OtherGoose: Happy After Christmas

And Happy New Year!!

So it's December 29 and we are anchored in the very small harbour of Great Guana Cay.

We left Green Turtle on December 27 and made it across the "Don't Rock" Channel [ 3 feet at low tide] and slipped into the harbour with no problem. We started walking up to Nipper's Bar when Bill Gravelle passed us, and we stopped to talk. He said he was on his way to the house and we should go up to the bar and wait for him. He came back with Annette and we talked for a while. We said we were going to stay there for supper, so he brought Casey back after supper and Todd and he talked a bit…both were shy so I adjudicated the conversation, but they decided to meet up the next day.

Todd went off with Casey for the afternoon and Rick and I went up to the bar for a swim on the ocean side and a dip in the pool…it's all salt. We had a drink and then decided we needed to eat some fries, so we could actually walk after the drink!

We met Johnny and Todd at the end of the road. We came back to change so we could go back to the beach for the Golf Cart Parade, and the anniversary party afterwards [Johnny and Janess' 21st] About 100 of their friends and relatives…great food, lots of music and fireworks that were awesome!

Tonight the menu is "Chicken-in-a-bag" …not sure what that means but tomorrow we need to stay HERE And eat!

This afternoon, the winds got up to around 15-20 knots and I stayed on the boat while Rick and Todd went snorkelling. Todd is getting really good at driving the dinghy…needs to get his license when we get home!!! DAD!!

We are supposed to go back to Green Turtle for New Year's Eve, but the family wants us to stay here and be their guests at the party, so we'll stay here, go back on New Year's Day, weather permitting and watch Junkanoo. AS soon as the weather clears at the end of the week, we will start heading south for Exumas.

On an unhappy note: if you have ANY influence over the educational life of a child, please check out their progress and put pressure on the parents/ schools/ teachers to get real!!!! I am staggered at how long Todd was allowed to coast through his school life with absolutely no assistance/ control/ pressure. It is devastating to think of what will happen to him in Grade 9 if I cannot help him learn grade 4-8 spelling/math / grammar and writing skills before May next year.

It is criminal that we let kids pass and don't hold them back when they can't do the work because "we don’t want to affect their Self-esteem" --that is teacher-speak for "I'm too lazy and get paid too much to give a shit!"

If there is such a need for special teaching assistants is it because there are so many more functionally disabled kids? Or maybe the school curriculum is inadequate???Or maybe the teachers are incompetent??? Just sayin'… Perhaps instead of school trips to farms, museums and baseball games, they should be having extra math and English lessons. I didn't need to go to a museum to distinguish between mummies and totem poles; or visit a farm to learn the difference between cows and chickens, did you?

Okay..rant over…Happy New Year and wherever you are, stay safe and warm!