My boss tries his first coconut, a guy buys me a chocolate milk, Melissa comes to St. Thomas, the threat from the car rental lady, and I’m brought to tears during a flight conversation with an elderly woman dying of 2 cancers ...

Howdy y’all,

I hope I haven’t already overwhelmed and/or bored you with my long-winded title above.  That’s a lot of random stuff, but I wasn’t sure how to sum it up into one theme.  These stories are from different weeks of travel to different places.  I will tackle them one-by-one.

Starting with the least-exciting: my boss has his first coconut.  We were in St. Thomas, walking out of a hardware store, and there was a coconut stand.  My boss had never tried one, so I boldly said “Dave, do you want to try a coconut?  I’ll buy you one – you HAVE to try it!”  Knowing my boss and his tunnel-focus on work (which isn’t a bad thing…he’s a good boss and an extremely successful Milwaukee Tool manager… but c’mon – we are on tropical islands every week… try a blazin’ coconut!), I figured he wouldn’t want to, but I convinced him.  He liked it, and I even got him to pose with the coconut man in a photo for PROOF!   Yes, we’re there to work, but when you skip lunch and have a nutritious coconut opportunity right next to you, you gotta seize that opportunity.  I say it in Spanish because that’s how it sounds best: Hay que aprovechar! He liked the coconut but wasn’t able to finish all of the water (it’s not milk) inside, so we got in the car and he put it by his feet to take back to the hotel.  Well, with me driving and dodging the inevitable potholes on the island roads, he got a sock-full of coconut water by the time we got back to the Marriott, but I think (and hope) he still thought the experience was worth it. 

A guy buys me a chocolate milk:  Some of you may have seen this story on Facebook weeks ago, but I have to blog about it, too.  St. Thomas is my most-visited island, and I always stay at the Marriott when I’m there.  St. Thomas is also where I stay when I need to go to the other U.S. Virgin Islands (St. John and St. Croix), so I’ve gotten to know a couple of the employees at the Marriott.  There are a few restaurants/bars in the Marriott resort, so one night I decided to leave the loneliness of my hotel room and bring my laptop to the lobby bar to work on emails down there and chat with one of my Marriott friends, Brian.  I wasn’t about to drink, but I had to order something since I was sitting at the lobby bar, so I had Brian make me chocolate milk (which I frequently request at dinners when traveling…maybe because I’m from the Dairy State).  Well, I was sitting at the end of the bar working on my laptop with an empty glass in front of me.  A gentleman sitting on the couches behind me must have seen this as an opportunity, so this guy (I don’t even know his name…let’s call him Fulanito) walks up and says to Bartender Brian “Give me 2 more Heinekens, and then another of whatever she’s drinking” as he points to me.  I said “No, no I’m good, thanks.”  He insisted, so Bartender Brian, with a smile on his face, went about making me another chocolate milk!  (he had to add Hershey’s syrup to white milk).  You can imagine the look on Fulanito’s face when a chocolate milk was placed in front of me and then put on his bar tab.  HAHA!  He looked at the milk and looked at me and I smiled and said “I’m just drinking milk.”  He said “I don’t think I’ve ever bought a chocolate milk for anyone before” and walked away.  HAHA!  It was funny, and whatever his ulterior motives were to buying this girl a drink, it was gonna take an infinite amount of milks! 

