Last Days

Today is my last day at work in Dominica. After a much unexpected final presentation of my work I will spend the next two days traveling from Roseau to Marigot in Dominica, then from Dominica to St. Lucia and then on to Little Rock. I passed out a few gifts in the office and am going to dinner tonight with some friends.

The number one question I’ve been asked is about what I want to eat when I get home. I think I crave good ole beef the most. I want a burger, a steak, and some spaghetti with meat sauce, but I am not really craving food as much as I just want to see my friends and family. This summer has been unbelievably hard, and I cannot imagine being away for so long without skype to see everyone’s faces and talk for free. What a blessing (although sometimes Jonathan may have thought of it as a curse!)

Anyway, what I really want is to go home to the farm, go fishing and just relax with family. I miss getting pedicures with my girlfriends and the freedom to go wherever or drive whenever. The week I get back will be busy catching up, helping Liz move, attending Junior League training, then off to Denver, San Diego, and New York within the next month!!! Oh, and I’ll be in school too!

I really will miss some Dominicans. Not many, but some. I think what’s so strange about saying goodbye is that I will never email, facebook, or plan to see them again in my life… it’s not like I’m going to be pen pals or promise to come back to visit. I like the people the most who didn’t have to be nice to me. They gained absolutely nothing from making me feel welcome and safe. These aren’t the people that were supposed to help me with my project or obligated in any way; they are just really sweet.

A few times I’ve mentioned the old Protex man. He works at the store on my street and we don’t really ever speak, but I see him every day. He tosses me a bottle of water and I toss him EC and a peace sign and go about my way. I really like how quiet he is, and it has been reassuring to know he works in the same store, 24/7, and not in a creepy way but I know he keeps his eye out for me. I don’t know his name but he has four gold teeth at the bottom of his mouth and a few times I’ve heard him say to thugs outside the store “leave that girl alone.” I think I’m going to be a little sad to say goodbye to him.

At first I didn’t want to have anything to do with this old veteran from Kentucky on assignment for business here… we ran into each other a few different ways (pool, shopping) and finally became “friends.” In casual conversation he screamed at me about Israel and Palestine; cried about the pledge of allegiance, HATES obamacare, and told me worse Vietnam stories worse than Apocalypse Now, and may possibly be in favor of sterilization of welfare recipients. Yikes. I’m not making excuses for his behavior, but he arranged for me to have a ride to the airport and said “Americans take care of each other.” And I know he is really homesick too.

Because there isn’t a mental hospital here, there are a lot of mentally handicapped people on the streets. Of course there are dirty, pervy, crackhead, homeless men that will steal your diet coke off your lunch table but I’m talking about innocent, happy people who are taken care of by their families- they just like to sit outside and watch the street. One guy in a red shirt sits on far side of my porch every single day and never says a word but we wave at each other. A few times I’ve seen him all the way out in town and he gets excited to wave at me. Isn’t it silly but I think I will miss him the most.

I am also going to miss the girls that work in the coffeeshop. They are so much fun and every day we chat and tease each other. (Last Sunday I walked in on a homeless man sitting on the pot in the restroom and screamed and jumped and turned and ran back into the store. You don’t expect someone to be in the bathroom with the stall door open, and I’m sure I scared him too because his eyes were as big as golf balls.) Anyway, that little bonding experience made us all friends, but as most people in the service industry here hate their jobs, maybe they are hyped up on espresso, but these girls have fun at their job.

I’ll try to put up one last post, but as I don’t see much else exciting happening within the next 48 hours, so this may be it! Potentially last blog post- that’s pretty exciting in itself!

Rainbow Watching

I went whale watching today. Unfortunately the only animals I saw were a bunch of flying fish and a sea turtle. Seeing a sea turtle for the first time in my life was pretty cool, I’m just not sure it was worth $75. Although I kinda want one in my bathtub now. The flying fish reminded me of horseflies. Anyway, I think the trip should have been called a “leisurely trip around the Dominica” rather than whale watching… therefore no one would have been disappointed because it really was cool and seeing a whale could have exceeded expectations. 95% chance of a sighting whatever.

Supposedly, there are tons of whales in the Caribbean Sea, as the posters photos below indicate. I was told there are these certain types of plankton for the vegetarian whales and certain types of calamari (although I’ve never seen fried calamari on a menu here) for the carnivore whales, with a mix of the caribbean calm waters, and the perfect depth of the sea that make it a perfect home for all these tropical whales. The place where we left from actually had the top 7 sighted whales and had named them all according to their tale variations; it was all really cute during the 45 minute lecture about all this before we left. I was so excited I didn’t pay perfect attention. However- some interesting whale factoids that I picked up are that sperm whales can live up to 90 years old, baby sperm whales weigh ONE TON at birth and drink 5 gallons of milk a day, and then they started actually talking about how they got their name and I got freaked me out and completely stopped paying attention.

Sorry if that all sounds negative because in fact I had a wonderful time, due to seeing the most amazing rainbow of my life the whole entire time we were out. 5 hours of what started kinda like the blur of a prism, rising from the tops of the mountains all the way into the clouds. Then as we went along it changed into a bold, sharp, vibrant rainbow- like the quality of a cartoon clip art from a box of Lucky Charms. Later in the day it turned into a double rainbow (have you seen the double rainbow YouTube? Hilarious!!!) Our boat went up the entire west/Caribbean side of Dominica and upon turning around to come home, we watched the rainbow coming out of the land exactly across from where the boat was. Imagine a crowd of people on a boat (most from England, a few from the Caribbean, and me from the US) all cheering and laughing when we would watch a car would drive through the bottom of the rainbow. It was really one of the funniest things I’ve even seen! Oh, wait, next to this…"Double Complete Rainbow" (Momma- Its so funny! Watch the entire thing!) I asked the British family if they had seen the YouTube clip and they looked at me as if I suggested they watch Jersey Shore. 5 days. 

For Jonathan- see, lots of whales!

Did not actually see any of these... should have noticed the poster was made in 1975. 

Can you see it here?  What a beautiful island!

