Imagine me pouting, (it’s not hard- you’ve all seen it.) I want to have catchy little pun titles for my blog postings like all the cool Africa kids! Rwandering Through Kigali! Uganda Be Kidding! Thank YoUganda! That’s good stuff.
So, I am calling on my classmates for help- best pun gets a prize and a super special blog post shout out, as long as it has nothing to do with leather straps or and chains. (Some of you will get that. Sorry mom.)
Im working with the Bureau of Gender Affairs to promote women’s rights- “No More Dominatin!” No? Here’s another.
It rains on average of 7 times a day here- “Roseau humid!” That was terrible. And some of you may not even know I’m in the capital city, Roseau, which is pronounced “row So.”
What about a typical average meal here? “Carib Beans and Cornbread!” Its especially not funny if it’s a lie. Ok- I give up. Team Africa?
Monday, June 21, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
I got a nonfat Cafe Latte today!!!
Heaven is a nonfat grande caffe latte from starbucks. I am ashamed to say that last spring I averaged one a day, well maybe 5 a week. The friendly drive-thru workers on broadway know jonathan and i by name and they way we like our drinks. "The usual for you today?" I thought, coming to the Caribbean, (I mean, its close to Colombia) that I would be in for a treat with some bold, locally grown coffee- wrong. Try instant knock-off instant folgers at best. That’s why I’m writing today… to announce I found the NEXT best thing to starbucks- Rituals! Their lettering is similar so I wonder if they are copy catting or I am just the luckiest girl in the world because at $7 EC my grande latte cost about $2.75- way cheaper fix when most things here are almost double what they cost in the US. Quality of today's latte- I give it a 8.5 because there was a little too much hazelnut and it was super super hot (which I did not want after my 20 minute sweltering walk to the coffee shop.) All in all, I just wanted to share that its gonna be a good summer, no more lack of caffeine headaches (because no one here believes in diet coke,) no more chunky thick DIY coffee (which was especially hard considering I don’t have hot water or a microwave.)I'm so happy I am going to start setting my alarm for an hour earlier each morning to get one!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Photos
Beautiful church photo from the boat- but so everywhere here is so impoverished.
Embarrassed to say I actually asked if this was a dinosaur, turns out it is a whale skeleton!
Kolene and I out on the town, she took me to the "Premier" spot on the island.
Snorkeling (with guide Brenton) around Champagne Beach. Look I was wearing sun protection!
Potluck Dinner with roommates last night! mmmm bruschetta and mangos and fish!
Embarrassed to say I actually asked if this was a dinosaur, turns out it is a whale skeleton!
Kolene and I out on the town, she took me to the "Premier" spot on the island.
Snorkeling (with guide Brenton) around Champagne Beach. Look I was wearing sun protection!
Potluck Dinner with roommates last night! mmmm bruschetta and mangos and fish!
Friends and Interactions
I was so afraid that I was going to be all alone here; that I wouldn’t make any friends and that no one would talk to me. I should have known better…
Everyone I have been introduced to has been extremely nice and helpful and friendly. My landlord is an absolute doll; she wears a giant straw hat and brings us mangos from her tree. She introduced me to a man at the convenience store on my block who gives me directions and free cokes. Colgate is painted really big on the side of the store so we call it the Colgate store even though they don’t sell toothpaste.
I am even making friends with the people who sit on the same street corners every day. The guys in front of the Colgate store call out “Hey Shorty” when I walk by. The guys in front of my office call me Blondie, and I’m making friends with the banana and mango vendors who are parked on my walk to work. School girls call out to me about my clothes and ask where my dress is from or what brand of shoes I am wearing.
I live on the second floor of a house which has been divided into 4 apartments. Adele is a med student from Toronto taking his exams so we don’t see him much. Michael is 20 years old from Minnesota; he is working for a nonprofit playing with kids for the summer. And then there is my angel Kolene, she is older, but told me she had just been watching TV alone for 2 months until I moved in. Michael got here a few days after me and asked “What do you eat here? The food is so expensive” I told him Kolene has been sharing her meals with me. He asked if she would cook for him too if paid her. She refuses money so I told Michael we have to start sharing. So last night we had a potluck, I made veggies and bruschetta. Kolene fried flying fish and shared fresh mangos and pineapple. And well, Michael burned us some rice. Its kind of like we are misfits, we don’t have much in common, but after dinner we played Family Feud and it was so much fun I forgot to watch True Blood.
