One Wild Ride Deserves Another
So I’ve finally arrived on the Island of Martinique. It’s beautiful. Made even more so by the fact that when I arrived, after slight confusion and delays, I was informed that I already had a place to stay. I was taken there directly from the airport and shown a lovely room with lots of windows that overlook St. Joseph, which is a small town in the center of the island. It is very hot and there is no air conditioning, but that is highly acceptable.
It took me a long time to get here, literally and figuratively. I started off from Fairfax at 6am. After I said goodbye to my mom, my dad and I drove to Dulles, where I was dropped off and started the long process to get through security and to my gate. The flight from Dulles to San Juan was uneventful and felt very long. I was hungry and very tired. When I got to San Juan, I went to Subway and had lunch, checked in for my flight to Dominica, and then sat around reading my guide book.
I flew Caribbean Sun airlines from San Juan and we were delayed a little bit because there were two Dominican women who had a problem of some sort with their ticket and they were up in arms about it. At one point there were 5 airline personnel trying to appease them at once, everyone on a different phone. They were very commanding presences. They were allowed on the flight in the end and off we went. I spent the whole flight looking out the window at the color of the water. Every time I looked away and then turned back, I thought it would be different, but it wasn’t. It was always the same unbelievable blue, only changing to fade into green then turquoise then crystal clear when it hit the sand. I saw tons of islands, some of them very developed, some of them tiny and with only one or two noticeable structures.
When landing in Dominica at Melville Hall airport, the plane goes between two very large mounds. The landing strip is very short and runs right up to the sea. I was greeted by the entire staff of the airport, all five of them. Two of them went from helping the bags in to being customs officers. I filled out my arrival cards and got through without problems, walked outside and was greeted by the taxi driver sent by the hotel owner to pick me up. His name was Ray, and Ray was Rasta. He had dreads down to the ground and reggae blaring from his car stereo. We picked up one other passenger who was to be dropped off in the center of town and started off from Melville Hall. The actual distance on the road is only 26 miles, but it took over an hour to get to the capital city of Roseau because the roads are about one lane wide, but all roads are two-ways. This compounded with the fact that we had some very steep climbs and descents while driving through the very mountainous, lush green country. There are 365 rivers in Dominica, one for every day of the year, said Rasta Ray. We passed many of them and they were all beautiful, shallow, and I found out later, have extremely pure, fresh water that flows in them. I am glad for the opportunity to see the better part of the island, but the ride was absolutely insane. FLYING around blind curves, hoping no one was coming in the other direction. Whizzing past oncoming cars, coming within nanometers of them. Fortunately, the cars in Dominica are British so passengers on the left, drivers on the right. And you drive on the left with a left-side gear shift.
So the ride made me want to throw up sometimes, scream others, and smile as well. I did none of either of the first two, but lots of the third. We passed teeny tiny little villages and shacks where people can survive off the river, a fire and picking local fruit. I saw lots of people walking along the road barefoot with machetes. It seemed a very impoverished and desolate place. It is not developed at all until you get just outside of Roseau. So it’s true that it’s the nature island, but I got an overall sad feeling from the drive. While it is beautiful and wild, it seems that Dominica is not well managed or well organized. The inhabitants certainly don’t care. Their philosophy, true to what I had heard, is to just roll with whatever life gives you. They never get stressed out they just take everything in stride. So after the crazy ride through the mountains, I made it to Roseau, and bought some food in town, which I’m very glad I decided NOT to stay in. I chose a little guesthouse called the Hummingbird Inn, which is perched atop an incredibly steep hill between Roseau and Canefield. It’s right on the ocean, but there are hardly any beaches to speak of in Dominica. There are rocks and where there are beaches with sand, the sand is very abrasive and feels like it’s taking your skin off.
I was happy with my choice to stay on Dominica because of the hotel I stayed in. The Hummingbird Inn was so close to everything, completely secluded and charming, and the owner was generous and open. She and the other guest at the hotel were my entertainment and very good company for the evening and the next morning. We all ate dinner together and breakfast the next morning on a shady patio surrounded by tropical fruits and iguanas and red-throated hummingbirds feeding at hibiscus plants. It was a lovely night and morning. It took about two minutes to get to Canefield airport, the other Dominican airport which serves only local destinations. There I found that there was a departure tax and a tax for having too much baggage which I did not have enough East Caribbean dollars for, so I had to literally run to a bank and get change. It took forever because I guess the teller wasn’t so good with changing money yet, so I made it back to the airport about 10 minutes before my flight was about to leave. I was so relieved to get back in time, but we didn’t end up leaving for another half-hour after that. Not for any particular reason, but because we just did… It’s de islands, mon.
