Life moves slower in Guadeloupe than in the United States. Whereas Caribbean food is stronger in flavor, the people seem softer in manner. On the balcony of the guesthouse where we stayed, I experienced a flashback of my childhood in Saigon when time used to feel interminable and people did not hurry. I also danced in the rain on that balcony, which I had done very often to enjoy myself when I was small in Saigon.
All was not well at first. We traveled to Guadeloupe after a few intensely stressful years in Kentucky, USA, and I took my anxiety with me. This inner anxious reality stopped me from enjoying the idyllic tropical scene unfolding around us that first Sunday evening there. We sat together at a beach restaurant to enjoy ice-cream (intensely delicious ice-cream), and I felt not a shred of joy about the undulating ocean in front of us. Young French holiday makers in skimpy clothes were all around us, talking, smoking, laughing and enjoying each other’s companies. Their relaxation and enjoyment couldn’t appear more foreign to me.
Little by little, I was invaded by an easygoing Caribbean feeling. One evening, as we walked back to our guesthouse from the small grocery store on the main road, after having picked up fallen mangoes on the side of the road for desserts later in our rooms, I looked into the guesthouse and saw our host and his wife cooking dinner together in perfectly silent companionship in their kitchen. Not too far in front of us was the ocean perpetually heaving up and down, and a slight breeze from that primordial body touched mine. At that precise moment, I was overcome by a sense of well-being I had not felt for a very long time. It was as if what was on the outside was being poured into my body and my anxious feelings were being washed out. It was as if I were being embraced by the angels. It was a short yet eternal moment of beauty, serenity and serendipity. Right then and there on the beach road in front of our guesthouse, in my heart and mind, I finally landed on Guadeloupe island.
The Caribbean Sea viewed from my airplane window
The many Caribbean sunset hues
Sea and shore
Some snapshots of us
A typical Caribbean dish
The Caribbean street vibe
These ladies were just standing there under the moon talking and swaying to the music played from the truck.
Bold, Slow and Intentional 