Trouble In Paradise

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It all started with a hat on the bed on the morning we left Tel Aviv.  It was my silver felt one......bloody Drugstore Cowboy - it's made me forever paranoid about hats on beds.  Am I alone here?  Does anybody know what the hell I'm talking about?  I must have done it unconsciously - I was a little tense with a million jobs that morning.  But then I saw it there, and immediately thought "Oh God".  The last time there was a hat on that bed, my mother put my orange felt one there on her first day in Israel.  That very evening she put her back out for 10 days.  Don't mess with the hat on the bed.  It's powerful stuff.

Not as powerful as Matt Dillon's hair oil

I loathe the Keep Calm crap

Apparently having the kids birthday celebration before their actual birthday in Israel is a bad omen.  In fact before a baby is born, it is considered very bad luck to prepare anything for it.  Sure you can go to the shop and put anything away in there that you want - ready to be shipped to your home as soon as you drop your load (charming!).  But do not actually purchase anything.  And for the love of god do not gift any expectant mothers with an early pair of gender neutral booties.   Furthermore, need I even mention the date of our little party this year - Friday the 13th.  Plus it was full moon and a retrograde mercury situation if you really want to dive into astrological detail here.   I always refused to succumb to friggatriskaidekaphobia  - (fear of Friday 13th, for all those who are not up with their various phobia related disorders) I thought perhaps it could have been an auspicious day for a celebration.  I think I was mistaken.  Then there was the omission of the two extra candles I was meant to put on the birthday cake.  Jewish people always put the number of years old in candles (as usual) and then an extra one for the next year.  The lady from the kindergarten who also looks after the girls at home seemed a little horrified I was putting 5 for each  girl rather than 6.  I brushed it away.

But I should have known.......

The trip to the island was uneventful.  A squashy flight from New York to Barbados.  Cordi and I were trapped in the window and middle seats by a large woman in the aisle seat who smelt.  She kept falling asleep and her unconscious elbow changed the channels on my TV constantly.  That shit is hard to put up with for 5 hours.  I had to keep digging my finger under her arm flesh to get to the controls so I could continue watching Hotel Budapest (love that movie by the way).

It won't be that bad Cordi

We had a few hours wait at the boring airport in Barbados.  A place I've spent a lot of waiting hours at. But at last we boarded our tiny plane and took the 45 minute ride to Bequia.  We were so happy to be back.  Flying over those seas and seeing the coast of a place we've spent more time in over the last 5 years than any other place was pure joy.  It's bloody miles away from everywhere, but it is such a special part of the world.  Going there is like pressing the pause button on life for a couple of months.  I cannot express how grateful I feel to sometimes have that luxury.  And to go to a beautiful, welcoming, comfortable, familiar place to do this, is utter heaven.  To sit outside at night, with a postcard view below you, the winds gently blowing through, and have complete silence is unbelievable.  Complete silence.  Not a sound to be heard at night.  Occasionally you might hear a dog barking, or a lone car drive up one of the valley roads at the bottom of the mountain we live on.  But that's it.  When you've gone straight from inner city Melbourne to live in a city as busy and vibrant and noisy as Tel Aviv for 6 months, and then followed it up with a few mad days in New York, then the true peace and quiet of nature is so treasured.

Stunning - every time

Little shark

The property housekeeper Cathy was waiting for us at the airport. She of the drawn-on purple eyebrows.  They were still going strong.   She was with her cousin Sandra who drives a ute-taxi on Bequia.  As soon as we were loaded up in the back, Cathy told us about an awful mosquito-borne virus that was running rampant through the area and had been on Bequia for a couple of months.  It was called "chikungunya".  The majority of the small population had already contracted it.  She said the virus was pretty bad for a few days - fever, joint pain, rash, headaches - but then it went away.  Although, however, she did say that she still had joint pain a month and a half later.  We were really concerned, but not freaked out......at that stage....  Actually we were more freaked out by the dryness of the island.  It looked like there had been no rain for months.  The usually lush vegetation was crispy dry, and you could see all the way through the jungle, when once the dense growth made it impossible to so.

