Handing Over Bus Ceremony

My friends who stuck with me at the big event

The cutting of the ribbon!

Secondary students performed a dance before the PM spoke

Prime Minister speaking at ceremony

Tuesday

Today started out like any other “school attachment” day. I was up and ready for my school observation. I walked up the road two minutes and reached the primary school I was assigned to for the day. School is set to begin at 8am so I was there at 7:45 and no one in sight. By the top of the hour four grade one students had joined me, and more trickled in over the next fifteen minutes.

The teacher arrived at 20 past the hour and class began. However only five students were present in the classroom I was observing. Finally at 8:45 the entire class of nine students were in their seats and engaged in the number lesson. There is a small piece of grass in the school yard which has been taken up almost completely by a huge water drum. Therefore recess consisted of running around it, standing around eating snacks and hanging on my back, arms and legs. The students even argued to hold my hand and I was the cause of a few “close call” fights. The afternoon I attended the classroom next door to oberve grade one. These students were very energetic and talkative. They were never completely quiet for the teacher to do his lesson, it was frustrating to see. The students got up and wandered, went to the bathroom and just found anything to do, other than the work. It is amazing to compare the US classroom and Dominican classroom. When time came to go I was ready, I made my way home and prepared an egg and cheese sandwich. Only a couple hours later my host mother made me a large meal of fish, dasheen and plantains, and of course her homemade grapefruit juice. I was stuffed.
I went to my room to start on the pile of homework I had. But not shortly after my host mother said there were girls outside waiting to go for a walk with me. I couldn’t let them down. These were the girls from the school I was at in the morning. We walked down the road to where I will be living. The lady who lives about is the kindergarten teacher so she knew all the girls. I talked with her for some time about renting from her and she informed me on some useful information. We sat on the porch overlooking the mountains and the sea. Her brother and friends were playing a game of cricket in the road the school girls were running around building a fort and picking guavas from the tree. We started a game of catch with a half inflated soccer (‘football’) ball and lasted about an hour. We were refreshed with ice pops* from the lady down the road. The sun was setting so we make the walk home. I made the mistake of lifting one girl on my back because as soon as I put her down the next girl was in line. I carried four out of the five girls up and down the hills getting my workout for the day.

*Ice pops: coconut and other ingredients poured into a plastic baggie, tied on top and frozen. To eat it bite a bottom corner and suck out juice and ice.

Down by the bay .. and other things

After leaving the primary school on Tuesday I walked the 40minutes back to the village with about 20 students. They circled around me, held my hands, saying my name and telling me stories of their community, families and anything that came to their mind. Getting an “in” with the children seems to be very beneficial; a couple of them wanted me to meet their mothers or grandmothers (there are many single/women-lead households). There was an adorable little second grader who held my hand the entire time only saying a few words. But to my right was a boisterous fifth grader who said “Julie” anytime my attention seemed to stray from her. She was interested in showing me around the village when we returned. She immediately took me to meet her mother, brothers and sisters. She then informed me we could take our walk at 3pm giving me time to eat and bathe. “I’ll be waiting for you by the school, we can go at 3:00, 2:30 or 3:00, and whenever you pass by we’ll go.” I met her at 3 with my two host brothers and her first statement was, “I was startin’ to worry” (So adorable.)-although this surprised me because everyone else I have met has been so lenient on time, hard to believe a fifth grader was giving me a hard time. We took our walk and she showed me areas of the village I didn’t know existed, she had the scoop on everyone and everything in town! We reached a steep hill of bright red dirt which we climbed and found we stood about 200 feet over the water. I could see the tiny houses of the village sporadically placed in the mountainside and the entire community line along the coast. My tour continued and stopped at a cricket field that is rarely used because it is not in very good shape; I was in shock, and excited, to see the first flat piece of land in the village. We walked further down the mountain to the bay where the waves crash against enormous rocks and there was a tiny waterfall leading to a stream draining into the Atlantic. It was breathtaking. I turned back to see the sun streaming through the leaves on the coconut trees*. We began our hike up the river and away from the ocean. My new friend took a swim at the base of the river where the water flowing down had formed a small pool. She used a broken bamboo stick as a flotation; similar to a noodle in the states. I intended on putting my feet in but immediately slid down the rock to completely dip my right leg in the water. We sat there for awhile and then walked for another 45minutes up the river where the three kids worked hard at catching crayfish. One of my “brothers” shoved them in his pocket when he caught it with intentions of cooking them when we returned home. We finally made our way home wet, dirty and tired.

*I have come to learn that coconut trees and palm trees are different; obviously one bears fruit while the other does not, they are similar in look but have a few of their own distinct features.

(I didn't have my camera but will return there and take lots of photos for you all to see!)

Swimming in the Ocean

Beach I found on my day of shadowing & my new fisherman friend who wanted me to take his picture on his boat.

Me and Lili swimming in the Atlantic.

