There is one farm that seems commercial, but supermarket shelves are full of fruits and vegetables from anywhere and everywhere.... but here.

Locals, however, do have trees that bear fruit. PeeWee sometimes comes home with fruits given to him by his patients - most of the times huge green bananas or starfruit. This week, however, he brought two pieces of fruit that I had never ever laid eyes on before. One rotted so fast that I did not have time to take a picture or even eat. It looked like a kiwi - same color skin, though no fuzz, and about the same size, although it had a definitely sweeter smell to it. The other fruit was this:

What the heck is this?

To give you a sense of proportion, a 20-oz bottle of water was placed next to it.

The skin is slightly soft, gives in to gentle prodding and the prickly looking parts are not really prickly.

Not sure if I am brave enough to cut this open!

Update: Did cut it open, its inside looked vaguely like a pale pineapple with big black seeds. Not brave enough to eat it though since a small mold was looking quite threatening on one side...

Island Pictures

My in-laws just left. They are both very active people who find it difficult to sit still for any long stretches of time. One positive side effect of having such in-laws is that I get to swipe some of their pictures taken around the island. Unlike them, we really have not explored the island much, aside from the few beaches that we go back to again and again. So here is one picture that they took on one of their many jaunts around the island:


I've been wanting to take a picture of these mailboxes for some time, but every time I pass by it I am driving and there is a car behind me. So I was glad that my father-in-law took notice and snapped it. Isn't it a great shot?

More pictures to follow!

Cool Digs

Reading about the Obamas' State Visit to the UK this week, I was stuck on the details regarding the gifts they presented to the Queen and the Royal Family.

According to the blog "Obamafoodorama":

"The Queen was presented with a collection of rare memorabilia and photographs in a handmade leather bound album that chronologically highlights her parents' (King George VI and Queen Elizabeth I) visit to the United States in 1939.

The President and Mrs. Obama gave The Duke of Edinburgh a custom-made set of Fell Pony bits and shanks engraved with the Presidential Seal, as well as original horseshoes worn by recently retired champion carriage horse Jamaica."

For Prince William and Kate:

"The President and Mrs. Obama donated six MacBook Notebook computers to Peace Players International in Belfast Ireland, a charity of the Duke and Duchess’ choosing."

And for Prince Charles and his wife:

"Packed into a special handcrafted wooden box was a selection of plants, seedlings and seeds from the Kitchen Garden, and as if that wasn't cool enough, the box also contained plants, seedlings and seeds from the gardens at Monticello, the historically preserved plantation home of President Thomas Jefferson, and Mount Vernon, the historic estate of President George Washington. The President and First Lady also gifted The Prince and The Duchess with jars of honey from the White House Beehive, the first beehive to ever be on the White House grounds."


OK, all lovely, well-thought-out gifts. But I am certain that it ain't Mrs Obama who thought of all these gifts to offer. There has to be, I am sure, a White House Gift Officer - one in charge of making sure that these State gifts are appropriate for the occasion (not too extravagant, not too tacky, not too sentimental, not too wacky) and actually execute getting the gifts procured and presented oh-just-so.

What a cool job! How do you qualify for such a job? What prior experience is deemed crucial?

There are of course, other cool jobs that I have been eyeing. Think about the person (or persons? a whole team?) whose job it is to name the various Crayola colors. Even before I had kids, I noticed these fun color names - not just rather ho-hum "Lemon" or "Salmon", but the more boisterous ones such as "Razzmatazz" and "Tiger's Eye". Admittedly, sometimes the color names sound too much like a bad cocktail ("Maui Sunset" and "Florida Sunrise" come to mind) - but come on, what a cool job! I wonder if the color-namer has full autonomy or if there is a steering committee who has to ponder on the merits and vote on a series of names presented (in this politically correct environment, I bet it is the latter).

When I first lived in London, I met someone whose business card title read "Futurist" - I think he worked for British Telecoms and his job was to foresee consumer trends. Now how cool is that job? (Though I kind of had a job like that and I sometimes felt that it's hard to have people take you seriously).

