February 14, 2004
Exuma Park

Happy Valentine's day. I think. I have not felt romantic in awhile, but Radio Nassau does it's best to soften the mood in testosterone leaden hangout of Royal Bahamian Defense Force. As I am writing this, three more black and resigned to the life in the service man of various age just walked in. New contingent from Nassau. These boys are assigned to a new place every two weeks. You can never tell their age though. I was talking to one of the guys from the previous contingent and I was shocked to hear him saying that he's got 15 years behind him and 10 more to go to reach retirement. He looked late twenties at the most, but was pushing on 40. The way RBDF works is that they recruit some local guys familiar with the islands for a two or five year contract, which gets renewed if particular individual didn't cause too much trouble for the RBDF and is not sick of the service himself. Security minded Bahamians usually pull through until retirement. They are cool, happy to talk to cruisers, and some, like Carlos when sober, are excellent chefs, making their recipes passed down the generations. It's a real treat to experience some local flavor.

(M)