Cashew Nuts

The cashew nut guy was, it turns out, extremely generous. Once in Soufriere at the volcano and sulphur springs, I was informed that the cashew tree produces a fruit from which the nut is harvested and roasted. Only one nut per fruit and I believe it only fruits once a year. Cashew nuts are expensive, to state the obvious, now I know why. I'm sad that I missed the fruit harvesting, but I saw the tree or one of the trees nearby. I also missed the roasting, but saw the stove which he had used. We ate loads of nuts and he gave me what was left. They were delicious, amazingly fresh.

We sat and chatted for a while, the time was nearing for me to head to the airport so I didn't stay for ages. He had a tattoo on his arm which said 'kill dem all den'. I had a Louis Theroux moment of polite interrogation as I jokingly and innocently read it out loud and asked him why he had such a statement tattooed on his arm. Everyone present laughed and he replied that he had some enemies and that he had been in a fight the previous night. It turns out it was the guy with the gash in his arm. A fight with a knife and broken glass. He had some cuts in his head but it seemed to me as though he walked away the less injured warrior.

We ate mangoes and listened to some music, he showed me his hand made harpoon gun, a wooden construction that was sprung with thick black rubber. He fired the spike into some bushes across the road. There was a way of disengaging it so it was safer to walk around with. It was a cool object, a nicely made piece of work. And I'm certain it did it's job when out fishing.

I was calm, relaxed. I really get a buzz from finding myself chatting and hanging out with people I don't know who have grown up in alien environments to me, lived and experienced things I will never know about.

I left, heading to the airport, happy that I had had a real St Lucian experince before the comfort of the family holiday that awaited me.