Isaac

On my last blog post that actually had substance, I left off right before I started talking about Isaac. So I will pick up right where I left off! And bear with me, a lot has happened since then so one of two things will happen: this post will be very long, or I’ll get tired and break it up into multiple. Here we go!

So Isaac was down at the pools of the Sheraton just hanging out while we were in the Jacuzzi. A few minutes after the four of us girls got down there and had our toes in it, he came over and got right in. At first, we all felt a little weird and weren’t sure if we wanted to stay or talk to him, or really how to react. We soon realized that this came from “fear of the unknown”- just because he was different than us, we didn’t feel completely comfortable around him and didn’t know how to act. We weren’t sure if he spoke English, if he wanted to talk, or what! Finally after a couple minutes, we struck up conversation with him and that was the end of the uneasy feeling. We soon learned quite a bit about him and gained an appreciation from his perspective on life- very sincere and honest.

To be honest, I’m not sure how much of what he told us is true and how much he was “playing” us. You’ll see what I mean! Isaac is a 15-year-old who just finished tenth grade. When he first told us his age, I didn’t believe him one bit. He was pretty small, and I would have guessed he was about 8 or 9. I asked if he lives on the island or if he was visiting, and he said he lives here and always has. He has been to New York City and Miami, and REALLY wants to go to NYU for college- that’s his current plan! He wants to go into management and business, particularly in the cruise business. He finished at the top of his class and got very good grades, so as a reward his mom was letting him stay at the Wynham (the hotel over, also very nice) for two or three weeks by himself, and he could have friends over if he wanted. That’s the part we weren’t very sure about, because it is so expensive! Then we saw him pull out his nice blackberry and starting texting his girlfriend (as he told us). He was definitely from the Bahamas, based on how he talked and what he knew about the island, so we knew he was telling the truth about that. He said his mother was a cop, and he was an only child. I asked about crime, and he said the crime rate is already at “60” so far- I wasn’t exactly sure what the number signified but he said it was very high compared to normal. 

Then we started asking more about the island and culture. He said most people speak both English and Bohemian, but primarily Bohemian when not around tourists. We asked about taxis and rates and prices of things, and said that almost every tourist here is ripped off, and particularly the older and younger ones (elderly ages and our age). He told us we needed to turn people down for the prices they offered and simply walk away- if there were enough of us, they would really want to get business from us since it would bring in at least a little profit. We told him we had gone to Senor Frogs, and he told us to be careful down there- that’s not nearly the worst part of the city of Nassau, but for girls like us we needed to stay in groups.

We eventually started to ask Isaac some personal questions- just to find more about who he is as a person. At one point, he said something about our God and Creator, so I asked if he was a Christian. The sincerity of his answer really struck me. “No, not at all. Right now, I’m the farthest thing from a Christian. I do things that are bad and I keep doing them and living that life. I cannot call myself a Christian and a follower of God if I am like this. If I call myself that, I know I am lying. I know I want to be, but in order to be I need to change how I live. You can’t say you believe one thing but act completely opposite; that’s just lying. I believe in God, but I still need to become different to call myself a Christian.” It was really interesting to me how he was honest and straight with his answer- he wasn’t going to try to say he was. He knew the life he was living, he knew the life he wanted to be living, and he didn’t try to make excuses. It was crazy to me that at 15 someone could be so honest about that, because I grew up surrounded by people saying one thing and acting like another, and constantly making excuses. It was really refreshing to hear an honest answer. In fact, I do remember what he was talking about originally. He said there are people who do Voodoo and there are “Witch Doctors” but he really doesn’t like that because it is not in honor of our God. I think it was also refreshing to hear his response because at 15, and even at 20 now, people in America get very defensive when talking about religion and the idea of God, and many people simply refuse to talk about it or think about it or acknowledge it at all. I don’t think I realized how sick I was of people just shutting it out and having “off-limits” topics of conversation. I liked his openness. We continued asking him about many things- family, culture, the schools in Nassau, and many other things we wanted to know.

In the middle of talking, a group of girls started screaming closeby on the beach. He immediately jumped out of the Jacuzzi and ran over, only to return with a huge sand crab in his hands! It was about 5 inches from claw to claw. Eventually he threw it back over into the sand, and we continued talking.

At one point, another group of college students came into the Jacuzzi with us. There was a hose going into the Jacuzzi, and Isaac was playing with it and pretending to squirt us with it (actually doing it later). The new people saw this and seemed to be uncomfortable with the fact that he was in the Jacuzzi too; they too quickly commented that the beach is probably better and how they should go there. As they left, they had faces that looked annoyed and almost superior; this really bugged me. I could kind of relate to how they felt, since I felt a tad bit uncomfortable at first too. However, after striking up conversation I realized how neat it was to talk to someone with a life so completely different than my own. I was a little upset by the fact that these students judged Isaac SO quickly and immediately put him on a level below them. Yes, he was different that what we were used to, but then again we were in THEIR country, and we were about to go on Semester at Sea to gain a greater understanding of the world. Also, there were 4 other girls at the Jacuzzi too- clearly he couldn’t be too scary! He definitely saw what happened and seemed to be a little hurt, but at the same time he was used to it. Later on, he really did start squirting us with the hose after we’d been talking for about an hour, and instead of throwing a fit and getting mad, I realized that it really is JUST water, he was lonely and was just trying to make friends and laugh with us, and that the experience of meeting him was a very good one.

As I fell asleep that night, I couldn’t stop thinking about Isaac. I’m so glad people have been telling me to get out and meet the locals and hear what they have to say. Rather than staying in my own little bubble where I could have made it a vacation consisting of only things I was comfortable with, I was really impressed by Isaac and now realize that it really is important to talk to people in the places I will be visiting. Since then, I’ve made it a point to strike up conversation with taxi drivers, waitresses, and others in the Bahamas. Of course, I know I need to be safe and only approach people in appropriate settings and situations, but I also realize that if I had not had this experience with Isaac, I probably would have stayed in my little bubble of comfort and not realized the importance of talking and listening to what others have to say.

I feel like I learned so much in just one conversation about life and culture in the Bahamas. I am beyond excited to have many more conversations like these with people in the 9 countries I visit, and I can’t wait to gain that much more perspective from different people in different cultures across the world from me!