A familiar angle

Getting to our place was heaven.  Despite the dryness of the garden and the fact that the two pet tortoises (Speedy and Hasty) were there no longer, there were still plenty of hummingbirds - maybe not so many butterflies.  We had a peaceful night, and watched the fireflies in the bushes from the balcony.  The next morning we went into the town.  The vegetable selection was a bit sketchy.  Our vegetable sellers said that they didn't have much because there weren't so many people around.  I mentioned the dryness to one of the Rastas at the food market and he looked around, put his finger to his lips and said quietly "Shhhhhhhhh".  We heard a guy outside in the street rambling on about the evil spirits that had come to Bequia.......A few more tales from those who had contracted the virus, and an explanation of how you could tell who had been sick - they walked with a stoop - and the alarm bells were ringing........hmmmmmm

Away! You little bastard

Upon further investigation - eg the internet - we discovered that chikungunya racing through the Caribbean and is already present in 16 other  Caribbean countries, while other neighbouring islands fearfully focus on trying to prevent any outbreaks, and what to do to contain them if an outbreak occurs.  People are packing shit.  It's an epidemic.  And we flew right into the epicentre of the SVG outbreak.  Jesus. Thanks for giving us a heads up dudes - fucking hell.

Chikungunya was "discovered" about 60 years ago in Tanzania in Africa.  And since that time there have been various outbreaks around the world that health authorities were desperate to eradicate.  The symptoms sound scary -  the word "chikungunya" directly translates from the Kimakonde language as "to bend upwards" because suffers of the virus contort upwards with pain.  There's also the high fever - 40 degrees, extreme headaches, hideous looking itchy rashes, and the pain in the joints is meant to be so excruciating that you can't even lifts the sheets on your bed.  There can be ongoing problems with eyes, heart, and joints for years later.  Nobody knows much about it, and at present there is not treatment, no prevention and no cure.  There was one thing that was certain; we did not want to get this virus, and we did not want our kids to get this virus.

We had to leave.  Unfortunately we couldn't get a flight out until 5 days later.  We thought it was too risky to stay and decided to take the boat to the next island (St Vincent) the next day, where we could get a flight out to Barbados - one of the few islands in the area that didn't have any reported cases of chikungunya.   So I packed it all again.  People often ask me if I am an expert packer by now.  I would like to state confidently that I am truly gifted.  I had also cleverly done 3 massive loads of built up washing, dried it, and folded it ready to be loaded in our bags.  It takes talent people, don't write off the natural abilities of a skilled laundry technician.  I just want to master the "fitted sheet fold".....that's all I'm asking for.....

Special Place

Anyway - we were organised and on a 9.30am ferry the next morning.  We noticed that the ferry guy was using his smallest ferry.  There just weren't that many people around, certainly not much movement in and out of Bequia.  As we pulled out of the harbour, and the boat pushed through the waters between the headlands, Mark and I looked back on our beloved dry Bequia.  We joked that we were leaving the bad spirits behind. Then the sea began to get rough.

The relief at coming into the harbour was intoxicating

What followed next was a terrifying hour that involved huge waves, extreme wind and one tossed-about boat.  We keep getting soaked by huge sprays of water (on the 2nd deck) and I really and truly thought that the ferry was going to capsize.  I'm not great on a boat at the best of times, and I'm positive that many of my boating friends would tell me to HTFU (harden the fuck up - in case translation is needed) - but I was truly frightened.  And an hour of intense fear on the back of 40 hours of underlying anxiety was doing me no favours.  My husband was ashen as well.  We had to keep one hand on the girls and save one hand for gripping the rails to stop being tossed about.  We were just looking at each other with that "Oh Fuck" kind of sentiment in our eyes, as Vali and Cordi were screaming "Weeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! This is FUUUUUUUNNNNN".

Oh to be innocent again.

Six hours wait in St Vincent and a short flight to Barbados later, and here we are.  Barbados has no reported cases of chikungunya despite it's proximity. We quickly (perhaps a little too quickly) rented a place for a week.  This will give us time to find our feet, get a back-up plan, and perhaps more worryingly wait out the incubation period, which is usually about 5 days, but can be up to 12.   We have a few bites.

Docking at St Vincent

Sometimes you just have to know when to pull the plug.

Could wearing this actually reverse the hat on the bed that sealed our fate?