An eye for an eye

Like every place in the world, Cayman has its downsides too. Behind the white sand beaches and the soft warm breezes lies a far more sinister and violent side to Cayman. Since our arrival, the crime rate has grown (coincidence of course!!!). It is no longer safe to walk certain beaches at night, or even the daytime. It is not safe to wander through some neighbourhoods, and when walking to your car at night, it is best to have an escort. There is some sort of mentality that exists on island, that one should use violence and gangs to seek revenge for even the smallest offence. I see this mentality in my children every day at school. If one child's pencil is broken by another student, a third student feels the need to get involved and "lick" the perpetrator (lick as I have discovered after a fairly embarrassing incident, is another word for slap or hit). My students are constantly into each other's business. All I hear everyday is " but Ma'am, he be up in my biz-ness" and "He bein' a right foo Miss, I gonna lick 'im." No matter how many times we speak about kindness and two wrongs not making a right, my kid's still turn to violence. It is so disheartening. I can't say though, that I don't know where this comes from. Even my gentlest and brightest student has confided in me that her parents (both highly educated Caymanian doctors... yes, one of the few without parents in jail) advise her to hit back harder.

The real purpose of this blog is to relay a very disturbing event that has taken place, affecting one of our "own." Two months into our stay, Blake's cubicle partner Sumo, one of the South African guys that started with Blake, began dating a Caymanian girl. From the beginning she scared me. She just looked like a hard and rough party girl. The two of them got serious quickly, and in less than three months of dating, he had already moved in with her and with her insistence, starting caring for her son. He was responsible for many of the care-taking duties, and we all joked that he was as good as married. Not long after they had moved in, she wanted a dog. It was Sumo's job to take care of it, and even wipe the dog's bottom before he could come inside!!! More rounds of jokes were made at work. One night at a Lady Gaga themed party, his girlfriend even made the moves on another girl that works at KPMG. This girl basically took Sumo off the entire KPMG and Cayman scene. We rarely ever saw him. Towards the end of 2010 he decided that he wanted out of the relationship, but as he had already booked a trip home to Africa with her, he was bound to go. The trip was a disaster, as her son got sick in England on stop-over, and much money and time were spent re-routing flights. Upon his return, he told Blake that this was the end, he was finished with her. We all had a collective sigh of relief and waited for the break-up. This is when things took a turn for the worst. All of a sudden, her entire family and friends were at his throat. They sent him threats and wanted to beat him up (high school anyone)? Admittedly Sumo then made a stupid mistake and hooked up with her best friend. From that point on, Sumo was receiving death threats at work and ultimatums to get off island. Sumo himself said to some of our friends that he was just waiting to get beaten, and then the pressure would be gone. This in itself sounded absurd.
Monday morning at work, Blake found Sumo's desk empty. by mid morning it was going around that Sumo was in the hospital and had been from the night before. When the real stpry got out we learned that he had just gotten back from a boat trip on Sunday, and had been swarmed by his ex-girlfriend's friends and beaten badly. He had been hit so hard he fractured his cheek bone in three places and was a mess. They even went so far as to kick him while he was down.

The atrocity of this attack leaves us all feeling deeply disturbed and sick. I hear about these sort of things on a weekly basis from my kid's at school, and it is entirely possible that some of their parents or cousins were involved. It makes me frustrated and dejected to think that these youth are growing up thinking the only way to solve a dispute is by violence. That these beliefs are being confirmed by their parent's attitudes. I wonder how I can possibly make a difference in their lives and try to un-instill these beliefs, and most days I just go home deflated.

There have been a few times in the last few weeks when I have really felt that Cayman is 50 years behind the rest of the world, in attitudes, work ethic, global warming, pollution... the list goes on. However, despite the violence around us, I still feel safe and secure with our lives on island. I am thankful that I do not live in the culture that values an eye for an eye, but am glad to have viewed this side of Cayman, it may take away the Utopic quality, but it makes this shiny beautiful island realistic.

The $63M SuperBowl party

Please accept my apology for the lack of entries lately. Report cards have kept me insanely busy for the past three weeks! Trust me, the education system here has a lot of catching up to do...

