Your Food is Coming...

I went into this trip knowing very little about the Bahamas.  The little knowledge I did have was probably similar to everyone else, abundances of sand, sun, sea, and rum. I’ve known few people that have been there, and never met anyone from there.  What we saw was similar to what I expected.  A tourism destination country that has a very clear divide between the tourist resorts and the native Bahamians.  Once we were able to cross that divide (getting off of Paradise Island) we were able to absorb more of the true Bahamas.  Often times in the US, we are always in rush.  When we go to a restaurant we want to be seated right now and we want our drinks immediately, anything over a 5 minute wait seems more like an eternity.  There is a different mindset it the Bahamas, a mindset of leisure.  Here, a server would rather start a conversation with you for 10 minutes than actually take your order.  What I learned is that in order to have a good time here, you really have to reset your standards. You’ll get your food, it might take 45 minutes, but you’ll get it.  I had to remind myself that I was in the Bahamas and not in DC where I usually only have about 30 minutes to get lunch.

-Andres Arce