Dennis

Dennis escorted us, by foot (his were bare), on a tour of Darveo Falls in St. Vincent's rain-forest. During our hike together we discussed, amongst other things, the local environment.
Dennis told us of the disease in St. Vincent that is plaguing the banana trees. As well he shared with us that he was a farmer and planted mango and orange trees. He also had worked on a government project building houses that they hoped some day to sell to foreign investors. The 6 houses, sitting together, were all still unsold but a local did have a job watching over them. As well, Dennis said he was a fisherman and liked to catch red snappers. Dennis also shared with us information about some of his siblings that were living out of the country (mostly U.S.), as well as those that had found employment in St. Vincent (nurse, postal worker).
Dennis had no shoes and his feet were in a very unhealthy state. He asked if we had any extra shoes that we could give him.
In exchange for Dennis escorting us to the falls and the oranges, we gave him 45 EC (Eastern Caribbean dollars - approximately $20.00 Canadian), a new pair of Barry's flip-flop shoes, a can of corned beef (his request) and 4 cans of beer. He felt that was a fair deal but we felt very much the richer for the time we shared with him.