St. Maarten – The FRIENDLY Island!
I may sound like a broken record (that’s a warped or scratched vinyl disc that used to spin on a…. ) but this amazing island called Sint Maarten in the Caribbean is refreshingly friendly. Just like the license plate states!
Yesterday we had lunch at the Carnival Village food kiosks once again for excellent local fare cooked by true local cooks. (We should call them chefs because the food can be that amazing). Every single person that came to order food said “Good afternoon”. Every. Single. Person. We had to eat slower to accommodate our responses, Lol.
If it was morning, they would have said “Good morning”. If it was in the evening, they would say “Good Night”, and not the good night meaning “I’m hitting the hay, sleep tight” but in replace of what we use in Canada for good evening.
And if they were just passing by the booth close enough to speak, they would say “Bon Appétit.”
At The Market Garden Supermarket in Simpson Bay, we frequent the amazing lunch-time buffet. It is known by mostly the residents, to feast on freshly prepared hot and cold food buffet style for an amazingly reasonable price. We sit outside on the wooden benches and enjoy the reasons we moved here. While engrossed in our delectables, a young boy, maybe 10 years old, walks by and makes eye contact and says, “Bon appétit”. How nice is that? It felt so respectful and sincere. Our love for the island grows with each of these small experiences.
The manners that children have on this island is the way we were raised as well. Open doors, etc…
For us, coming from the Canadian prairies, we are used to making eye contact with strangers and acknowledging their existence with a nod, hello or “Eh,” in typical Canadian fashion. Manitoba also had the license plate “Friendly Manitoba”. Maybe we could put that on all license plates around the world and subliminally change the way people act?
The friendliness of this Caribbean jewel island is contagious. And it is so much more noticeable when we travel to USA and Canada how the busy lives of most people snuff out any time for cordials. Busy on phones rushing to the next appointment, just wrapped up in the black hole of life. Take the same busy people and let them spend one solid month on this island and watch them melt into the laid back, chill, and totally friendly lifestyle of what we have found to be our utopia; Sint Maarten, Caribbean.
