Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose

The back is just beginning to recover.  It will never be the same lush, bushy, shaded area it was before Beryle, but it is certainly greener.  I have just let it go to see what grows naturally in the striking sun, sea breeze and stones.  It's hot out there! Lots of vervain popping up.  We have had several storms since Beryle, but no hurricanes. Lots and lots of rain and extreme heat.  It is too hot to even go to the beach and the seawater is way too warm

Since the last post we have had the Olympics, USA Democratic Convention, the 'debate'

No news really,  just local life bumping along the unpredictable road going nowhere.  Economic life is stagnant.  The government is making all kinds of wild promises, as governments do.

The dogs are here with us living happily on the beach.  I have some nice photos but I can't get them off my phone to the laptop.

More later.....

 

HURRICANE BERYL

 On July 1, 2024, Hurricane Beryl began its assault on the Caribbean.  The eastern Caribbean islands got the brunt.  Grenada, St. Vincent, Carriacou and Union Island, Petite Martinique were devastated. 

Dominica got hit, especially at the north end of the island.   Floods, landslides, road washouts, downed trees and raging seas damaged the whole west coast. The road to the Cabrits is impassible, Scott’s Head became an island.

My little bit of Dominica was ruined, washed away by huge, pounding waves coming over the seawall all night long. The seawater came right up to the deck and all the plants, shrubs, young mango, lime and lemon that were around it became a salt-poisoned wasteland.  The smashing waves brought down part of the fence. I had a 30-foot heavily laden avocado tree in the yard, and even now 10 days later, the fruit is falling, the leaves are wilting and turning brown and falling. My little poinsettia forest is gone.  What is there now is sand and stone - not even a decent piece of driftwood.

I will never plant in that area again.  I have learned a valuable lesson.  It is the littoral zone and I will respect that and treat it as such.  The house is high and dry.  I had some big plants in pots at the side, away from the sea blast, they were not affected.

Then I got a terrible flu and have been sick for 4 days.  Much better now, but daunted by the clean-up work in the former garden.

The already cash-poor Caribbean will take a long long time to recover

Etcetera continued

They Never Tell You Everything...

Do they deliberately withhold information or are they just inefficient, or do they assume I know?  I can't even guess.  Here are a few examples:

FedEx should have told me what to expect in the way of extra duty and taxes.  The woman at the beginning of the chain of people I had to deal with clearly knew. When I went in to tell her, she only confirmed it all.

We have several old rusty stoves and metal chairs in the yard that I have been after Solid Waste to come and take away.  For weeks the  Solid Waste office would only say that they would let me know when the truck was coming, or they couldn't pick up the stuff at all.  Finally, someone told me to go to the Town Council, that that was the correct place. I went.  the woman at the desk took the information.  No one ever came.  I went to the Town Council several times and was always told that they had the information.  On my visit to the office 2 weeks ago she said, "But you never paid".  I kicked myself.  Of course! I should have known that there was a fee. When I looked at her and asked but why didn't you tell me weeks ago, she only looked puzzled and didn't answer.  I was happy to pay for it and was promised that the truck would come the following week.  Fool that I am, I believed her.  No truck.  McD saw the truck driver last week and he assured McD that he would come on Wednesday.  No truck.  There is no point in going back to the Town Council with the receipt.   The truck will come in its own time and the stuff will be taken away.  That is life in Dominica.  

I went to the Georgetown Health Center again today to get the results of the giardia test and get my permit.  They couldn't find the report.  Same as last week.  This time I went back and forth from the receptionist to the nurse to the environmental health officer.  Luckily they are all in the same building.  The nurse called the lab,  They hadn't sent the report in the last batch but they did tell her it was negative and to go ahead and process me.  Phew.  No giardia.  But no card either! Environmental Health didn't bring any! Why?  Wednesday is their day at the health center for the food handlers.  I have to go back next Wednesday to pick it up.  Wednesday is the baby clinic and is very crowded with mothers, infants and children up to 4 years old.  I wait my turn in line with them all.

