12-22-12  This past week has been busy with the business of seeking new housing that can accommodate us, the kits and the too much stuff we brought, hitching rides to Central Bank in Bridgetown in order to get the authorization to transfer money to our U.S. bank accounts (with the added benefit of grabbing some delicious Trini doubles at the truck down the street) as well as to the car leasing office, in order to secure a car. One aspect of Barbados I find particularly charming is that niceties are not a bother, or frowned upon by those you are doing business with in some way as they are “too busy” to partake. Niceties are actually the establishing of a base relationship before any such business really begins to move forward in any useful way. At home niceties may be met with impatience as the overwrought or disinterested want to get back to what they were doing previously. The same may be true here but those niceties go much further usually unlocking a warm smile and a friendly ease through the transaction. But back to obtaining a car –

In the states we have access to an absurd variety of choice in almost any category you can think of. In the car universe if you wish to lease a vehicle you do a little research, go to the dealer of choice, fill out paperwork and ba-da-boom, you lease a car. Here in Barbados it is more like an arranged marriage in a small village. You fill out paperwork (they are BIG on paperwork here), you wait (for days), you decide to go to and meet the matchmaker to forge a relationship and let her know how anxious you are to form a union with a car seat and your butt, and voila! You are presented a choice (equivocal in car-world) between something like Moe, the fishing boat chum dealer and Alan, the thrice-divorced ambulance chaser (who isn’t even a lawyer, just chases for the thrill.) And let me tell you friends, after spending the last few weeks in various states of ride-hitch-hikery, exorbitant car-rentitude or sweaty pedestrianism, had they offered me a 3-wheeled Zamboni I would have wept tears o’ gratitude, grabbed the keys and taken off!