We Are The Riders Of The Storm

OK, so the tropical storm's been hanging around a few days causing a little more rain and what have you, but nothing major. I've had some things I wanted to get taken care of in town for days and decided today was the day. Now, Dilian had warned me that it wasn't advisable to go up town during a storm, but as I climbed into the bus the morning the shining sun and blue sky made me think we didn't have anything to worry about.

Yes, I know that the weather can change in a heartbeat, but the general consensus seemed to be that everything was fine. Buses were departing from Soufriere just minutes apart. Everything seemed perfectly normal. Before we got to Roseau it began to rain a bit, but it was nothing special. We kept talking about going home as we went from one place to another. However, the storm never seemed bad enough to be worth going back early over.

First we stopped in Western Union to pick up a bit of funding. The internet was down and we had to wait about 20 minutes before they could take care of us.


From there we went to find out about buying ferry tickets. Isaac was very good as he waited on Daddy to finish his business.


I found out that you can get opened ended tickets that last for a year for just over US$100.00 per adult and less for children. I could have saved a LOT of money had I known that a few months ago. Still, at least now I know. There's a lot of family that wants to head this way. Now I can help them get here cheaper :)

After we found out about the ticket prices we headed for the ministry building.


As you can see they have a nice coy pond there :)

We found out that we don't need to file for an extension until about two days before our departure date, so that was also good news. From the ministry building we went to Flossie's and bought another quarter bag of flour and sugar. Once that was done we headed for the bus stop. We had gotten what we needed to do done quickly and were walking through the rain looking forward to climbing on the bus home.

It was when we reached the bus stop that we found out why you shouldn't go to town in a storm. There wasn't a single bus there. Normally, at the Soufriere bus stop there is one bus loading up and at least three waiting to load up. When we got there today the only thing we found waiting was a group of people looking for a ride.

After a few minutes a man passed by saying that three houses in Soufriere had their roofs blown off by a sudden increase in the storm. We had left Benjamin in charge watching four of our other children and a severe storm had hit while we were gone. We had no phone so we couldn't call and had no idea where our bus was. Still, Isaac made the most of it and ate a few bananas while we waited.


After close to half an hour a bus from Point Michel showed up offering to take us up. Needless to say we all packed in and I thanked God we were on our way home. However, when we reached Point Michel we had to unload. There was a problem with the road and we were going to have to wait on another bus. Rachel and I started to walk (along with a number of other locals), but were stopped. The people in Point Michel told us there had been some rocks dropping from the hills and that it was no place to be taking children.

We were led back in town and invited in by a very nice woman (I didn't catch her name). She let us use the phone and we managed to get in touch with Josian. She had already called Ben and found out that all the kids were fine. Needless to say I thanked God again.

After maybe fifteen minutes another bus showed up and the locals made it clear that it was going to take us up. We had children with us and “babies” get precedence here. We were packed (and I mean that) into a bus (there were probably 25 of us in it) and we headed for Soufriere. We passed downed tress and rocks laying in the road. At one point they had to stop and the driver, along with one of the passengers, hacked at a fallen tree with a machete until they managed to move it out of the road. Once we hit a large rock and had to back up to dislodge it from under the bus. All things considered it was an interesting drive.

Still, in roughly twenty minutes more we were walking through the door thanking the Lord that we had made it home. The lesson has been learned. I don't go out in storm warnings anymore. At least not until I've got my own car, lol.

As soon as I walked in the house I knew something was wrong. Ben was sitting at the table with Caleb playing cards. It took my mind a nanosecond to jump to a conclusion. “Is the power out?” I asked Ben. “Yes, Sir.” he replied, glancing up from his cards.

That put an end to work for the day. We also couldn't go very far from the house for obvious reasons. I did walk down to the mini-mart to try to get a few things. It turned out they were closed, but it did give me a chance to get some pictures of the storm clouds and storm damage.


Once I got back I started baking bread. I mixed up the starter and then decided to go take a nap. I figured on the off chance that the power came back on there would be some things I wanted to do before I went to bed. Rachel joined me.

As we slept the kids apparently did a pretty fair job of entertaining themselves. After I got up I got back to work on my bread, read the Bible a little, and walked back down to the mini-mart. They were still closed... Rachel took a few of the kids up to the Bellot's for a few minutes. Needless to say, she headed back before dark.

After the sun went down I read to them from the Bible a bit and then started telling them the story of Treasure Island. It's a story I know fairly well. Jim had just gotten to Squire Trelawney's when the power came back on. Caleb was actually disappointed. I told him not to worry about it and assured him we would probably end up without power again some time.

With the power back on I've been able to jump on and get my blog put up for the night. Obviously it's been a long day. So, good night from Dominica!