The sprawling metropolis of South Rivers. The Andrews' home at the South Rivers power station.

"Bananaville" 9/15/2002 Ok, I'm surrounded by thousands and thousands of bananas. All the light green spots in the picture to the left are bananas (or grass). The economy here is based on them. This would lead you to think that I am probably already sick of eating bananas. The truth is that they are really hard to get unless you like them brick hard and green. "Boil'n", a popular local soup uses the green bananas, but they are boiled. Other than that the bananas are harvested several weeks before they are ripe and sent to Britain (pretty much their sole customer). The banana farmers in the Eastern Caribbean all operate under a cooperative brand called Windward Isles. Mondays and Tuesdays are boxing days, where the bananas are cut, boxed, and put on the boats. The rest of the week is mostly dedicated to maintaining the trees. They are really hard to take care of. Sneeze too hard and you'll knock one over. This all leads me to wonder "why bananas?". I've asked around and haven't gotten a good answer. One hurricane, and every banana tree on the island will be lying on the ground. What if consumers in Britain decide they prefer tofu bananas to real ones? Maybe there's a good reason for it. I hope there is a good reason for it. I spent the last week commuting to Kingstown every day to sit in on Institute of Technology classes similar to the ones that I will teach. The curriculum and interest level of the students is amazing. This should be pretty fun once the South Rivers computer lab is ready.