Original Caribbean Short Stories

If you grew up in what is now known as a third world country,you would remember
when UNICEF visited your school. As a kid I did not know UNICEF was an"acronym" for the name of an organization, all I knew it had something to do with the United Nations I know the meaning of UNICEF is only a dictionary away...but that is not the real subject of this story.(O.K. you go look it up and I will wait for you to get back...)

Well, like I was saying. When UNICEF visited it meant a free cup of milk and biscuits (biscuits are also known as cookies). As kids in the hot tropical sun, dressed in matching school uniforms, the students of Sacred Heart RC (Roman Catholic) School would look like a sea of blue as we moved around the play field.

The bell would ring and what we were all waiting for was about tohappen. In preparation of this moment we had washed a cheap plastic cup our Mom had given us from the night before. We did not know it then but we were doing our part for the environment by not using disposable cups.Now that I think of it, styrofoam might not have been invented back then or it might have been too expensive for us to afford that luxury.

Anyhow, there we were, in response to the bell rung by our school headmaster (does this remind you of some story about dogs, food and a bell?), we would form an orderly straight line to get our milk and biscuits. The longer it took us to form a perfect queue, the longer we waited to be served. I really don't know why it tasted so good but maybe because it was free. The milk came to us from UNICEF in powder form and we provided the water. When I close my eyes I can still see the big blue and white tin cans that held the biscuits.

The stuff was so good that you would drink quickly and gobble down the biscuits then jump back in line for more. All you hoped is that the servers would not remember your face since there were no seconds. But even if they did, it was better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all (did I really write that).

The servers were hand picked older students and trust me, they helped themselves before helping others (these servers later grew up to hold high level political positions in my country).

Those were great times and made me who I am today. This was a privilege only for the many public school kids. My sister missed out on this treat since she went to private school. Which reminds me of the time I...
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