St. Helena barbecue and High Tea at the Golf Club

Saturday, March 10 (continued), undeterred by our near shipwreck earlier in the day, we went to a barbecue that evening at the new home of Caroline and Hensel's daughter and her husband.  Their driveway is steep and has two hairpins that cannot be negotiated except by reversing down one of them.  However, the house itself is an example of how modern and comfortable a house can be built on the island.  They had a number of their young friends for dinner as well.  One of note was a South African physician who married a saint and is on contract to work at the hospital for two years.  He will not do more than that because facilities and procedures are so limited that he feels he would lose his skills through lack of practice.  He is of note because his parents emigrated from South Africa to the US when he was small.  They went to Western Michigan University, so this young doctor was educated in Kalamazoo until he was 18.  And he is a Wolverines fan!  On Sunday, March 11, Jack started the day by climbing Jacob's Ladder again.  He put in some considerable effort and got to the top in 12 minutes.  Climbing the Ladder is an annual event that draws competitors from around the world.  The current record is just over five minutes which works out to two steps per second.  In the afternoon Jack took up an invitation from a British geologist we met earlier on the ship to attend the award ceremony of a golf tournament held at the island's only (9 hole!) golf course.  The tournament was definitely for saints, not tourists, and Jack met many interesting island characters.  The award ceremony was preceded by beers at the bar and succeeded by "High Tea" - ultrathin British sandwiches, sausage rolls, cheese straws, jam tarts, etc., and tea!