I think it is very important in life for everyone to make friends with their Poo shield. Now I know maybe when you woke up this morning you might have been wondering where you left your Poo shield… and that can be very stressful. I feel you on that one.
Now for me on WildChild… I always keep my Poo shield handy in the dinghy. I do not use it all the time… but I pretty much always use my Poo shield when we are going upwind… and almost always in the afternoons… well… because it gets so freakin windy here every afternoon. Good for cooling off in the heat of the bay but just a sticky situation when traversing thru the Poo water. If you are really in a jam you can always use the person sitting in front of you as a Poo shield… I did that yesterday with Brian…. but they seldom appreciate it.
Now I know what you are thinking… Hey girl… don’t act so spoiled first world snob about things… you have to be culturally understanding. I hear you.
The interesting thing about being in a harbour like Luperon is that there are sailboats from all over the world here. There is such a diverse group of people here… so many different cultures represented in the bay. It is very important to be tolerant of so many different ways of looking at the world.
Now for me personally… I don’t really like getting splashed in Poo water everyday… especially if you have been fortunate enough to have had a shower within the last 2 weeks… you know…. cause then… when you get covered in Poo water your perfume to cover your body odor just doesn’t feel very fresh. The scent of perfume and poo water on your skin just ruins the delicate body odor I was trying to achieve that day.
For me personally I really kind of fear getting the Poo water in my eyes or mouth… don’t ya just hate it when you get Poo water splashed in yer mouth…? I know I know… everybody says relax hunny calm down… They have not had Cholora in the water of this bay for at least a few years… no need to worry. But… somehow… for me.. it just lacks a certain comforting feeling.
I do take WildChild every 5 days out of the bay and out into the channel to make water with my water maker in clean Ocean water… because…. well… because so many people warned me not to try and make drinking Water out of the Poo water… because drinking Poo water just somehow seems unappetizing…
I kind of agree with that….
Now it is also important to be culturally tolerant of those people that are different than we are. I often get the old sailor men here kindly telling me what to do… very helpful for me as I’d be lost without men around to tell me what to do all the time….
There is a man from the UK who has been living here in the bay for a few years who strongly advises me that the Poo water is perfectly safe to use in your sink to wash your dishes with because the dish soap makes everything better… but he wouldn’t swim in it though.. too risky… not enough dish soap to clean the whole bay…
There is another man from Australia who vigorously reassures me that the Poo water is perfectly safe to swim in.. he swims in the Poo water all the time and it is lovely.. no worries at all… just don’t mind those skin rashes they just go away in a Jiff mate. You get used to it…
There is a lovely lady from South Africa who has been here for sometime and she informs me that there is no need for a Poo shield at all… she runs her dinghy at full speed and enjoys the Poo shower as it helps cool her down and its quite refreshing… I am very culturally respectful of course and I smile and nod as a good Canadian should.
Sometimes when the light is just right you can see my Poo water halo over my head. Mic comments I look so much like a Poo angel he can hardly contain himself. Down boy I caution him… we need to remain civilized in the Poo water… this place is no reason to abandon all civility my friend. I mean Poo halos are very sexy and all but geez… try to get control of yourself man. There will be plenty of time for Poo shenanigans later.
You have to understand… that when you live on a sailboat in Luperon Bay… there is no pump out facility here… so every single yacht is pumping their holding tanks directly into the bay… and the town views the creek feeding the bay as a remarkably efficient Poo disposal system. Being Canadian I have never looked down into my toilet bowl after a nasty dump and felt any kind of urge to swim in its brown smelly deliciousness… but hey… that’s just me.
I am always doing my best to be respectful of the wide and diverse range of cultures here in this sailing community. I am informed by another helpful old man that the less than 12″ visibility in this water is not from the Poo…. (that all sinks harmlessly to the bottom) but is merely a natural function of the mangroves that grow around the edges of the bay… and of course… the smell you think you are smelling is not really there it is just a figment of my imagination. I bemoan that I lack enough creativity in my imagination to NOT be able to conjure a more pleasing smell for the Poo water… perhaps it actually is the smell of chocolate cheesecake I am really smelling. Poor simple Lexi not creative enough to enjoy the smell of the Poo water.
Now for me personally… being unable to conjure a better smell…. and lacking the faith that a little dish soap will cure all my Poo water woes… I always keep my Poo shield on hand. It is pretty and pink and just a lovely way to guard me against the Poo water splashes… because I am merely a backward ignorant Canadian girl. I get an unhappy feeling inside when I get a Poo water splash in my eyes or mouth… I really would prefer not to get the Poo water on my skin. So I use my Poo shield.
I am a very generous girl and I always offer use of my Poo shield to anyone who should happen to be catching a ride with me in my dinghy… but remarkably… I usually get a lecture about how great the Poo water is. I always smile and nod because being a berry berry mart girl I know this will leave the Poo shield available for me.
Sooo…. when you were telling me earlier about the stress you feel when you can’t find your Poo shield… I feel you on that one hunny….
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Rush hour Traffic in Luperon
Now I remember vividly my days back in Canada sitting in my big SUV trapped in rush hour traffic. Maybe you still get the pleasure of traffic jams in your life. That lovely smell of exhaust fumes and the honking of horns from the angry drivers helpfully yelling at everyone… ahh good times eh…?
Maybe you thought that someday you will escape the traffic jams by sailing away to exotic far off destinations… but… sadly… I am here to inform you that you will never escape the horrors of the traffic jam. I mean just this morning there was a traffic jam here in Luperon as Mic and I was walking down the street to go to the hardware store. We had to share the road with the veering traffic.
Yep… that’s a starving horse just wandering down the road causing the big traffic jam here this morning. Traffic just has to swerve around every which way… and goodness… the way these crazy drivers don’t even know to use their horns and get angry and start yelling and swearing… its veritably unnerving.
For some reason… I just never get used to watching the farm animals own the place. You just never see farm animals freely roaming around in first world nations… so I have never been exposed to that before. I am endlessly amused and still stopping what I am doing to run over with my camera and grab a picture.
The locals of course think I am completely nuts for being so amused by such a stupid thing. Back home in Canada you could easily go your whole life never getting closer than 200 meters from a cow. Here in Luperon you have to look both ways before you cross the street lest you get run over by a cow.
Kind of the sad thing here though is that they are currently suffering thru a pretty severe drought. The rainy season never happened and it has not rained here since I got here maybe 3 weeks ago. The place is hot and dry and all the edible grasses for the horses and cows is dying or gone. The livestock are dying… starving to death… and nobody seems to care… nobody seems to take any particular ownership for these animals… Nobody seems to feed them.
They are dying in front of the humans and the humans pay no heed.
I felt bad this morning watching an emaciated horse wobbling past trying to dig in gravel and dust for the smallest blade of grass to eat… but in this culture… its no big thing.
I see injured skinny starving dogs limping by on three legs due to some injury and nobody cares…
my heart just bleeds…. but that’s just me…
very soft and sensitive Canadian girl.
Cheers sailors