Well - all this talk about cool jobs makes me think... that I gotta dust up my resume and start looking around in earnest....

(Slightest) Brush with Crime

Last Friday I took the girls to the dentist. It was just a check-up so it took no time at all. So afterwards I took the girls to Bebe N Kids, which is what appears to be the only toy store on the French side of the island. The girls loved it, since they do not go shopping at all here (except Manolee, who does not mind tagging along to the supermarket from time to time). I then remembered that Hana needed a new ruler for school, so we went to the stationery store around the corner. There was not much at the store and Hana didn't see what she needed, so we walked out and got in the car. I happened to look at the time in the car, it was 4:13pm.

On Monday, I saw on the paper that that very store was held up at 4:15pm Friday!

There have been a spate of robberies on the island - last week there were three that I know about. The post office across the street from us was held up a few months ago and never opened its doors again (I think the French postal workers are really milking it). On the one hand, I know robberies can happen anywhere and everywhere, you just gotta take precautions and move on with life. On the other hand I feel pretty unsafe walking around town even in broad daylight, because all the robberies that I have heard about have happened during the daytime. Of course there is crime in NYC but I never feel unsafe walking around Manhattan, even late at night.

People say that things are much worse in places like Jamaica and Dominican Republic, but that is small consolation of course. I'm gonna go knock on some wood right now.

Did My Husband Just Say That?

"What? You are packing one underwear for each day of the vacation?"

"She doesn't need a shower, she was at the swimming pool this afternoon"

"What, you told me to wash her butt! I washed her butt!" (retort after I remarked that Manolee still has chocolate on her face after he showered her)

French St Martin/ American Sint Maarten

Manolee sometimes asks me, "can we go get ice cream on the English side?" - when I correct her, that there is no English side on this island, she then says, "I meant the American side".

Honestly though, the girl is not so far off. The Dutch side of the island is, for all intents and purposes as far as I can see, American. It's like mini Americana in many ways. Mind you, there are chunks of the island that I have not yet been to, so I cannot speak to all of it, but much of the Dutch side appears to exist to serve American tourists/expats.

On the French side things remain quite French. People speak French mostly (though I hear a lot of Spanish and Creole too), shop in French bakeries and French supermarkets (though curiously, a chain called "US Market" carries most exclusively French goods), and white French people from the mainland appear mostly to mingle within their own community. There are no buildings taller than 3 storeys. There are no casinos. Marigot, the capital, is just dead on Sundays (although the West Indies Mall is announcing that it's open on Sundays now). I once went through Marigot at 6:10pm during the run-up to the Xmas holidays and was stunned to see the streets deserted, with not one store open.

On the Dutch side, tall buildings, casinos and neon lights abound. People complain about overdevelopment, but boy does it feel good to find a supermarket open at 6am (you never know what you may need at an ungodly hour), a couple of McDonalds, KFCs, and Burger Kings - even Bubble Tea outlets. My girls screamed out in unison upon learning that a Dunkin Donuts will soon open up shop in the Blue Mall. In the 7 months we've been here, I've only heard Dutch spoken 2 or 3 times. American English definitely dominates, as does the US Dollar.

So back to this ice cream place that Manolee likes so much. It's a place called Carousel and it is exquisite. The ice cream is very good and very reasonable ($3 for a huge cone); the whole place is immaculate; there is lovely a merry-go-round in the back for which leather tickets are issued:


It's a lovely place to while away a half-hour with the girls. I hope the place does well (it is never crowded when we go) and sticks around - I know any time we are around Simpson Bay, it's now become a must-stop for us! I guess I also like it so much because it reminds me of similar kid-friendly places in the US. So - American Sint Maarten - I approve!

Island Specialty: Part II

I've been taking lots and lots of pictures of cars these days - it's high time I posted some.

I was behind this car in Philipsburg one day and I got kinda spooked:


And if you thought that was verbose, here is another one:


And this one is kinda creepy, especially combined with the derelict condition of the car:


More to come!