If you didn’ t understand the title to this post, look again.
Sound it out.
Context clues.
Get it now?
If you think “Wah gwan?” means “What’s going on?” you’d be right. Good for you.
For most non-Antiguans, this phrase from the country’s creole language is fairly easily to understand, especially because it’s written. But if you hear phrases like this in normal conversation and they’re accompanied by a thick Antiguan accent, you’d be excused for not being able to follow. Most non-Antiguans can’t understand “dialect,” as it’s called, right away, but if you hear it enough, and watch for nonverbal cues, eventually, just like with any other language, you’ll be able to catch on.
Now, as I’m sure you can tell, this post is about my current travel destination, Antigua (see above for the national flag).
Wikipedia describes the country as being “a twin-island nation between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.” But I know it as the place where my father was born, where many of my relatives still live and where I've been spending most of my time during the month of July.
It’s exciting. This is the first time that I’ve been in Antigua by myself as an adult, so I’ve enjoyed the experiences I’ve had thus far, and I look forward to the few days I have left.
While here, I’ve learned a ton of things I didn’t know before: like how about 70% of Antiguan GDP comes from tourism, how they didn’t get their independence from Britain until 1981, and how the ghost stories people used to tell here often contained descriptions of demons called “jumbee” and “jabless.”
But before I jump into talking about Antigua, I want to briefly talk about what to expect from my blogging for the next month.
As my less-than-plump blog archive will attest, my posting has been anything but prolific up to this point. But I hope to change that – at least for the next 30 days. I enjoy writing, but I’m one of those writers who doesn’t like to show my work until I think it’s immaculate (which is never) or until a deadline compels me to do so. But I’m getting better. I’d like to get published down the road, so the only way to make that happen is to finish my short stories (which I’ve been doing), and to blog more as practice.
So, for the next month, I’ll be posting three times a week – Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And at the end, I’ll assess the month and figure out how I want to proceed.
Antigua is the first trip of many peregrinations I hope to enjoy over the course of the year. The plan is to travel outside the U.S. for two months, return to the States for two, then repeat over and over, for a year. I’m hoping to learn quite a bit, read quite a bit, write and enjoy.
So stay tuned for my next post on Friday (pending internet access), where I’ll continue to share what I’ve been seeing and experiencing.