An interesting thing has been people’s perceptions about America. I came into the office Monday even though my “boss” will be out of town for a while, and find that two of my coworkers spend their days obsessing about the World Cup (which I understand) and the Lakers (which I don’t). They get in shouting matches about Kobe Bryant like nothing I’ve ever seen before- then look at me like I must be a zombie for not caring what is going on with the playoffs. One evening Kolene and I were out and a guy from the island came up and asked me where I was from. I said the US and he said “Duh, what state.” I said Arkansas and he said “Arkansas doesn’t even have a professional football team or a professional basketball team!” and walked away. I guess that’s a good way to discourage getting hit on. My favorite story was the teenager who was talking to me in the Antigua airport. We talked about the US and he said he had never been, but when I said I was from the south he immediately said in his best southern accent, “Hey yall, how yall doin?” I also made friends with two German guys who I sat by on the plane and then ran into at the beach. One of the first things they said to me was about the tragedy at Albert Pike. I couldn’t believe how well they had been keeping up with every little detail of the tragedy even though they were on vacation, and had never even been near Arkansas. It was really kind.
Everyone here loves Obama. My coworker wears a silver chain with an Obama dogtag on it. The waiter at a restaurant one night had a holograph of Obama on his beltbuckle, which I’ll admit, was pretty cool. Even the lady with who I shared a taxi on the way from the airport said she loves Obama, but that he was the US’s second black president, after to Bill Clinton! So I told her I was a student at the Clinton School and we became best friends.
Everyone I have been introduced to has been extremely nice and helpful and friendly. My landlord is an absolute doll; she wears a giant straw hat and brings us mangos from her tree. She introduced me to a man at the convenience store on my block who gives me directions and free cokes. Colgate is painted really big on the side of the store so we call it the Colgate store even though they don’t sell toothpaste.
I am even making friends with the people who sit on the same street corners every day. The guys in front of the Colgate store call out “Hey Shorty” when I walk by. The guys in front of my office call me Blondie, and I’m making friends with the banana and mango vendors who are parked on my walk to work. School girls call out to me about my clothes and ask where my dress is from or what brand of shoes I am wearing.
I live on the second floor of a house which has been divided into 4 apartments. Adele is a med student from Toronto taking his exams so we don’t see him much. Michael is 20 years old from Minnesota; he is working for a nonprofit playing with kids for the summer. And then there is my angel Kolene, she is older, but told me she had just been watching TV alone for 2 months until I moved in. Michael got here a few days after me and asked “What do you eat here? The food is so expensive” I told him Kolene has been sharing her meals with me. He asked if she would cook for him too if paid her. She refuses money so I told Michael we have to start sharing. So last night we had a potluck, I made veggies and bruschetta. Kolene fried flying fish and shared fresh mangos and pineapple. And well, Michael burned us some rice. Its kind of like we are misfits, we don’t have much in common, but after dinner we played Family Feud and it was so much fun I forgot to watch True Blood.
An interesting thing has been people’s perceptions about America. I came into the office Monday even though my “boss” will be out of town for a while, and find that two of my coworkers spend their days obsessing about the World Cup (which I understand) and the Lakers (which I don’t). They get in shouting matches about Kobe Bryant like nothing I’ve ever seen before- then look at me like I must be a zombie for not caring what is going on with the playoffs. One evening Kolene and I were out and a guy from the island came up and asked me where I was from. I said the US and he said “Duh, what state.” I said Arkansas and he said “Arkansas doesn’t even have a professional football team or a professional basketball team!” and walked away. I guess that’s a good way to discourage getting hit on. My favorite story was the teenager who was talking to me in the Antigua airport. We talked about the US and he said he had never been, but when I said I was from the south he immediately said in his best southern accent, “Hey yall, how yall doin?” I also made friends with two German guys who I sat by on the plane and then ran into at the beach. One of the first things they said to me was about the tragedy at Albert Pike. I couldn’t believe how well they had been keeping up with every little detail of the tragedy even though they were on vacation, and had never even been near Arkansas. It was really kind.
Everyone here loves Obama. My coworker wears a silver chain with an Obama dogtag on it. The waiter at a restaurant one night had a holograph of Obama on his beltbuckle, which I’ll admit, was pretty cool. Even the lady with who I shared a taxi on the way from the airport said she loves Obama, but that he was the US’s second black president, after to Bill Clinton! So I told her I was a student at the Clinton School and we became best friends.
My Apartment
Open the door, washing machine on the left, behind the washing machine is a kitchenette and a baby fridge. Walk about 5 steps forward and my twin bed is under the window and there is a TV and a vanity to the right. The bathroom is in between the kitchen and the bed. All clean, very decent, something like I would have seen in DC or New York, no big deal. I love it. Landlord said “hot water, air conditioned, internet, tv, just like America.” Cool.
