Christmas in Dominica!

Where to begin... festivities began for me with an annual tradition of slaughtering a pig. My friends spent the Monday before Christmas searching the island for a pig for their tradition. (Not hunting but finding a place or person to buy it from). The following day at 5am I was awoken and pulled out of bed to join the event. There was a large fire blazing already. I went to the back yard to get the pig with a friend. The 200lb pig lay sleeping in the bushes. After awhile my friend got the pig up the hill and near the fire. The slaughtering itself was quick and quiet (a knife is stuck into the pig's heart)-it didn't squeal at all. From that they poured boiling water over the pig and shaved the black hair off entirely. Then it was cut open, cleaned and the meat was divided and given to friends and family members.

Christmas eve was a busy day in the city. The buses run non-stop, and for my village that is unheard of. It is an hour and a half drive and he usually makes one trip and stays for the day. The buses were consistently packed while people came down to finish their shopping. I went down to see the activity but was back home by the afternoon because it was just TOO TOO busy. The rest of the day was spent at my friend's house visiting with family that came in from neighboring islands. The night was full of eating and drinking. Carols are done... Caribbean style. Using a harmonica and a bamboo with ridges Dominicans sing their original Christmas carols.

Christmas day began with friends stopping by the house to exchange Christmas greetings. Gift exchanges is not common. Small gifts may be given between friends and some children get toys. I was able to ''Skype" home to see our traditional gift-opening morning but was beckoned back to my friend's house for lunch. The woman served a pumpkin, beef, potato and spices soup. It was fantastic, simple but able to to make in a big pot to feed the large numbers of visitors for the day! It is such a wonderful feeling of hospitality and enjoyment just relaxing and visiting. It was good to see because Dominicans work so hard all the time I think that is why I enjoyed the togetherness.

Christmas time is here...

My (Charlie Brown) Christmas tree. It is making a wonderful addition to my home. The kids think it is sooooo beautiful.

Note the Dominican fabric as the tree skirt!

Creole Music Festival

Every November around Independence time the island has Creole Music Festival. It is a weekend, 3 full nights of concerts. Bands and artists come in from all over the Caribbean and perform at the new Windsor Park stadium. The tickets were very expensive; you could by night by night or season tickets for all 3 nights. Outside the park is vendors of BBQ chicken, fries, cheeseburgers(!), bakes, juice, beer, and rum. The event started at 10pm each night and bands perform until the sun comes up. I attended Saturday night and left the park about 5am. Things seem to completely end at 7am. After Sunday nights concert folks left the stadium at 7am and headed straight to work. Tough people!

The week leading up to the event was 4 days (Mon-Thurs) of "Creole in the park". This was an afternoon/evening event in the Botanical Gardens. Vendors outlined the park and a stage made entertainment from local school dances to famous Caribbean bands.

Rosalie Hike

There is about a 2 mile trail just below my home leading to a beautiful beach and river. For the first time I made the hike! It took about 1hr and 15mins. The track was not bad just muddy from the rain, it is so wooded that apparently it is rarely a dry path.

BAMBOO!

This span will soon be a car-traveling road. The people have been asking for it for over 20 years now and finally it is in progress. It will be extremely beneficial and connect the village I live in to its neighboring village. As of right now if you want to drive to Rosalie you must drive about 1/2hour out of your way on the only road available. Here you can see the beginning of the project; it is estimated to take one year.

Independence celebration

The island of Dominica celebrates its Independence on November 3. The entire month consists of cultural events such as dancing, parades and music festivals. I was lucky enough to join my village during their weekend of semi finals in the dance competition. For three nights they traveled to different venues on the island to perform a variety of cultural dances. Each night was about 5 hours of dancing from high school age to adult age groups.

(Above) View from top of Cabrits national park (Below) Near entrance to dancing venue; This was the host of the third and final night of the semi final dance competition

Youth Beach CleanUp

The Found Bleau bay

Cleaning up branches, coconuts and trash to keep the bay nicer for swimming and liming

Burning our collected items.

Tropical storms are MESSY!

Where to start...
Yesterday I tried to go to town and waited at the bus stop for about an hour waiting for the weather to clear; heavy winds and rain. The bus driver called me to let me know he was not going, authorities advised to stay in and watch the weather. That night I experienced the worst storm ever. The sound of rain alone, woke me. A couple hours of lightning lighting up my house and thunder so loud it sounded like it was splitting my house in two. At some point I didn't know if it was the sound of thunder or lightning striking.


We attempted to go through but the water was rising quickly so we back tracked and parked in the ''junction'' of Castle Bruce with several other buses. After an hour or so of waiting we tried to go home, again. We got past one bridge and had one more to pass but it still was way to deep. (And now the rain started to fall again). Another half hour and we were all anxious to reach home. Two gentlemen, not from our bus, walked us through the river, basically. They walked just ahead of the bus to show how deep the water was. At one point it reached a man's waist. The bus driver continued slowly as a passenger got off terrified of driving through the deep waters. Slowly but surely we were driving through a ''river''. Water came in the bus a few inches, not reaching passengers because it is a large coaster bus so it stayed by the stairs of the door.


We made it! After 3 hours on the bus I had gone 6 miles from home and 6 miles back to reach home. There were other small landslides and a fallen tree taking down a power line.
I'll say it again... storms are messy!