On our first night arriving in Caudan Bassin in Port Louis Alex and Inez played around with some local kids. After a while their parents came along to talk to us, very nice people, and a few moments later after chatting about why and how we came to Mauritius, Ravi invited us over for dinner at his home the day after! Without really knowing if he really meant what he said or if he was expecting something back, we gave him a call the day after and he confirmed that he had invited over some friends and his family and was on his way to shop for the evening. He also said to invite over our other sailor friends. We popped over to a few boats and those who followed were “Solo” with Sandra and Christoph as well as “Ashia” with Nicole and Armin. 

We met Ravi and Swadeck and his wife Jiihan at the shopping mall as he wanted us to come and choose the wine we wanted to drink for the dinner (!).

  

We followed him by car and he opened up his home for us. Alex and Inez got quickly acquainted with the huge TV!

   

As we walked in to his home, there was already a few ladies cooking several dishes in the kitchen: friends and cousins.

Ravi has a beautiful home with a nice taste for home interior decoration, considering the kitchen and the living room. That was not the case for the exterior. The house as well as the neighbourhood looked really run down, for our European eyes, so coming into his house was like entering Alladin’s palace.

  

 

This was a marvellous evening. Ravi was very generous, opened champagne, had bought extra glasses for the evening and the cooking went on and on and on and… and not until 22h30 did we sit down for dinner. As there was not enough chairs and table we, the guests got to sit down, whereas our hosts stood up or ate in the kitchen. Yes it felt really awkward. After dinner Ravi had bought some fireworks that he pulled off from the terrace. We were treated like kings and queens.

 

What we really were positively surprised about was the mix of religions. In the kitchen were muslim, hindu and christian all coping together, team working and cooking a lovely dinner for all of us. The world should see this. It does work! 

 

At the end of the evening, Ravi had even bought some fireworks.

   

We thank Ravi, Swadeck, Jiihan and all their friends for giving us the most memorable evening!