Wisconsin friend visits: back in March, before the chocolate milk incident, my Wisconsin friend, Melissa, spent her Veterinary School Spring Break with me.  We went to St. Thomas and St. Croix (staying at the Marriott in St. Thomas), and she found out that I actually DO work when I’m in tropical paradise!  Melissa, can you please vouch for me- I actually DO work on these islands!  She’ll tell you that yes, while I’m in sunny Paradise, I still put in many hours driving around to hardware stores and sitting at my computer.   She was able to do a lot of relaxing, and she made a few friends, but I think she may have gotten a bit lonely, too, with me being gone 8 hours/day like a typical job demands.  Nevertheless, I know she enjoyed it, spent time in the ocean, went scuba-diving (legitimate scuba-diving…she’s certified and everything), and even trespassed over a fence on the Marriott grounds to go down by the surf when it was low-tide to find numerous exo-skeletons of crabs to take home.  She’s very intelligent and reads more than anyone I know and is also fascinated with wildlife, even if it’s an exoskeleton of a crab; therefore, we had to preserve those fragile exoskeletons for the remainder of her trip as if our lives depended on it.  Count on Melissa, the animal and nature-loving adventurist (with no sense of rules) to jump the boardwalk at the hotel and go down by the prohibited area of the beach on the rocks and find exoskeletons of crabs and other little creatures …. I think that she now has them on display in her college apartment as a pretty neat souvenir from the Caribbean, so that’s cool J.  Her gaping mouth at the landscape and the blue waters on the drive from the airport to the hotel on the first day reminded me that most people don’t see this natural beauty much (or at all) in their lifetimes…I need to remember to sit back, take a deep breath of ocean air, and be thankful for this job, regardless of the inconsistencies and instabilities (and aging) it brings on (Traveling 100% of the time for your job is not all lollipops and roses).  It helped me remember that I am in some of the most beautiful places on earth…appreciate it! Right, Melissa?  (She’s known me for almost 10 years and knows that I tend to be a bit too uptight and stressed…but I’m getting better, right?)

The threat of the St. Maarten car rental lady:  I walked into the car rental place in St. Maarten, and it was my 3^rd time there, and the intimidating lady at the counter recognized me.  She was kind of grumpy the first couple times I was there, so I was sure to be perky and friendly right back to her.  She took my credit card, verified my reservation, and said to the assistant “Give her a good one.”  You’re wondering as you read right now “it’s a rental car place..aren’t they all ‘good’ cars?”  Well, no they’re not! Haha.  As I mentioned in earlier blog posts..there’s a different standard than the U.S., so I’ve rented cars the size of roller skates, cars that don’t lock, and cars that sound like they’ll putter out on every uphill.  With that said, it’s a good thing this lady likes me enough to give me a ‘good’ one.  Maybe trying another car rental place besides the company named ‘Budget’ would help, too.  This was my 3^rd time to St. Maarten but my first time to the hotel I had reservations for, so I asked her how to get there.  She told me it was 2 minutes down the road, back on the other side of the airport.  She continued to say “after the airport it will be on your left.  You cannot miss it.  If you do you get a spanking.  It be that easy.”  Haha!  A spanking??  I laughed and said it had been many years since I’d had one of those, but they always hurt.  Upon returning the car 3 days later, I was sure to tell her I easily found the hotel and that she wouldn’t need to get out her paddle.  The rest of the week went well. 

Flight convo with Nancy – dying of liver and pancreatic cancer: I sat by an elderly woman on a flight in early June. I was traveling home to Green Bay and we boarded from my layover in Detroit to head up to Green Bay.  This woman looked to be traveling alone, but looked to be my grandmother’s age – around 75.  She said hi and seemed to know what she was doing (where to put her bag, not to recline the seat, or listen her her ipod (haha) until reaching a certain altitude, etc.  She looked like she had done this before.  Her name is Nancy, and during our 1 hour conversation, I found out she was coming from Detroit like she does once per month, getting a trial drug that is being tested to replace chemo.  Nancy is dying from both pancreatic and liver cancer.  She was given up to 6 months to live – 9 months ago.  She has grown children and grandchildren in Michigan, Florida, and Wisconsin.  She talked of being a snow-bird who, for the past 40 years, traveled to Florida to escape 6 months of Wisconsin winters, and her last trip was this past year since both her and her husband’s health are fading.  She spoke of the orange groves her son manages down there and how she didn’t know if she’d make it back.  She travels to Detroit once per month for an experimental drug…after all, with a 6-month diagnosis, there’s not much to lose.  Her daughter lives in Detroit so she stays with her and gets to see the grandchildren for that one week/month, and then she lives in Wisconsin for the other 3 weeks of the month – driving herself to and from the Green Bay airport, 90 miles south of the small Wisconsin town she’s from.  She didn’t get choked up when talking about this because I’m sure she’s told her story before, but I got kinda teary-eyed! L She was such a blessing to sit by.  We talked the whole 60-minute flight about our lives, and I told her she was a strong-willed woman with a determined mind and a loving heart.  I took her hands and prayed with her…prayed for strength and also for acceptance of the timing of everything in this life – including the end of it.  While her story was sad, to never know when you’ll go, it was also REFRESHING…REFRESHING to hear her speak of how she knows how much she’s blessed with…her children, her grandchildren, the ability to still golf, the support of family and friends and her local church.  She said she has so many people praying for her, and that was strength for her.  Nancy – I am praying for you, too!  What a blessing to sit by you on our little flight to Green Bay.  

