A Part of Something Bigger

Today I left Grand Turk.

As the plane taxied out onto the runway I caught a last glimpse of the Friendship 7 capsule that guards the airport entrance. It triggered a wave of homesickness. All the things I’d learned. All the people. The places. The sights. The sounds.... I was leaving the Turks and Caicos Islands for good. It had finally sunk in.

Family obligations called me away a week early and so I didn’t have time to think of all the “lasts” I was missing. Last swim, last band night, last goodbye. It’s the people that are missed the most, as it always is.

I’ve only spent a year of my life invested in the happenings of the TCI and Grand Turk, but it was an intense year, a year in which the museum community became my community. The past few months have seen a lot of hard work and a lot of successes. We’ve averaged completing one big project per month while I was on-island. And, of course, there is the constant mentoring that happens when the kids know your name.

Grand Turk is a wonderful place, but I know it’s not a place to stay forever. Still, I wish I could roll it all into a handkerchief and take it with me. I should be satisfied that the projects we’ve completed have established the Museum as an integral part of the TCI community and set the stage for the next growth spurt. I wasn’t just part of the process, I was part of the vision.

British Library Grant Awarded

One of the big projects I worked on all those months ago has born fruit: the Museum was awarded the grant from the British Library's Endangered Archives Project.

They have accepted our detailed proposal and the next archivist on board will be adding to our collections by collecting pre-1900 governmental and family records. The rest of my job on Grand Turk entails making sure that the records that do exist, and the systems I've put in place, are clear and easy to replicate. Nothing more insidious in an archive than re-inventing the wheel. The next week will be spent making sure that everything will run smoothly for the next in command (with some swimming squeezed in).

More about the Endangered Archives Project: http://www.bl.uk/about/policies/endangeredarch/homepage.html

Last Visitors

My parents have been to visit the island and found that it was good.

We took them to all the usual spots:

They stayed at the Bohio,

which they really got to enjoy since I worked more than I thought I would.

We experienced the Cruise Center and Jack's Shack. We ate at the Sand Bar, the best beach bar in the Caribbean, we went to the Salt House

and Xheng's Palace with Mel (my new museum partner in crime, who arrived mid-visit)

and Joan's Deli

and enjoyed music at the Salt Raker (with Wes on sax - a real treat!).


We went to pet the sting rays at Gibbs Cay


and went to the Lighthouse


and ate at the Bohio on Thursday night with Keith and Val and Neal and Tuvol


and watched the sun set with Bion and Colleen over pretzels and beer.

There isn't an island beat that we missed. They even volunteered at the Museum.


They snorkeled every day (even when dad got really lobster red) and mom said she felt like she was in a fish bowl. We saw cow fish and trunk fish and parrot fish and baby needle fish feeding on the schools of baby minnow fish. Dad "battled" a 5 ft Barracuda all by himself, and I accidentally read Don't Stop the Carnival instead of The Carnival Never Got Started. It was a great trip for all of us.