So myself and 10 other passengers piled into a teeny little Cessna 280 and took flight. 25 minutes of flying over beautiful blue ocean later, we landed in Martinique’s Fort-de-France airport. It took me forever to get through customs because the customs guards were asking me all these questions about where I was teaching and why I was there and why did I want to come to Martinique. They were very interested in my purpose. So it was nice to chat with them. I couldn’t believe how friendly they were. And though it took longer than I wanted to get through customs, it was a welcome distraction. I got my bags, which were the only ones left on the conveyor belt, and walked through the empty hallways to the doors leading to the terminal expecting to see someone who would be looking for me. No such luck.
I wandered around the terminal for a bit and ascertained that there was in fact, no one there to greet me. I bought a phone card and called the office of the people who organize the assistants and she took care of the situation within a few minutes. I was told “the lady who you are living with is coming to pick you up immediately”. So I was very surprised, naturally. I thought that finding a place to live would be the absolute hardest thing I had to do while I was here. But that had already been taken care of. As I was waiting for the lady to come, I happened upon another assistant who was waiting to be picked up as well. We have a lot of English people here with us because depending on their major they are required to spend their third year of university abroad in some sort of work environment. He’s a great guy and quite a people person, so we had a good talk in the airport, trading concerns and laughs over travel experiences.
Marie-Ange Ponremy came to pick me up. She’s a beautiful island native with jet black hair and a dark caramel skin tone. We got into her SUV and she drove me into the hills of St. Joseph where I was shown my new residence for the next 7 months. I am told I will have internet in a short while, we have a washing machine, a full kitchen, a nice living room, and two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. There are orange trees, cherry trees and Guava trees all on the property. It’s smack in the middle of the island so it should make most of the other assistants who are scattered all over somewhat accessible. We’re also not far from a lot of things which I think will become extremely important to me over the next few months: A big grocery store, a mall, main roads, etc.
I had a little while in the room to unpack things and get situated, but I had to leave again in a few hours because for the first three nights, all the assistants for Martinique, that is, everyone who’s doing the same thing as me here for this year, was to stay on the south end of the island in Sainte Luce. I was a little sad to have to leave my apartment, but the gathering was good. Such a wide variety of people from I think about 13 countries, some Spanish speaking, some Anglophone. I’ve been really happy with everyone I’ve met, my only concern is being able to get in touch and seeing them when we’re all over the island, because not all of us will have cars, and the public transportation system leaves quite a bit to be desired, I’m afraid. So I’ve been struggling with the idea of separation from all these awesome people who I’ve met.
A lot of them have taught English in other places before and a lot of people studied abroad in France and came here for sort of the same reasons that I did. They had already done mainland France, so why not give Martinique a shot. All the University students from England had the same mindset as well. So most of the people are around my age and are kind of like me so it’s great. We are all currently gathered at a little “campsite” which is really like a collection of nice bungalows with phones and a kitchen and a bathroom with shower and four little beds. There are four assistants to a bungalow and I’m with a group of awesome girls. One of them is from London and the other two are American, one from Pennsylvania and one from Colorado.
Wednesday night we had a little show put on for us by students of Martinique Tourism. They showed us traditional dances and gave us a lot of information about the island. We all went to bed fairly early and I was up at 5:30am to go for a run on a trail that leads around the entire southern point of the island. I call it the Highway 1 of running trails. It was one of those runs that makes me so excited to explore more and very sad that I won’t be living in the southern end of the island so I can run it every day. So I got to enjoy it while we were down there. Thursday we spent the entire morning sitting in the meeting room having information thrown at us and trying to fight off the boredom because a lot of it was important. I’m basically becoming a citizen of another country and there is a lot involved in that process. My first order of business is to open a bank account and the next is to obtain a French Social Security number, then to sign up for insurance, then to apply for a housing scholarship. Unbelievable. I’m just trying to take it one step at a time. After the marathon 5-hour info session, we had lunch and then we all went down to the beach. The gorgeous, turquoise, calm waves, beautiful sand, shady trees and hot sun beach. Oh my goodness it’s too good to be true. As I stepped into the warm waters for the first time, I couldn’t believe that this is my reality for right now.
