Dominica!

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, dream, discover.
~Mark Twain

We just departed Roseau, Dominica last night. It was absolutely amazing! Right when we got off the boat we were convinced by a cab driver to go to Mero beach, one of Dominica’s black sand beaches. It was much more exhilarating than we were expecting. The roads are very narrow and very windy, and drivers swerve to avoid all the potholes…basically it was terrifying. But the driver was very nice, and gave us a lot of information about all of the towns we passed on the way. He told us the first rule you have to know is “drive on the left side, the right side is suicide”, which I heard a lot while I was there. Turns out when you get a cab in Dominica you are basically hiring a chauffeur for the day. Our driver, Martin, waited for us until we were done at the beach. We tried telling him he didn’t have to do that, but his response was “no, no, no, you are my responsibility now”. That really portrays the attitude of a lot of the people in Dominica: very friendly, very helpful, and very eager to teach us about their island. The beach was incredible and felt untouched! Dominica’s main import used to be bananas, but that industry is slowly declining, so Dominica is turning towards tourism. It is still fresh on the island, so there are no big resorts and the culture is still very much preserved. Therefore the beach was even more incredible than I could have hoped for. I ate some fresh bananas, which tasted like they were rolled in sugar (best banana I have ever had), and talked to some locals who were playing music and making jewelry out of coconuts. One of the guys has been growing his dreds out for 16 years! After playing with some local children in the water and watching pelicans swoop for fish, I jumped back into the cab with Martin and he took me to the boat where I met my snorkeling group. Champagne Reef is truly well named. Parts of it are like swimming in a glass of champagne. It’s beautiful and the feeling of so many bubbles tickling you is absolutely euphoric. The marine life was thriving, it was really nice to see a reef that hasn't bleached and been stepped all over.
    After snorkeling we were given some complementary rum punch. The rum was locally made, but the punch was not at all what I was expecting. It was very gingery, and very strong. Definitely tropical, but not fruity at all. Speaking of rum, a lot of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 was filmed in Dominica, and the locals are very proud of that. Our taxi driver was even an extra in one of the scenes! I learned a lot about their culture just from talking to people around the beach and in town. For example, English is the official language, but they also speak a creole and patois (a result of the tug-of-war between France and England before independence). I learned “Ça qu’a fête”, which means “how are you”, “Muella”, which means “good”, and “Ou belle!” which means “you are beautiful”. Independence was gained from England in 1978, but a hurricane devastated the island shortly after, which set them back as a nation quite a bit. Still, one woman told me “ We are all very happy. Dominica is the wettest island of the Caribbean, so we have fresh water and fresh fruit. We make go broke from time to time, but we never starve. We are lucky”. She also told me about the oldest woman of the island. She died when she was 128 years old. When I asked how she giggled and said… “Because she drank a lot of rum punch! She was never stressed and she was always smiling, that is the secret”. So there you have it: If you want to live to be 128, just drink a lot of rum punch!
    The government seems to be very helpful. If there is a single mother who is struggling, the government will appoint someone to help with the kids, and they will help with school expenses. Health care is free to everyone, and those who live to an old age do not have to pay for gas and other amenities. Women politicians are said to be the strong ones. Men are known to be pushover but the women have an “iron fist”. They are also paid better than the men, and play the biggest role in expanding Dominica as a nation. The first women Prime Minister (the “Iron Lady”) insisted on bringing cable to the island (even though most people didn't want it) because she said it was important for Dominicans to see how lucky they are. A lot of people live or run their businesses out of old shipping containers. It is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a very developed or wealthy nation, but they are the happiest people I have ever met. 
    The second day we took a trip around the rainforest to see the Emerald Pool and Trafalgar Falls. They were all absolutely breathtaking. It was pouring during the hike (imagine that, raining in a rainforest!), but it just made the falls twice as powerful. Right next to the falls are hot springs, so you can sit in the warm waters and still feel the mist from the falls. When we returned, Erica and I walked around Roseau for a few hours. Its fantastic, everyone is playing music, and there were a couple people even dancing in the streets. We had an amazing lunch at a small restaurant. I had chicken with “West Indies” sauce, spicy rice, and something that tasted very similar to taro. There was even dolphin on the menu, which surprised me quite a bit. It seemed to me that restaurants around there only had whatever the fishermen caught that morning, so I guess there are days where dolphin is available.
I loved every second of my time in Dominica, and I can’t wait to go back and really explore!
    The Atlantic is very, very rough. You get the feeling of free-falling every now and then, so a lot of people are getting sea sick. So far I am still doing OK, but the rough seas are going to take some getting used to! This morning’s global studies class was definitely worth mentioning. We had a guest lecturer talk about the foundation he created, called “Empowering Nepali Girls”. I was absolutely in tears the whole time, along with the rest of the class (even one of our resident “guidos” was sobbing into his shirt). He is a very passionate man who, about ten years ago, kind of stumbled upon this passion for saving young girls in Nepal from sex slavery, and he has been expanding his foundation ever since. He is very proud of the fact that him and his colleagues pay their own expenses when they travel to Nepal, and there is absolutely no overhead cost. They don't even have an office! I would encourage you all to at least look at the website (empowernepaligirls.org) and read up a little bit on the problem. It was probably one of the most influential 75 minutes of my life! Thank you all for all your support! =)


P.S. Sorry about the delayed blog posting. Slow and limited internet time is kind of forcing me to wait until we get to port to post anything!

 

The slide show is below! =)

Dominica Slideshow!