![\"DSCF2039\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/whatwedo\/files\/2013\/11\/DSCF2039-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWednesday mornings have the best scenery of any day of the week.\u00a0 When I look out from the Center, I see a stretch of sparkling turquoise water, hopefully flat so it doesn\u2019t limit our water activities for the day, the limestone-and-scraggly-vegetation hill of Long Cay, maybe a flamingo flying around or a local fishing boat getting some air off of wave crests on its way out for the day\u2019s work \u2013 and a ship.\u00a0 Well, possibly multiple ships.\u00a0 But what makes this one particular ship exciting is that it carries all of our food for the next two weeks.<\/p>\n
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The availability of food isn\u2019t something that you really think about\u00a0in the\u00a0Unites States.\u00a0 I know there comes a\u00a0point in every semester when all you want is a home-cooked meal, but still, the SUB exists so at least the food is there<\/i> and you have the opportunity to eat it.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t to say that we go hungry here on South Caicos at the CMRS\u00a0\u2013 just that fresh food is less readily available than some places in the world (although certainly more readily available than others).\u00a0 Depending on a floating piece of metal with some boxes on it showing up every so often in your backyard is rather different than popping over to Safeway because you need your own personal jar of peanut butter.<\/p>\n
In 2008, Hurricane Ike slammed into the Turks and Caicos Islands, severely damaging or destroying a third of the buildings on South Caicos and temporarily preventing the food ship delivery.\u00a0 Now, five years later, a lot of the buildings still haven\u2019t been fixed \u2013 at East Bay, a favorite beach bonfire site near the Center, the remnants of\u00a0a hotel development are scattered around the sand and pine trees. \u00a0On any given visit, if it weren\u2019t for the number of pine needles on top of the piles of lumber and insulating materials, the hurricane could have happened last week and we could be out surveying the damage for the first time on empty stomachs.<\/p>\n
Basically, the ability to walk to the Met and take as many free cheese samples as your conscience will allow (not that I’m speaking from experience or anything) is a luxury.\u00a0 Which sounds a bit clich\u00e9.\u00a0 You don\u2019t realize how different things are in other places until they are suddenly made relevant to you \u2013 like eating rice and cabbage for the fifth time in as many days while watching rusty shipping containers come trundling towards you over the algal plains and patch reefs of the Caicos Bank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wednesday mornings have the best scenery of any day of the week.\u00a0 When I look out from the Center, I see a stretch of sparkling turquoise water, hopefully flat so it doesn\u2019t limit our water activities for the day, the … Continue reading