Thanks for reading!!  I have more adventures to share for next time...my allergic reaction in Barbados, my food poisoning in St. Kitts, and some happy stuff too.  Have a great weekend everybody :)

The volcanic island of Montserrat... and riding shotgun in the 8-person plane...

My travels from the week of 2.28.11...

“When America sneezes, we catch a cold.  Well America has the cold, so we have pneumonia.”   

This is what a small hardware store owner said to me as we talked about the capital (or lack thereof) that he and all other small business owners have on the island of Montserrat.  I traveled to Montserrat for my first time and also for Milwaukee Tool’s first time ever, and because of the size of the tiny island and its down economy, I probably won’t ever be back—there’s just no biz opportunity.  The country was devastated by a volcano over 10 years ago and just can’t seem to recover.  Economies worldwide are suffering, but this story hit me as one usually does when you are there, hearing from someone first-hand how they have gone through hardships.  This story comes mostly from my taxi driver, Reuben, an older man born and raised on Montserrat who drives taxi and cooks for a living.  He is famous on the island for his goat water, which is the island’s national dish, a soup with wild goat meat in it!  Unfortunately he only makes it on Fridays, so being there on a Tuesday, I didn’t get to try it.  Anyway, as I’ve mentioned before, taxi drivers are the best resource for me when I travel to islands my company has no prior research on.  I asked him to take me to the hardware stores that sell power tools on the island.  Well, being an island of 5000 people where half of it is uninhabitable from volcanic devastation, it took no more than 2 hours for me to visit the 3 small hardware stores.  My flight back to the island I was staying on (there were no hotels in Montserrat so I had to stay on the bigger, neighboring island - Antigua) didn’t leave until later in the day, so with the usual lack of WiFi to use my laptop with and actually get work done, I hung out with Reuben all afternoon and toured the island.  Basically, before the volcano collapsed in 1997, this small island’s capital city of Plymouth was a port for cruise ships, bustling with tourism, shopping, renowned restaurants, nightlife, and a well-kept 18-hole golf course.  It went through a rebuilding stage in 1989 after Hurricane Hugo hit, but after a few years of working hard to build up the city and the morale again, everything was back to normal, they thought.  Reuben remembers one morning in 1995 waking up to a deep rumbling sound outside.   This was heard through most of the island, and went on and off for the next 2 years as scientists from Trinidad, Britian, and the U.S. poured in to figure out just what was going on with that volcano.  It turned out that it was active again, not exploding or anything at this point, but building up pyroclastic gas and rock to make the volcano and its craters taller and wider.  It had been dormant for 400 years.  Well, nothing drastic happened for the next 2 years, but volcanoes are very predictable, and after awhile into 1995, a big portion of the island that included many, many villages and the booming capital of Plymouth was deemed unsafe and had to be evacuated.  It wasn’t a sudden evacuation.  It didn’t need to be done overnight and the people saw it coming, but it was devastating nonetheless.  