Got it.. perfect!

Wrong natural disaster

Yesterday, as if through the game of 'telephone' I got word that Dominica was under an earthquake warning. Are you kidding me??? Immediately I started freaking out, texting Jonathan to do some research because I wasn’t near a computer. He reminded me about the highest concentration of active volcanoes in the world but didn’t see anything about an earthquake. Great. 

Still, Dominica is on the same fault line as Haiti and I started imagining the only one lane road through the jungle to the only one runway airport with no runway lights. (Don’t judge me for planning my escape.) I started thinking about all the devastation in Haiti from a documentary I recently watched right when Liz called. We talked about what’s the difference in an earthquake warning compared to an earthquake watch? I don’t know. When do you know where and how to take cover? I don’t know that either. Should I get under a mattress or under my desk? My friend said to stock up on water…Why? In case I’m stuck in my apartment for 3 days??? I’ve never actually taken a precaution for being in a natural disaster before! I was scared to death. 

Later that afternoon I turned on the weather channel, not really even sure if earthquake coverage would be considered weather. Nothing was on about any earthquakes, and even though there isn’t a real Caribbean news channel, much less Dominican, there is some collaboration with the weather channel to cover tropical storms and depressions at the top of every hour. And of course since there has been a tropical storm about every other week- currently they were covering a new tropical depression, #4 of the season (out of 9 weeks I have been here!), named “Colin” that could potentially turn into a hurricane. No big deal to me though- I have been through hurricane disaster training at work; I know all the buildings are hurricane resistant. After there being a new warning every week I am sadly getting accustomed to earth shattering thunder, lightning bolts, crazy blowing strong winds, and power outages turning my fan off in the middle of the night. (Remember the experience with mom and dad in the treehouse in the jungle? Turned out to be tropical depression #3.) 

 

That night, I laid awake listening to the thunder, my apartment lost power, and like with all heavy rains, I woke up to no running water this morning. (I still don’t understand what the problem is with this place, but something about heavy rain contaminates the city’s water supply so my apartment runs out of water approximately one day a week. Ugh.) Still not worried about a hurricane though, I was proud I remembered the place I’m supposed to hide is under a door frame in case I felt an earthquake tremor. I walked to work this morning with an umbrella serving no purpose whatsoever because it seemed like the rain was coming at me like a fire hydrant, and periodically checked to see if the rain would stop in time to go lay out this afternoon. Local stores were empty of water bottles since everyone was “stocking up” and our office bathroom sink and toilet weren’t working. My new commitment of drinking lots of water turned into a catch 22- good thing that my apartment fridge is stocked up of water bottles, however, it sucks to have to constantly pee when the facilities don’t work! 

 

Anyway, this evening Michael and I were chatting and he said, “So by the way, apparently there wasn’t ever an earthquake.” His weather soothsayer accidentally confused her natural disasters. Did you guess this all along? The post title probably gave it away. Never an EARTHQUAKE, always a HURRICANE warning. I don't really know how you can confuse the two... but as I write this, luckily, Colin has dissipated over the Atlantic in the last 24 hours. Unfortunately I still don’t have running water.

The day I snuck onto a British fuel tanker ship

NATO- Watch out. Your defense isn’t too tough to crack! This was one of the coolest things I've done here. And pretty easy to sneak on. Once I was on I met a lot of really nice British guys who kept asking “How in the world did you get on here?” My only guess is that because I was wearing a navy and white striped shirt the Dominica security thought I was supposed to be going on the boat. I always have loved nautical clothes.

  

Anyway, so once I was on, I made a friend with the coolest guy, Scooby. He had lots of tattoos and a big gold hoop earring like a pirate! He took me all around the ship and let me wear the captain’s cap and sit in the captain’s seat (because the captain was gone scuba diving.) I think I took a few too many pictures of the computer screens because at one point this guy came up and told Scooby to tell me to quit, but didn’t make me delete the photos of the maps and stuff... I guess for the safety of the free world I wont post them. 

  

The guys on the ship were all civilians, 4 months on and 3 months off, they just refuel British and Dutch and American boats(and probably other countries, those were just the ones that were mentioned). On the ship is something like 600 thousand kilos of fuel (how many gallons is that?) They were supposed to stop in Venezuela but because of a tropical storm they came here instead. They don't usually spend much time docked, but just floating around the ocean on behalf of NATO, this trip's goal or focus was on tropical storm/ hurricane response, but they have other assignments. On the ship I got to see the karaoke bar and the library. I asked and they said there was only one girl on the boat, I feel sorry for her! I got to see their rooms and I think they are nicer than my apartment here. (Scoobys was covered with naked girl posters.) Of course I asked how the fuel boat gets fuel, and a guy named Nigel said Guantanamo Bay I think, but it was really hard to understand him. He said they could fuel up in Roseau but it would cost "me arm and me leg."

Darwin Does Dominica

Full disclosure: Mom told me I was free to blog about their island vacation, so to be fair, I am not saying anything I wouldn’t want them to read. Maybe this will encourage Daddy to read at least one of my posts!

To begin, I was absolutely ecstatic my parents came for 5 nights and I wanted to take them all around the island. The former scheduler in me kicked in and I organized an itinerary, made reservations, rented an SUV (with enough leg room for Daddy and 4 wheel drive for the bumpy Dominican roads), got the maps, researched activities and restaurants and things they would find interesting. We used that schedule for about… the first 12 hours.

They arrive Wednesday evening and we start off the trip at Fort Young Hotel. In Dominica its luxury, but the inside of the rooms are like a very nice, typical American hotel for a little over $150 a night. It’s where my friends stayed, it’s where I sneak in to use the gym and the pool, it’s got the best restaurant in town, you get the picture. Dinner the first night was about $400 EC for four people. I saw his eyes bulge out and reminded him it was in EC so he could divide by 3- that’s a great deal for dinner for four.

