Everyday is an experience. To most Bahamians it is life. As a transplanted American, get used to things taking their time to be accomplished.
Get used to the sun!!! I didn’t find it as warm as living in Florida, but the sun will “beat you up”!
Get used to having a bank customer service representative take two hours to open a savings account.
Get used to having to stand in line for up to an hour to pay your electric bill because your bank doesn’t have on-line bill pay yet.
Get used to having to wait two to three hours to be served by a customer service representative at Batelco.
Get used to driving down the road behind a large truck moving a piece of machinery traveling at 15 miles per hour, and there is no way to overtake the truck for 5 miles without jeopardizing all passengers in your vehicle.
Get used to being a vehicle with signal lights and brake lights don’t work, be prepared to traverse off the road avoiding trees and shrubs for no apparent reason.
Get used to having the customer service representative at Cable Bahamas telling you that you can have a premium channel added to your service if you purchase a cable box for $90.00. Then she will tell you they have none in stock.
Get used to finding out your car needs an alternator for $560.00. Then call around and there isn’t one on the island to fit.
Get used to flying to Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, or West Palm Beach to pick up your alternator for $220.00, and fly home to the Bahamas to have it installed.
Get used to planning on a meal with a certain ingredient needed, then running all over the island in search of it. Only to find you spent $15.00 in fuel and it isn’t available today, anywhere.
Get used to having wet feet right after it rains. The islands flood so severe because they never planned on drainage when building roads or housing developments.
Get used to driving down a beautiful Oceanside road at high tide and having a wave crash across the roadway.
Get used to mosquitoes and horseflies the size of Cessna’s.
After living in the Bahamas for two and a half years, I now find that I would not return to the United States unless dragged there by my heels. Life in this turmoiled world is somehow more relaxed now.
Excerpted from “So, You Want To Move To The Bahamas: Through The Eyes Of A Transplanted American” in Escape From America Magazine, Issue 59.
