Strictly
speaking, the only significant event that impacted us in Anguilla in the year
2017 was Hurricane Irma. We are still today,
in mid-December, recovering from this 6 September event. Chinnix and four of his men worked all of
September, October and November restoring our yard and guest shack and main
house. We are nearly back to normal,
with only wi-fi and internet not yet restored, and only Cable & Wireless
can do that. The guest shack windows are
smaller and stronger than before, and the bedrooms are now air-conditioned. The
garden is devastated; sadly, only 13 of Don’s 60 hot pepper shrubs survived.
The
other two big events of 2017 were the celebration of the 50th anniversary of
the Anguilla Revolution, and the 50th anniversary of the Eastern Caribbean
Supreme Court. Not many outside of
Anguilla remember that in 1967 Anguilla was the first English-speaking, West
Indian country to successfully mount an armed rebellion against the state, and
to evict the government police and establishment. Grenada was the second in about 1979. Anguilla’s revolutionary hero, the Father of
the Nation, Ronald Webster, died only a year ago.
Don
wrote about the significance of the two anniversaries. One, a speech on historical aspects of our Eastern
Caribbean court system titled Celebrating the Past, was delivered in Antigua on
27 February.
The
second speech, on Anguilla’s Judicial System, was circulated to the lawyers and
judges by email. A third speech, on the
need for constitutional reform, in honour of Time Kendall QC of Antigua, was
also delivered in September by email as the event was cancelled for obvious
reasons. If you are desperate for
something to read you can find them all on Don Mitchell’s Published Papers
website or by Googling Don’s name with the words of the topic.
1.
The Antigua programme
In
March, the Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee delivered its final
Report on proposed reforms to the Executive Council of the Government of
Anguilla. All that remains now is for Government
to consider and approve the Report, present it to the House of Assembly for
discussion and approval, and then persuade the British Government to enact it
as an Order in Council.
2.
Yvette and Jean at Soufriere
In
July, Don attended the court’s gala anniversary dinner in St Lucia, were he met
old friends and colleagues. There, he
went exploring Soufriere with Yvette and Jean.
3.
At dinner
In
April, we cruised from Miami to Europe with Kathy, Ginny, Susan and Valarie on
one of the Celebrity boats.
In
case there is any doubt, the principal activity of the cruise was enjoying the
good fare on board.
4.
Don and Maggie with the obligatory Trevi Fountain pic
We
also enjoyed the tours at each of the stops.
In all the 16 days at sea, we visited Tenerife, where we explored the
island; Malaga, where Don visited the
Alhambra and Maggie did a city tour in a bus (no walking!); Cartagena, for a day-long city tour; Barcelona, for two days, where at long last we
got to see the inside of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia church (they hope to finish it
by 2026); Nice, where Maggie inspected a
perfume factory while Don preferred to stay with the driver in the coach, and
we later had lunch in Monaco where it rained all the time; Florence, where we went to Pisa and inspected
the Leaning Tower; and Rome, where the
cruise ended. We stayed for a few days in
a B&B on the Via Corso in the centre of Rome and walked to many tourist
traps and ate good food. Just one more
cruise photo:
5.
The ‘cruise photo’, 2017
At
the end of the cruise, Maggie stayed on in Europe visiting Flurry and Julie in
Birmingham, Mac and Erica in Brecon, Bridget and Harry in France, cousins in
Jersey, and nieces, great nieces and nephews in England, as well as old friends. Don returned to the Caribbean to attend the
annual conference of the Association of Caribbean Historians in Tobago. There, one midday, while he and Gordon were
helping the fishermen to pull a seine, reminiscent of childhood days at Mayaro,
a leatherback turtle climbed up on the beach and laid her eggs in front of
everybody.
6.
A gigantic leatherback laying eggs at midday on Turtle Beach in Tobago
In
June and July there was plenty of excitement as we hosted four archaeology
students who were doing a practice dig at Wallblake House.
Earlier
in the year, Alix and Brian visited from Canada, and Susan from Florida.
7.
With Brian, Alix, Kathy and Susan at Scilly Cay
In
early November, we took a break in Marie Galante (a dependency of Guadeloupe) with
Mary Ann and Kathy. The first hot
showers in months! What can we say? That, and the French cooking, were pure
bliss.
At
the end of November, we went off to the Bahamas for a few days to attend a
CCJ-related conference organised by APEX.
There, we celebrated Maggie’s 70th birthday on the 28th.
8.
Maggie’s 70th birthday parade (thanks to Mac)
While
in the Bahamas, we stayed on Paradise Island in the 5,000 room Atlantis Resort (built
by Trump) which on any given day allegedly houses more guests and staff than
Anguilla’s total population. More hot
showers, and hot food! More bliss.
9.
Maggie trying to kiss a chubb at the Atlantis Hotel aquarium
A
week later, we returned to Anguilla to find our electricity restored. No more dipping six buckets of water from the
cistern and ‘heading’ them up the stairs each morning, at least until next
year’s hurricane. No more forced dining
by candle light. We only weakened and
borrowed Stephen’s stand-by generator in mid-November (too much noise and
bother). By early December, the solar
panel was back in place, providing hot water on tap.
Maggie
continues to volunteer two days a week at WISE, while Don works intermittently on
his 2,500 page bibliography of English language, non-fiction, West Indian books
and pamphlets. With any luck, and once
the internet is restored, it should be completed for publication by Emmanuel
Publishing in five volumes next year.
Indeed, for most of the first half of the year (before Irma) Don
switched his energies between proof-reading the bibliography and building up
the APEX database of all the lawyers and judges in the West Indies. It was supposed to be all done in the first
half of the year, but that target has been long missed.
Don
continues his walking exercises with the ladies three mornings a week. May there be many more.
10.
Don with Viviane and Kathy walking at West End
Once
a month, the Anguilla National Trust organises a walk to a wild and wonderful
place in Anguilla or one of the offshore cays, which always provides Don with
some exercise and plenty of opportunities to shoot snapshots. One recent walk took us to Windward Point at
the eastern end of the island overlooking Scrub Island. That was a first for Don.
11.
The Windward Point light with Scrub in the distance
And
so, we potter gently into 2018 and whatever the New Year will bring to us, even
including advancing senescence. We hope
it will all be good news for you and yours.