Thursday morning we wake up to go fishing and after 5 unsuccessful but sunny hours. I caught a sunburn and Daddy caught a Spanish Mackrel. Looking back, I think I should have saved the fishing for the end of the trip to give him something to really look forward to. After the fishing we went to the bank to exchange some money. My dad’s a banker, nothing slips by him. He figured out that you divide EC by 2.6, not 3. So he figured out how much dinner last night actually cost. That night I took them to a place where the steak tenderloin was served sliced and pounded like chicken piccata. Oops. Once again bill came and I reminded him, “Divide by 2.6 Daddy.” I could feel his blood pressure lower, but no more extravagant experimental restaurants.

At lunch on Friday I introduced Momma and Daddy to a man I had met, Valter from Brazil. Daddy said, “Invite him to sit with us, I hear there is really good bird hunting in Brazil!” Side note- often Daddy complains that I talk to fast, I get carried away and ramble on and he cannot understand me. Valter was the EXACT opposite. He spoke very clear, and very slow. So slow in fact, that you wanted to slap him and tell him to spit it out already! After a loooong leisurely lunch with Valter we left Roseau to explore the island. That was the day I came to the realization that paying more does not equate getting more. The exotic jungle resort I had booked for us turned out to be a very chicly decorated treehouse with no AC and an outside shower. Momma and I were ecstatic about doing yoga in the jungle, but my Dad is the kind of man that likes to unwind with cable TV and CNN, not a hammock tied to a palm tree. He made the best of the situation. “I’m in Alaska, going trout fishing in the morning,” he said. Momma made friends with the cute Dominican cultural show performers that entertained us after dinner and we went to sleep in our treehouse with a nice breeze and all the doors and windows open… until a torrential downpour woke us up at 3 a.m. I’ll be honest; I like a tin roof when it rains, but that’s a tin roof over a ceiling insulated on a house- this was a piece of tin protecting us from literally a tropical storm. “I’m in Canada,” Daddy said, “I’m going bear hunting in the morning,” he kept telling himself.

One night in the jungle was enough for us so we packed up early Saturday morning and decided to hit a scenic waterfall and do some hiking. I had my maps, I asked directions, and we took off to see Sui Sui Falls. “Ask directions, Dominicans are very friendly” everyone says. The first time we pulled over for directions to the falls a toothless man with a machete replied “Chicken?” I kid you not. I repeat- we asked for directions, he asked us “Chicken?” Two more stops for directions and we ended up with our own tour guide, Dean. Dean was also toothless but a lot more helpful than the chicken man and took us into the jungle to see a waterfall and even served us coconut water! Poor Momma had to sit in the backseat with Dean, and his scent lingered after we dropped him off. Truth be told, we didn’t actually make it to the waterfall because after a 45 minute climb down a mountain and crossing one part of the river in our socks and shoes, the rain started and Dean advised against chancing the river being too high to re-cross. I looked at Daddy in his soaking wet tennis shoes and socks and he smiled and said, “I’m elk hunting in Colorado.” We stopped at a place to dry off after the falls, low and behold- there was Valter!!! He was doing a little exploring himself and was so excited to see us he wanted to tag along for the rest of the day, but we couldn’t handle him literally slowing us down so we left him there. Since we left the jungle we needed to find another place to stay, we stopped at a place on the opposite side of the island but upon speaking to the Manager he said he had one room left, and he said a gentleman from Brazil was coming to take it. Valter!!! What a small island. You know where we finally ended up? Back at Fort Young in Roseau. That night Daddy’s steak was served in one piece and we went to bed with air conditioning.

Sunday morning I went to go meet my parents for breakfast and came to find Valter sitting at the table for three. I’d been booted out. Anyway, considering the wonderful time I had with my friends at Trafalgar falls, and the funny hiking experience Dean took us on Saturday, I wanted to take my parents to what I believe are the most beautiful spot on the island- Trafalgar Falls. They loved the majesty of the twin falls and we pool hopped from ice cold spring water to boiling hot sulpher water and really made the most of the day. Momma was so cute jumping from rock to rock and Daddy sat back and relaxed in the clean water. After a delicious lunch with an amazing view and gardens and landscaping to explore, we crossed the jungle again, getting closer the airport so we wouldn’t have too long of a drive before their trip. I think after 4 days I finally learned how to drive on the left side of the road- only go 15 miles per hour! That way you can avoid all the speed bumps and don’t have to ever slam on your breaks when a bus flies at you around a hairpin curve!

I was proud of my parents when they surprised me at the villa in Scandicci outside of Florence, Italy (they navigated the bus system all by their-selves) and we spent the night on the Eurail together. I really put them through a work out in DC when I drug them through every Smithsonian and to every single monument in one day, while in their dress clothes. But, I have to say, this trip was definitely the best! We talked about politics, religion, culture, Vietnam, and relationships, and learned a bit more about compromise and compassion towards each other. Wonderful trip! I spoke to them on Skype once they were home and you wanna know who they both asked about, their new BFF Valter! Maybe their next vacation will be to Brazil!

The reggae is going to get you

If I had to make the analogy, I would have to say that the city of Roseau bleeds reggae. Music pours from bongos on the street corners, radios blast from home windows, ringtones chime in restaurants at dinner, and loudspeakers amplify until it’s like the entire town is hooked up to the same station and everyone is just singing different parts of Red Red Wine all day and all night. 

My very first day, my very first taxi driver said “You like reggae?” I looked under Genres on my iPod and found I have two Reggae artists- Bob Marley and Toots and the Maytals. That’s enough, right? I had no idea the music would soon consume my life. Anyone want to guess how many different versions of By the Rivers of Babylon are out there? Because I swear I’ve heard at least 10 recorded, and every week at Happy Hour a local band does a new twist on it. Don’t feel sorry for Shaggy, apparently he wasn’t a one hit wonder down after all; he has tons of popular songs down here. I think in the last two months I’ve heard Wasn’t Me as many times as I did the entire year it was released- Y2K! 

