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.

Challenge!

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?

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!