AS BAJAN AS FLYING FISH: Full of life in Barbados

My name is Eunice Blackman and I’m a clinic supervisor/orthodontist assistant.I am from Barbados. Have been, all my life. I’m from Sea View, St Philip. Originally from Sam Lord’s Castle side but I live in the Crane now.  I only ever left St Philip for about three or four months, if that long. There really is no reason to leave. We got everything up there. Shopping area, recreation, it’s very quiet. We’re from the East. We’re smart. We got the fresh air. I was a tomboy, so I pitched marbles, played cricket, rounders, baseball, road tennis, dominoes. In Sea View, that time, the boys and girls used to play together. But we used to play all those boy games. There was a lot of people in Sea View.I come from a big family. Five boys, five girls. I’m married 17 years. My daughter is 18. She goes to university. I didn’t start young. I had her at age 25. That’s adult.I have a twin, who is a girl, like me. We’re Capricorn. I read the signs sometimes, but I don’t take it on at all. I had read a few and nothing really come to pass so I’m not a believer. I just read it out of curiosity now, to see what it’s saying about me. It’s never correct. But I still read it for the entertainment. You never know. One of these days, it may be on target. I only have my one daughter. I wanted twins but it didn’t happen.If I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would be a well-seasoned pork chop, black pudding n’ souse and macaroni pie.I like a lot of reading. Growing up I read the Hardy Boys, Sweet Dreams, all those mystery books. Right now I’m starting to read my Bible, beginning at Genesis. I want to finish it before December. There’s a lot of things in the Bible that you never hear about. Like God giving Moses the measurements for the Ark. I didn’t even know they had measurements in those days! I thought he built it from his head. And then all them sons and daughters these people had! This one begat that one who begat the next one. Begat and begat and begat. Pages of begat! I read that fast, trying to get to the end of the story. I read the newspapers every day. I read some love books. It depends on how the book sounds at the back. What makes a book nice is, if you sit down to read the book and you GOT TO sit down and read that book. You cannot move!I’m a Christian. I try to read my Bible every day. I pray every morning before I leave home. I usually go for a walk on evenings.Live life and enjoy it to the fullest. For you never know. You never know.I was wondering why the Bible has on, “Holy Bible – King James Version” on the cover. That means he edited it, then? I ain’t get the answer for that yet. But I believe the Bible is still holy, even if King James edited it. I overlook that. It still comes back to the same thing. I come up all my years looking at it as the Holy Bible so it’s still the Holy Bible. Just have faith and believe!I don’t go to church a lot. Sometimes. But I’m still a believer in God. I always say, “Lord, thank you”. Say some little prayers in-between. I don’t doubt at all. My aunt was a preacher and she used to preach Bible to us, too. I used to live at her so I believe.I never took notice of other faiths, what they practise or preach. I don’t know if they believe in Heaven but remember that God says he’ll accept anybody as long as they believe. Look at the guy on the cross there with Jesus. Before he died, he said: “Lord, have mercy”. So he went to Heaven. If you don’t believe, you in trouble!    I think everybody should read the Bible for their own self. I cannot make you a Christian. I wouldn’t read the Koran or anything like that. I come up with The Bible. Maybe if I had come up with the Koran. But I come up hearing the Holy Bible, not the Holy Koran. It’s only when you get older you hear these things.   Day-to-day, in my job, I do basically everything. I work on some patients. Sometimes I take impressions. Assist the assistants. Assist the orthodontist. Front desk, take payments, make appointments, answer phones. Everything.    The nice thing about the job is meeting people, interacting with them, making them laugh. I love making people laugh. I interfere with everybody that comes through the door. Yep! That’s what I does!    I couldn’t think of a single bad thing about my job. Everybody in my office is nice. We work as a team and as a family. I love the hours – from 6:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. I beat the traffic both ways every day.    A Bajan is a Bajan. Someone bred and born in Barbados that eats cou cou, flying fish and black pudding and souse and loves Barbadian culture.Barbados means everything to me. It’s nice and quiet. We have all the freedoms here. It’s home. It’s paradise and a gem. I’ve been to New York, Aruba, Puerto Rico, Dominica, St Thomas, Trinidad. No place like Barbados, no country that can touch Barbados, our home.