So even though my neighbors thought it appropriate to blare their speakers at 7:30 a.m. this morning to Hold Ya by Gyptian, and the pool hall across from my office plays it approximately 5 times a day, for the last WEEK I’ve been singing to myself “Girl I’m gonna make you sweat, sweat till you can’t sweat no more” I know it’s probably has a dirty meaning, but since it’s so hot and humid in the Caribbean I really think Inner Circle originally wrote the song was talking about how sweaty everyone is here. 

Please take a moment and watch the video, Inner Circle: Sweat (A La La La La Long) its sure to put you in a great mood, taking it back to early 90’s VH1 with the girl’s high cut bikini bottoms and those round John Lennon sunglasses. And give you a teeny tiny glimpse of life in Roseau, with everyone’s long dreads and hundreds of ceiling fans! Hopefully you won’t be singing "a la la la long long long long time” for the rest of the day like me!

My products

Considering Delta’s one suitcase at 50 pounds limit I thought I did a good job packing for this trip. I mean, I had to roll up ten weeks worth of mix and match clothes, bathing suits, workout clothes, tank tops, grey, pink, navy, and khaki shorts, books, snorkeling gear, outlet adaptors, notepads, pens, wrinkle releaser, tennis shoes, dressy sandals, casual sandals, hiking sandals, etcetera. I thought I covered everything. Elizabeth and I sat in my bedroom surrounded by clothes and talked about each item and how practical or multipurposeful it could be. I planned for a hot weather and hiking and rain and yes- even sitting in the office doing my project!



It's like my head was in a fog though, I never really thought about the most important things to a girl: PRODUCTS! You know- the first 8 aisles on the left when you walk into Target. I guess I thought I could live simply this summer makeup and product free, just a little mascara, chapstick, no name shampoo, and regular ole' Colgate toothpaste. I mean, you don’t need all that extra stuff, right? My bathroom at home is like my very own Bath and Body Works. I know it’s a little excessive, but that’s why I was looking forward to a bit of a simpler summer- just me and a bar of soap more or less...


Well, I lasted about a week before I realized my eyebrows were getting out of control. I started missing the nights where I would stay in and watch reality TV with my Crest whitestips and my Biore porestrips and give myself a pedicure with those little separators stuck in between each toe. Then one evening after a long hike and before a quick dinner, I decided to just shower in my friend Kat’s hotel room (since she had hot water and a blowdryer, two things I was seriously missing) and I walked in to a little wonderland. Moisturizing makeup remover towlettes, peppermint scented body oil, leave in deep conditioner, all the stuff that takes girls an hour to get ready for a date when a guy can be ready in 15 minutes. I used her grapefruit scrub on my elbows and followed the directions on the leave in scalp treatment while I plucked my eyebrows and lathered up with body cream (which is so much better than regular lotion.)


Before I go on, I know you are thinking- Dominica isn’t the Sahara or the Amazon. I should be able to find a pharmacy or a grocery store to stock up on essentials. But that’s where I know I’m a spoiled American brat. Sorry. I am. The stuff here is all a little older, a little more practical, way more expensive, and a lot less exciting! I want the toothpaste that fizzes and tastes like vanilla and whitens your teeth while fighting cavities. I want the deodorant with glitter that smells like coco butter, even though no one in the world really will ever see if your armpit sparkles or not. And once you get used to flossing with satin, you just can’t go back! Anyway, you probably aren’t reading this unless you know me, and if you know me you this shouldn’t come as a surprise.


I said all that to say all this: I haven’t blogged in the last week and a half because of how busy I’ve been. My wonderful parents came for a wonderful visit, Elizabeth mailed me a generous care package as big as my body, and my great friends left the island forever (sad sad sad.) All this has all been pretty big news, all worthy of separate, in-depth, hilarious, and appreciative blog posts, but what do I keep thinking about??? All the new great products I have now!!!


Everyone gave/sent/left me a few little treats here and there, that when combined makes my bathroom cabinet looks a little more like home away from home! I’ve got new lotions from Europe and potions like witch hazel, cotton balls and floss wands and bug sprays with aloe, nail polish remover and new colors to paint with, shampoos and conditioners and treatments to choose from, I’ve even got bronzers and tweezers and multivitamins. I’ve got so much I’m afraid I won’t use it all within the next 22 days… but I guess I can always share with someone else like someone shared with me. When I write to future students embarking on their IPSP adventures, I am going to tell them- don’t worry about clothes. You can wash or buy any clothes, but take your products. If you like for your hair to smell like peppermint, your armpits to sparkle, and don’t want your bug spray to smell like bug spray, even when you are creating Social Change you need to take your products!!!

My fourth of July (a week late)

For a week leading up to the Fourth of July I started thinking about celebrating. Should I throw a party? Where will I get the decorations? Are fireworks legal or even sold here? I started walking up to Americans on the street (we are easy to spot) and asking if they would be in town and if they had heard of anything. I facebooked people I had never met at the suggestion of someone from Canada to try to find a grill out or something!

Anyway, morning of the 4th my neighbor Michael (from Minnesota) and I were resigned to go to the beach and make the most of our holiday. After a beautiful day in the sun and waves, we met some friends for a cheeseburger and fries and I saw a group celebrating a few tables over!

OF COURSE I recognized their Southern accents right away and walked right up and said “I’m from Little Rock!” and they cheered and welcomed me into their group, sharing their red, white, and blue bling! I’ve had some really great Independence Day celebrations, last year I was at the Nation’s Capitol watching thousands of fireworks, many years I have spent on one of Arkansas’s beautiful, natural lakes with friends and family, but there is something special about being so far away from home and feeling patriotic just by getting a little plastic flag and singing a little “And I’m proud to be an American!” with strangers from Texas!

Survivor: The Caribbean Jungle

I’ve never been much of a Survivor follower, although I highly recommend they have an upcoming season in Dominica. After last weekend I can make recommendations about for NBC for where to put the contestants, and hopefully, that was as close to actually “surviving” as I will ever get.


My friends and I decided to take a trip out of Roseau for the weekend and see off the beaten path. Dominica has some luxury accommodations, but we decided to take the cheaper route, finding $100 cottage that slept four on the sea cliff. We walked in the cottage to find mosquito nets, ceiling fans, and the sea seemed miles and miles away. Lord help us- the driver waved goodbye and said he would return in 24 hours.