Everyone moved to the northern half of the island, living in shelters and tents while trying to somehow save their personal items from their homes.  Reuben lived in a tent for 2 years.  For awhile the volcanic activity was okay for people to go back to their homes during the day just to grab more personal items to save, but eventually the whole area was sealed off and guarded, because it had a high chance of ‘crumbling’ (basically exploding) any day.  Well, in early 1997 the day came.  It collapsed, and pyroclastic gas and ash and rock came tumbling down the mountain at 100mph speeds, the materials up to 600 degrees centigrade.  It melted everything in its path.  Nineteen people died that day, “19 people in the wrong place at the wrong time” (Reuben).  They had snuck in to go home and get more belongings, and the volcano happened to collapse that day.  I should mention that before 1995 the island’s population was 11,000, and by this time it was down to 5000.  Only 19 died, but about 6000 accepted a package from Britain to move indefinitely over there.  There was just no opportunity for much in Montserrat anymore.  Two of Reuben’s children moved to Britain.  Well, life and the economy in Montserrat has not yet picked up.  With the worldwide economic downfall, they are suffering like so many other countries.  The airport, which was located in the capital city of Plymouth, was obviously destroyed, so the British rebuilt one in the north of the island, but it is extremely small, and cannot take anything bigger than a charter plane on its landing strip.  This produced big controversy (I could hear it in Reuben’s tone) because while the British helped and are still helping this small island, they feel as though they’ve been set up to fail.  Without a proper airport, it’s extremely difficult and expensive to get to the island, so tourism is practically nonexistent.  Where there were once nice resorts and villas to rent, they are either buried 20 feet under in ash or abandoned for being in a high-risk area.  I should mention that as recent as February of 2010, the volcano collapsed/erupted again.  Nothing has been as big as that one day in 1997, but on and off there have been more collapses, covering Plymouth and surrounding villages further under.  It’s up to about 20 feet high of ash where the golf course used to be.  There was a building he pointed out to me that was a 3-story building, and you can only see the top floor.  It looks like a short one-story building.  We were able to travel up to the observatory, built in the 90’s for the scientists to properly monitor all of this, where there was an amazing view of the volcano.  It was a clear day, too, so I could see the crater where it all started and the small hollows (I don’t know technical terms) of where the gas and ash were spewing out as we stood there.  Then, we were able to go back down and cross over what was once the golf course but is now just gray ash and sand and rock, where they made a path for cars to drive on to get up to Grabali Point.  I took a picture standing in the middle of the ash, where the photo follows the ash/rock path all the way up to the crater.  It is so eerie, and I felt like I was in The Lion King in the Elephant Graveyard, where the hyenas were gonna come running down the mountain at any point (remember that movie?!).  

