Hello from Dominica

August 18, 2010 

Hey Everyone!

Goat on the side of the road

  So it has been 8 days since I left good old CT for Dominica. Mom, Dad, Savannah and Jay have been here in Dominica with me and they left to go back home to CT today :-( so this is going to be my first email update on my life and experiences in Dominica. For those of you who do not know where Dominica is, it is south east of Puerto Rico. It is called the “nature island” and I can say that it is full of nature, the mountains are enormous and the roads lead in death defying turns up and down the mountains. Our car trips this week have been interesting to say the least, Dad drove the rental car and learned that Dominica drivers are fast drivers but they are very good drivers non the less. Oh and they drive on the left down here.

The people here are very nice, everyone says “ok not a problem” to most questions asked of them. They live an extremely different life than all of us. People walk around with machetes in their hands and items on their heads! Most people walk everywhere or try to get rides from taxis (busses with names on their windshield). Dominica is a rather poor place and there are a lot of shacks along the island. There are stray dogs running around, along with cows, bulls, goats, and chickens that are just hanging around. Jay actually made a friend with a bull he named Gamal, he made cow noises and Gamal would respond in very loud moos, lol. In Dominica EC is used and the translation from US dollars to EC is $1 US = $2.67 EC. Ross University is located in Portsmouth, Portsmouth is located in the North West portion of the island. Roseau is Dominica’s Capital and it is located in the South West about an hour and a half from Portsmouth.

View from the road to Roseau

Carib Territory basket shop

We visited Roseau while the family was on the island and it was a larger city, the cruise ships dock and they have stands with local goods and souvenirs to buy. We also went to the Carib Indian Territory for a tour of the only native Indian Reservation on Dominica.  At the reserve we took a tour and bought their traditional weaved baskets. We also went snorkeling as Dominica is said to be one of the top ten scuba diving sights in the world. Besides our visits to popular sites on the island we spent most of our days looking for places for me to live and getting all of my Ross stuff situated. It took a long while, finding me a place to live we looked at tons of apartments in different locations. Spoke with students who suggested different place but in the end I found a great place called McLawerence apartments. They are located right across the street from Ross Housing and close to the main road. Everyone helped me get my apartment to feel like home as much as it can. I still have some decorating to do. One thing about Dominica is there are lots of bugs ehh I’m not a fan but I’ve become very good with bug spray and making sure that there are never crumbs or food out. Lets just say that Dominica is HOT very very humid and hot. Right now is the rainy/hurricane season so it can rain at any point during the day. Oh the sand on Dominica is black because of the volcanic nature of the island, very neat! So I  think i bored you all enough. I miss you all and don’t start classes till September 6th, so I’ll be here all alone just around till then. I will be on skype often my username is: saucesteph. I also will be checking my email so feel free to email. Again Miss and love you all. Hope all is well in the USA, keep me posted on life. 

Till next time.....