These are excerpts from the early chapters of Goat Water Is Not What You Think, a memoir of life on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. My husband and I spent four winters there until we were chased away by the
volcano that destroyed our house.
Boxes of the book arrived here by freight a week ago. It's hard to believe that I can hold the several years' project in my hands!
“A fact of island life: Much of the livestock was loose.
Goats, particularly, would eat anything and everything. If you cared about your
landscaping, you had a sturdy fence and a gate that you kept shut. Mamie, one
of our neighbors, showed me the place in our front gate where she and her
husband had laced string to keep their goats out.
“We were told more than once that animals on the island were
a mark of worth – the larger the herd, the greater the master’s worth. Those who
kept animals didn’t necessarily sell them, but they could if they needed cash.
Cows, sheep and goats were an investment, rather like shares of Procter and
Gamble or General Motors. Anybody who owned 400 sheep or goats was a powerful
man or woman indeed….
“The need to cool off after some exertion was a good excuse
to sit on the porch and just look at our surroundings. We especially loved to
watch the lambs cavorting in a pasture across the street. Often, they would be
walking along and suddenly jump straight up, seemingly for no reason except
pure joy. When they got tired and hungry and found their mother for a snack, we
would turn our attention to the kingbird that had built a nest on a nearby
phone pole and divebombed any bird that flew too close.
“It was easy to spend an hour in these pursuits, and somehow
we didn’t think the time was being wasted.
“I tried to swim laps in our pool at least every other day
after 2 p.m. I loved to watch palm fronds gently swaying in the trade winds as
I did the backstroke to and fro. Despite the sun and the location 17 degrees
from the Equator, we discovered, to our surprise, that 80 degrees with a stiff
breeze was a bit too chilly for swimming. The next day would be calmer. We
counted on that.
Transplanted Americans, Brits and Canadians who lived on
the island full-time told us they didn’t swim from late November until,
perhaps, early March. Sometimes, the thermometer went down to 68 degrees at
night. The health department then would put out an urgent plea for the donation
of blankets because poor old people were suffering. Nobody had a furnace. And
many closed their windows with ill-fitting wooden shutters rather than glass….”
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| Our Montserrat house before the volcano |
“After we had bought some fruits and vegetables from her, we
invited her up to our porch to have a cold drink. She told us that she used to
bring three of her four children down to Spanish Point, our neighborhood, to
help her carry produce. Her home was at least two miles up the hill – or the
mountain, if you will – from us. She said her children were all grown up with
their own lives to live. Her doctor didn’t want her carrying so much, but, she
said, she didn’t pay any attention.
“One of the things she told us that first day was her “Hugo
story,” what happened to her during the 1989 Hurricane Hugo, which devastated
the island. Ed, my husband, first became acquainted with the island when he went
with a work team from the States to help rebuild houses.
“Katy, knowing that her wooden shack might not be safe
during the worst of the storm, took Mark, a mentally challenged son, and went
to the home of a friend, whose wooden house had a concrete-block addition.
“As she was walking toward her neighborhood when the storm
abated, someone told her that her house had blown away and could be found “in
de ghaut,” (ravine) down the hill from its previous spot. When she checked to
see for herself, she discovered that the roof had caved in around the
foundation before the rest blew away, along with all her belongings, which were
strewn around on the ground “all mucked up.”
Despite what had happened to her, Katy remained unfailingly
cheerful. It was a trait common to Montserratians – and, we thought – worth
emulating.
Books are available at www.Amazon.com and at the publisher, www.HawthornePub.com.
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