Life in St. Vincent

We are shopping for vegtables in the market. The lady is weighing tomatoes on an antique scale.

 We asked her how old the scale was and she said, "Oh It not vey old. Naaa"

You can see Brent in the background.

These men are repaving the street BY HAND! Two were shoveling asphalt out of the truck - two men were handling the wheel barrows - two were shoveling - one man smoothes it out with a roller - and one supervised. Everything is labor intensive!

Ther are NO clothes dryers! Every one (including us) hangs clothes on the line.

The buckets on the roof are to collect the rain water to wash with - otherwise

you have to carry your water from a pubic tap.

This man was washing his pot at the public tap - then he made cowhide soup

 with dashine (kind of like a potato), yams, and caloo(like spinach).

He cooked it outside on a fire. We did not stick around to try cowhide soup!

We are in the village called Cemetery Hill. This is the cemetery. Ther are no new plots to buy

so they resell the very old ones because the bodies and coffins have rotted away from all the rain and heat.

The hospital is the big building below the cemetery. It is the scariest place I have ever been in. 17 to 20 beds in a ward with hot sweating bodies lying on them. Sheets and pillows only if you bring them from home -  no bed gowns - no towels or toilet paper or toilet seats in the bathrooms - no fans or airconditioning - just breezes blowing through (if there is a breeze)!