Island Graveyard
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Walking on the beach with a tropical climate, with a near-the-equator sunset, is a very relaxing let alone the pretty sight. Standing on the beach in the evening you get to feel the cooler ocean water air fill the air mix with the warm air that was grown from the course of the day. As I came up to a graveyard in the local village, the first thing that came to mind was how cool and unique the headstones looked. And I thought to myself “I must have a picture!” After the shot was taken, the second thing I thought was more disturbing. I looked down at my feet right on the shore line, and then at the graves that were not ten yards from me. The floor of the graveyard could not be more then four feet above sea level, if that. All the bodies that were buried there had to be in the saltwater. Even if they had poured cement cases down before the casket was put into the grave, it would still be invaded by saltwater. Many people do not realize that cement is porous and permeable. It made me wonder what shape they were all in and made me kind of feel icky. It wouldn’t take much of a tropical storm to uncover all of that mess. In that case it made me think about their trash pile on the north side of the island. There they throw their large trash pieces in the ocean and put dirt and sand on top. A hurricane could come and uncover all of the water heaters, cars, refrigerators, and etc, then use them as projectiles into the city. It doesn’t seem like good planning. A few years back they had a huge hurricane and still in some parts of town you can tell and the vegetation still shows it also where the bottoms of the mangrove trees are healthy and the tops are dead. I still think about that graveyard trip and how unusual it was for me.
Walking on the beach with a tropical climate, with a near-the-equator sunset, is a very relaxing let alone the pretty sight. Standing on the beach in the evening you get to feel the cooler ocean water air fill the air mix with the warm air that was grown from the course of the day. As I came up to a graveyard in the local village, the first thing that came to mind was how cool and unique the headstones looked. And I thought to myself “I must have a picture!” After the shot was taken, the second thing I thought was more disturbing. I looked down at my feet right on the shore line, and then at the graves that were not ten yards from me. The floor of the graveyard could not be more then four feet above sea level, if that. All the bodies that were buried there had to be in the saltwater. Even if they had poured cement cases down before the casket was put into the grave, it would still be invaded by saltwater. Many people do not realize that cement is porous and permeable. It made me wonder what shape they were all in and made me kind of feel icky. It wouldn’t take much of a tropical storm to uncover all of that mess. In that case it made me think about their trash pile on the north side of the island. There they throw their large trash pieces in the ocean and put dirt and sand on top. A hurricane could come and uncover all of the water heaters, cars, refrigerators, and etc, then use them as projectiles into the city. It doesn’t seem like good planning. A few years back they had a huge hurricane and still in some parts of town you can tell and the vegetation still shows it also where the bottoms of the mangrove trees are healthy and the tops are dead. I still think about that graveyard trip and how unusual it was for me.