WEATHER: Rain and overcast all day 28C
HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: I’m in paradise?
BUMMER OF THE DAY: I’m in paradise and it’s raining
WORD OF THE DAY: CSI marathon
I could hear the rain on the roof as I woke to the sound of my alarm this morning. The skies were grey and it looked like it was going to stay all day. The weather matches my mood today, what’s the saying; misery loves company (or something like that). So it was just going to be one of those days and a run on from yesterday’s mood. Having all this time to myself, mother’s day on Sunday, missing Zeme, the massive future ahead, the end of my Odyssey, missing people that I spent so much time with blah, blah, blah…. Has for some reason manifested today. We all can have a self-pity days, today is mine.
So with not much on the cards I may as well tell you a little about Barbados which I haven’t done yet.
Barbados is an island nation located between the sea Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean . One of the Lesser Antilles . It stands out as the fifth most developed country in America , only after the United States , Canada , Chile and Uruguay , plus the first country of majority black to average a human development index high. The earliest inhabitants of Barbados were Amerindians nomads. In 1536 the explorer Portuguese Pedro Carmpos called this land Os Barbados ("the Barbados"), due to the abundance of fig trees with aerial roots hanging like a beard, which exist on the island. From the Field observations in 1536 and 1550 , Spanish conquistadors seized many Caribs using them as slaves on plantations. Other Caribs fled the island with different destinations. The sailors Englishmen who came to Barbados in the 1620's , landing in the current Holetown found the island uninhabited. Since the arrival of the first British settlers between 1627 and 1628 until its independence in 1966 , Barbados was under uninterrupted British control.
As soon as the industry of sugar took place in Barbados, the island was divided into large plantations that replaced the smallholdings of the early British settlers. Some of the farmers displaced by the regrouping of lands founded new English colonies in North America , especially in South Carolina . To work the plantations, slaves from West Africa were shipped to Barbados and other Caribbean islands. The slave trade ceased in 1804 . In 1834 slavery was abolished in the British Empire , but in Barbados and other colonies of the British West Indies, there was a moratorium of six years.
Local politicians were dominated by landowners and merchants of British descent. It was not until the 1930's , a political rights movement began to take root among the descendants of emancipated slaves.
From 1958 to 1962 , Barbados was one of the ten members of the West Indies Federation and Sir Grantley Adams served as its first and only Prime Minister. When the federation was dissolved, he returned to his status as a self-governing colony. This situation followed by several attempts to form another federation between the islands of Barbados and Windward and Leeward that culminated, so Barbados negotiated its own independence from the United Kingdom in a constitutional conference in June 1966 , reaching its independence as a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations on November 30 of 1966.
Elizabeth II is recognized as the Queen of Barbados, and its head of state , being represented by a Governor General . In Barbados the title that bears the Queen is to: "By the Grace of God, Queen of Barbados and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth of Nations." The current government is proposing that Barbados is constituted as a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations with an honorary president replacing the Queen. Executive power rests with the Prime Minister and his cabinet. The Prime Minister is normally the leader of the party that wins the Assembly elections, which is the lower house of Parliament and has 28 seats, are renewed every five years. The Senate has 21 members appointed by the Governor General. Barbados is an island of 34 km long and 23 km wide, with little relief and gentle slopes toward the central region, higher. The highest point is Mount Hillaby of 336m . It is located at a point slightly away from the axis of the other islands, and in the Atlantic Ocean .
Barbados has a population of 280,946(2007), of which 80% are black, 4% are white and the remaining 16% consists of other ethnic groups such as Asians and mestizos. The official language is English. Life expectancy is 73 years. 99.7% of the population is literate. Most of the inhabitants are Protestants (especially of the Anglican Church), and there are minorities of Roman Catholics, Hindus and Muslims. The British influence is most evident in Barbados than in the other Caribbean islands. A good example is the national sport is cricket , having made the island famous players in the game as Garfield Sobers and Frank Worrell . Its inhabitants refer to themselves as Bajan. This term seems to come from a mispronunciation of the English adjective Barbadian asBar-down finally staying Bajan. The most prominent Barbadian personality at international level is the singer Rihanna , the songwriter Des'ree and the group Cover Drive.
By the time I’ve had breakfast and lounged around with my tea it is well after 11am. Half the day has just disappeared. This is the way all my days have been since arriving and I have to say I like it. Nowhere to be, no one to meet. There really isn’t a lot of stuff to do on the island, well that I am interested in anyway, so I don’t feel bad that I am not sightseeing. With the rain well and truly settled in I headed back to the room where there was a channel showing a Will and Grace marathon and then that turned into a CSI Marathon. This is where I spent the rest of the day, plus on the internet it was totally a veg day and I loved it. My Ethiopian blog is coming along in leaps and bounds and at least I have used my time wisely. It’s just about ready to go.
I did make a trip to the corner shop later in the afternoon and I bought some snacks/lunch/dinners for the remaining few days I have here. You know some more 2 minute noodles, tin of corn, 2 tins of tuna, 2 bottles of coke, an ice cream, a chocolate bar, 3 milk poppers, a large packet of Doritos and some lime juice. Dinner was a tuna affair with the onion, lime juice and corn added heating it all up in the microwave. Yes more cooking for me, that now that’s twice in one week - lookout Masterchef Bern is back in town. Bah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha …….
So the sun didn’t shine in paradise yet again, but I am okay with that. It would be nice to be able to go for a walk on the beach to just get out of the room, but with 2 days left to go let’s hope I get at least one more nice sunny day here.
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