Everything is in its own time.

On  Sunday we caught Smiley, a street person, dumping someone's garbage on our beach.  Smiley is the same guy who was sleeping on our veranda.  McD, EBoy, and I went after him shouting and yelling.  He dumped the garbage and ran, shouting invective back at us

Yesterday the police came to the Bar because they had information that Jeff, whom they had been looking for for a while, was there.  Someone else in the Bar warned Jeff who took off, jumped over our sea fence ran along the seawall, and disappeared

I don't think we'll be seeing Smiley or Jeff for a while!

Etcetera

 One week after Carnival and all is back to normal.  Usual traffic, usual heat, usual street noises, usual folk, usual disasters, usual wilted vegetables in the market, usual shortages. All is well.

A few updates:  

The iPhone is fully functional.  The aching shoulder has its off and on days, McD gave his daughter $$$ for the dentist and she canceled all her appointments.  He is out some money.  I told him to pay the dentist directly, but nooooo!

The piles on the beach are still there and being added to by the vendors on the Square.  I hope it is drying out so NEP or someone can move it.  Maybe burn it?  The sea will take it back in the next storm, but this is the Karam, the dry season, so no storms for months.

New sample has just been delivered to the lab and I will get giardia results by week's end.  I have had some side normal effects to the medication, lethargy and upset intestinal system mostly, but back on track now.  

At this moment, Bef is scrubbing some really nice heavy iron pots and pans  that I found and EBoy is sweeping up the dried fallen leaves from the yard.  The dogs are sleeping in the shade behind the house. Nice west breeze coming in off the ocean.

My complaint is that I am finding stairs, getting up from a sitting position, and carrying stuff increasingly troubling.  I used to be so graceful and strong.    Balance is wonky too.  I feel that I go tottering down the street like a drunken sailor!  and slow. I don't like this at all.

I cant get photos from the tablets to this laptop.  I would like to attach photos to these blogs

'til next time

STORMS, CARVIVAL, HEN

 Early February started off with a tropical depression extreme weather,  Cold, pouring, drenching rain, Sahara Dust, very high angry seas, and sailboats tossed ashore. Almost 5 days of this,  By Carnival time it was over, leaving our beach with 3 meters  of ocean debris, large logs, and uprooted coconut trees, garbage, a smelly mess and no interesting driftwood.

Then came pre-carnival week with its own kind of storm....noise, relentless, thumping, pounding, stultifying, mindless noise.  I will not honour it with the word "music", although this is what the local people call it.  It is a computer-driven rhythm only, which I guess is what is required. The Saturday before Carnival Monday's 5 am Jouvert, the guy with the Bar on the Square had his amplifier on overdrive until 3 am.

I managed all of it, including McD's multiple preparations and worries,  and had Hen and Mait on standby in case of my collapse.  By the time the band and its revelers came around again, I knew my breakdown was coming so I called my team.  Hen arranged to pick me up.  Tracy turned up and we went  to meet Hen.

Hen lives below the school playground in Savanne Paille.  She has made the little house, (formerly owned by Annika) her own. Lovely, peaceful, calming. She graciously installed me in her downstairs fully equipped apartment, fed me a delicious supper, we chatted a bit, smoked a cigarette, and watched the sunset.  I slept, for 12 hours, doors and windows wide open, (McD's marauding evil spirits or mosquitos were not present), awoke restored and comforted and came home to Portsmouth.

At the moment it is far from quiet.  The truck with amplifiers as big as refrigerators is parked outside my veranda.  The poor old house is throbbing and things are jumping off the walls and shelves.  I came home too soon.

BUSY

Well, January might have been quiet but February started off with boom.  Nothing special just all at once.

Preparations for Carnival are underway.  The Kubuli (beer) truck just delivered 7 cases, now we have to buy couple of cases of Carib and Heineken.  Macoucherie is short on cask rum.  There are no cigarettes, only Dunhill. 

Very few tourists, and they are not spending!

