Ladies, Lizards, and Grilled Octopus

We ladies kept busy just coming up with  menus that had to be altered on at least a daily or hourly basis, keeping food prepared for a crew of 16 (and occasionally an extra one or two), washing dishes afterward, going to the store for missing ingredients or sodas for the hard-working guys, and trying to keep a semblance of order in our unit. Carrie was a huge help with breakfasts. Here I am frying potatoes for one of the breakfasts.

So while the guys started working on the roof each morning...

we were busy inside.

Here is one of the breakfasts laid out--fried potatoes and onions, bacon (which I brought from Costco here in the States), toast, sliced eggs, cereals, and peanut butter, etc. Eggs were actually not much more expensive than here so we had scrambled eggs with bacon bits (from Costco) almost every morning. We wanted the hard-working guys to have a good breakfast with protein every morning and not just junk food. Harold Martin had told us not to be chincy with feeding the crew, and I had brought some things from Costco to help out so we wouldn't have to buy expensive bacon and things like that there.

Some of the excitements around there were lizards.

This one lost its tail when someone pulled it.

Don't worry. As far as we know, it will grow a new one.

Saturday evening we went to the ocean. Jonathan and I walked along the shore finding pretty shells and enjoying the sunset.

That evening the crew wanted to go out to eat some authentic seafood, so after hours of googling and finding many restaurants closed after the hurricane, we finally found a place where, after waiting and waiting, we were finally seated all together at two or three long tables pushed together. 

Just for fun, someone ordered an appetizer of grilled octopus for everyone to try who wanted to.

Nearly everyone wanted to try it, and I even ate a very tiny chunk, just so I could say I ate octopus once!

It tasted a bit like chicken, and was drowned in lime or lemon juice, so it was also tart.

A Bahamian neighbor who went along absolutely refused to try a bite of octopus, but did not hesitate to eat fish eyeball and socket right in front of all of us!

Here is Carrie getting ready to try octopus!

Some of the young men also tried out fish eyeballs and socket from the whole snapper fish some of the crew ordered. But those dishes we ordered were only brought after a very, very long wait time. The proprietor felt so bad about the wait, that he sent out three bowls of salad and two platters of lobster tails free of charge while we continued to wait!

What a treat!

My stomach was bothering me that evening, and I did not dare try lobster or seafood, so just ordered chicken and appreciated the Bahamian rice and peas (legumes like small beans) and a can of apple juice.

We did not get out of the restaurant till after 11 o'clock, having been seated not much before 10 o'clock. I was soo tired. I wished very much to just be in bed, but with a crew of this size, 

we had to exercise a lot of patience with both crew and restaurant. 

It was an experience the crew will never forget, that was for sure!

Here is a "sea fan," which was given to me by a Bahamian who collects sea shells to sell.

Since the hurricane, few tourists are coming to the island and there is little or no business for people like him.

Beautiful sunset!

Clark Freer trying to split a coconut. We enjoyed drinking the coconut juice and eating the tender pulp inside.

On Monday morning, the crew was up on the roof again, and little did we know the surprise they were planning for a certain birthday lady named Becky Paulus.

That morning she and the rest of us ladies went shopping for some cold sodas for the guys, and the Pauluses wanted a few little treats to take home from the Bahamas to their youth group, so they went to this cute little candy and popcorn shop. You can see all kinds of flavors of popcorn in the tubes under the counter.

Back home we hurried to make lunch.

I'm stir-frying carrots, onions, cabbage, and pepper for a veggie dish over top of the left-over Bahamian "rice and peas" dish from Sunday.

Late in the morning, someone got Becky to come outside, and here was this row of roofers' heads looking over the peak of the church roof suddenly singing, "Happy Birthday to You!"

That made Becky's day!

Her husband Jeff bought her a beautiful cheesecake which they shared all around!

The line of guys coming through for lunch.