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.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
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.
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.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
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.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
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
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
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.
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.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
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.
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.
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