The Abundance of Dominica

If you're a hunter / gatherer, Dominica is full of possibilities. Whether you're walking through the woods or through town, if you're aware, there is plenty of opportunity.

Alison finds watercress in a high mountain stream

Farmers don't mind if you help yourself to a piece of fruit

But is it OK to help yourself to someone's goat?
 I decide not to test this one. 

Plenty of artful treasures here

Keep a plastic bag handy because you never know when the fishermen will come in with a catch! 

We go right to the source at the Macoucherie Rum Factory - they still use water  power to squeeze the juice from the sugarcane

Flowers abound

Make sure to carry empty bottles in case you run into the coconut man

Hunting on the street for smoked chicken and grilled plantains

We let this guy go - for now.

Some Funny Quotations from our Conversations - By Alden

This trip, we have had a lot of funny moments! The funniest part about those moments are what we have said without realizing how funny it is until after it comes out of your mouth.

Here are some of our funnier moments:

Willow was explaining to Mom what she thought a word meant. Mom disagreed. Willow said: “I believe what I believe!”

After the hike around Fresh Water Lake, Addy (one of our friends from the village) and Willow just realized that the hike ended up in the same place as it started. They said: “OH MY GOSH! We’ve been tricked! This hike ends where it started!”

1. On the hike to Jacko’s Steps, where the former runaway slaves (called maroons) escaped to live in the woods with a larger community of other maroons, we were hiking on the edge of a large cliff (probably 200 feet up) Willow was dancing and singing at the top of her lungs. Mom said to Willow: “Keep track of your body or you’ll fall off the cliff!”

2. On the same hike, I was talking to my mom and I told her that I didn’t particularly like this hike. I quickly re-thought that and said: “Actually, I don’t really like any hike, I just do it for the water falls at the end.”
3. Still at Jacko Steps on the same cliff, I nudged Willow along because she was going very slowly. Willow said to me: “Alden, you don’t push people when you’re on a cliff!”  As I looked down 200 feet to my left, I could see that there was some wisdom in that comment! 

Library Reflections - By Alison

The down side of hunting for beach treasures is your eyes cannot simultaneously scan the horizon. In Dominica, however, the horizon sometimes finds you. “What are you looking for?” The guy making charcoal looks up from his work as I walk by him the other morning. I explain and he leaves his shovel and tells me he is going to help. “You need to return to Boston with a full plastic, man!” The horizon twists, and I have a partner in my quest. In the seven years I’ve been filling up baggies with beach finds, locals have observed my strange white person behaviors, smiled and waved as they see me in the mornings, and sometimes even offered marriage proposals. Never have I had any local offer to help.

Julian answers my questions about making charcoal, but we mostly walk in silence. He shows me how to look for the smoothest glass under the rocks at the end of the beach. Once we reach the far side, there is a woman I see some days who calls out to me. “I collect shells, too, and I want to give you these,” she empties the treasures into my bag. She smiles and contributes without asking. I return the smile and thank her.

Two years ago when we left St. Joseph Primary School, our book donations were up to a thousand for the assortment of books that made up a library that migrated in bins, depending on where there was space and time to use it. Last year, we built a shelf to hold over a thousand books. This month, we walked into the former classroom that when we last saw it, had books scattered in piles on the floor and a new, large, unpainted bookshelf. We could not believe what we saw. More shelving had been built, hundreds more books were neatly arranged on tables, the students had painted nearly every inch of the space in vibrant murals. We did not ask for help. It was given and the results overwhelmed us.

I never thought we’d get to a point in our work at the school where we could walk out of that library and pronounce our work “done.” Yet last week after organizing shelves and categorizing the books, we looked at each other and said just that. When multiple people contribute, the plastic baggie fills with treasure quickly.

Before arriving this year, we got word of another library project started by a local transplant to Mero. We donated three of our six barrels of books to her before realizing there wasn’t yet a physical structure to house them. “This is amazing,” Maureen says, “you’ve just tripled our inventory!” She tells us that she’s been building a house and has been too busy to open the library the last couple weeks, and we tell her we can do it for her. With a surprised smile, she accepts our help.

Twice a week we have helped catalog the new books and set out the bins for locals to browse. The magazines are popular with the older ladies who cannot read. The piles of picture books draw the younger kids. The girls’ local friends help us label the new books and we create a production line at the picnic table. Many hands help the baggie fill quickly.

Now, in our last week, we start to step back and watch as others take over what is needed. St. Joseph Primary will raise funds to build additional shelving and add carpeting. We find another friend in the village to open the Mero library on Thursdays and another to continue cataloguing the new books. As I walk the beach, I think about my tendency to look down while I am working. How many opportunities have I missed by not receiving help? I head out this morning and remind myself of the treasures on the horizon as well as in the sand, and I am grateful to so many for helping us fill the “plastic”.

Indian River Boat Trip- By Willow

We went to the Indian River and went on a rowboat with our tour guide, David. He was awesome and even made us little gifts out of palm leaves. We saw birds and a place where part of "Pirates of the Caribbean" was filmed. David said that he took Johnny Depp on his boat to get to the film locations every time they did scenes in the river.

