Preachers

I was fitted with soft lenses yesterday and am getting used to them - but still feels like I am wearing someone else's eyeballs!

Tomorrow we are all off to Grand Turk: Nicky has a boat of trees arriving from the Dominican Republic that need planting so we are going to flop around the swimming pool while he does the hard work (!). On Monday we'll renew our visas there - with a much smaller population on Grand Turk the lines for getting the visa sorted out should be shorter.

We tried to renew them yesterday but it was taking forever but we were treated (the whole room, not just me and Osh) to a prime example of Turks Island racism when a man came in and starting ranting and raving that he had to wait his turn behind all the Haitains and Dominicans and Jamaicans waiting to sort out their paperwork. Although the islands would collapse overnight if all the migrant labour left, it doesn't stop the local population bearing a tremendous grudge against all the immigrants. Enoch Powell would (with rather beautiful irony) find himself in good company here...

The local newspaper (published once week on account of there not being enough news to justify a daily!) carried an astonishing piece the other week about the hoards of illegal Haitians in the country who are now (apparently) outnumbering the locals, spreading disease and voodoo and all sorts. Rivers of Blood all over again!

Don't know about the Voodoo but they do a very fine line in loud, tuneless gospel which starts up every day at dusk and continues until about 10pm. The noise comes from a church (denomination unknown, but clearly in the happy clappy bracket) a couple of miles away but sounds like it is next door. How the preacher finds the strength to rant (all in Creole) each night is beyond us but more power to the man who yells Hallelujah over and over and over again for minutes at a time.

Those of you familiar with West Africa will be able to picture the fevour perfectly!

Finally, and completely unconnected to the matter of Haitian preachers, here is a picture of the Oshlet by the truck which I'm driving around.