Re: Winter 2014/15 | Page 71

Barbados is home to a large population of mongoose, originally imported from India to take care of the rats in the sugar cane fields.  Instead, they ate the snakes, which was the original predator of the rats. There are about 270,000 people who live in Barbados.  It’s located in the Lesser Antilles, with Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the west, Saint Lucia to the north-west, and Grenada to the south-west. The cuisine in Barbados includes many types of fish, seafood, sweet potato, yam, breadfruit, cassava, rice, pork, and pasta.  The national dish is cou cou and flying fish. Barbados can be known as ‘the land of the flying fish’ – they are commonly seen around the island. The languages used include English & Bajan. 71