Feelin' Hot Hot Hot!

So yesterday, Michelle and I were working over at Sunset Lodge (that the complex around here that sort of functions like a "grown up dorm" for the med students...).  We get a text from Jonathan that says "Hey, can y'all see the fire where you are?"  Clearly, we cannot.  So we walk out onto their back porch and still see nothing.  He says, "We think it's over there by that club."  So we go out the front door to the back balcony.  As soon as we walk out there we smell smoke and this is the scene we encounter:

It really doesn't look all that scary in this picture, however we could actually hear the crackling of the fire as it burned up trees and houses and shrubbery.  It was spreading REALLY fast!  What DIDN'T we hear??  Fire engine sirens.  Nope.  Not one.  There is nobody rushing to the scene.  Nobody panicked.  There was actually a guy mowing his lawn while his neighbors house was smoldering!!  These Bahamians, man, they just don't get worked up over anything.  Michelle and I called the boys and told them to come home immediately (they were done with class and studying on campus) because we thought for sure the wind was gonna catch this inferno and send it raging toward Sunset.  

Luckily it veered away from the apartments, but not before it blazed more than a mile of damage through a residential area.  Again, no sirens.  No panic.  Not even any news about it!  After a while we felt bold enough to go out and walk around to see what we could see.  It was really strange.  Almost like a controlled burn that got out of hand and burned up houses and stuff.  When we got to the part of the fire that was still blazing, we saw probably the only fire engine in Freeport.  Just sitting there.  And the firemen were chatting it up and hanging out just a few yards from this giant fire.  Which was still progressing and moving!  It was by no means contained!  And they looked at the 4 of us and were like "What?".  Clearly not phased.

So we walked through this neighborhood to survey the rest of the damage.  We had to walk through this vacant lot to get into the neighborhood.  When we got to the main street there was a gaggle of Bahamian little girls that were a little surprised to see us walking out of the brush.  When they saw us they all giggled and one very bold chickadee says, "White, white, white, white."  Ummm...okay.  Good observation I guess!  As we were leaving the neighborhood a half hour later or so, we passed by the same girls who were now playing in a backyard.  One of them shouts, "There go those white people again!".  I guess we stuck out.  I said, though, that since we've been in the Bahamas for 6+ weeks now, I felt like we all deserved at least a "Brown, brown, brown, brown."  Or maybe, "Not-so-white, not-so-white, not-so-white, not-so-white..."

The fire is still smoldering somewhat this morning.  It smells like either Christmas or summer time.  Somewhere in between a backyard grill and a wood burning fireplace.  I will go with the latter.  Since I'm insanely jealous of all you people in the US bragging about your stinking fall weather!  I'm still in sundresses, swimsuits, and flip flops.  But at least I can close my eyes, take a big whiff, and pretend it's a crisp autumn morning in the Caribbean...

P.S.-If I don't add this picture to this posts, Jonathan will be so disappointed.  He thinks this is the coolest picture of him in the Bahamas...  weirdo...