The Gas Station

A foreign non-profit organization has come to Saint Lucia looking for opportunities to help local village economy. They have selected two villages and mine is one of them. The Village Development Foundation will participate in identifying local influential people and businesses; interview them and invite them to an action planning workshop.

It’s Monday and I’m waiting at Esther’s Restaurant, the gathering place for the teams to meet before going out to talk to the people. It’s a good opportunity for me to meet people. There are three teams and each team arrives in a separate car. The second car that arrives with the team I will join today.

The first person we meet is a retired principal. We are invited into his home; we take our shoes off and enter the living room taking a seat on the sofa. His home is comfortable. Opposite the sofa is a coffee table and beyond that are shelves that house his television, pictures, books and a certificate from Monroe College. He’s a pleasant man with good insight into the community. The interview is concluded and I hand him a letter inviting him to Friday’s Action Planning Workshop. Almost everything is done with formal letters, a process that I’m not accustomed to. In the United States, we pick up the phone, here they sometimes call people, but always follow up with a formal letter.

Our next interview, the owner of a gas station, catches me by surprise. We pull up to the gas station on the highway and pass by a man who looks like a mechanic. He’s talking on his cell phone and I wonder if this is our contact. The woman inside the mini-mart confirms he is the owner. He concludes his conversation and enters the mini-mart. He leads us into a small office, continually apologizing to us for the small quarters. He explains his operation is just a small business. It takes several minutes, but eventually we all have a chair and we sit down and the questions begin.

This interview highlights what I already know about people in Saint Lucia: I never know who people are until I talk with them. In the United States, many times the first thing we ask people is, “What do you do?” meaning what kind of work do you do. Then we put them in our mental boxes. Their dress and how they speak help us box them. We might look at what they are driving or where they live to ensure they are boxed appropriately. Saint Lucians are more interested in social systems; the music they listen to, the activities they engage in and their family structure; who is related to who . . . and they are all related in one fashion or another. They live, rich and poor, in the same area community. I don’t hear them speak about money or their next promotion.

He is a humble man with no formal education. We didn't ask him about his education; he volunteered it. Behind his unassuming character is a man who is proud of his accomplishment. As a young child he worked in fields with his father. They had a roadside stand. He attributes his upbringing to his understanding the business world.

As we talk, we discover that not only does he own this gas station, but he owns the restaurant and min-mart as well and upstairs are offices used for other businesses. He is the owner of several businesses around the island. He owns a heavy equipment business, a waste sanitation business, and numerous other businesses. He helped one of his sons establish a thriving business. His wife helps with the business and is responsible for automating those businesses. His sons all have college educations from major United States and England universities; they are lawyers and engineers. He is well connected and knows how to use the system which gives him a competitive advantage as a businessman. He has a passion for business and is still looking for opportunities to develop new businesses. He has the ability to see the business system and know what people want.

When a bank said they would loan him money to build a bed and breakfast, he told them he wasn't interested. He knows at present, there is no market for it. Then he said, "Maybe a nightclub would be better. The people of this village would come."

During a recent ride to the capitol, Angelina and I spoke about him. She described him as very generous. She spoke about an employee who stole from him. Someone asked him “Why don’t you fire this employee? He stole from you.” His reply was, “Then who would be the donkey?” He kept this employee who became loyal and eventually re-gained his trust.

My impression of the man I passed when I entered the gas station and the man I knew when I left was quite different. I wish I could bottle his intuitive business sense and sprinkle it around my classroom.