Dominica #1

Sunday, January 16, 2011
Last night we had a pre port meeting for Dominica. The doctors of the ship did a presentation that was so cute and fun. Among other things they told us not to get bit, not to get hit, not to do it, not to get lit and not to eat shit. Of course lots of mosquitoes are here and they could pass on some diseases to us. The cars drive on the other side of the road so it is easy to get hit by a car if you don’t look in the right direction when crossing the street. The college students have to be reminded not to do it although I’m sure plenty of them are. And rum is the drink of choice around here and the students have to be reminded to keep sober and remember what they are doing. And last of all we need to remember food on the street may not be safe to eat and the water may not be safe either. They also told us to wear a total body condom but to go out and have a great time. They are really trying to impress upon the students how important it is to be safe. Being this is our first port they are really stressing safety.

We visited a Carib Indian village today. This Indian village gets 95% of their food from the rain forest. The last of the Carib Indians live on this island. They were kicked off the other islands starting at St. Kits and then all of the islands going south from there until they arrived in Dominica. The village we visited had 84 inhabitants of which 33 were children. They live very primitively but seemed to be happy people. Carol did such a good job telling about the Carib Indians that I’m not going to write anymore about them.

The children on this island begin going to preschool when they are three years old then on to primary and high school. All the children wear uniforms to school and are required to be in school every day. If a child isn’t in school for a certain period of time someone will come to the home to find out why they aren’t in school. They need a note from the doctor if they miss because of illness.