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Stacy from Manchester
I wandered near the buses because I was partially curious what the buildings looked like when she wandered over and saw me. She arrived 4 days prior to meeting her and was from Manchester, Jamaica. She explained she left her 3 children in Jamaica with her mother. The job would be for approximately a year. At 31 years old, she was thinking about how she needed to make a better life for herself and her children because it was getting bad at home in Manchester. She didn't specify but would shake her head as she repeated the statement and she needed to do something.
The father of her children wasn’t doing much to support or help. She knew he was a poor choice in man but she was also savvy and far from naive. She had to be in, after all she was a mother of three from Manchester. Stacy knew that if anything happened she would be sent home with no money and no job. A situation which had already presented itself. A male manager at the restaurant was friendly but had already started making comments about her being pretty. And as the case goes he had a wife whose personality that if her husband is flirting it won't be the husbands fault. It would be the girls.
During another part of the trip I had a conversation with a woman from Illinois who shared the workers on the islands only make about $200-$600 a month. Seeing Americans on vacation means that money is to be made. The misconceptions that because we have enough to travel that we have enough to spend frivolously. This is mostly reinforced by the wealthy visitors who waste food, resources and don't tip. Not tipping is partially because of the digital divide. The cruise is cashless and transactions go directly on the cards. without knowing to have cash in hand, many of the travelers don't tip or have no way to give a tip. All this is to the frustration of the servers who are under impression we are simply cheating or cheap. Because we had no cash we gave one of our drivers the remaining beers that we could not return or finish. He seemed very happy with the gesture however small.
Auntie Ena:
St Thomas. I called her auntie when I met her. I don’t know why I felt compelled to do so but sometimes you need to. The sun was blaring and I had made it as far into this trip as I could go without sunglasses. She was at the alcohol counter and I told her I was paying with cash so she could ring me up. If it were by card, I would have to wait in the longer line.
She wiped down my sunglasses with a paper towel and then handed them to me. Her name was Ena her family was from Antigua. I told her I was from California. And she told me she had people in Southern California. When I told her that the cruise was just selling things that no one wanted to buy she nodded in agreement understanding that there were things often wasted.
She told me I should try to play at the casino because I might win. I told her my Gods rarely let me win money unless it was in the abundance of lessons that unfolded. She said you should try because "you never know". In the short span of time she shared that she had a plan the coming week, which Juneteenth and also her birthday. She didn’t waste a moment widening her smile when she shared that would be celebrating and cackling at the beach with her family and friends.
I played at the casino that night. I lost $40 on a machine that never wins anyway.