Barbados 6

After three weeks on my own, I am now back on the Y'smen trail. I have arrived on Barbados, which has the youngest club in the Caribbean. It was chartered in 1984 and has about 20 members, of these four are men. I read in a local paper this morning that the minister of tourism thought the country would benefit from the people working for immigration and customs being friendlier to arriving visitors. I really agree. I had quite a hassle before I could enter because I did not know the exact address of my host. Moreen Hoyte, PAP, picked me up at the airport. Then we met the club president, Shirley Holder, and had dinner together. During the meal I was presented with the itinerary for my stay, and it looks very interesting. After the meal I was taken to my hosts, Andrea and Margaret Walcott.

Friday I spent most of the time at the YMCA. The Y has seen better days for various reasons. Some new and more attractive sports arenas have drawn people away from them, and a general recession in the ninties was also influencing the activity. Now the Y has some 100+ members in addition to the participiants of the afternoon courses. The Y has three full time employees, a few part timers and some volunteers. One challenge for the future is to upgrade the basketball arena estimated to cost around 1.2 million BDS (600.000 USD).

Flood warnings is not what you expect in the Caribbean, but there has been a lot of rain today, and warnings for floods towards the night. Hopefully the rain will terminate before the big event, the Fish Fry, tomorrow Sat 26th. I'll let you know some time next week.

Arne Augedal (26.10.02)