working at ALL for the last 24 hours, so I JUST got emails and now I
can post this...:)
After a fun first day and night of local bars and some
drinks in Dominica, I woke up bright and early to start day 2. Here on
the ship you are required to do two "Field Directed Programs" for each
class you are enrolled in. These "FDP's" usually pertain to your class
and are led by the professor…I think I said this in an earlier post
but seriously, talk about hand's-on learning. My FDP didn't start
until 11:30 so me and two other girls that were going to be on the FDP
walked into town.
The walk was beautiful, right along the water, and HOT.
Every single local we passed by on the way greeted us with a smile and
a "Hi, how are you?" We walked around town for a while and got some
fresh fruit from a fruit market. My friend Eshley is going to collect
local music from each country so we stopped and got her a CD of some
good old Dominican classic music. They speak English and Creole here,
so the music was in Creole which was cool to hear.
Then we got back to the ship ready to head to our FDP.
Dominica is one of the only places in the Caribbean that still has
indigenous people- here they are called the Karib-Indians. We got
picked up by a woman named Florence who was a Karib Indian. We drove
up the mountains to the inner parts of the island where there is only
rainforest. Our guide explained that Dominica is so environmentally
concerned that no one is allowed to build in the preserved inner parts
of the island, and if someone wants to they need to lay out a huge
proposal and very, very rarely is it approved. We got to our first
destination called Emerald pool which was a waterfall and pool inside
the rainforest. We got out of the bus and saw and walked to the trail.
There was a nice path laid out, but it was truly the only part of that
trail that had been touched. We walked through the rainforest and I
was in awe…it was exactly as you would imagine it looks like…I kept
thinking I was going to get to the end of the trail and find out that
I am actually in Disney world at it's newest rainforest attraction or
something. We got to the falls and it was one of the most beautiful
sites I had ever seen. The water was bright green and clear,
surrounded by untouched nature. I like to think that I have traveled a
good amount in my life, but I have never been in a place even remotely
like the rainforest in Dominica.
We then got back onto the bus to go to the Karib Indian
community. Having lived on the ship now, I'm pretty used to the
constant rocking and swaying, but the ride to this community was the
bumpiest most intense car ride I've ever been on. Not only were we
constantly being thrown from side to side of the car but every couple
minutes we would stop suddenly because the road was only big enough
for one car, so if another was coming in the other direction we had to
stop and go off to the side of the road.
We got there and were greeted by a man whose face looked
exactly as I imagined, but he was in levis and a nice red and while
striped polo. Our guide within the community was Florence's husband
and actually the former chief of all the Karib people. I couldn't stop
thinking that he was these people's Obama and he was just taking us on
a nice afternoon tour. These people live such a simple life…their
homes, and their clothes…but there was one thing that really stuck out
to me. When I think of a home with an ocean view on one side and
mountains on the other I think two things…it must cost a LOT of money
to be there, and if they have that kind of money, the house must be
beautiful. Well, here with the Karib people, like I said the homes
were so simple, but the views were AMAZING! It was refreshing to see
the lack of materialism in their world, the fact that these views
aren't worth paying tons of money. At first I thought "wow, they take
their beautiful home for granted", but that's not the case, this is
just the home they know, all that they know, and what may seem
materialistically important in our lives is not even relevant in theirs.
These people were so welcoming, we went to one woman's
home where she showed us how she weaves baskets. She weaved those ones
made of thin straw that you see in the markets in these countries that
sell for no more than a few dollars. I felt so sad to hear that she
works about two hours on each little basket and only makes a dollar or
two at most. I thought back to the market situated next to our port,
and how when I walked through I heard SASers bargaining. It's so easy
to bargain and want to save an extra buck, but when you see the face
of the person behind what you want to buy it's hard to want to bargain
any longer- I found myself feeling so guilty for this.
Once we were done touring we had some authentic snacks.
We were fed coconut candies, plantain, bananas, and a few other tasty
things. The people in this community were so nice. The thing I took
most from this Island was the people. The people were SO delightful
and happy. They were so incredibly open to foreigners and so excited
to share their love for their country.
I feel almost ignorant saying it now, but Dominica was
the port I was least excited for. Honestly, I knew nothing about the
island and did not think it would be anything too exciting. What blows
me away is HOW wrong I was. This place was so truly amazing. I think
to myself that if this was the port I was least excited for, and I was
that wrong, how much many more incredible experiences must lay before
me…the thought is truly overwhelming and equally exciting…I'm off to
see the world, next stop, BRAZIL!
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