My grandmother was raised in a boarding school in Barbados in the 1950s (now Codrington College) while her family, who were German refugees, were adapting to their new life in Venezuela after WWII. A fun anecdote? When she was a teenager, she and King Charles actually shared the dance floor! After years of living abroad, Barbados became her home. She is in her 80s now and still has the same group of friends she had when she was a teenager. Isn’t that amazing?

She convinced my parents to send my sister and me to Barbados for several summers while we were growing up so we could learn English at her best friend’s language school. These pictures were taken during the very last week of summer, when the rest of my family joined us. We got to enjoy Carnival and tour the island. Did you know you can actually circle the entire island in just three hours?

My first summer in the Island I stayed with a Barbadian host family who had a farm-like home. The mom, Sandy, was a horseback riding teacher and had many horses on the property, and the father was a landscape architect. I became very close with their housekeeper Mona. She was a very sweet person and talked to me a lot about bajan culture and history, even teaching me some words in their dialect. This family also owned a beach house on Bath Beach, which became one of my favorite beaches in Barbados.

During my last summer on the island, I stayed with a host family that had 4 sons. My roommate was Melody, who became my Guadeloupean sister. Most days after English lessons, Melody and I took the local ZR vans (while praying for our lives) and headed to Chefette! after having our heavenly meal (for my teenager palate) we went directly to Chilly Moo's for our daily dose of ice cream at Accra Beach. Our host brothers took us car drifting several times with their friends, one of them, Josh, actually worked in Chilli Moos. I still vividly remember my last night ever in Barbados (I haven't been back in 15 years). We slept on the trampoline in the garden with blankets and pillows, staying up late to watch shooting stars. I have never seen so many in my entire life - it was literally one after another. The environment is just so clean up there.