HEART & SOUL

If you have a lick of sense and you are in business and have employees you know that it is a Gestalt relationship, the parts are the sum of the whole. Unless your business is solely reliant upon yourself it is the people who you work with that are your greatest resource. I arrived at this resort a little under five weeks ago and was assigned ten employees on the second day. I barely had time to collect tools or get the lay of the land, I hit the hill with both feet running. What needed to be done was obvious, how to do it required some finesse, ingenuity, and my reliance on the ability of ten men who rarely spoke English to me. It was a learning experience, an education and boost to my confidence that we accomplished so much and with such great pleasure, humor and no conflict. To a person I feel we are had a great sense of accomplishment and spirit. I was rapidly able to assess skill, expertise, quality of workmen ship and job performance pairing skills to tasks in order to complete each area to the best of our ability.

Several challenges were presented early on, locating materials, learning what and where I could find what I needed, transporting said materials and delivering them to each site. Additionally we had to respect the privacy and comfort that the guests of a five star resort expect. I went to five different nurseries and it was the last that offered the greatest product diversity, size and quality. With that said I even changed some of the plantings once I went to this new government nursery. The men bore with me as they carried 200 pound pots up and down staircases, swapped three small shrubs for one nice plant and fine tuned boulder outcroppings by hand. I learned that a cutlass is as formidable a tool as a weapon in the right hands It really was a pleasure to landscape in such a beautiful location with such beautiful and happy people.

Craftsmanship knows no language barrier and transcends cultural differences when a common goal is sought. I hope one day to come back to St. Lucia and see the fruit of our labor mature and blossoming above the Pitons.

EXIT INTERVIEW WITH RAY, THE GARDENER


SUPER GROOVY GOOD BYE