We eventually ended up in a bar, and Alden and I had a Coca-Cola.

On the way back, we saw a heron eating a crawfish. Here are a couple pictures from the trip.

Trafalgar Falls Warm Springs

Alison captures the warm river that feeds into the Trafalgar River. This fumerole-heated river is a perfect hot tub temperature. The further downstream you go, the cooler the water becomes. Find the pool with the temp that suits you best...

Driving Scene through local town

Driving in Dominica is, for some, treated as a competitive sport. There's weaving around potholes, livestock, people and other cars (which often pull over to the side of the road suddenly with little warning). Check out the video below for a quick clip of a recent trip through one of the local villages.

Fun Facts about Dominica

Dominica’s original name is Wai’tukubuli which means tall is her body

Dominica is 29 miles long and 16 miles wide

Approximately 70,000 people live in Dominica

2/3 of the island is national park and protected as a World Heritage Site

Dominica’s coat of arms states “after God it is the land”

The majority of Dominicans are slave descendants brought here from West Africa

There is also an active community of native Dominicans, called Kalinago – they prefer not to be called “Carib” Indians, which means “cannibal”.

Everywhere you go you see people walking with machetes, also called cutlasses

There is a greater concentration of active volcanoes here than anywhere in the world

80% of the people here are Roman Catholic

English here sounds like African languages mixed with French creole. For example, “I love Dominica” translates to “Mwen enme Domnik”

We see lots of African traditions here including Carnival which means Masquerade

There are 195 recorded species of fern, 75 kinds of orchids, 50 kinds of butterflies and 176 species of birds!

Dominica’s landscape is very diverse: woodland, rainforest, microclimates, hot springs…

Endangered giant leatherback turtles lay eggs here every year

Dominica gets 60% of its power from hydroelectric

Swimming in waterfalls can be dangerous! Or "Irresponsible Parenting 101"

Hikes have no value if they don't have a waterfall to swim in, according to Alden. It's how we determine which hikes to bring the kids on with us. Longer hikes with no swimming possibilities: opportunities for me and Alison to do on our own. Shorter hikes with waterfalls and swimming possibilities: bring kids.

Sometimes we even bring friends of theirs from the village here, as we did recently when we headed overland to the other side of the island for a quick but very steep drop into a gorge with a beautiful carved-out cavern. You swim through the narrow gorge and can climb onto the rocks right next to the falls. For those interested in the element of danger, you can jump from the rocks into the frothing deluge, getting pushed down with the water that has dropped 10 feet from above.

All works great as long as you don't fight it. Swimming against it means remaining in a state of suspension whereas just "going with the flow" means getting pushed with the rest of the water and getting churned back to the surface within a few seconds. I watched Willow (who, like most children, prefers to think that danger is something that happens to other people) swim up to the froth and then get pushed down. As she tried to get back to the surface, she was moving against the force of the current. For what felt like an eternity for her but was probably closer to four of five seconds, the top of her head was all that was visible. I was able to quickly jump to her and pull her out of her suspended state.

Willow now refers to this experience as "the time I almost died".

Alison happened to be filming at the time and while she ironically began panning to the top of the falls while Willow was submerged, she pans back down just in time to capture my heroic rescue from Willow's near-death experience.

I think I was actually even more traumatized by the experience than Willow was.

Sharing - by Alden

In Dominica, many the kids have so little. But I have noticed that, no matter how much they have of something, they always share it.

One of our friends from school brought us to her house. She had a collection of Jumbi Eyes, a type of bead from a tree, that she had spent hours collecting. She took a few handfuls and put them in a bag for us. It made me notice how much we have at home and how little we share because we don’t appreciate the things we have.

Being in Dominica has reminded me realize how lucky I am.

Willow's notes from teaching

Teaching was fun!!!! We read a story to the third grade class called The Happy Lion and I led a discussion with the class. The next day, my mom and I wrote a play for the kids to do. We brought props for each part which was fun. One person was king and wore a Burger King crown. Six kids were the townspeople and they had food and shopping bags. Six people were the servants and they had cooking spoons, mops etc. The second grade class was the audience.

Although the kids did not memorize their lines for the play. They were pretty good at theirs roles. The play was supposed to teach the children to appreciate what they have. The play did not go as I expected it would because the children were talking most of the time. It made me know what teachers have to go through when kids don’t listen sometimes the kids pass notes to each other about the teacher. A couple boys in my sister’s class did that about my mom.

My mom told the class about the expression “The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side.” They didn’t know what that meant. After the play, I said, “FREEZE!” It worked and even the teacher froze. Then I asked the class some questions. I told them to take out a piece of paper and write about what makes you happy and what you appreciate. They had all kinds of ideas like birthday parties, their parents, siblings, cousins, sweets, books, tv and friends.

When I was teaching, I felt energetic and like I was making a difference in the class. I don’t think I would like to be a teacher though when I grow up because you have to deal with too many things and sometimes kids don’t pay attention. I would rather be a mom of two kids and a nanny for dogs like 101 Dalmations and have a lot of dogs. I would also like to be an artist because I am good at art now so I’ll be even better at art later.