Our first attempt to the beach led us in down 175 (I counted) muddy and steep steps. I guess you could say the sea really was miles away; it was miles down a cliff. We were nearing dark as we were descending the steps so I knew we wouldn’t get much beach time the first day. The jungle was dark and hazy, and at one point someone thought they saw a dead head hanging from a tree. We all rushed to the spot and after analyzing we ruled out an actual human head, but not a mask or a giant bat. Neither was a good option. Who would hang a freaky mask from a tree, and have you ever seen a bat as big as a head???? Yikes. Keep going.


Upon arriving at the beach I swear it could have been a scene from The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio. The tide was coming in, the sun was setting, volcanic trash was strewn along the sand, no a soul in sight, and the palm trees were on fire. Wait, what? Yes, I just said the palm trees were on fire. We got fairly close but couldn’t tell what started the fire, it didn’t seem to be spreading, and we had no tools to put it out, and it rains a billion times a day, and the tide was coming in so it wasn’t a threat- it was just weird.


175 steps back up the cliff and to the cottage in the dark, thoroughly freaked out by the head and fire, we stayed safe and sound with a delicious dinner of spaghetti and chicken wings, played cards on the porch in between thunder storms and all hit the bed by 10 p.m., exhausted.


After a quick workout and breakfast we headed out the next morning, this time to the “good beach” we had heard about. White sand beaches are hard to come by in Dominica and all I wanted to do was read a book and get some sun. We knew the general direction and found that everyone was very friendly so asking directions shouldn’t be TOO hard to find...


First try- We found a spot to enter the jungle, pushed branches and limbs out of the way, hiked through a cemetery, literally slid down red clay steps, and finally found one teeny stretch of a black sand beach surrounded by giant cliffs. Palm trees stretched out over the water and the coral came up to the sand so although it was picturesque, it was impossible to get in the water. After a few photos we trudged back into the jungle, using tree roots and branches to pull ourselves up the steep, muddy incline, hoping to come out on the other side of the cliffs.


Second try- we came out of the jungle on top of the cliffs. It really, really beautiful. I thought to myself that I could really see myself spending the night in a tent up there, looking at the starts and listening to the waves crash against the rocks. Then my fear of heights kicked in and started making my bones cringe thinking about my body crashing against the rocks below. Nauseating. (I’m kinda trembling a little bit writing this.)Then I started seeing myself spending the night up there if we couldn’t find our way back. So we quickly moved on, hoping to catch the main road and give it one last try, deciding that we must have overshot the beach from the very beginning and must go back a ways.


Third try- locals told us to go to the nearby villa because they have the best beach access. Rather than the hundreds of muddy steep steps, the owners had created sort of a San Franciscan Lombard street complete with busted motion lights, electric fences, and “Beware of the Dog” signs. I’m thinking of the head in the woods and getting a little freaked out about what kind of place trespassing into, but we walk on down into what I always imagined tropical paradise was like. Two hours before our ride back to Roseau arrived we were finally among colorful tiki tables and umbrellas, reggae playing and people swaying, a precious soft coated Wheaten Terrier (not worthy of the Beware sign), the smell of fresh grilled shrimp, fruity cocktails, white sand beaches, and a bar with… the second half of the WORLD CUP FINALE! Yay Spain!


After a full day of hiking, being caught in the rain, slipping and sliding and slapped in the face by branches- we really felt like we found paradise. We sat around the table, sipping on Kabuli (the local brew) and talked about our adventure, and how although it wasn’t 40 days, and we weren’t competing for millions of dollars, we still kinda felt like we had a Survivor experience on the island. Last night, back in the capital city of 14,000 people I was glad to be in “civilization.” I got a good night’s sleep in my clean sheets (on my cot of a bed) after an amazing cold water shower to wash the red clay off my feet.

Trafalgar Falls Adventure

On the way to work this morning:

8 Blocks. All this happened in approximately four blocks to the coffee shop on the bay front and approximately 4 blocks back to the main street, Independence Avenue, where I work and live. The blocks are approximate because the streets aren’t parallel here. A block can be a triangle, or parallelograms, or well, you get the point.


7 Street musicians or boom boxes from windows. I could name the corners, where the performers will be standing, and what buildings are blasting reggae. Stay tuned for a future blog post entitled “The Reggae is Gonna Getcha” Side note: I don’t think it should count when a guy is just sitting by a boom box- you don’t deserve money for that. Pick up some bongo drums and tap along if you want my change.


6 Inappropriate (however quazi flattering) comments from men. One friend (I use the term loosely) always says “Shorty I like your smile.” Which I can’t help but smile because I don’t wear makeup or blow dry my hair before work. However I have to question the motives the guy that invited me to go “bubbeling.” I just responded that I don’t chew gum, because it’s the truth. I don’t. And one aforementioned street musician stands in front of the bank and Chinese restaurant always tells me he loves me. Jonathan- don’t worry. I’ll never leave you for someone with no teeth. And as my friend from Croatia, Kat, and I have shared, there are always the 'vehicular pick up' attempts that back up a line of cars on a one way street just so the driver can offer you a ride.


5???? I didn’t notice or just can’t think of anything that I saw five of, so I am substituting 50 because I feel like fifty roosters follow me wherever I go. The gang was rifeling through people's garbage and I feel like this is seriously getting out of control. I’m going to mention it to the Prime Minister when I meet him and entertain Joe about changing the focus of my project. 


4: (Approximate) Drug deals. Not that I’m judging or making any accusations, because the black Land Rover with fancy rims that drives down Independence Avenue every morning and slows to a halt at stop signs and 2 teenage boys run up and exchange money for brown bags COULD be bringing in local fruits and berries from the other side of the island. However, I don’t have to make any assumptions about the kid with the pirated movies and cd’s because he offers me a dime bag of ganja when I walk on that side of the street, and said if I don’t want a whole bag he will just share with me. It’s so tempting, but I just have to keep reminding myself “Joe says no. Joe says no.” (That’s a joke Momma, I promise I am not smoking pot in Dominica, but I’ll introduce you to him when you get here in a week if you wanna give it a try!)