This is what has happened with the apartment so far- I am not complaining, because I know more people live in far worse conditions, and some of my classmates live in huts with strangers, I’m just sharing my luck. Ps. Kolene is my neighbor, she is from St. Vincent which is also in the Caribbean so she doesn’t know any Dominicans. She has lived in the states and cooks me supper every night. I LOVE HER.
Washing machine- flooded first time I used it. I came in from my bus experience and wanted to wash my clothes so I started the load and started watching a Clint Eastwood movie and when the movie was over I set my feet down into two inches of standing water. The landlord said “You were supposed to put the drain pipe in the sink.” There was no drain pipe. Took two men three hours to fix it. There is no way that was my fault. What probably was my fault was sweeping the water out onto the deck until my basement neighbor came up yelling at me that I was flooding her house.
AC- costs a few dollars a day (you have to load on a card and enter digits into a machine) so I bought a fan. Fans are more economical, and I thought the sound would drown out the roosters crowing all day long and the voodoo man who I hear chanting in the next apartment over. Plugged it in and blew out all the electricity. I went and got Kolene and she said she couldn’t fix it, but together we walked and got Barry, the electrician from across the street. He came and took the fuse from the refrigerator to fix the fan, flipped the breakers back and said he would come the next day to fix the fridge. (He still has not been back hence I use the fridge as an ironing board.) In the Caribbean they have plugs that have three giant prongs, well the fan had two giant prongs. Wanna know what I did wrong? I didn’t put a safety pin or a key in the third prong in the outlet! Now does that sound like something we all learned on day one Never to do? Totally not my fault.
TV- the landlord turned it on for me the first time and I wasn’t really watching what she did. So after all the electricity went out and Barry fixed it all I thought I’d watch some TV but it wouldn’t turn on. I went and got Kolene. She can’t turn it on. I walk over to see Barry and he says if the TV is blown we are really in trouble because they are so hard to get and expensive here… he tells me to turn the TV on, wait a few seconds, and then start flipping channels. That works.
Hot water- back when I wasn’t running the air conditioner and didn’t have a fan it was so hot I didn’t want to take a hot shower. Now that I have a fan and am actually going into work in the mornings I would like a decently warm shower… so the first morning I asked my neighbor Kolene how to get hot water and she said, flip the switch before you get in. Monday- flipped the switch and jumped in the shower. No hot water. Tuesday, woke up, flipped the switch, brushed my teeth, turned on the TV, still no hot water. This morning I set my alarm for 5 a.m., flipped the switch, went back to sleep until 7. Got up, and got in the shower, still no hot water.
I’m gonna ask Barry to fix my refrigerator when he comes to fix the hot water heater. And I just know the internet is going next.
This is what has happened with the apartment so far- I am not complaining, because I know more people live in far worse conditions, and some of my classmates live in huts with strangers, I’m just sharing my luck. Ps. Kolene is my neighbor, she is from St. Vincent which is also in the Caribbean so she doesn’t know any Dominicans. She has lived in the states and cooks me supper every night. I LOVE HER.
Washing machine- flooded first time I used it. I came in from my bus experience and wanted to wash my clothes so I started the load and started watching a Clint Eastwood movie and when the movie was over I set my feet down into two inches of standing water. The landlord said “You were supposed to put the drain pipe in the sink.” There was no drain pipe. Took two men three hours to fix it. There is no way that was my fault. What probably was my fault was sweeping the water out onto the deck until my basement neighbor came up yelling at me that I was flooding her house.
AC- costs a few dollars a day (you have to load on a card and enter digits into a machine) so I bought a fan. Fans are more economical, and I thought the sound would drown out the roosters crowing all day long and the voodoo man who I hear chanting in the next apartment over. Plugged it in and blew out all the electricity. I went and got Kolene and she said she couldn’t fix it, but together we walked and got Barry, the electrician from across the street. He came and took the fuse from the refrigerator to fix the fan, flipped the breakers back and said he would come the next day to fix the fridge. (He still has not been back hence I use the fridge as an ironing board.) In the Caribbean they have plugs that have three giant prongs, well the fan had two giant prongs. Wanna know what I did wrong? I didn’t put a safety pin or a key in the third prong in the outlet! Now does that sound like something we all learned on day one Never to do? Totally not my fault.
