Christmas January 12

Coral Cove Marina, Chagauramos, Port of Spain, Trinidad, West Indies---Today was Christmas for me Two packages I had begged for arrived at the hotel today. It’s been hard to adjust to not having an address, another thing I did not consider for my year overseas on a boat.

One box had two books: Last Temptations of Christ and Malcolm X’s biography that I ordered from Amazon.com and sent to my sister in Kansas City. The other box had two books. One I had searched for since April and finally found with Amazon.com Europe and was the last copy a used book store had, I ordered it and had it sent to an address in Daytona as well as a Snapfish book I created of photos throughout the Med of The Captain and his boys for their family’s Christmas present.

Why are these books so important and special to me? Just getting anything from home is a big deal. The Captain’s wife brought the two things on my wish list of American things when she visited in June. Since then, I have only received one package, sent to Gibraltar by a friend when the boat was there long enough to take receipt. It was a simple care package with fun, cool and funny things. It made me feel loved and reminded me of all my friends.

But this package was different. They were books I had searched for, finally bought online and wanted badly.

It’s easy to shop overseas as long as you are not looking for anything in particular. But anything else that matched a favorite brand, I’ve found by accident. So although I had searched each bookstore I came across, I never found these particular titles.

Malcolm X’s biography is an extension of my learning of Africa and Africans. It started in South Africa when I bought and read the book by Nelson Mandela, Long Road to Freedom, followed by then Senator Obama, Dreams from my Father.

Most special of all is the book Lizzie’s Paradise, by Elizabeth Parker. Lizzie’s Paradise was written by “Alison’s” mom. The same Alison that I wrote the story “Who was Alison” in April after visiting the tiny island of Trizonia. Alison ran a yacht club there and died unexpectedly after this book was written. See blogs: Who is Allison?, Trizonia’s Dirty little secret, and Open all day Sunday (written in April 2010) to understand the reason this book is special. This is a story that intrigued me and got under my skin especially when I saw what happened at the dump. Once I read this I’ll know more about the mystery surrounding this yacht club and maybe get more questions answered.

Christmas was hard for me being sick with food poisoning and alone. So I got to open presents today. My sister even surprised me with a box of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies!

Thank you Ruth in Kansas City and Scott in Daytona, today you gave me Christmas