We've abandoned our blog a little. A bit of travelling, a lot of getting our new home into shape and most importantly, have internet connection at home just as of few days ago.
Last night, after a week away from the island, we went grocery shopping. To our surprise the super market we usually go to (biggest and usually most crowded on the island) was half empty, in terms of customers and produce. When I saw just one or two shelves empty I didn't make much of it. But as the vacant shelves became more frequent and especially when they were clustered next to each other, we started worrying. Finally we read the notice: due to bad weather the ship is delayed...food has not come in..
This was an aspect I did not envision when taking the decision to move here. Since we were gone, we had not really realised how bad the weather had been. Yes, the day we landed it was raining and much more windy than before, but I guess it must have been like this for consecutive days. Neither did we realise the impact of such weather, beyond the deep puddles on the already bad roads.
How can I best describe the way this otherwise very western super market looked like. Even though I was raised in communist Poland, I don't really recall the empty shelves, everyone notoriously mentions when speaking of before '89. Maybe because the shops were not as big, or maybe because I did not do grocery shopping myself those days. Whatever be the reason, the image I saw yesterday seemed much more scary, than any of my childhood shopping memories. It looked like a pre-war, or natural disaster scene - that is in the fresh produce section; naturally chemicals and anything packed with additives and preservatives was plentiful. We hardly managed to find tomatoes and salad, which were neither covered in fungus or just brown from growing old. There weren't even bananas..which btw grow on this island, so no need for shipment from abroad. But perhaps in my rookie tropical ignorance I don't know that now is not the time for bananas in this part of the world.
Long story short, we'll need to go back grocery shopping soon enough, and hopefully the ship will have arrived then.
Really makes you think about dependency...
Last night, after a week away from the island, we went grocery shopping. To our surprise the super market we usually go to (biggest and usually most crowded on the island) was half empty, in terms of customers and produce. When I saw just one or two shelves empty I didn't make much of it. But as the vacant shelves became more frequent and especially when they were clustered next to each other, we started worrying. Finally we read the notice: due to bad weather the ship is delayed...food has not come in..
This was an aspect I did not envision when taking the decision to move here. Since we were gone, we had not really realised how bad the weather had been. Yes, the day we landed it was raining and much more windy than before, but I guess it must have been like this for consecutive days. Neither did we realise the impact of such weather, beyond the deep puddles on the already bad roads.
How can I best describe the way this otherwise very western super market looked like. Even though I was raised in communist Poland, I don't really recall the empty shelves, everyone notoriously mentions when speaking of before '89. Maybe because the shops were not as big, or maybe because I did not do grocery shopping myself those days. Whatever be the reason, the image I saw yesterday seemed much more scary, than any of my childhood shopping memories. It looked like a pre-war, or natural disaster scene - that is in the fresh produce section; naturally chemicals and anything packed with additives and preservatives was plentiful. We hardly managed to find tomatoes and salad, which were neither covered in fungus or just brown from growing old. There weren't even bananas..which btw grow on this island, so no need for shipment from abroad. But perhaps in my rookie tropical ignorance I don't know that now is not the time for bananas in this part of the world.
Long story short, we'll need to go back grocery shopping soon enough, and hopefully the ship will have arrived then.
Really makes you think about dependency...
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7 comments:
You are right even the market in Marigot seemed empty!
But you came to the island in a time when supermarkets were well stocked, and not only with fresh produce just before Thanksgiving I believe.
Tomatoes can be a challenge.in winter months.
Bananas often come from neighbouring islands (their is NO banana industry in St. Maarten although you can grow them) where the harvest was destroyed due to a storm/ hurricane or too much of heavenly water in 2007.
Ofcourse more then banana crops got damaged/destroyed.
I've lived here for 25 years true hurricanes and times when things go wrong, ships do not arrive etc.
Because of rough weather they cannot go along the pier to download their cargo. (January is the time of groundseas and big swells.)
Some tips!
Change your shopping & cooking habbits, plant some things if you have the space.
Make use of all the fruit stands and smaller supermarkets on the way to that big supermarket. Sometimes you are pleasantly surprised, but tired afterwards of searching for all the things you want all over the place.
Try something new, foodwise.
Have some tins, dry foods etc on hand as welland the recipes to go with it.
Be flexible!
Greetings C
Shop "Island style" I forgot to mention.
What might that be?
If you see something and for whatever reason you do not buy it do not expect it to be there next time.
It takes some practice!
C
you 'n your boyfriend're welcome to go back in Holland, we don't need long term unemployed as you're used to be.
you've a too strong ego, haven't you realized, so far, that the world doesn't aknwoledge you anything? you had better underestimate yourselves.. I mean both !
C, that's so weird that there is no banana industry in SXM. my parents alone have 3 huge trees in their yards. I wonder why that is...
Your points are very well taken. My parents buy in bulk. if they find meat they like, they buy lots of it and freeze it (they have a large freezer). it's something the brought with them from the islands and instilled in me in the states and i even do it now, even tho i have access to fresh meat. :)
Thanks for the response Gibber.
In Sint-Maarten we grow concrete it seems nowadays.
However coconut, mango, sour sop, West Indian cherries, limes, banana, passion fruit, lemon grass and Malabar spinach grow in my yard too.
My neighbours grow sweet potatoes, peas and pumpkin. And there is a big tamarind tree just outside the gate.
It is never easy to move to another culture especially not the first year.
And island living is different to living on a big continent like Europe or North America.
Thanks C ad Gibber, very useful comments!
@Anonymous :O
dear anonymous, I have no idea what you meant by your comment, except for maybe that you must not belong to the friendly part of the island folk. If you have a point u'd like me to understand, I speak 4 other languages, but only their polite vocab, so u'r welcome, try once more...
dear C and Gobber, thanks for the hints..I especially will remember this one: If you see something and for whatever reason you do not buy it do not expect it to be there next time.
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