We drove up to Grabali Point, where I could see the volcano from another angle, looking down at Plymouth, or what was left of it.  It was truly eerie and so sad, it looked like a ghost town, everything gray with ash and rock, buildings half buried but still standing.  I do get emotional, yes, but I didn’t cry.  I got close, though, looking at Reuben as he stared down into what used to be the capital of his island.  His village, Harris, was just over the other side of the volcano, and was also destroyed.  I asked him if it was hard to look at, but he said he’s just gotten used to it.  Another couple came up to the lookout point while we were there, a couple from Georgia, there on vacation.  To hear the woman’s point of view was fascinating.  They were retired and had been coming to Montserrat for vacation here and there since before 1995.  They remember that bustling city of Plymouth, pointed out the steeple of the church they attended, talked about the restaurants on the pier that were so good, and how the golf course was one of the best they’d ever been to.  They kept asking Reuben questions about where certain landmarks used to be located, what happened to this business and that.  It was eerie.  They still love the island and come back to it, but now rent a villa on the other end of the island and just go for walks to gaze out at what used to be there. 

On the way back to the airport, Reuben and I stopped for lunch and continued chatting.  It wasn’t all depressing stuff, though.  He did talk about the new cricket and soccer fields built down by the marina in the new capital city, the amount of mango trees they have…so many mangos that they don’t know what to do with them all when they’re in season.  Man I would have loved to just stop and pick a mango off of a tree to eat.  That’s their main export.  They also export sand, which is one blessing that came from the volcano.  Apparently the ash that comes from the volcano is very fertile and makes for great soil and great crops.  If the wind is right, that ash can be carried over the ocean to neighboring islands of St. Kitts and Nevis.  He also talked about his famous goat water.  Apparently as a kid he worked rearing wild goats and catching them (“it kept him youthful”), and then would prepare the meat for the ladies at his church who would make the goat water.  He learned from them, and I think he is honestly a local celebrity on the island because when all 3 hardware stores found out who my taxi driver was, they said to try his goat water.  If I ever get back, I’ll make sure it’s on a Friday so I can get some fresh goat water.  He also let me stop at a natural spring flowing from rock on the side of the road to fill up my water bottle.  It’s probably cleaner than any water out of our faucets.  It had a little bit of dirt remnants in it since it hadn’t been filtered whatsoever, but it tasted good!  Pure!

So, while there’s devastation and hardship, and the island’s morale is still down, hopefully things get back on the upswing slowly but surely.  It was so great to spend the day with Reuben and hear his story.  On a lighter note, I’d just like to end this with my airplane story for the round trip flights to and from Montserrat.  Like I mentioned, the airport can only take very small planes, so I had to fly into Antigua the night before to sleep and then catch a flight to Montserrat in the morning.  It was an 8-person plane, 4 rows of 2 (are you picturing this?), the pilot was one of the 8!  We 7 passengers walk onto the runway and the pilot shouts “who wants to ride shotgun?”  Well OBVIOUSLY I jumped at the opportunity, so I ended up riding side-by-side with the pilot in the front, with nobs and pedals and controls and a steering-wheel-type-thing all in front of me.  I didn’t touch any of it, and halfway through the flight it hit me… “If this pilot faints or suddenly has a heart failure, I am in the front seat and I will have to land this thing!!”  I said a little prayer and made sure I had a game plan (if that were to have happened, I was going to take off his earphones and put them on my head, grab hold of the steering wheel and hope someone on the other end could tell me what to do).

Look on Facebook for some photos in Montserrat.  I think I can upload onto this here blog, but I haven’t quite figured it out yet.  Remember, we in the States don’t have pneumonia…we just have the cold.  Put your situation in perspective and give THANKS through all because we are blessed!  Love you all, see you again soon!

-Anna Banana

A Two-For-One – two trips to the island of Grenada in one blog post. Time is money, people.

