So today was interesting. We decided not to join our fellow passengers in one of the many tours around the beautiful Island of St. Lucia, but instead walked into Castries, the local town.

What we saw was raw, ugly poverty and the reality of a third world economy. I hated almost every moment, trying to avoid touts and hustlers and the dirt and hostility of town life in the Caribbean.

This was very useful and clarified my thinking enormously. 

It is possible to live in an ivory tower in places like this and many choose to do so, but I have always wanted to be part of any community that I live in, and I know I cannot be a part of this community.

Tomorrow at breakfast, in the restaurant reserved for suite guests, we will sit next to our neighbours once again and discuss the previous days activities.

They had booked a very expensive tour to a “drive in” volcano, a luxury natural mud treatment and a 5 star lunch. 

We will be honest and explain the miserable day we endured. 

However trying to explain to them that this is probably the most pivotal day for me and will define the direction of the rest of my families lives for generations to come will be much harder to explain.

So I will probably allow them to think they had a better day than us, which they did.