Champions

The end of June brings concert season! Little violinists from the southern campus of the Saint Lucia School of Music gather to perform perennial concert pieces:  Twinkle, Lightly Row, and a new rap favorite, Champion.   Teaching assistant, Al, shepherds his colorful flock through this right of passage, celebrating afterwards with bright cakes and sea-moss drink.

Although the 27 miles to the south of the island are less than the distance I drove to work everyday in Boston, traveling to see this end of year performance isn't easy. The roads that wind between volcanic ridges are narrow and littered with hairpin turns.  Cattle and young children appear suddenly at corners, and getting stuck behind slow moving construction vehicles can easily add 20 minutes to the hour long trip.

On the slow return trip north, unlit streetlights conceal the lurching of the town drunk weaving across a rural yellow line. Napping dogs startle awake to oncoming headlights, and cars crowd passage at a village roadside bread oven.  All miles are not created equal.