Owia Salt Pond, De Place to be

Marvin my step-nephew, and Zoey, his fiance were here on ah two weeks vacation. His mom Cindy is Vincy, now Canadian, and his dad African (Ghanain). Zoey is French-Canadian (Montreal) ah very warm and friendly human being. Dis would be Marvin’s 4th trip, bin coming since he was four. He is now de family’s gentle giant who answers readily to his Vincy nick-name, “MINIMUM!” On one of his early visits, we took him sight-seeing all over de country-side, up and down dem steep hills, narrow roads, wine-ding corner, crossing small bridges. He was very uncomfortable and scared. Den out ah de blues he said: “ Can I ask ah question, why is everything in Sin-Vincent built to de bare MINIMUM?”

So last weekend he shared dat de final item on his ‘Bucket List’ was ah trip to Owia Salt Pond. He invited us all to team-up wid dem. Ah will have you know dat he rented ah car equipped wid GPS. Dey went over to Bequia, drove all over and described de lickle island as Paradise. Actually dey did not want to come back to de mainland. Monday was: ‘Owia hey we come!’ Quite frankly de roads from Kingstown to Owia are quite good, and our nephew ‘Mr MINIMUM’ drove as though he was on ah Canadian Highway. He even compared de surface out here as being better dan some areas in Montreal. Is donkey years ah ain’t go Owia and is good dat all along de journey is ah lickle place to buy cooked food, snacks, cold drinks. In Georgetown, de menu was turkey boil-up coconut dumplings and ground provision. But we were hell-bent on Owia nah-shun-all dish: Mad-doh-go (Arrow-root) bakes and fish. After two hours we were in Owia/Salt Pond. Owia is developing nicely as ah recreational facility with ah playing field to host various sporting events. And dey’s de Salt Pond with three swimming pools wid constant circulation of clean sea water. De facility has pipe-borne water, wash-rooms, paved walk-way down to de pond, deys parking facility. Area representative, minister Shove-on John must be applauded foh her sweat and toil who foh de last five years at least, would have been persistency working in de community.

De security guard invited us to have lunch on sale nearby. He took our orders and had dem delivered on de beach. Of course we all had Mad-doh-go bakes and fried (jui-c and tender), barracuda wid ah splash ah hot-pepper sauce, man lick-dey-finger. Dey was one instruction: “ eat it while it’s warm!” It was pleasing to hear MR MINIMUM and Zoey showering praises on Owia.

Promoted To Glory

Sister Drucilla Primus, de matriarch of de Salvation Army in SVG, and possibly de Caribbean, has finally left us at 104 years ole, “Promoted to Glory!”

Ah was lucky to have had her as my nanny. She celebrated her Big 104th birthday earlier dis year after St Valentine’s Day. Interestingly when ah visited, her care-giver announce my arrival. She smiled and said: “ I used to mind him as ah lickle baby, feed him, wash his diaper, bathe him, powder his skin and put him to sleep”. Dat was back in 1944, eighty years ago.

She has been ah one-dah-full Christian lady. Her story is powerful. Her mom died before she was ah minor. Being de eldest girl, she had to leave school to run things at home. So she never had ah fair chance at schooling. Interestingly though, she knew almost every song in de Salvation Army song book.Think of ah lickle girl dat used to walk from Richland Park to town selling ground provision. Long story short, she was ah Domestic, settled in Paul’s Lot. She was ah Blessing as she opened her doors to lots of children, unofficial adoption is de term. Two sons of her own. Owen, de eldest is deceased. Kudos to the other son Stanley, ah former Traffic Officer in SVG, who returned from de USA and took care of his dear mother until she died. Six grand-children including Desrie Primus ah PhD, and Christie ah Salvation Army Divisional Commander in Jah-mek-her. Sister Primus’ house was an unofficial mini Salvation Army Home for stranded kids.

She had to be very sick to miss church. And she was always first to pray. And pray she did, she never omitted de name of any member of her family, and does it morning and evening. Ah uses to look forward to her testimonies on Sunday mornings. She had health issues and she would tell de congregation of de struggles and those “get behind me Satan” rebukes when she insisted she not staying home, no headaches or satan could stop her from going to church.

At her 104th birthday, she told us she was only waiting to go meet her Saviour. Sister Primus was ready many years ago to go meet her Jesus. May she rest Peacefully. And wid dat is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy

Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.