3: Rain showers/ sprinkles. Only one strong enough to have to get under an awning, but the other two made me glad I didn’t blow dry my hair. Not that I could have, as I blew my dryer up like a blowtorch on like, my second shower. I don’t mind the rain though; I would always prefer to be caught in the rain than someone just spraying off the side of a building or sidewalk and accidentally drench you as you walk by.


2: Police officers. I don’t really care if they are on the lookout for the Land Rover, I think the least they could do is shoo the roosters away from getting in people’s trash bags. Jake.


ALSO 2: Scuba divers from Texas in the coffee shop. And I must say, within a two minute conversation, I got the impression that they were judging ME for not experiencing enough nature on the Nature Island. Been here for a month guys, working five days a week. Don’t look down on me because I haven’t been to as many waterfalls as you have. I mean, why are American tourists so competitive? I'm practically a local these days.


1: Bible. Left open on my coworker’s desk overnight. I picked it up on the way to my desk and it was open to Galatians 2 so I want to share a verse that I love and gave me strength today “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Merci beaucoup

So I have an accent. Big deal. I don’t think about it as much as other people do. I mean, I’m not aware if it has ever set me back in any job, any travel, any encounters thus far… and to be honest, I guess you could say maybe on occasion I enjoy embellishing my little Delight twang  (I can do really great Miranda Lambert karaoke.) However, recently I have become much more aware of not only my own accent, but of my inability to pronounce words in other languages properly. (correctly? accurately? What’s even proper here?) For example- last weekend at an amazing French restaurant on the sea with seafood canapés and apple rum crepes I observed that apparently “merci” is most certainly not appreciated by the owner of the restaurant when pronounced “mercy.” He scoffed at me! I’m starting to feel like I’m really just embarrassing myself even when I try to be grateful.

I blame/credit my new awareness on/to my new friends from Algeria (Canada and Spain) and Croatia. Two amazing, well traveled, beautiful people who speak many languages fluently. Um, even their English is better than mine. They love counting how many times I use “y’all” begging me to say “fixin” or “gonna.” They laugh and mimic my accent when I get really excited and blurt out something so redneck that it sounds like Ellie Mae Clampett just joined the conversation. But all that I’m used to, my friends in DC and even some in Little Rock did that. What I’m not used to is how hard it is to roll my Rs in order to thank someone properly for refilling my glass at dinner.Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. That was me trying to rrrrrrrrroll my tongue frusteratedly. (Side not for Mom and Carmen- that was one of those swiftly things!!!)

Anyway, I remember making decent grades on tests in Italian in Italy from Mona Shackelford and in Spanish in high school with Mr. Denny- two very capable teachers who mastered other languages coming from small towns in Arkansas just like me. However I think the reason that it none of it stuck was not because I couldn’t memorize the words (actually I still can identify lots of nouns and list the different verb conjugations in my head) but it’s because I never really pronounce anything that sounded remotely Spanish or Italian! I couldn’t roll my tongue if you pointed a gun at my head. Imagine how Brad Pitt’s character in Inglorious Bastards, pronounced grazie “graught zee” and arrivederci “a reever derchee” at the movie premier… yep, that’s about how I do it too. I’m genuinely sorry because now I think it must be insulting to everyone who has worked so hard to learn and appreciate different languages.

So that leads me to my new goal- working on the pronunciation and enunciation of some common Italian, Spanish, and French phrases- specifically being able to roll my Rs! I eHow’d how to do it and they say I should be able to figure it out in five easy steps. I found plenty of things on youtube to practice my speech while in my apartment, and I know my friends are more than willing to help when we go out to dinner. However, while walking down the sidewalk at lunch it just hit me that this new goal could actually be two-fold in nature!!!!! (My best friends know how I get so excited when things are two or more fold!)

Here’s how I’m going to go about killing two birds with one stone! Ready? I’m kinda excited right now. Not only will I be bettering my vocabulary, I will actually be warding off unwanted attention from Dominican men to and from work, and on walks I go on! No skeezy, sweaty, stinky men are going to want to approach, much less flirt with, the crazy white girl who repeats loud, strange flemmy, gurgling sounds shaking her head while walking down the street!!! “Merrrrrrrrrrci, Grrrrrrrrrrazie.” See, it really helps if you say it loudly and shake your head to try and roll your tongue. Because currently you see, I think I sound like a schizophrenic toad. Hopefully within the next 35 days I transform into sounding like a plain old schizophrenic walking down the street eloquently thanking, greeting, and bidding “adieu” many different languages. 

Adieu!

Class 5 Blogs

Confession: I LOVE my classmate’s blogs so much that I’ve started disciplining myself about reading them. I won’t check blogs at night because I will just spend hours going though old posts and not go to sleep. I make myself wait until the morning while I drink my coffee at work because most of the postings are put up while I’m asleep and most of you are 8 to 12 hours ahead and there are usually two to four new ones.

My favorites are short little funny ones, about a class joke (or David W. calling out Patrick!) or those photos of CSPS Admin are CRACKIN me up. Joe on a motorcycle MIGHT have been my desktop background for a day. Rebecca’s one liners are so Rebecca. In fact, I think that’s why I love them so much because I can hear everyone’s voices in their pieces, I can just imagine Lindsey doing a little presentation about Jilian being a great vacation spot, and Gralon’s long posts remind me of how soulful he is. I read every ones posts in your voice, just like you are telling me a story. Especially Trenia- your little comments are so... You! Hallie’s photos are so amazing, that I get really jealous I didn’t go to Peru (until she reminds me that its cold.) Julie- I cannot believe you are going through such an amazingly challenging experience. And Adam, I don’t think last year I thought you were as funny as I do now!!! Ryan, sharing your letter to your father was really brave, and I admire it. I want you all (Judy and Sarah especially!) to continue through the summer because your posts are so great! I could have a little shout out to each one of you… but this is turning into a long post instead of a short little Hello!

