One Week Wow

So, we've been in Dominica a week now. Already it's revealed a lot about me. I have within me the seemly incompatible desires to settle down and grow roots and wander the world in a gypsy caravan. I truely feel like a stranger in a strange land. Ironically, I don't feel that quite as strongly here as I did back in the US. Of course, I feel a lot more like a hot man that really wants his TV back than I ever did at home. It's a bit of a trade off. The weather here is wonderful (it's nothing that AC couldn't make pewrfect anyway), the people are great, and life is very relaxed. It's a good place to be.

Still, I miss my family and friends. Do I want to go back to the US? Yes and no. That is to say "Yes, I would like to go back to the US to visit everyone." and "No, I don't really want to move back to the US." What I now realize is that I really want the freedom to go where I want when I want. If I had a boat sitting out in the bay I would tell everyone "We'll come for a visit in August or September." and wouldn't really miss anyone. I mean, I have a phone right here that I spend hours a day on talking to this person or that. Me, Joey and Daryl still get on World of Tanks and play for hours. It's a lot like back home. It just bothers me that it will cost me around US$3,000 to go back and visit eveyone. I mean, I might be able to afford three or fours trips a year (especially with what I can save down here), but that's not really what I want.

Speaking of saving: I plan to go buy EC$100.00 of electricity today. We've spent about that much so far, so we're probably looking at around EC$400.00 a month in electricity. For those of you doing the math that's about US$150.00. When you consider the fact that in the US I paid between US$300.00 and US$400.00 a month that's not too bad. Also, if we get in the mountains we should be able to turn the fans off a lot more.


I also found out last night that we landed on the opposite side of the island than I thought we had. So, we didn't drive 15 miles in two hours, we drove around about 70% of the country in two hours. So, getting around isn't as bad as I thought. Still, the road between the main airport and Roseau needs some serious work. Or they could just improve canefield airport. Either way, if they want tourists coming in by airplane they need to make a change.


Once again the day has flown by. It's after 4PM now. Dilian dropped by to let me know that he and I can go talk to some people that may be willing to lease some houses to us soon. While he was here he decided to oversee Rachel making more Bakes. We liked it so much last night we decided to have it for lunch today. He and and DJ (his son) headed down to the sea a few mintues later, but came back just as some rain decided to hit us. He had to hang out here during some fairly heavy rain. Within about 30 or 45 minutes it cleared up and Dilian headed home. I had to trek up the hill to his house to borrow a large pot. The Bellots are planning to join us for dinner tonight. We're having beef stew. That's something new for them :)


Someone just arrived at the door delivering a loaf of bread I had ordered last week.

I had forgotten all about it. It's beautiful fresh made bread. But at EC$8.00 a loaf I think it will be the last one I get. Changing subjects, it's been raining off and on all day really. I took a few pictures of the clouds.


Speaking of chaning the subject: They say you don't need hot water to bathe in Soufriere. That is a fact. I can't think of a single US citizen that could spend all day here and then not feel up to a cold shower. Why do I mention this? Well, I also forgot to ask if the house we were leasing had hot water. Ironically, it does. So we have plenty of hot water that we don't need, but none of the cool air we do. Well, really we still need hot water for washing and what not, but we DO NOT need hot showers. Either way, that has nothing to do with today. It's just something I've been thinking about, lol.

Later in the day Dilian and I went house hunting a bit. I'm not sure we've found anything that's really "us", but we might have. We have to check into it and keep looking. The Bellots did come over for dinner. They had beef stew and Dilian and Josian each tried an olive. The results: Beef Stew, Yes. Olives, NO! They seemed to find it hard to believe that I actually like to eat them :)


Either way, it been a long day and once again I didn't get as much done as I wanted. Ah, well. Thank God tomorrow is another day!