January 13, 2015
We have had two delightful dinners with Pastor Shawn and his wife Jackie of Grace Baptist Church during our stay here in Marsh Harbour.
Jackie and Shawn took us to dinner one evening at a new nearby restaurant and it was a fun evening. One of the major topics was Shawn's Bimini relatives. When we first met Shawn, he told us he was a 'Bimini-boy', born and raised in Bimini, an island about 50 miles off the Florida coast. That year we were planning to return to the States via Bimini and asked Shawn to recommend a marina. He recommended Weech's Bimini Dock and said that he was related to the owners - "You will see that some of my relatives are your color".
Well we did go to Weech's Dock at the beginning of the next season and it has since become our go-to marina in Bimini. It is not the fanciest, but it is an integral part of the local community there, which we enjoy.
But after we had settled in there, we started to ask around if anyone knew Shawn Robins, now living in Abaco. But to our surprise, no one seemed to know him. We didn't know if we misunderstood Shawn or if he was 'pulling our leg', but it definitely seemed puzzling. We did find one man, Tommy Weech, who seemed to recognize Shawn's name, but in all honesty Tommy seemed to be drinking pretty heavily at the time and we didn't know if we could trust the accuracy of his memory.
At dinner, we started to tell Shawn about our lack of success in finding his Bimini relatives; 'no one would admit to knowing Shawn Robins'. Shawn immediately identified the problem in that people there know him as Shawn Weech. Shawn's father was a Weech, but he was never involved in his life, but Shawn was known there as a Weech. It was only after he grew up and left Bimini that he started to use his mother's name - Robins.
When we mentioned Tommy Weech; Shawn recognized the name, but seemed very surprised at Tommy's drinking. He talked about how as young men, he and Tommy had frequently gone over to South Bimini together except when Tommy went Bonefishing. That got both of us thinking, but Joyce was quicker at asking, you don't mean Tommy Sewell, the Bonefishing guide do you? After some follow-up identifying questions we established that he in fact was referring to Tommy Sewell, who we know quite well from our visits to Bimini. Tommy's mother is a Weech, and that was the name by which Shawn knew him.
Later in our visit, we invited Shawn and Jackie over to the boat for a Chicken Roti dinner. Roti is a Caribbean curry dish that I have learned to prepare. As we were walking down the dock to the boat, I mentioned the name of another man from Bimini that we have come to know, Hyram Rolle. Hyram runs one of the water taxis in Bimini. I almost fell off the dock, when Shawn responded that Hyram was his brother and that he had visited Abaco just recently. In further discussion, we learned that actually Hyram was his cousin, but that Hyram's mother had died at an early age and Shawn's mother had raised both her and her sister's children, a total of 11 kids, so they considered each other 'brothers and sisters'.
This provides a great opportunity to talk about the incredible strength of extended Bahamian families. It is very common to see children living with family other than their parents. Sometimes it is due to a death or other absence of a parent like Hyram's situation, but not always. We have commonly seen children living with grandparents or other relatives, so that they (or their parents) can go to school somewhere other than their 'home'. Sometimes it just 'happens'. In addition to there youngest son, Shawn and Jackie have a grandson and a great-niece living with them. Both of the parents live right nearby and are involved in the children's lives, but work very hard. As Jackie said, it starts with 'sleep-overs' and sometimes they just 'stay'. Although it can seem very different from life in the States, the kids are cared for and loved by an extended family that many American children may only see infrequently on holidays and at family gatherings.
So now we better understand 'our families' Bimini roots and know that names can be very tricky in the Bahamas.
Tom
Docked Harbour View Marina
Marsh Harbour, Abaco