Anyways, I am not about to waste any of my precious time away from work talking about work, so instead I will regale you with a wonderful tale of the best Super Bowl Party in the history of the world. Firstly, I must admit that I have no interest in the Super Bowl whatsoever. In past years I have enjoyed attending the parties mainly so I have an excuse to make a themed cake, or hang out with the wives and girlfriends. Sometimes I have attended merely because I have nothing better to do, or in order to cheer against Blake. However, this year I would have attended a 10 hour long game (if it came to that) just to be invited to the most exclusive event in Cayman. The owner of the $63 Million Mega-Mansion (as coined by certain Lifestyle magazines) was hosting an invite only tailgate party. As you may have read in previous entries, this palace recently went on the market and was the most expensive property in the Caribbean. In fact, I've included the link on the bottom, if you would like to see some pictures for yourself. The 35 year old owner is an avid cricket player, and just so happens to play on our good friend's team. Our friends have been to the mansion once before and raved about it, so when the invites came out this time, they were quick to invite us.

Deliberating over what to bring to a house worth more than I can even count to, was a difficult choice, but we settled on some pork, a pasta salad and some beers. We parked across the street from the mansion and I couldn't help but feel a little self-important as gawkers slowed to take in the house while we walked up through the gates. We headed around the side to the back yard, which sits right on the Caribbean Sea. A little tiki hut on the beach was the site of the food hut, and hammocks hung around the property. Myself and Kate headed up to the gigantic porch to overlook the infinity pool, complete with a camouflaged waterslide and fountains. The sun was just setting and the horizon was a pearly pink. The patio floor was a cold marble that felt nice in the humid evening. It wasn't long before the host wanted to move the party indoors. Before we could head to the bar, we snuck down to the pool level, and tucked inside of the house is a grotto. A beautiful tourquoise hot tub is tucked into the cavernous underbelly of the house. Small windows open up to view the inside of the pool and the sounds and lights echo off of every crevice creating a scene that feels like it is straight out of Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion. Not wanting to draw too much attention to ourselves we quickly headed back to join the party in the massive house. The bar was an entire room done up in dark reds and browns. A self serve bar with beer on tap was available while the game was broadcast on the big screen above the bar counter. The bar was just off the spacious main hall, and attached to the porch on one side and a courtyard that could only be accessed by the inside of the house, on the left hand side. In the main hall of the home, the ceiling is vaulted and you can see up three floors. The interior, although larger than our entire condo block, was cozy with comfortable furnishings and drapery. A grand piano sat by the entrance, but looked so miniature in comparison with the rest of the place!
Our friend Brett took us for a tour of the some of the rooms. We headed down to the basement first. I was flabbergasted to find an entire room dedicated to a foozeball table. Next door was the pool room- which was closed, but I gather it must hold a second pool table, as there was also one in the bar. The main basement room was the kid's play room and held an assortment of jungle gyms and swing sets that one finds in a backyard, but which did not even begin to fill the amount of space in the great room. Off in another room was the owner's own golf simulator... need I say more? The right hand side of the basement was dedicated to an in-home spa. There was a sauna, jacuzzi, manicure table, pedicure chair and many other wondrous items of which I can't honestly name. The spa room is done up in a cave theme, and connects to the grotto via a secret doorway.

Once back upstairs, we took a quick peek at the kitchen. Our flat would not even fill on fourth of the space allotted this gleaming and magnificent kitchen. A full time chef works in the house, and had actually made some of the ribs for that night's game. Such tender and succulent ribs had never passed these lips before. Finally we happened upon the theatre room. Complete with a lazy-boy recliner with a new-age controller attached, this room was three tiers deep with special walls and even a bathroom!

By the end of the night, I must admit I was exhausted. The riches and wealth surrounding me was absolutely surreal. The cushion I was seated on must be worth more than my couches together, and an antique vase waiting to be broken by the rowdy Steelers fan most certainly would cost me a year's salary. There were other parts of the house we didn't see, like the millions of rooms upstairs, the main bathrooms, the den and the questionably mythical chamber that is built underneath the ocean, but on the whole, I felt very privileged to have gotten to spend a day in a house of that grandeur. As we were passing through the tennis courts and cricket cage on our way to our car, Blake pointed out that it was highly likely our peasant feet would never again touch such rich soil again. I reluctantly agreed, since I don't even know anyone who has a million dollars, let alone 120 times more than that. We sighed on our short drive down the street to our very modest flat. I have never dreamed of winning the lottery and am satisfied with our lifestyle, but it only takes 5 hours in a mega-mansion to get a taste for the high life! I guess Blake had better get working!!!!


Follow this link to see photos of the house. The same owner also has a flat in London and an even larger mansion in Whistler!
http://homesoftherich.net/2009/05/cayman-islands-mega-mansion.html