Bribery 101

I arrived to St Kitts, Basseterre International Airport on May 1 in the hot afternoon sun wearing my backpack, indigo jeans, a t-shirt and a peace sign necklace. Yes, I commodified peace.

As my travel experiences grow, I have developed a hobby of gathering statistics on gender and guesstimated-ethnicities of my fellow flight passengers. The short plane ride from Antigua (a neighbouring island) carried a small 50 seater to St Kitts. The majority of travellers were 'foreign'. How did I discriminate between a native and non-native? Easy. Skin color. About 90% of the nationals of St Kitts and Nevis are of African descent. So what were all of the foreigners doing on this little plane? Duh. They were going to school!

Okay. The reader is forgiven for not knowing but, offshore schools offering transferable degrees in medicine and nursing are very popular with the ultra motivated (and mostly rich) foreign students that travel to the Caribbean for their education. For nearly $20,000 per term, students work towards designations as physicians and nurses. (More on this at a later date.)

A stream of people staggered out of our little plane onto the tarmac to the airport doors. A feeling of release and elation came over me as I turned to my partner intern and let out a deep sigh. We were finally here. After 8 hours of travelling, we had finally made it! Without skipping a beat, the next thing on my mind was my luggage. You see, LIAT, the infamously unreliable Caribbean airline suddenly decided that they wanted $60 USD to connect my single large suitcase to St Kitts from Antigua. The scene at the airport in Antigua went a little something like this:

Me: You want to charge me HOW much?

Him: Ma'am, this is our policy.

Me: Isn't there anything that can be done sir? You see, I'm a student and I don't have the money to pay you. *fluttering eyelashes. Suddenly a $20 EC note falls from the sky into his hands. *grin.

Him: *smile Let me see here. Okay. I will send your bag. But I will not enter it into the system. This did not happen.

Me thinking to myself: YESSSS!!!!

As I stepped away from the counter I thought, was this the right thing to do? What if my entire suitcase doesn't make it to St Kitts. What would the kids eat? (I had packed marshmallows, popcorn and lollipops in anticipation of meeting children on our street).

Back to the arrival. After going through immigration I ran to the luggage area to see my suitcase and on it was a florescent pink tag reading "PRIORITY." I had won my first risk-taking battle...St Kitts, here I come!