TV- the landlord turned it on for me the first time and I wasn’t really watching what she did. So after all the electricity went out and Barry fixed it all I thought I’d watch some TV but it wouldn’t turn on. I went and got Kolene. She can’t turn it on. I walk over to see Barry and he says if the TV is blown we are really in trouble because they are so hard to get and expensive here… he tells me to turn the TV on, wait a few seconds, and then start flipping channels. That works.
Hot water- back when I wasn’t running the air conditioner and didn’t have a fan it was so hot I didn’t want to take a hot shower. Now that I have a fan and am actually going into work in the mornings I would like a decently warm shower… so the first morning I asked my neighbor Kolene how to get hot water and she said, flip the switch before you get in. Monday- flipped the switch and jumped in the shower. No hot water. Tuesday, woke up, flipped the switch, brushed my teeth, turned on the TV, still no hot water. This morning I set my alarm for 5 a.m., flipped the switch, went back to sleep until 7. Got up, and got in the shower, still no hot water.
I’m gonna ask Barry to fix my refrigerator when he comes to fix the hot water heater. And I just know the internet is going next.
Bus Ride
I’m in Dominica! I’ve been here since Friday, a lot has happened so far, but I think the craziest was definitely on my first day here.
Sarah and Judy did familiarize me with the busses in the Caribbean while in St. Lucia. (Think 15 passenger van with seats put in, stuffed full of people hanging out the windows that are rolled down, reggae music blaring. In Dominica, as opposed to St. Lucia, there aren’t even bus stops, or routes. Drivers just drive wherever they feel like turning, and stop whenever they feel like stopping.)
Imagine me on my first day, I’ve got my braided pigtails, water bottle, gigantic sunglasses, and I’m going to see the ocean. I hail a bus, ask him if he is going to the area I want to go and climb in after a lady exits. As I sit down the lady is paying for her fare and she says to me, “Don’t sit there the seat is wet” and we drive away. Its rainy season, we are by the ocean, in the most humid place in the world- everything is wet, all the time, and I couldn’t even tell it was wet because I was already covered with sweat but I said to the driver inquisitively “The seat is wet?”
The driver turns around and I get a good look at him, long dreads, crazy eyes, and he starts screaming bloody murder “You pissed in my seat?! White Girl jump out of my bus, you can’t piss in my seat!” Mind you, we are going flying about 50 miles an hour on a one lane road with chickens and goats and children walking out into the street. The bus is loaded full of people, no one says a word. No one even acknowledges that this raging maniac is about to make me jump out of the bus. So he’s driving, turned around looking back at me screaming “I make you pay to clean the seat disgusting white girl! Jump out! JUMP OUT ” and in the middle of words he goes “BLAHHHHH” and shakes his head like Exorcist. Seriously, this goes on for a solid two minutes which is a long time for a maniac to be screaming at you. There are a thousand things going through my head, Do I curl up and tuck in my shoulder when I jump? Momma is going to be so mad at me for picking this island. Is there any way to prove that it wasn’t my pee?
Finally, he breaks out in the BIGGEST, grin, pearly white teeth and says, “Got ya.” Absolutely the most unfunny joke anyone ever played on me. And I probably sat in pee.
Sarah and Judy did familiarize me with the busses in the Caribbean while in St. Lucia. (Think 15 passenger van with seats put in, stuffed full of people hanging out the windows that are rolled down, reggae music blaring. In Dominica, as opposed to St. Lucia, there aren’t even bus stops, or routes. Drivers just drive wherever they feel like turning, and stop whenever they feel like stopping.)
Imagine me on my first day, I’ve got my braided pigtails, water bottle, gigantic sunglasses, and I’m going to see the ocean. I hail a bus, ask him if he is going to the area I want to go and climb in after a lady exits. As I sit down the lady is paying for her fare and she says to me, “Don’t sit there the seat is wet” and we drive away. Its rainy season, we are by the ocean, in the most humid place in the world- everything is wet, all the time, and I couldn’t even tell it was wet because I was already covered with sweat but I said to the driver inquisitively “The seat is wet?”
The driver turns around and I get a good look at him, long dreads, crazy eyes, and he starts screaming bloody murder “You pissed in my seat?! White Girl jump out of my bus, you can’t piss in my seat!” Mind you, we are going flying about 50 miles an hour on a one lane road with chickens and goats and children walking out into the street. The bus is loaded full of people, no one says a word. No one even acknowledges that this raging maniac is about to make me jump out of the bus. So he’s driving, turned around looking back at me screaming “I make you pay to clean the seat disgusting white girl! Jump out! JUMP OUT ” and in the middle of words he goes “BLAHHHHH” and shakes his head like Exorcist. Seriously, this goes on for a solid two minutes which is a long time for a maniac to be screaming at you. There are a thousand things going through my head, Do I curl up and tuck in my shoulder when I jump? Momma is going to be so mad at me for picking this island. Is there any way to prove that it wasn’t my pee?
