TourismToday

The Islands of The Bahamas were featured on July 31 in a one hour television programme on South Korea’s largest television network, KBS. Shooting was completed by Sunglan Lee, director/producer who spent 12 days in July on location in Nassau capturing the unique Bahamian culture to broadcast in his country.

At the Bahamian Heritage Center, Netties’ Different of Nassau, Nettie Symonette led Mr. Lee on a cultural journey. Mr. Lee expressed awe at the display of various artifacts used in The Bahamas during the 1900’s through the early 60’s. Ms. Symonette spoke exuberantly of the days when people actually enjoyed the simple things in life, like grinding corn in the mill machine to make grits, picking leaves from various fruit trees to make tea and going in the bush late at nights to catch crabs….just to name a few! Ms. Symonette said she “was delighted to share precious person experiences of ‘back in the days’.

Mr. Lee was also fascinated by Ms. Symonette’s abstract paintings and her newest display of artwork which she calls ‘Conch N’ Dough’ – an array of beautiful creative structures made from chipped conch shells, hardened dough and marbles. As Mr. Lees said “What an experience, it’s just like I’ve visited your Family Islands right here in Nassau with Nettie!”

Arlene Nash-Ferguson of Educulture shared a wealth of knowledge with Mr. Lee pertaining to Junkanoo in The Bahamas during the early 1950’s to the present. Mrs. Ferguson gave a detailed description of her personal experience as a child, waking up in the wee hours of the morning anticipating going to Junkanoo on Bay Street. She showed him the various costumes, goatskin drums, cowbells, horns and the whistles used during The Bahamas’ premier cultural festival, Junkanoo! Mr. Lee jumped with glee to the sound of the Junkanoo music..”Oh, I’ll be back ind December along with members of the crew from KBS,” he exclaimed.

A blend of conch, fish, vegetables and fruits permeated the air at Potter’s Cay dock. A group of men and women roared with laughter as they slammed dominoes on the tables at a few of the stalls, women also bargained with fishermen and mail boats laced the dock unloading their wares from various family islands. Mr. Lee hurriedly grabbed his camera and rushed quickly from the van to film the essence of Bahamian life and its culture. Afterwards, he sat quietly in the van and said, “what a beautiful people!”

Mr. Lee was fascinated not only with the colourful restaurants at Arawak Cay, but also with the delicious ‘down home’ food he ate at Twin Brothers’ restaurant. It was his first time having conch fritters, conch salad, fired grouper, peas n’ rice and the world renowned Kalik beer, of which he commented “This is crisp but smooth tasting beer!” Mr. Lee interviewed the cook and filmed him actually preparing the meal that was served.

Mr. Lee’s visit was coordinated through the Visiting Journalist Programme of the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation which assists large numbers of media representatives in discovering interesting and newsworthy features of The Bahamas.