Up Town Boy

That's what I was today. I needed to go to the Western Union office to pick up some money. We're hoping to be able to live cheap and make it through the whole month off what I picked up today. Dilian went with me to make sure I didn't get lost and save me a lot of time. I started off taking a number of pictures of Roseau for the folks back home.


In a few minutes we were at the Western Union office.


A little more walking took us down to the local market. I also got a picture of one of the ferries coming in.


Odd fact: people down here don't like you taking their picture. Apparently they don't want to end up on Facebook (and I'm not guessing, that's what they told me). So, ask before you start taking pictures. It's one of the few things they seem to be sensitive about. Either way, while we were down there we stopped for a coconut water. They're good and at just EC$2.00 they don't cost all that much.


I also took a picture of the KFC, just to let you guys see it. A Bites combo is EC$13.50/US5.05. Not too bad considering it comes with fries and a drink. A 20oz. Coke is EC$3.00 in Soufriere, just to put things in perspective.


I took a picture of the IGA sign and a picture of a local ice cream shop as well.


I asked if I could take a few pictures in an appliance store we went in and was given permission. They have appliances by GE, Frigidaire, Whirlpool, etc. They also have televisions, DVD players, computers, tablets, and so on.


As we were leaving I snapped one more shot of a beautiful old building by our bus stop.


Having walked through the town with more time I realized that my Mothers, Aunts and some of my Uncles would love going through Roseau. There are shops everywhere. There are markets to walk through, music playing on street corners here and there, and people selling food right cooked right on the roadside. It's a lot like any city, but with far less crime and far more character.

One other thing that we did while I was there was buy flour and sugar in bulk. I believe they are 25 pound bags. I paid EC$37.50/US$14.04 for the flour and EC$30.00/US$11.24 for the sugar. That's about US$0.56 a pound for the flour and US$0.45 a pound for the sugar. I don't remember what it was back home, but it seems like a good price to me. :)

Later in the day we pealed a fruit they call apricot. It's not what we call apricot back home, but it's taste is sort of similar. We dried a little in the oven and decided it would probably be better dried. We're going to try to get a few and see what we can do with them.


Once again we went for a sea bath. I took some pictures of the walk down there. I found that young Dominicans don't mind having their picture taken if you're going to put their picture on the internet. A few of them posed for me when they found out what I was doing.


I did take a few more down at the beach, including a shot of an empty claw I found on the bottom, half buried in the sand.


When we got home Rachel had dinner ready. It was chicken, potatoes, and noodles.


At the end of the day the kids got to Skype with Granny Yates and their pets.


I'm wrapping up early tonight. It's been a full day and we plan to go to the river tomorrow. I should say A river. There are like 300 here. Either way, I want to be well rested before that. I got started on this early so I could finish early. So, good night from Dominica!