Finally, he breaks out in the BIGGEST, grin, pearly white teeth and says, “Got ya.” Absolutely the most unfunny joke anyone ever played on me. And I probably sat in pee.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Halfway House
What I am about to say is very important. Someone once "Meow"ed at Judith Marie Watts.
Moving on. I am extremely grateful for the generosity of Judy and Sarah for letting me sleep on their sofa (really a bench with cushions), and eat their Pringles (almost the whole can), and wait with me at the Post Office while I mailed a Father's Day card (which I forgot to leave in AR). I got to St. Lucia yesterday afternoon and leave very early tomorrow for Dominica. A taxi driver met me at the airport with my name on a sign and answered 1,000 questions on our hour drive to the city Castries, as well as took a picture of me in the middle of a tropical storm. I called St. Lucia my "Halfway House" because girls took me on a very lovely walk through a cemetery and for a 60 mile an hour bus ride with 17 other people (the size of a church van)... experiencing St. Lucia with them is kinda like a stepping in a kiddy pool before I jump into the big scary Dominica deep end of the pool all by myself!
St. Lucia is really beautiful, my favorite things are the views of the homes painted all different colors on the steep mountainous hillsides. But honestly, its not all beaches and suntan oil here. These girls really have their IPSP together (and are really making me freak out about getting a late start on my project!) Today I sat in on two meetings in which my classmates talked about the hierarchy of needs of the people here and how the radio programs they are working on will change their attitudes and behaviors. SO great! We walked out of one meeting feeling like we just left a Social Change class!
Moving on. I am extremely grateful for the generosity of Judy and Sarah for letting me sleep on their sofa (really a bench with cushions), and eat their Pringles (almost the whole can), and wait with me at the Post Office while I mailed a Father's Day card (which I forgot to leave in AR). I got to St. Lucia yesterday afternoon and leave very early tomorrow for Dominica. A taxi driver met me at the airport with my name on a sign and answered 1,000 questions on our hour drive to the city Castries, as well as took a picture of me in the middle of a tropical storm. I called St. Lucia my "Halfway House" because girls took me on a very lovely walk through a cemetery and for a 60 mile an hour bus ride with 17 other people (the size of a church van)... experiencing St. Lucia with them is kinda like a stepping in a kiddy pool before I jump into the big scary Dominica deep end of the pool all by myself!
St. Lucia is really beautiful, my favorite things are the views of the homes painted all different colors on the steep mountainous hillsides. But honestly, its not all beaches and suntan oil here. These girls really have their IPSP together (and are really making me freak out about getting a late start on my project!) Today I sat in on two meetings in which my classmates talked about the hierarchy of needs of the people here and how the radio programs they are working on will change their attitudes and behaviors. SO great! We walked out of one meeting feeling like we just left a Social Change class!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Countdown
99% chance I am going to remove this post anyway, but since I just spent 10 minutes picking out the colors for my blog I thought I would write a little something about what’s been going on.
Countdown is 9 days from departure. My ‘To Do’ list consists of getting a PO Box and picking out a new camera for the trip, returning shoes to Dillard’s, and making sure all my bills are set up to automatic withdrawal (why I haven’t done that years ago I don’t know), and about a million other tiny things I have no idea how I will ever be completely READY to go. I need my Momma.
I’ve enjoyed perusing my classmates blogs as well- props to Dewi (are you a professional blogger??), Hallie (love the photos), Trena (awesome background!), Patrick and David and Ryan (YALL ARE SO FUNNY!) and Anna (“Things you take for granted”). Links to them all will come soon! Love to all!
Countdown is 9 days from departure. My ‘To Do’ list consists of getting a PO Box and picking out a new camera for the trip, returning shoes to Dillard’s, and making sure all my bills are set up to automatic withdrawal (why I haven’t done that years ago I don’t know), and about a million other tiny things I have no idea how I will ever be completely READY to go. I need my Momma.
I’ve enjoyed perusing my classmates blogs as well- props to Dewi (are you a professional blogger??), Hallie (love the photos), Trena (awesome background!), Patrick and David and Ryan (YALL ARE SO FUNNY!) and Anna (“Things you take for granted”). Links to them all will come soon! Love to all!
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