Here in the States everyone is so busy, always rushing from one place to another. We truly don't sit back and take time for ourselves and appreciate what we have. At the beginning of our day in Antigua I was worried that our tour guide wasn't there on time. I'm usually 15 minutes early to everything (except work of course), so when 830 rolled around and he wasn't there I started getting worried. However it didn't take me long at all to realize that no one on the island was in a hurry. Everyone takes there time with everything, it's what you would call "Island Time". Even everyone driving around is patient. No one is honking horns because someone goes too slow, no one is causing accidents, and no one is flicking each other off or cussing them out. I just love their out look on life! Many of them would never consider moving to the States because of how busy everyone is. Down there they realize what is important in life, and how precious it really is.
Another thing that I learned while I was there is just how hard working everyone is. It's not this super rich country with elaborate houses. Don't get me wrong there are some very beautiful places, but not many. They don't spend all their money on cars, and clothes, and electronics. Most of them are just getting buy. That's showed through their houses. Everywhere you looked were buildings that were started, but just looked abandoned. Come to find out, they are actually people's homes. Like I said, they don't have a lot of money. We were told that someone will start building a room and use what money they have, when they run out of money, they will take a break for a few years. Then they come back and build another room, then stop for a bit. So on and so forth. They could be building for 15 to 20 years but in the end they will have an amazing house. How they live in ONE room for years, I don't know. They are some very exceptional people!
I will be going back to Antigua. Everyone was so amazingly nice. From the cleaning staff, the wait staff, the tour guides, the taxi drivers, the people walking down the street, just everyone was so nice and welcoming. I would love to live in a place like that. Of course I would have to learn to speak Creole first. Which for them is a mixture of 4 different languages. The two main ones are English and West African. The other two are French and Dutch I believe. Quite interesting to hear them talk.
In closing I will leave you with few pictures from the beautiful island. :)
