"Do you want to see my shadow?" News from St. Lucia

It is hot. All the windows and doors are open and birds are nesting in the house. Driving through villages on tiny twisting roads cut through the rainforest chickens peck at stray trash. Ragged lonely dogs skinny and dirty hang their tongues as they scurry off the road. Men carry machetes, to harvest coconuts and just because. They stop in the street to sharpen them on rocks. Groups of children of all ages dressed in colorful school uniforms laugh and talk on the way to school. Grizzled emmaciated old men with yellowing dreadlocks stare into nothing as they walk. Just past the square in Soufriere we take a wrong turn. The road narrows and eyes from the groups sitting along the street watch us carefully. A frantic beggar runs to offer help for a price. Everyone is suddenly shouting. When we finally make it out through the maze of crooked streets the air rushes through the window and finally we breathe. At the beach the mountains reach into the ocean and relief from the heat finally comes. The water is so clear and salty we float with ease and talk together in the water as if we were sitting at the kitchen table.