A Tourist for the weekend

This weekend in Dominica had many people excited, it was another "holiday" coming up. Sunday was the first time an international team would come into Dominica's cricket stadium. The games were played on Sunday and Tuesday; West Indies vs. Bangladesh. The volunteers and I took the opportunity to learn more about the game of cricket and spend some time together to reconnect. Saturday most of us took the opportunity to go whale watching. Unfortunately we did not see any whales! However the number of dolphins we witnessed was amazing. It is like a playground for them out in the water and as soon as the boat was near them they swam right along with us. We turned around several times to "play" with them. The views of the island were spectacular and we got to see the entire west coast on our 3 hours on the water.

The Cricket match was a great experience, interacting with the locals and learning more about the game. We took the "grounds" tickets in which we were on the lawn giving us the chance to wander and mingle. There was a band made up of about 5 men playing the drums and 'trumpet' (a bike horn hooked to PVC piping). The volunteers took their turns blowing the horn, banging on the drums or just dancing.

See it Live

Rain storm at my home

Solid Day

Today has been quite a fun and successful day. I spent the morning cleaning my home preparing for an afternoon party for the young children in my village. Note: I bought a thermometer and the temperature at 8am was 94degrees. My landlord's niece visited me a few times to look at the decorations and check out what I was baking. Mid-morning I walked up the road with her to buy some chicken for her "auntie". It's always a good feeling when I make it out of my house and up the road (meaning, walking up at least half of the mountain-therefore seeing other community members).

Returning home I frosted and cut the cakes, made the FlavorAid punch and mini PB& J's. From there I was hanging balloons and setting up the craft table. Here I set coloring books, crayons, markers and paper, glitter pens, magazines, string, glue sticks, ruler, pens and pencils.
At 1/2 past 1pm I had my first party guest; my host brother. About the same time came a friend bringing along his 2 year old son. He got the music going and the majority of the children arrived at 1:45. They were such polite guests, they grabbed plates and cups and asked for snacks, cake and punch. After eating they were content coloring, playing dominoes and running around. At a few points of time I had atleast three children tapping me on different sides, "Julie, can I have some water?", "Miss, can I use the toilet", "Some cake please?"....
I had three helpers, a "DJ" and two high school girls tending to the craft table. At the end of the two hours there was very little to clean up, the girls took care of markers and things and all of the food was gone, not a single crumb left. I immediately mopped the floor because there were at least three spills to my memory. Besides the pile of dishes in the sink, which I will get to later my house is already back to it's tidiness.

A CRAB! Really?

I was in my bathroom yesterday and heard a clicking sound. First I ignored it assuming it was something outside the window. But once it continued I quickly noticed two little pinchers trying to claw their way up my shower drain! Ugh. My friend took off the drain to try and get it out but it went back down eventually. I think I am safe now.

Kindergarten Field trip

Scott's Head is at the southern point of the island where the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean meet. This picture is showing the Caribbean Sea and it is very calm, as you can see.

Behind me is the Atlantic Ocean
The village of Scott's Head, from the division between the waters

View from the village of Gallion. A point of interest as a lookout. Some days you can see Martinique, but not at this particular time. It would be to the left as well (south)