Our
last stop in the Ragged Island Range was at the leeward beach of
Buena Vista Cay. The beach is about a mile and a half long.....the
longest in the entire straggly chain. It is narrow and golden and
slopes gently from the low, inland vegetation down to the clear
waters of the bay. To maintain our illusion of solitude, we anchored
Let's Dance far away from the two sailboats and the fishing boat
already in place. We efficiently hoisted the Love Me Tender with the
davit, dropped her gently into the calm waters and set off for an
afternoon of exploration on the southern shore.
Earlier
tourists had marked a narrow path to the windward side of the island
with a motley collection of waterlogged shoes -- flip flops and
sandals and tennies adorned spiky tree branches all along the route
to the Atlantic. Very thoughtful.
The
next morning we decided to check out the northern end of the island.
There, near a rough outcropping of ironstone, we could see what
appeared to be an abandoned shed. We'd heard stories of a lone
inhabitant of Buena Vista -- a man who shared this isolated stretch
of beach and rock only with nature -- but that seemed improbable.
However, as we motored close to the beach in the Love Me Tender, a
wiry, gray-haired man ambled down to the beach and hailed us. "Come
ashore, friends," he called, "My name is Edward."
Edward
was happy to share his story with us. He was born on Buena Vista Cay
a good number of years ago and grew up in a house whose ruins now
serve as his cistern. HIs father and grandfather were fishermen who
traded their catch with Haitians and Cubans for fresh vegetables and
other supplies. Edward moved away to Nassau for a time -- long
enough to have a career as an electrician and father six children --
but returned to the Ragged Islands when life in the big city got to
be too much for him. Now he spends his days farming and gardening
and pondering the nature of the universe. He is a Bahamian
renaissance man!
He
keeps a mama goat, her twin kids and a lone sheep in a driftwood pen.
There are no predators, but he doesn't want them to wander off.
There are wild goats on the island who are partial to his garden, and
the battle for the meager crop is ongoing. Edward grows pigeon peas,
papayas, avocado, watermelon and sweet potatoes. Mostly sweet
potatoes. He went to an old cooler in his shack and brought out a
handful of the vegetable -- offering some to us. How could we say
no?
He
firmly closed the cooler before walking away, saying, "Da rats,
ya know." OK! Our next stop was the hen house -- lots and lots
of chickens, but he worries that they don't lay enough and asks our
opinion! I am sure that I have no thoughts whatsoever on this
subject. Likewise Captain Bill, so we move on to the other birds.
Edward has turkeys, ducks, even peacocks! He told us that the night
before our arrival he dreamed that he plucked one feather from the
peacock and that two came out. He did this several times and there
were always two feathers. "It musta been you", he said, "I
dreamed you two were comin' ta see me." Well, that might be a
bit far fetched......
Edward
is content in his self-contained little world. He thanks The Lord
for his successes and is grateful for his health and rain and the
occasional visitor. He lives in the paradise of his choice, mindful
of its challenges and rewards. He is ingenious and spiritual and
self-reliant and gives new new meaning to the concept of "making
do." We could learn a lot from Edward.
Let's
Dance......Carol and Bill
