For today’s Story Time Sunday, I will be sharing my family trip to St Kitts and Nevis in 2006.
To coincide with my mum’s birthday, which is on the 31st January, I decided to share some snaps from our trip away. The original photos were shot on digital, however I couldn’t find the disc where the images are on, instead I scanned the available prints. There were a lot, many not in organised order and many not making the final cut for this post. Note: not all photos were taken by me, some were by other family members or individuals, so they are credited as ‘Williams Family’.
It was January 2006, the Christmas holidays were over and it was still winter. I was 14, in Year 9 and in secondary school. The exact dates escape me, however I believe it was sometime in mid January when we flew out to Nevis. Some members of my maternal family came along, which mainly consisted of one aunty, a few uncles and some cousins. It was my first time ever going on a plane – yes, I can remember that experience very vividly as we took a connecting flight from Antigua to Nevis.
My cousins and I had never been to St Kitts and Nevis before. My mum hadn’t been back since 1981, around twenty five years ago at that point. Most likely my other relatives, including aunts and uncles, hadn’t returned back in a long time either.
This trip was very important for all of us; we learnt more about our family history and heritage, plus it was a chance for to meet extended and distant relatives while we were on the island. We briefly went to the town where my mum and her siblings grew up, who were primarily raised by their grandmother, unfortunately the house was no longer there. We soon went to the slightly bigger neighbouring island of St Kitts only for the day, which is famous for its Brimstone Hill Fortress – a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Going to the Caribbean was a culture shock for my cousins and I, as we grew up in the United Kingdom, mainly in cities and were very fortunate to have access and resources to education and living. In our parents’ time, it was completely different; they didn’t have much growing up, but they worked very hard to provide for themselves and survive during tough times.
Some family members stayed in various places around Nevis: my mum, aunt and one cousin and I stayed at a distant relative’s house. We were often woken up by a cockerel almost every morning. My uncles and other cousins (one uncle had taken three of his four daughters along) stayed elsewhere on the island. We didn’t hang around much, I was probably with my mum and aunt for the majority of the holiday.
The two weeks were slightly slow. It was an advantage as I wasn’t really missing school or any lessons, although I was possibly behind with all my schoolwork but I didn’t care. My dad was left behind in London, however he did book a flight to Florida a week later to visit relatives.
We managed to have a birthday dinner for my mum’s 50th, nearly the whole family was there including other relatives from the island. We went to a Caribbean restaurant somewhere in town. I do believe we had gone to the same place around a day or two before.
Once we left Nevis, we went on another connecting flight through Antigua and then flew back into Gatwick. Back to the London life, although my uncles and some cousins went straight back to Leeds after landing.
I eventually went back to school the following week, so it was back to business and ‘normality’ for me. This break was well needed; it was absolute hell at school and I couldn’t wait to get away from it all.
Recently, my mum has expressed her desire to return back to Nevis, since it has been sixteen years. Other family members have since gone a few times, pre-pandemic and doing the same amount of exploring like we did.
Maybe one day, my mum’s dream will be fulfilled to finally go back to the motherland… once everything has eased completely…
Take care and stay safe
Photographic Jannine 
2 thoughts on “Story Time Sunday: Caribbean Celebrations”