St. Gerard's West Indian Garden Party
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Many visitors to Anguilla last week took the opportunity to sample a local social event. Saturday night, February 27th, 1999, was the date of a garden party with West Indian buffet dinner and music, on the grounds of St. Gerard's Catholic Church and Wallblake House, with all proceeds going to the church.

The party featured a bar with drinks, music by Sprocka, buffet dinner, and dancing under the stars (on the dance floor made of 4 sheets of plywood on the lawn).

Over 200 people attended the outdoor party, and this year it did not rain even once. There were three serving lines for dinner, but there was no reason to jump lines or worry which line you were in. They all carried identical dishes: rice, curry beef, pigeon peas, chicken, plantains, mashed pumpkin, green salad, and cole slaw. Far too much for a single plate, but luckily there was enough for seconds.

St Gerard's West Indian Garden Party is very much like a church social in any small town: you buy tickets for the bar ("three tickets for a glass of wine"), you queue for food made by the parishioners, you buy tickets for a cash raffle (half to the church, have to the winner), the children are bored and go off under a tree to play hide-n-seek, all the church members are there and they invite their friends and neighbors, ... lot's of fun.

And, there were at least a dozen desserts. But you had to choose only one!

 Revised: February 28, 1999

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