Fish Friday

So last night, a whole bunch of people from my school went to Fish Friday. It is this nighttime seafood festival that takes place every week in the village of Gouyave. Gouyave is the fishing capital on the island; it is located in the parish of St. John - about a 45 minute drive up the western coast of the island from St. George's (where I live). To get there, one of my friends arranged for a cab company to take us. Our driver was named Sean and he drove us in a very large van/bus type of vehicle. My roommate had warned me in advance that the road there is filled with twists, turns, and bumps so I was allowed to have the front passenger seat to prevent pukeage. It is a good thing I got that advice in advance.... even sitting in the front seat, I had to sit very still and not take my eyes off the road to prevent from feeling nauseous.

We arrived without incident and went out to enjoy the festival. There were 18 people crammed into our bus, and multiple busses carrying students arrived at the festival that night, so the place was a mix of locals and students - all enjoying the festivities. We walked around and sampled the different things that each booth was selling. I tried a fishcake, a marlon fish-kebab, a piece of coconut bread, passionfruit juice, and a banana ice cream. (I know what you're thinking. That's not a lot of fish, Dayna.) Well I decided to be responsible and take it easy, since I anticipated the drive home to be even more puke-inducing than the drive there. My friends let me try bites of their stuff as well. I got to taste a tuna-kebab, breadfruit, grilled lobster, and a fish-noodle stir fry. I also ended up buying a local teenager a bowl of lambie soup (lambie is the Grenadian name for the meat of the critter that lives inside a conch shell). The kid was sitting in the gutter and begging for money. He asked me for $2 for some food, so I gave it to him. Then he asked me if I would buy him the soup with the $2... and I agreed because he looked kind of messed up and I thought it might be a good idea for him to remain sitting on the curb. The soup turned out to be $7, but I felt bad for the kid so I didn't mind. I think he was surprised when I actually came back with the hot seashell soup he asked for.... Then again, he could have totally been scamming me for a free meal. What can I say, i'm a sucker. I also ended up giving the stray dogs a lot of the food i ate. I couldn't help it, they were sooo skinny.

Anyway... we enjoyed the festival for a couple of hours; people were singing and dancing in the streets and many of my classmates were enjoying the rum punch and beer. We met up with our driver after a couple of hours, and to my horror he was drinking a rum punch as well. This had me quite worried since (as I have mentioned before) the drinks here are STRONG. The driver was behaving normally though so I tried not to think about it.

I was hoping that I wouldn't get car-sick on the drive home, and as it turns out I had nothing to worry about. Apparently, terror keeps nausea at bay. The driver was going ridiculously fast and spent a lot of time trying to pass a slower moving vehicle in front of him. At times he came literally inches from hitting it, at other times he would drive in the oncoming lane while going around blind corners, and often he would come really close to going off the edge of the road. Almost everybody else had been drinking and seemed to think it was hilarious. I thought we were all going to die. After about 20 minutes, the driver drove through a huge pothole on the road and the back tire exploded. We had to pull over and we all got out of the bus while Sean and and a few of the students put on the spare. After that, he took it easy for the rest of the drive. When we finally made it home, everybody sat around on the balcony of the main student centre and laughed and told stories. Aside from the almost dying in a firey car wreck on the side of a jungly mountain, I had a great time. But I think next time we go to Fish Friday, i'm going to insist we take the water-taxi (I hear its more fun anyway).

In conclusion, here are a few photos I took while at the festival. Tomorrow I will post some pics of the spice/fruit market in the heart of St. George's.

sorry if my story scared you, Mom.
xoxox
Dayna