It’s a good thing to have a local neighborhood bar and in Bayaleau it’s Mafi’s The Valley Bar where on Friday nights you can have a drink with your neighbors, and have a little barbecue too and on special nights you can even get a bowl of Manish Water.
You can also get some Jack Iron rum to go… whew!
But the thing that tops it off is to be welcomed in to the folks that are hanging out there…. to be given beers and drinks and included in the conversation, in spite of the difficulty that I still have understanding the West Indian patois. And did I say that the barbeque is ohh so yum!
About 7pm it’s starting to get dusk, and with the fading sunshine, the temperataure cools out a bit to that luxeriuos, velvety just barely coolness that is oh so perfect. So ya wander down the half a block to Mafi’s and see what she has left and order up a drink and some sustenance, and you grab a chair and take it outside where the men have gathered, drinking and eating and visiting.
After awhile your beer is done and you go inside to pay for that & your bowl of Manish Water and Adrian, Mafi’s husband, asks what I’m drinking and gives me another – thanks to one of the men sitting outside. So you order some chicken to go along with that and while you’re finishing you’re told how this guy’s grandfather is 106 and has been drinking Jack Iron for like ever and is still strong and outside gardening! Next thing you know you’ve got a glass of coke and Jack Iron and you’re talking with someone else about a computer problem they’re having because, you’re the ‘white man that does computers.’
You chat a bit and arrange to call him so he can pass by with the errant HP laptop the next day…. and in the course of the conversation he tells me that he’s also gotta house that he rents long term.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – serendipity furthers.