Island time and (lack of) schedule

Today was a great test of my patience and check up on adjustment to island time. Let me break down the day for you. I had planned on leaving my village by 6:30 to reach town between 7:45 and 8am. That way I could sit in the café, check my emails and relax. Dominica had other plans for me.
I hopped on the first bus leaving the village, this was not the bus to town. Getting a better understanding of the bus system I figured it was okay because I’d just get off and wait for the other bus just 20 minutes behind mine, as it passed through this new village I was waiting in. The bus driver told me where to stand to be able to get a lift. I stood patiently by the snack bar and talked to some locals. Within five minutes there was a vehicle heading to town and I hopped in. This was good news, I may even arrive to town earlier than I thought! After about 20 minutes of driving before we make our left hand turn towards the city we see a bulldozer blocking the road. We had to go the long way now. This added about 30 minutes to the ride. Lucky for me the driver is a tour guide – I saw lots of new sites and learned things about areas I’d never seen. We passed the longest river in Dominica, 11.3 miles.
At 8am, 1 hour and 50 minutes of travel time, I reached Roseau! I was dropped right at the door and went inside the café to do some work. Again, Dominica had other plans. The password for logging on in the café seemed to dislike my laptop, and only my laptop. I headed for the office.

Heading home. After sitting in training sessions for six hours it was time to go back to our villages. The last bus to my village leaves at 4pm so I left in time to reach the stop at 3:50. Well… the bus driver had decided to leave before I got there. I wandered around the market asking different bus drivers where they were heading, hoping to find another one from my village. The problem with where I live, is that that it’s a dead end. You can’t just hop on any bus and get off when you pass through, no sir. If you’re going to get there, everyone’s going there. Luckily having been here for almost two weeks I recognize some faces now. I linked up with a girl who was headed to my village and we squeeeeezed onto a bus going in our direction. Phew, I was on a bus, one step closer to home! Back on the road for another hour of windy driving through the mountains. When the bus reached its village my new friend and I paid our fare and got out. Our next mission was to find a ride to take us the last 8 miles of the trip. I have learned you can always count on a Dominican to pick you up. The drives are long and they seem to enjoy the company. We got in the gentlemans truck full of eggs and vegetables he was delivering to the local villages. He was a lively fellow, blasting good-feeling music and singing along, telling us about his chickens and asking us about our village. He went as far as he was going to when we got out and once again started heading home. The final stretch was a 40minute walk up hill (most of the way). I reached my house just as dark hit and I had been travelling for the past two hours and 40 minutes. If I had done nothing else during the day, that would have been enough for me to sleep well tonight.

Note: all of this information is written with a smile on my face. I understand the realities of the island, I am adjusting to the ways of transportation. Locals have done it all their lives so I’m doing my best to get by and reach my destinations (as much time as that may take).

A friday afternoon

Today I chose to take the bus home from town. My host mother has a friend who works in town which I can ride with but I know it’s a better way to meet people when I ride the bus. Boy, did I pick a fun day to ride! The 4 o’clock bus is the last bus out of the city on any day of the week, but Mondays and Fridays are the busiest. I got on the bus and waited until it was time to leave. There were others already on the bus and they greeted me with their casual, “y’all right?” and introduced me to others on the bus I had not met yet. I did recognize many faces and others recognized me since my new community is so small.
We began our trip out of town and stopped at the local gas station to fill up. We sat here for about 10 minutes while we waited for deisel to open up. In the mean time a couple gentlemen bought beers and further asked me why I wasn’t drinking. Luckily there was no pressure to drink they just continued on joking and having a good time. Another 15 minutes down the road and we made another quick stop when two men got out and relieved themselves on the side of the road. I couldn’t help but chuckle as I thought about the situation I was in and extreme difference from back home. We cruised along the pot-holed roads listening to caribbean music, chatting and laughing. The three men in front of me seemed to be the jokesters of the group and continuously poked and probed at everyone around them (me included). Still aways from the village we made another stop at a bar where these thirsty men bought more beverages and others relieved themselves. Kids stared at me and youth made conversation but overall I felt included – I was new and different. If only they knew how new and different this all was to me. even though I rarely have riden public transportation in the states I know they don’t make frequent stops for bathroom breaks and ‘beer runs’. It was the most exciting bus ride of my life (so far) … there’s a good chance I will have more like that!

My first week in Dominica

Eastern Caribbean

Peace Corps office

in Roseau. That table

is where we have spent

hours already in training

sesssions. It's a comfortable

little place.

This is downtown Roseau on one of our first tours of the city.

View from my host family house in my village and one of my first meals of fried plantain, rice and dasheen.

My laundry hanging out to dry. My family does have a washing machine but it only washes for 15 minutes, then the work starts. Afterwards I take it outside and rinse it a couple times in a bucket, then it sits in fabric softener for a minute then I finally hang it out to dry-mine stayed out over night. That night it rained.

My first friend in the community. She is in preschool and every day at noon when she gets out I hear her yelling, "Julie, Julie, Julie!". It's nice to have the company when everyone else is at school or work.

One more picture of Roseau just because it's so beautiful. This is along the water where the cruise ships come in. It is the most touristy area of the city. I took the early bus to "town" (thats what they refer to the city as). I was able to have some down time and bought a coffee at Rituals, very similar to a Starbucks.

Everything is going well here. My internet access is very limited. The weekend was nice, I went to church, a 2.5 hour service went home and handwashed my clothes! I will update more when I have time and post the pictures I have taken! the views I have are simply amazing. I wanted to let you all know I have not forgotten you :)