“Good manners are  
just a way of showing  
other people that we  
have respect for them.”   
Bill Kelly

When I stopped by the Saint Augustine’s campus on Tuesday afternoon, I found myself sitting in the reception area of the main office for about fifteen minutes waiting for the last period of the day to end. I wanted to visit with two teachers who were in class at the time. As I sat patiently waiting for 2:45 to arrive, no less than a dozen SAC students came into the office for various reasons. Without exception, each one acknowledged my presence and greeted me warmly.

“Good afta-noon,” each would say confidently with their Bahamian accent. 

It would have been so easy for these students to simply ignore me, an older white gentleman they did not know, sitting on a chair in the corner of the waiting area. In fact, that’s what I would have expected, but SAC students are different. Or, perhaps, it’s Bahamians that are different.

An important component of Bahamian hospitality is good manners. This is evident from the moment visitors arrive at Nassau International Airport. Taxi drivers, merchants in downtown shops, hotel workers, and an impressive percentage of Bahamians I encounter on a daily basis display basic social skills not often seen in Silicon Valley. Bahamian hospitality is real. In a country where tourism is the #1 industry, friendliness and good manners makes a significant difference to travelers visiting the islands. 

Henry Clay, a politician from the 1800s, stated, “Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart.”

Over the past twenty years, I have developed what might be described as a “grateful and appreciating heart.” And yes, the friendliness of Bahamians in general, and SAC students in particular, is something I admire and appreciate.

Basic courtesy, whether toward those we know or people we’ve never met before, is a valuable life skill — and it requires very little of us to be courteous. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.”