Nine Mornings – Part II

We walk down the street past the church and near the sea. We enter through a gate and into the home. There are several people there. The kitchen is just inside the door on the right. It is packed with women cooking breakfast and singing “Good Morning, Good Morning, How are you this morning? La la la la”. As they sing, they dance in the kitchen while making fried bakes, saltfish, potatoes and cocoa tea. It’s amazing how happy people can be at this hour of the morning. They point to the dining room just opposite the kitchen. I am given a coffee cup and told to make some instant coffee or tea. There is also a stack of paper cups and local juice made from Golden Apples.

I talk to Joe who is sitting at the dining table. He lived in the United States for quite a few years before coming back to Saint Lucia to settle. He is a mechanic by trade. He explained why he couldn’t be a mechanic here. People don’t understand the basic business financial practices. People expect to help others when they are in need. In return for others helping others, they will too be helped when they are in need.

Car parts are hard to get here. If a fuel pump breaks, it is more than likely they will need to go to Trinidad or Barbados to get a new one. They incur the expense of travel plus the cost of parts. In the meantime their car has taken up space in the shop for two or three weeks. When they return with the part they have no money for labor. They expect it to be done as a favor, not understanding that the money charged pay Joe’s bills.

Joe also explains that he was part owner of a gas station. Other owners as well as family members would fill up their tank without paying because it was their business. They don’t understand that their salary should be used to pay for gas just like any other customer. It is the culture here and culture is difficult to change so Joe no longer has an interest in the gas station and does not repair cars either. It was an interesting conversation that gave me a new insight into the Saint Lucian culture.

I was given a plate of bakes and salted fish. I ate the food and finished my coffee. The Cocoa Tea was poured and now it was time to move to the patio. I walked through the living room, past the plastic lighted Christmas Tree in the corner of the room. Just before the exit to the patio I spotted a fish tank. I wonder where they got the gold fish. I can’t recall any store selling fish on the island. As we sat in the chairs and drank cocoa tea, we were handed a small booklet. In it were the words to Christmas Carole’s – some familiar, others were not, some were in English and others in Krewyol. It was still dark, but we sang a few songs. The songs had gospel flair and now the party was getting started. We finished the cocoa tea and out came the Pitons and Heinekens. When I declined the beer, I was offered wine. It’s important to know that rum and other hard liquors are referred to as wine.

The morning was like others in my village. The crickets sang their last chorus and the sun was rising. The sounds of competing roosters could be heard. Even the songs we were singing couldn’t drown out the sounds of a typical Saint Lucian morning. A male dog was trying to entice his female in the street in front of us. There is a public bathhouse a few feet away and as the sun came up the bath house became a hub for early risers. I noticed one man carrying two very large buckets filled with water up the street to his house and minutes later he was back for more. Another man drove his pickup truck to the bathhouse and was filling large buckets that were placed in the bed of his truck. This seemed curious to me.

More people were joining the party. Some brought CDs of Raggae Christmas Songs while others brought containers to pack leftover food. Nine Mornings Festival is celebrated annually during the nine mornings before Christmas – December 16-December 25. It starts at 4:00 a.m. The origins of the festival are mysterious. Some believe that it originated after Catholic Mass, while others believe the practice dates to the period of slavery. This is how the Nine Morning’s group in my village celebrates each of the mornings that proceed Christmas Day. I asked why “nine” mornings. Why not “ten”? No one knew for sure. What they did know is that one of the fifteen members of this group came back with this idea from a trip to Trinidad. The celebration has spread to at least one village in the northern part of the island.