Week 56 (delayed)

I've got an old post here that I never published (because I keep failing at uploading videos- someone help me please!). Look for an all new post later this week!

Yesterday (February 17th) was the Little Miss Grade 2 pageant at the Salisbury Primary School. As organizing beauty pageants are now a line item on my resume I was recruited to assist. I was envisioning something out of Tiaras & Toddlers.

Instead it was awesome.

The contestants were six 7-year-old girls; an ESL student, a rasta girl and a big-boned British-Dominican girl included. My highlight was Princess Sajah’s (her legal name) talent, she recited a poem about toiling in the Dominican soil, and the British girl singing “I am beautiful”.

The girl in red was expected to be the ringer (odds were 6 to 1 mangoes in her favor) as her mom owns a beauty shop AND she likes fashion but the British girl came from behind and claimed the title of "Little Miss Salisbury Primary School Grade 2".

Update: She's performing her duties wonderfully.

I've noticed you're all getting a bit rusty with your Dominican. Here's two good hints:

1. Replace "looking for" with "watching for".
Usage:
"I was watching for Erin's post about the gay men from California who were arrested in Dominica for buggery last week but she is never writing posts."

2. Use "next" for "another".
Usage:
"I'm not seeing it either. Miss Aireen must have got a next hobby. Probably learning to make delicious rum punch and explaining to people in Salisbury why she never told them San Francisco is the capital of sodomy before and they had to hear it on the radio 15 times a day for the past week."

Week Chee Chee

I badly needed to post anyhow but this post was inspired by my favorite on-again off-again neighbor- Chee Chee. Chee Chee wrote a hit calypso last year but was thrown back in jail before he could compete in the finals. His song was about a sookooyah (witch) peepeeing in his yard.

Chee Chee's most famous robbery was one he got away with. He walked into an electronics store in Roseau (the capital), picked up a boombox (circa 1999), turned it on and walked out of the store with the boombox on his shoulder.

Chee Chee was out of prison for Carnival this year and wrote another hit.
Chee Chee performing his new song on the street in Salisbury with a Sensai during Carnival warm-up. I have never again seen him in a shirt with buttons.

After getting into a fight in Salisbury he moved to town for awhile. He moved back this week. He appears to be staying with his aunt directly across the street from me, who has the fanciest house in the area and does not interact with us colonists, and spends the evenings (from about 9 pm to 1 am) screaming jibberish. There's no way to write emails when something this great is happening.

Chee Chee: YOU ALL HATING ME! BUT DIS MY GRANDMOTHERS DAUGHTERS HOUSE! YOU GRUDGING ME! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! DON"T COME THERE AN CHARGE MY FAMILY! YOU COME RIGHT DERE WITH A CUTLASS! SHES MY MOTHERS MOTHERS DAUGHTER! DOE BE GRUDGING! YOU ALL GRUDGING! RIGHT DEEEEEREEEEEEee!

(Chee Chee picks up a broom with no bristles and begins swinging it martial arts style) You're boss man a rapist! Dat Gangsta Robbery say!

You're modass! (modass is Dominican for Mother's A$$)

You're modass boy! You're family you know! BOY! I warning you! Blood! I warning you!

I must put the love away! I must be hard! I must be brave! I must keep on singing! I forgive you boy!

RAAAAA! AAAAAAAAAAAAH! RAAAAAAAAAA! RAAAAAAAAAA! (at this point his aunt came outside and started yelling at him for volaying (stealing) her broom)

Next time,

Week 58- Guest Bloggers

I'll be back in a couple days but for now I'm going to give you a taste of Dominica from my latest house guests/parents/guest bloggers.

Guest bloggers, Marilyn and John, checking our scene at the Melville Hall airport, leaving Dominica. We've been here for 2 weeks, sharing Erin's Peace Corps life and doing our best to free ourselves up on this beautiful island. We have many unforgettable moments to share with you all, so fix your favorite cocktail, relax yourselves and read on:

• Erin’s Boiling Lake Tour – a snack of rough cake and coconut water at Breakfast River (after 1 hour on the trail), a dip in a hot sulphur pool near the Valley of Desolation (2 hours) and a picnic overlooking Boiling Lake (3 hours and ½ way through), a swim in the icy waters of Titu Gorge (6 hours and the end of our hike) and then a long steamy soak at Screw’s Hot Sulphur Baths –with cold beer- as our reward for the adventure.
• Watching rain clouds blow over the mountains – they bring quick hard rain and then big bright rainbows that start in the mountains and end in the sea.

• John learning to drive like a Dominican – left side of the road, right side of the car, strategic horn blasts, no speed limits, stop signs or traffic lights
• Meeting Erin’s friends wherever we went on the island, and especially her Salisbury pals – rum & cokes & jokes with Velma and Norris, stopping at Ma Clem’s Buffalo Bills Bar everyday and sharing Erin’s homemade peanut punch with her our last day in Salisbury
• Staying overnight at Jungle Bay in our cottage on stilts in the forest – and Marilyn’s personal favorite – the outdoor shower overlooking the jungle and ocean. Sam, the Jungle Bay owner and Nancy, yoga instructor, took us on a brisk steep hike up Morne Paix Bouch, then a swim in the ocean side pool, a great shower and rum punch with dinner
• Snorkeling in the Caribbean at Scott’s Head Bay and Champagne Beach with indescribable fish and coral, underwater cliffs and geysers and iguanas playing in the woods
• Cooking with Erin and Jem was a Dominican food adventure – watching & sometimes helping with palau, christophene, fried plantains, fig pie, bakes with cheese, stewed chicken, dolphin fish (not flipper, mahi-mahi)
• Getting to know Jem and his family – mother (Marilyn!), father (Local) and nephew (MJ). Erin made a proper Dominican dinner for Jem’s family and then we had a wonderful Dominican dinner at their home
• Plenty of fun and hugs from the kids at Salisbury Primary School where Erin works- John was a guest reader and we both did some hands on science with them
• Dancing at Reggae Night in Portsmouth at Big Papas on a beautiful night (John did dance no matter what he says)

• Food- soft chocolate cake at the Riverside Café, Sharon’s fruit cake, ice pops, bbq chicken, roasted plantains
• Fluids- lime rum punch, peanut rum punch, coconut rum punch, sorrel juice with rum, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice with rum, rosemary infused rum & cokes (Norris’ specialty), Kabuli beer
• Our Last Day in Dominica Lunch right on the ocean, behind the market. a great Dominican plate of local foods and guava juice. Getting pretty sad about leaving…
• Plenty more – you get the picture
• And last, but certainly the very best, spending 2 weeks with Erin. It’s a dilemma – trying to say how rich and wonderful it was to wake up together every morning and hug goodnight, talk as much as we want, laugh, be proud - and not sound sappy. Guess it can’t be done.

Thank you for every moment in Paradise Erin

And if you don’t like that, we have the words to the Calypso hit, to be performed by unwanted,

Doe Wanna be a Dog in Dominica

Doe wanna be a dog in Dominica

sleeping with one eye open in the street

can never get enough to eat

anything that’s moving is a treat

every dog’s a fighting dog in Dominica

fighting for its life

Doe wanna be a dog in Dominica