The Vet came today, and the dogs are spayed and neutered.   The dogs are recovering and are hung over from the anesthetic.  They will sleep it off.  The process cost 350 EC dollars -  about $175 Canadian for the two. MUCH cheaper than Canada.  All done on the tables outside, under the almond trees.  No fancy animal hospital. No vaccine though.  There is no vaccine on the Island.  Soon they will go and stay at the farm and chase off the agouti and goats. They are expensive.  I cook big pots of dog rice and chicken neck for them.  Ugh.  I won't be sorry to see them  go.  Feeding them, making sure they have water and cleaning up after them are jobs I don't want.  They are McD's dogs.  He will do all this but in his own timeless kind of time, if you know what I mean.   No routine.  Meanwhile, I end up worrying about them and doing the dog chores.

McD's daughter has a problem with a bad tooth.  They are at the dentist in Roseau at the moment. I'm very sure she needs a lot of work on her teeth.  He will get an assessment, I hope.

I could not get my food handlers permit.  My test was positive for the giardia worm, a microscopic intestinal parasite common in the tropics.  I am completely asymtomatic! I am taking the prescribed medication, then retest in 3 weeks.  McDowell's test was negative because he purged the night before giving his sample.   I would have had a negative result too if I had also flushed.  Because his test was negative, he got his permit.  Good.

The iPhone is held up at customs.  They want 350EC to release it to me.  I won't have the money until next week.  I really only want it for the camera.  

No news at all from the lawyer about the status of the claim to this property.  It will be a year in May. 

McDowell is managing two properties for his friend Vans.  This involves me as I am the line of communication.  I don't mind, but it is time-consuming 

Stupid Microsoft keeps telling me that I don't have any more storage space and trying to scare me into buying protection from all the evil spirits out there.   They have about 3 different names for the same thing, I don't know what they are talking about.  A nuisance. 

Then there are the on-going expenses, work, and life.........but things are good     😄

Oh, and I should mention that all of this was with a very painful left shoulder and upper arm.  The doctor and I can't get seem to get a handle on it.  The ultrasound does tell us that there is no tear or damage, but some swelling of the long tendon, and I have the full range of motion.  I don't want any more steroids.  800mg of ibuprofen, 400 in the morning, and 400 at bedtime keep it quiet enough.  It is a very strange thing, seems to be worse at night and lying down.  Time and rest are what it needs. Maybe arthritis.   

 

THE NORTHERN LINK

My friend Hen and her visiting friend Annemarie, Ernard, McDowell, and I hired Henrik and his van and took our favourite road trip known as The Northern Link.  It connects the west coast and the east coast of the island along the north coast.  It climbs over Morne Aux Diables (2,826ft) and has stunning views both north to Guadeloupe and Les Saintes, and south across  Portsmouth to Morne Espagnol.  The summit is the crater of a dormant volcano.   

The weather was cool, and as we headed to Penville and Vielle Case became quite misty.  We drove through the clouds and decided not to stop and take the ten-minute easy hike in to see the Cold Soufriere where the sulfur bubbles up through the rocks.  We did stop by the side of the road to view the truly awesome verdant mountains and valleys.  On to Pointe Michel and the Chocolate Factory. There Allan Napier grows and makes the best chocolate anywhere.  We were graciously welcomed, given a tour, and shown the process - from tree to pod to bean to drying to curing to bar.  Annemarie bought several bars to take home to the UK.  I bought myself a large bar of ginger chocolate.

Then we headed to the village of Calibishie, walked around a bit, had a lovely leisurely lunch by the rolling Atlantic Ocean, and watched a man out in the ocean collecting winkles (wigo in patois).

From there we drove to Bense and spent some time there.  Both McDowell and Henrik knew everyone and were warmly greeted.   We had intended to go from there to the Chaudiere Pool but decided that since the road was all chewed up by the big trucks working at the new airport site, and we were tired and satiated by the overwhelming scenery we would save it for another trip.

Home to Portsmouth, well satisfied with our day and the outing.