Dominican Events

Lately I have been adding a few random photos albums to the site and not really explaining what they are so I thought I would just do a quick recap of some of the events I have been attending so the photo make a bit more sense.

A few weeks ago we went on a tour of the Cabrits archaeology dig site, which is an 18th century British garrison called Fort Shirley. We meet Zach, a Fulbright student working on his dissertation at Fort Shirley and his assistant, a Dominican, Edward. They took us on an amazing hike/tour of the fort and the surrounding area where we saw all kinds of cool ruins and artifacts left behind when the fort was closed down and abandoned. They were mostly interested in the lives of the slaves and the houses they lived in, so that is where the majority of their research is being conducted.  It was a really great hike full of tons of cool info on the history of Dominica! And now we have two cool new friends to hang out with! If you want to know more history about Cabrits check out this web site: http://www.lennoxhonychurch.com/cabrits.cfm

Next we have Isidiore and the Cabrits Jazz Festival, which equals one big weekend full of crazy events. Last Monday was a holiday here in Dominica, Pentecostal Monday or Whit Monday. Not sure why its a holiday, but Dominicans really dont need much of an excuse to have a day off. And when there is a long weekend it makes the perfect time for festivals. We started the weekend off at the Isidiore Festival in Grandbay, a huge four-day celebration that included over 30 bands, a race around the village, lots of food and drinks, and many other great events. Im pretty sure Grandbay is one of the craziest villages here on the island! I was only able to make it through Saturday and I was exhausted after that! Then the next day we came back up to Portsmouth and Cabrits to go to the Cabrits Jazz Festival with our new friends Zach and Edward. The jazz fest was completely opposite Isidiore, people brought blanks and sat in the grass, had picnics and enjoyed the music.  It was more of a relaxing event. If I had to pick one of the two, I would say I enjoyed the Cabrits Jazz Festival more. Guess I just like the vibes of Portsmouth more, I got lucky that this is where I live or it might have something to do with our amazing APCD who placed us in our villages that fit us all perfectly!

After that we have the Government Unity Walk. This one was a bit of a surprise for me, I show up at work the other day in my business casual cloths ready to work in the office, but when I got there the clerks where in hiking gear closing up the office! I guess they forgot to tell me about the walk so I ran home and changed as fast as I could. I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. We ended up walk/driving from Portsmouth to Marigot (about 25 miles) then Marigot to Castle Bruce (another 8 miles). Now dont get me wrong we did drive some of the way so I didnt walk all that, I think I would be dead now if we had, cause walking in Dominica is more like hiking, not to mention we left at 9:30 and didnt get home till 7:30! But it was actually a really cool event. We walked through every town and stopped at the Town Councils office in each village and read a unity speech.  The event was three days long and by the end the local government reps and the local town council employees walked completely around Dominica and read the speech, we only participated the one day :)! Pretty neat idea I think and great exercise!

In the random photos album I added just a few photos of a cruise ship and a bookstore, pretty random I know, but its actually a ship that travels around the world brining knowledge, help and hope. Its a community of Christians that volunteer for two years to travel on this boat and not only tell people about God, but also to bring education books to schools, build houses, volunteer in the community, and has an on-board bookstore full of all kinds of books. Most of the other volunteers brought their school kids to the boat, but my school was closed this week so I just stopped in to see what it was like. I got a bit sick being on the boat, but it was neat to walk around the store and look at books, made me feel like I was back home in Barnes and Noble! However I dont really have the money to buy books, so I didnt go home with much, just a little gift for my babies at home!

And finally we have the cricket photos and videos! Oh man what a day! I dont even know where to begin first of all cricket is hug here on the island. Everyone loves to play, watch and talk about cricket. So when they found out a few months ago that the West Indies team was going to be playing South Africa here, lets just day I havent really had a hard time talking to new people cause you can always bring that up and they just cant stop talking about it! So all ten of us new volunteers decided to go and see what it was all about. Most of us bought matching T-Shirts and some braided their hair. We brought tons of food and drinks and had an amazing experience. We sat in the grounds (the cheap tickets) from 9:30 when the game began to 5:00 when the game ended. Yep it was that long, and they even took a break for lunch? Never heard of a sports game that takes a lunch break! We meet so many neat people and just really enjoyed ourselves. I still have no idea how cricket is played though and I was trying to learn too! Anyways WI ended losing  sad  but I put up a video that shows people during the game and after you would never know that they lost! Check it out!

Anyways that is it for now, just thought it would be helpful if I explained the photos a bit more! More to come Im sure!