1 June 2009 -- South Caicos

First trip into the town of Cockburn Harbor on South Caicos Island and impressions are that the people are closer to the Stone Age than even the Bahamians.  The older streets in town were laid out with British precision.  Other than that, the town presents a terminal aspect of decay.  Some newer cars drove along the streets, past scattered piles of horse manure, but the town was generally littered with dysfunctional cars in various stages of disassembly.  Once a car fails to start, it is slowly dismantled to provide assorted yard ornaments.  Many door less, windowless, blocked-up rusting hulks contained sleeping people.  People with nothing better to do on a beautiful, sunny Monday.  Mark and Rachelle found the only working internet WiFi in town at the high school.  It probably works because nobody seems to use it.  Basketball practice must be much higher in the local school curriculum than computer use.  But then computer use really involves a progressive inventory of learned skills, starting with the concept of an alphabet.  The most noticeable achievement of this school system is shown by the adults’ mastery of a mangled form of English that is marginally more understandable than hand gestures.  After checking in through Customs and Immigration, scouring the town for a nonexistent Laundromat, and shopping at both disappointingly run-down grocery stores, I joined Mark and Rachelle at a local bar, where the bartender was imported from the Dominican Republic.  Much of the work here is performed by economically-disadvantaged immigrants from the Dominican Republic or Haiti.  Maybe they learned that trick from America.  After all, the bar’s several patrons were engrossed in American television programming.  Today’s attraction:  Ice Hockey.