Charlotteville

June’s war

June is an old lady who has been living here with her dogs for the past 12 years. Born in London. Married in Canada. And now retired and alone in Paradise. We had lunch by the same table yesterday (Friday Roti at Lyda’s) chatting seriously about the state of the world.

June was a child in London during the 2nd world war.
– I remember one day riding my bike alone in the street and suddenly I saw this airplane coming down right above my head. Goodness Gracious. And it was flying really low and I could see the swastika, and then the pilot stuck his head out of the window looking down at me. I was the only one in the street.

June tells me she could follow how the plane flew further down the road and dropping its bombs in an old building. Ammunition or gun storrage, she thinks it was.

– England was not even really at war, but it was horrible and it felt like it would last forever. And then just think about the children who are right now growing up in the places where they have been living in war for decades.

I told her about my experiences in Palestine and how freedom there is limited in so many ways that life is made almost impossible. They have been under occupation for 60 years now.

– Yes, it’s horrible isn’t it?! You would thing people had learned.

Tobagonian slow life

Saturday in Charlotteville and I am enjoying the lazy morning silence. My days on these paradise islands will soon end, and so I figured it would be better to spent more time in fewer places. Morten Villadsen convinced me to stay here a few more days and I found an amazingly friendly Guesthouse just a few meters away from the sea, where I now have a room downstairs. Next door to the sons of my host Elizabeth. Amazing place. I could get used to this 🙂

Elizabeth's 

My view at Elizabeth's 

By the way; I have passed Sonson’s boat and Jungle’s shop but not personally met any of Morten’s beachfriends yet. Tomorrow I will move on from Charlotteville – probably to Sprayside and Little Tobago. And I hope to get onboard a ferry from Trinidad to Venezuela this Wednesday. They depart only once a week.

Drawing secrets in the sand

I am writing these lines in the shadow of a palm tree on “Pirates Bay” – a five minutes’ walk from Charlotteville (YES, Morten – it was an amazing view!!!). And the beach was a beautiful little place with yellow sand and emerald green water. Though I am not much of a beach boy, it has been nice just spending the day here in the sun, reading, swimming, looking at bikini girls etc.

At least the first hours until I started getting bored…

Then I started asking myself questions like; what I am really doing here when everything important happens at home! What do I hope to figure out along the way? Do I have a goal? Should I change things when I return to my life in Denmark?

No answers yet. Because after a few minutes I rediscovered the beauty of drawing things in the sand. Yeer!!! You know, clearing a spot with your hands and using your fingers to curve your thoughts. Depending on how far down you go, the surface will get wetter and harder, and I have actually found that I dare to write things here that wouldn’t go in my Moleskin, simply because I know that with stroke of my hand, – all the secrets would be gone. Highly recommendable!!

Secrets in the sand 

The small fishing village

Tonight I arrived in the “absurdly pretty fishing town of Charlotteville” (quotation stolen from guidebook). This place in the very north of Tobago is the village where most of the islands fish is taken in, and the action is concentrated around a 2 kilometer-wide bay with boats and nets and waves. You could almost think you were somewhere along the Danish West Coast by the scenery, but people here look different and tend to speak much more.

Charlotteville Love boat Charlotteville Charlotteville

Like… when I took a walk this evening. A woman looked at me when I passed her shop window saying “Hey boy… You look great”. ThanksJ. You don’t see that happen often in “Hvide Sande”.

All though there are more tourists here than in Trinidad (where I met close to zero) the atmosphere is still quiet and nice, and you don’t get attacked by people wanting to sell things. I only met this one guy, but he was kind of nice; A young musician wanting me to buy his music.

And he played for me with his guitar and I sat down listening to his happy-reggae-tunes and watching his huge smile underneath his long, dark hair. I explained that I couldn’t really carry a CD for the next two months and that was okay. Instead we bought a beer and he offered me a piece of newly cached tuna fish straight off the grill behind the building, where his friends were gathered. Mmmmmm…

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