Finally, to all of you who didn’t blog, but might happen upon reading this- I miss you guys! I feel like I can kinda keep up with Ivan through Cory, but Latif and Heather and the rest of you not blogging… Send us an email about what’s going on!

Dead Rooster

Yes, Anna, I do believe in karma.

For those of you who haven’t heard about my sister sliding down a flight of stairs on night, I tripped the next day, dropping my laptop, a glass of water, busting my iPhone. $120 later I know it was because I laughed at her. Karma.

Well this morning it happened again. I walked outside to find one of my neighbor’s 8 roosters that crow NONSTOP dead in the street.

Side note- Have all the farmers I’ve encountered in my 26 years trained their roosters to only crow in the morning? Shouldn’t there be an ordinance about how many roosters you can keep in the city limits? Has anyone heard of rooster shock collars? Why would anyone need 8 roosters, wouldn’t one rooster get the job done with 10 hens? These are all questions I want answered.

Anyway, one of the little terrorists died this morning and I can’t say that I feel sorry for him. A few neighbors were looking at him from their balcony across the street and I said “Good riddance” out loud, one neighbor said “Good dinner.” That’s karma Rooster. Let that be a warning to the rest of your comrades keeping me up at night.

So, as I’m standing over Rooster gloating at his death, contemplating if taking a photo would be over the top, and hoping that he has a communicable disease that will soon wipe out his entire clan; his owner came out of another house with a look of horror on her face. Apparently the murder just took place. Maybe she thought to herself “I haven’t heard Rooster #5 crowing in the last 15 minutes, I wonder if anything has happened to him, maybe I’ll go check.”

Now this is my favorite part- she looked down at him and then looked at me, and actually assumed I killed him!!! “You did this?” she said. “No ma’am, I did not” I answered and walked away. But what I wanted to say was “Lady, I’m wearing white slacks from the Gap. Do I really look like I just killed a rooster?”

OBVIOUSLY if I was going to kill her roosters I would dress in black and sneak out of the house in the middle of the night with one of those coconut slicing machetes and a slingshot… not that I lay in bed at 4 a.m. planning my attack or anything. To do list today: researching if rooster murder is a punishable offense on this island.

Partisanship Drama

If you think Washington DC is too partisan, stay away from Dominica.

  To begin, there is the current party in power- the DLP- the Dominican Labour Party. The Prime Minister Roosevelt Skeritt is the leader of that party and the deputy is the Mayor of the town, His Worship Cecil Joseph. (Yeah, the whole “His Worship” really threw me for a loop) Anyway, they are my favorite party because the Mayor comes in our office to say hi and chat with everyone, and I think he is very nice.

Another major party is the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP) led by a female, Judith Pestaina, with whom I think I will get to meet and interview for my project. There are smaller parties here as well, Dominica Progressive Party (DPP), the People's Democratic Movement (PDM), the Dominica Liberation Movement (DLM), and the Dominica United People's Party (DUPP). However, the party with all the drama is the United Workers' Party (UWP) whose leader is the former Prime Minister, Edison James.

So the UWP, after losing Edison’s seat as Prime Minister, began losing seats in parliament. For the last 10 years has really been dwindling until now, the drama is that there are three of their members of parliament boycotting their responsibilities in protest to “irregularities” from the last election in January (that’s three out of 21 members of parliament, all the others are DLP.) So the DLP said that if they wouldn’t do their job, their seats would be replaced. (I think it makes sense!) For a while, the UWP had organized a People’s Parliament, which I guess we would relate to holding town halls all over the island, but now are in the midst of trying to get people to boycott the by-elections which would replace the three from boycotting parliament. Crazy. Would we put up with this? Stay tuned for July 9^th for the replacement elections and I'll letcha know what happens! 

All that to lead to the reason I began this post and it is because of the rather interesting albeit unsuccessful campaign the UWP lead against the DLP. I’m breaking it down REALLY simple here, based on what I have overheard or been told, but basically they used this Question tactic to make people question the current administration. ALL over the island, big blue question mark speech bubbles were nailed to trees and light poles to make people remember to question the government when they are in their car driving through the rainforest, or along the beach. (Side note- when I was bumming a ride from two German tourists, they actually told me that the question marks were for if you got lost… they just weren’t really sure how they helped you find you way back. I wonder what bus driver told them that!) Obviously, these questions are pictures here, and as you'll see, one of them is even backward! I became obsessed with them for a few days. 

To follow up the question bubbles, pieces of 8x10 white paper are glued all over town- on buildings, over street signs, with these lists of questions like “Why won’t Skeritt tell anyone how much he paid for those trash bins?” and “Nurses have questions about why they don’t get paid more” etc. I LOVE finding a new question I haven’t seen before, it makes my day. However, I would like to recommend to my friend Mariah and all the Dem candidates running in November 2010- (Go Beebe, Blanch, Elliott, and Causey!) don’t just paint the town with blue with question marks!

Thank You Clinton School Faculty!

I would like to dedicate this post to thanking the faculty that I have reached out to during my IPSP. Within minutes of sending Dr. Bavon, Dr. Williams, Dr. Standerfer, Marie, and Joe questions or comments they all got back to me immediately and were more than helpful, supportive, and encouraging! 

Dr. Bavon was right on the money helping me to find the specifics I was looking for regarding primary data collection. Dr. Williams continues to be an inspiration regarding transformational leadership, even outside of the classroom. And today, Dr. Standerfer helped me reframe the approach I am taking and reassured me of my purpose on the island. Marie spent almost an hour skyping with me a few days ago, listening to me talk though my IPSP goals and work plan, to which Joe said was “one of the strongest work plans that has come out of IPSP this summer.”  Joe Says Yes!!!

I wanted to publically thank everyone because it’s very reassuring to know that even when we are so far away we have such a strong support network of talents at Sturgis. Thank you! 