As of one day ago, I have traveled to the island of Grenada twice: once in February and once this past week.  It is not Granada, Spain…it’s Grenada (pronounced Greh-NAY-da).  The first trip there, I got sick with a fever and sore throat on Tuesday morning.  Traveling is the last thing you wanna do feeling like poo-poo, but  I had no choice, so after getting DayQuil and cough drops at the airport I flew a direct flight (3.5 hours) from Miami to Grenada and laid down  across 3 empty airplane seats the whole time.  I had body aches and was shivering and sweating at the same time, so it didn’t take a thermometer to tell me I had a fever.  It wasn’t fun to visit new accounts and introduce myself sounding like a DUCK, but I trucked along with a very supportive taxi driver.  I have a lot of islands with a 25+ age restriction to rent cars, so I take many cabs.  I keep their business cards when I know they’re reliable so that I can call them on my next trip back.  Also, they’re an awesome resource for me.  My sales territory consists of more islands than I’d originally mentioned in my first blog post.  I basically got all the extra tiny islands, many of which have never seen a Milwaukee sales rep.  Many are also on a 220 voltage system.  Just a little info for those who don’t know:  the U.S. is on 110 volts of electricity, so that’s why when you bring your hair dryer or hammer drill to countries with 220-volt systems, you can’t just use an outlet adapter for a different style of plug-in – you need a transformer to convert the voltage.  So, the thing with 220 volts is that Milwaukee Tool only makes 4 tools of 220V for the Caribbean.  I’ve visited 7 islands that are 220V… to take notes and pictures and assess the opportunity.  My point with all of this is that I have those 7 or 8 islands that no Milwaukee rep has ever been to, and many times going on Google to find ‘Hardware stores in St. Vincent’ doesn’t work as it might when Googling the same thing in the States.  That’s where the taxi drivers are great.  They know their island better than everyone else, and so asking them to just bring me to hardware stores that sell power tools is a big time-saver for me instead of blindly Googling.  I got back to Miami from my 2^nd Grenada trip yesterday.  I wasn’t as sick as a dog this time around, and I had an extra afternoon to drive to the northern side of the island (1 hour taxi-ride winding through the rainforest) and try to find new business.  I found 2 hardware stores we didn’t know existed! Yay!  It was a busy day of appointments, and I had Clet, my taxi driver, on-the-go all day…no time for lunch.  Clet is from Grenada and has four children who are all grown and employed.  This is very fortunate, as the island’s unemployment rate is almost 40%.  According to Clet, you can sort-of get caught in a trap on the island if you don’t make good grades in high school.  There’s a 2-year college on-island that you can attend if you do well enough in high school, and then if you’re fortunate enough to afford it or get a scholarship, you can attend the small university on the island for a bachelor’s degree or leave to study somewhere else.  If not, you’re stuck trying to find a job on the island of 94,000 people.  Note to selves:  let’s be thankful for all the resources we have!  With an island like Grenada, few go on to school after high school and for the majority who don’t – finding a job is not easy when you’re confined to a place that size.  94,000 is a solid population for a Caribbean island, but with no industry (they import everything), there’s not a lot.  That would be like taking Green Bay, Wisconsin (not its suburbs), removing all the factories and the casino, and you live there and only have job options within the city.  There’s no commuting to Appleton, WI, for work or moving a short drive down to Madison to live/work.  You can see how even with a big island and above-average Caribbean population, it can become a Catch 22.  Anyway, not to dampen the mood here, but traveling like this REALLY puts things in perspective.  Nonetheless, though, let it be known that the overall spirit of the island is still Caribbean-happy.  The people are smiley and polite and welcoming.  The steel drum can be heard when car stereos and restaurants are blaring Caribbean Calypso music all day and into the evening.  I bought myself a Christian Calypso CD that I’ve jammed out to driving in Miami once in awhile (“Jesus is our King, yah, Jesus is our King”). 

Next week I’m off to St. Lucia, another big island that has a 220-volt system.  It will be my 2^nd time there (be sure to check out an earlier blog post of mine to read about it!).  I have not written in almost 2 months, and I travel EVERY week to an island or 2 without fail, so I’m a little behind.  I have some great stories to post, so stay tuned!  All is well in Florida on the weekends, too.  In the past 2 months I’ve had 6 visitors (shout-out to Audrey, Lili, Stephen, Melissa, Lauren, Brianna!), which has forced me to explore Miami and Ft. Lauderdale more, discover great Cuban and Venezuelan restaurants, bust out my salsa dancing moves (a few…), and even soak up some sun in the Florida Keys.  I also, believe it or not, have a few friends in Florida (I think I’m up to 6)…a few from my church, one from an airplane, and a couple friends-of-friends.  I welcome more visitors!  I think I’m a pretty good tour-guide!  I’ve been sacrificing my healthy eating habits to make sure all the visitors experience the yummy Cuban and Venezuelan food (I have the next couple weekends here by myself, so I’m focusing on produce and whole grains!!). 

If you didn’t get to see (on Facebook) my chocolate milk story from the lobby bar at the Marriott in St. Thomas, stay tuned!  You may just crack up - it's that funny.  That, my allergic reaction on Barbados, and my trip to the volcanic island of Montserrat will be posted soon.  Life is crazy right now, but I’m working hard and feeling very blessed with these opportunities to travel and meet so many people.  Please keep in touch everyone.  Be thankful and be happy!  and HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to my MADRE and ALL MOMs!!