Reggae Tuk-Tuk
GRENADA | Tuesday, 26 May 2015 | Views [112] | Scholarship Entry
I had always thought that Caribbean people playing reggae music was just a fantasy we like to make up in our heads, like how Americans think that us Australians somehow ride to work in the pouch of a kangaroo. However, while I wish I could save the $4.20 bus fare by hopping to work, reggae is played in Grenada more than Do You Wanna Build a Snowman at a five year olds birthday party. And I can’t say I object to it.
So when Bob Marley shambled towards me in that Toyota van, its dusty white exterior appropriately matching the backdrop of rustic fishing boats and brightly coloured dinghies, I knew we had to hop in.
Despite our Canons hanging from our sweat tickled necks and our new balance sneakers screaming ‘TOURIST!’, we thought we would bypass the mass of taxis and tour guide operators at the port to make our own way to Grenada’s most famous beach, Grande-Anse.
Half an hour later, our water bottles were empty, my brother’s already mangy feet had attracted a blister the size of Jupiter and almost all my sunscreen had seeped into my eyes. So fair to say, we were more than keen to get into that reggae tuk-tuk and make our way to paradise.
Dad headed straight for the back of the van (like the back seat bandit he thinks he is), sitting next to a pretty keen cricketer insisting he was the famous Viv Richards. My brother was making friends with a mixed breed canine up the front, who was definitely top priority passenger from the look of his rainbow woven car seat. Mum and I had started chatting to an eccentric woman with a colourful headscarf and purple Doc Marten knock-offs. She was making her way to Grande-Anse with us to sell her handmade satchels at the market.
And then there were 7 other people, all sitting silently through the soporific bumps and wobbles of the road, all with different stories and different lives. I saw a woman studying a medical textbook on her way to the island’s university, a teenager in his school uniform and a man with an instrument case which I would have guessed to be a trumpet. I like to imagine him going off to the other side of the island to play some jazz with his fellow musicians. For these brief 20 minutes, our completely separate lives had all been intersected and I don’t think driving through the Grenadian rain-forests would have been quite as memorable without this mishmash of individuals.
Tags: 2015 Writing Scholarship
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