Laughing at Myself

Yesterday was one of those days that turned into a comedy of errors and to keep from crying you just have to laugh at yourself. Do other people get caught in the rain while they are locked out of their apartment while waiting on an electrician running late to a scheduled meeting with Marie? For Real. I fear it’s just me…

Apparently the only hot water I’ll be seeing this summer will be with the bottles of water that I leave out and begin to boil because of the heat in my apartment (still no hot water or fridge.) Day twelve and I just stare at the broken hot water heater while I splash freezing cold water on myself to rinse off in the shower. And as a follow up to what was really going on with my TV- this is so cool- The power button doesn’t work one bit, gotta just start changing the channels to get it to come on. It’s like magic- or at least I tell myself.

I still stop by and see my friend at the Colgate store every day (I figure if I ever go missing he will be the last person who saw me walk down the street) but I found the grocery store Mecca yesterday. (Thanks for the encouragement David M! You were right!) I only had a few dollars in change on me, but I wandered the aisles for almost an hour just looking at all the new foods I will try one day and enjoying the air conditioning in the frozen foods section. Jonathan always makes fun of me that I could go into Kroger in the Heights for one thing and disappear for hours… I really see wandering the Whitchurch IGA turning into a weekly activity.

Anyone want to send me mail? I’ll secret message you my address because apparently strangers from Portugal are reading my blog. Thanks Momma for the letter you sent to the sweet elderly couple down the street. I decided to knock on their door on my way back from the grocery store but they refused to give me the card until I spent about thirty minutes in their formal living room visiting about Bill Clinton. “But why are you getting your mail here?” they asked over and over again, and then when I finally explained that the numbers were just transposed and I really live a block away they said that they would safely deliver any more mail I received.

I don’t want to turn into a TV junkie but it’s a great way to stay in and save money. I am so glad Ali didn’t give creepy Kasey the rose last night, but I swear if Ty has a girlfriend I’m going to drive to Nashville when I get home and kick his butt. And wow- trueblood is getting OUT OF CONTROL. It’s really starting to dominate my Sundays when I read my Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Series books all day, and watch the newest episodes at night. For anyone who has watched TB, have you ever tried to describe it to someone? “Well there are these vampires, and they are trying to Mainstream. And there are these townies who are doing V- which is vampire blood and it makes them trip like ecstasy. And last season there was this religious right cult trying to kill all the vampires, and this ancient greek devil worshipper woman, but this season they just introduced werewolves.” I quickly lose credibility in conversations (probably like I just have on this post.)

Finally- can’t believe how easy it is to keep in touch with everyone. I really feel for my classmates in India and Africa. My angel, Kolene, got me a free cell phone so I can receive calls for free and text Jonathan all day for what feels like free… I don’t think he has checked his bill yet though so we’ll see if that continues! Daddy has only called me once on Father’s day… I’ve never speed dated before but that’s what I compare the experience to talking to the Hendrix clan. Daddy: “Hi! How are you? Is it great? Are you having fun? Are you being safe? Gotta go, here’s mom!” Mom: “Hi! How are you? We miss you! Are you having fun? Are you being safe? Can’t talk long, here’s Carmen!” and so forth until I had talked to everyone for 5 seconds each. Skype is super cool too, when the internet is working. Its great because you can make the screen really bright to hide how sunburnt you are or really dark to hide not wearing a bit of makeup here.

That’s all for now- don’t worry, I’ll keep laughing at myself when I accidentally scream because a roosters flys at my face on the way to work, or when my blow dryer turns into a blow torch and sounds like a rocket launching complete with sparks and explosion, or when anime porn pops up on my work computer screen when my boss is standing behind me. I mean, I’ve only been here a week- she can’t possibly think that I was looking at that right? Patrick???

Island Adventures

In one day I was in a pool, the Atlantic Ocean AND the Caribbean Sea, and in a boiling river. I think that’s worth of a blog post if a latte is.

Here’s how it went down- I started out the day at my favorite hotel where I frequently pose as a guest in order to use their pool. Go figure I look like a tourist so it works. So I’m laying out for about an hour with a few quick dips to cool off when my friend calls with great news- she just got a car! That’s right, no more scary, death defying, raging maniacal, overcrowded, other peoples sweat and urine bus rides to get around- I’ve got a friend with a car! (I couldn’t help but sing “hanging out the passenger’s ride of his best friends ride, tryin to holler at me”)

So we take off to the beach. It’s a short drive on a one lane road in desperate need of construction and I vow we will come back every day but low and behold when we get to the ocean they seem to be doing some kind of construction right there in the water. The water is cloudy dirty and a crane is rearranging some rocks on a barge, not the best reading on the beach atmosphere. After I ran out into the water like a 2^nd grader and came back with mud on my legs (EW) we said “So Long Atlantic” for the day and drove about 10 minutes up the road to one of Dominica’s THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE rivers.

The Layou is special because it has volcanic bubbles coming out of it, called a boiling river. Getting to the river required a bit of a hike, but since I wanted to rinse the filth from the ocean off my legs we trugged through the jungle until I could I jump in the beautiful river and float for a bit… Not quite to the boiling part because the current was strong (I once watched my sisters being rescued from a deadly river current and know not to mess with them.) Three swimming escapades all in one day is pretty cool; or so I thought.

Proud of our adventures and famished from our exercise we decided to retreat back to the metropolis of Roseau and have a snack at a tiki hut where I met the #2 and #3 most adorable boys in the world next to Riley Smith. After letting Rivo and Tiago (their precious names) play with my camera I decided to join them in crab hunting amongst the rocks of the Caribbean sea line and it hit me that I could actually swim (dip) in four bodies of water in one day!

Besides loving my project, I especially wanted to come to Dominica for a chance to explore the amazing natural resources. At my fingertips I have waterfalls, boiling lakes, mountains and national parks, beaches, hiking, whale watching and snorkeling… Dominica is even called “The Nature Island” remind anyone of another beloved state motto???

Where the Layou empties into the Atlantic.
One day we are going to go out in those little flat bottom boats!



Champagne Reef




I think Rivo will be quite the photographer one day.




The boys playing in the Caribbean at sunset.