Picnic on the Beach

1 November 2009

This morning some of the nurses from the mess called round to invite me to a picnic on the beach this afternoon. I had been aware of a lot of activity outside the mess with coconuts being opened and chickens gutted but not really thought anything about it. I had been cooking pizza that morning so packed one up in my cool box to take as my contribution.

At 13:30 one of the ambulances arrived outside and we started to pile all the food on board. Then the process of shoe horning people in – not too bad when we first set off but we had various stops on route to the beach and eventually had 14 people inside. We drove for about 45 minutes before turning off the main road onto a narrow dirt track that culminated in another beautiful and deserted beach. Six other staff had come on three motorbikes so we were a big party. Just like in the UK it was the men that set about laying a fire and cooking the chickens and fish. Besides the BBQed food a bucket of rice and a large bowl of noodles had also been brought. There was a second bucket full of es campor – this is an iced drink with coconut milk as the base with condensed milk, mixed fruit and small cubes of jelly. Whist the food was prepared we all lounged around in the trees chatting.

It had originally been planned that we swam before eating but the water was too low. After eating we still had to walk a very long way into the sea before the water was deep enough to swim. None of the problems we British have in trying to get changed discretely into swimming costumes under towels – here you just walk straight into the see fully clothed and later travel home dripping wet. As it was so shallow the water was incredibly warm. When I got back to the shore, those who had not been swimming were dancing so I joined in with that as well. It was an excellent afternoon – made all the better for being able to join in conversations and no longer being the centre of attention.