Fun afternoon at the baseball stadium in Rock Sound
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Mon 10 Feb 2014 21:29
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24:51.84N, 076:09.89W Rock Sound
If an opportunity arises to mix with the local residents we're
there if possible. Mention the availability of locally cooked food and
we walk even faster to get there. So last Saturday a bunch of us found
ourselves sitting on the bleachers (grandstand in proper English!) at the local
baseball ground to help celebrate Rock Sound's Baseball club's season's
achievements.
  They take their games of Baseball seriously in the
Bahamas and reward the youngsters with their trophies after the
campaign
Before settling down to watch a demonstration game we
queued - well the Admiral queued for a food choice of either grilled
chicken in a sweet barbecue sauce or a piece of steak that looked to have been
put on the grill at the previous game! So it was the $10 chicken for 'Skip'
and the $5 'not meat' selection for the 'Admiral' - all served
with a baked spud, sweetcorn and beetroot in a polystyrene container with the
usual plastic cutlery. Behind the high fence on the outside of the baseball
ground cruised some hungry local 'potcakes'. This is the name given to the
Bahamian dogs that wander the streets at least those that are unattached to
families. A docile mutt mix from through the years reared on the remains
from the cooking pots called potcakes hence the colloquial name for the
dogs. They seemed to know that their place was on the outside of the ground
especially when there's a good chance of becoming target
practice for a hard baseball from the enthusiastic
players.
  Cruisers address more serious issues in life -
such as the procurement and consumption of food - the 'Admiral' patiently queuing for
lunch.........most of which quickly followed the usual route southwards
through 'Skip's tummy.
Conversation in our area was difficult due to
the organisers having invited a 'DJ' with
impressive speakers and a computer hard drive full of
never-ending Rap music. This was pumped out using an equally impressive
amplifier. So we sat as far way as we could to consume our nosh.
A short while later a party of American students arrived
and set up a table with their medical professor. They offered
free blood pressure and blood sugar level tests. They were from Oregon
way over to the west of the USA and were in the final day of their tour
of Bahamian schools testing as many children as they could possibly get to.
The Bahamas has a much higher level per capita of such medical ailments as
diabetes and they were following up from a previous visit a few years ago. In
the name of 'practice' we were of course invited to roll up our sleeves and
have air pumped into a collar to simulate an smallish Anaconda wrapping itself
around your arm. We last had this done in Oriental and came through with
flying colours as we did on this occasion. 'Skip'
then supplied a drop of his precious blood to an attractive
young lady for his blood-sugar test. Had this been carried out prior
to his devouring a large chicken drumstick liberally coated in a sweet barbecue
sauce then the reading would have been slightly lower. But it was all
good practice for the students to whom we all wished successful careers in their
various chosen medical fields. All so young - said he.
  The 'Admiral' having her arm pumped
up........after which it was 'Skips' turn
  Then......just a little prick...ouch
!!!
Now here's a proud fella showing his trophies to us all
Before we left the stadium we took a picture of a youngster
aged 10 who was proudly parading his two medals around us. He was cute and
loved the fuss we all made of him. Certainly liked having his piccy taken.
Unfortunately for him whilst he was posing for the photographs the
dogs found a hole in the fence and found his polystyrene
box containing his chicken meal. That was soon gone.
We stayed for the prize giving. The 'Rap Man' still had much
more music to blast out of his speakers before the afternoon was over so
we drifted away en-masse to the local general store to ease the
pressure on our eardrums. The ladies of the group had heard rumours of a
delivery of broccoli. So they shopped
for veggies whilst the men congregated round the motor
section looking in fascination at drive belts for engines and
generally getting in the way of everybody. Typical really.
All in all a really nice afternoon hanging out with 'the gang'
before moving on to the Exumas a couple of days
later.
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