I think the best way to continue forward from the neglect you are all feeling is to wrap up some of the important old stories so we can close the depressing chapter when Erin never visits the Bills Bar in Dahmineekah (I actually visited it every day and the proprietor has worked a Buffalo t-shirt into her weekly rotation) and move forward.
1) 1. Chee Chee- I know you are all thinking, “did Chee Chee ever get stabbed in the middle of the street for spending the entire week yelling crazy things on Erin’s neighbors porch?” Yes. The Sunday after my last blog entry my man friend yelled at me at around 8 pm to come outside and he pointed to Chee Chee lying in the middle of the road bleeding. The police arrived shortly after and looked at him for a while and then put him in the back of the van (pick-up truck) and hauled him off. Chee Chee had been stabbed by the 15-year-old son of one of the wealthiest men in Salisbury.
The week passed and I heard only a small amount of gossip about Chee Chee’s stabbing but heard he made a full recovery. On Friday Chee Chee made a big party. On Saturday Chee Chee made a big party. On Sunday Chee Chee made a big party. On Sunday night I heard Chee Chee yelling about how he spent all his money on big parties. Apparently getting stabbed by wealthy children without criminal records is quite lucrative. Word in the village is that it is worth between $3,000 and $5,000.
2) 2. The gay cruise ship- On March 21, 2012 a Celebrity Cruise Ship with exclusively gay male passengers docked in Dominica. Dominica is not known for its tolerance. The ship came into port and around noon it was all over the news that two passengers had been arrested for “buggery.” Buggery is illegal in Dominica. The information that was released explained that two men on the ship had been seen naked on their balcony which was overlooking the Bayfront (a main street in the capital where all the bus drivers wait to pick up tourists). The men were held overnight (from their reports they were held in terrible conditions) and then charged with public indecency, fined and sent back to the States.
The entire country was up in arms about the situation: people were angry that they were not charged for buggery, people were angry that they were arrested, people were angry that they were not respecting God, people were angry about how it would look to the international press and the Peace Corps (generally speaking, especially the new ones) were a little concerned about the terrible homophobic comments that were being made.
A public statement was never made to release all the relevant information and so Dominicans and interested parties argued, discussed and prayed about it for a week.
Then this picture was released http://www.queerty.com/update-incriminating-photo-of-couple-arrested-on-gay-cruise-surfaces-20120330/
Luckily the community has stopped talking about it.
3) 3. What we are talking about is Unwanted teaching little white kids to dance. Unwanted is a Salisburian Calypsonian who wrote huge hits like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6osW_iJleJ0 and this year’s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHBC58F_KBk which features my man friend’s father’s bar.
When Ben met Unwanted (who Ben proceeded to exclusively call “Wanted” inspiring a name change in the village) he received a private show of the artist previously called Unwanted’s signature dance moves (featured in the first video) which highlight the “turn around and pretend to be feeling yourself up” as well as the “shake your arms in front of you a lot”.
On Sunday we held an Easter Sunday Funday by the bay as a fundraiser for the organization I work with. An adorable white family showed up, parents and two boys, about 2 and 5 I think. Who was walking around holding the boys hands? Unwanted. It is 100% unclear how or why they knew each other. First Unwanted comes up to the food tent I’m working at with the boys, I can only assume to purchase food, and instead asks for cigarettes. The next thing I know he has enrolled them in the children’s dance competition and is standing to the side leading their dance routine. 
Notice Unwanted in the orange striped shirt.
Check out all of the photos here (also you can see the crowd forming): http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.375905569115636.87912.291014340938093&type=1
4) My friend Kayle Formato was here this past week. It was incredible. More info to come.
Dominican slang book:
Want to ask if food tastes good? Want to know how the beach is? Want to find out if the mangoes are ripe?
“Is it nice?” takes care of all of those.
Erin: “Did you enjoy your sea bath?” (refer back to swimming entry sea bath = swimming in the sea)
Anyone: Blank stare.
Erin: “Was your sea bath nice?”
Anyone: “Oh yes!”