Friday was the same as Thursday except a little more interesting. I finally met one of the teachers I’m going to be working with. I think she’s a great lady and I really look forward to working with her a lot. She gave us lots of good information and offered to help me run errands by taking me around. I am worried about the other school I’m working at though because it’s much further away and it’s so hard to get places. Plus I haven’t heard a peep out of the teacher who I’m paired with there. Marie-Claude, my teacher at Dillon, assured me she’s very nice. So I’ll just have to wait and see I suppose.
Friday afternoon the girls from my cabin and I went into the little town of Ste. Luce and walked around. Everything is closed between 12:30 and at least 2pm here so it’s difficult to plan your day. We arrived exactly at 12:30 as everything was closing so it we didn’t spend long there. I bought some postcards, we walked around, then headed back to our bungalows and went down to the gorgeous beach. Friday night was a fiasco. There was supposed to be a cultural exchange between us and some Martinique students but no one gave us any details and we didn’t know when to come and they hadn’t planned their presentation at all and it was awful. So that night put us all in bad moods. And the next morning we went on a forced treasure hunt through the southern part of Martinique. We went to a rum distillery (where I had the best limeade of my life) and a few other spots that are famous in the south. The best part was lunch at this restaurant that was RIGHT on the beach. I had Dorado with “sauce chien” which means literally “dog sauce” but it’s just a name for a very common local sauce that tastes like pico de gallo except better. There’s no dog in it. There was also a fried plantain mach and potatoes au gratin, and some awesome little crab beignets and avocado salad. Mixed with the atmosphere of being right on the beach, it was a very pleasant afternoon.
That sort of concludes the stay with all the other assistants and it's a very detailed history of my first days in the Caribbean. I am enjoying it here. I don't quite feel centered, but I feel like it's just gonna take time. There will be more to say later.
It took me a long time to get here, literally and figuratively. I started off from Fairfax at 6am. After I said goodbye to my mom, my dad and I drove to Dulles, where I was dropped off and started the long process to get through security and to my gate. The flight from Dulles to San Juan was uneventful and felt very long. I was hungry and very tired. When I got to San Juan, I went to Subway and had lunch, checked in for my flight to Dominica, and then sat around reading my guide book.
I flew Caribbean Sun airlines from San Juan and we were delayed a little bit because there were two Dominican women who had a problem of some sort with their ticket and they were up in arms about it. At one point there were 5 airline personnel trying to appease them at once, everyone on a different phone. They were very commanding presences. They were allowed on the flight in the end and off we went. I spent the whole flight looking out the window at the color of the water. Every time I looked away and then turned back, I thought it would be different, but it wasn’t. It was always the same unbelievable blue, only changing to fade into green then turquoise then crystal clear when it hit the sand. I saw tons of islands, some of them very developed, some of them tiny and with only one or two noticeable structures.
When landing in Dominica at Melville Hall airport, the plane goes between two very large mounds. The landing strip is very short and runs right up to the sea. I was greeted by the entire staff of the airport, all five of them. Two of them went from helping the bags in to being customs officers. I filled out my arrival cards and got through without problems, walked outside and was greeted by the taxi driver sent by the hotel owner to pick me up. His name was Ray, and Ray was Rasta. He had dreads down to the ground and reggae blaring from his car stereo. We picked up one other passenger who was to be dropped off in the center of town and started off from Melville Hall. The actual distance on the road is only 26 miles, but it took over an hour to get to the capital city of Roseau because the roads are about one lane wide, but all roads are two-ways. This compounded with the fact that we had some very steep climbs and descents while driving through the very mountainous, lush green country. There are 365 rivers in Dominica, one for every day of the year, said Rasta Ray. We passed many of them and they were all beautiful, shallow, and I found out later, have extremely pure, fresh water that flows in them. I am glad for the opportunity to see the better part of the island, but the ride was absolutely insane. FLYING around blind curves, hoping no one was coming in the other direction. Whizzing past oncoming cars, coming within nanometers of them. Fortunately, the cars in Dominica are British so passengers on the left, drivers on the right. And you drive on the left with a left-side gear shift.
So the ride made me want to throw up sometimes, scream others, and smile as well. I did none of either of the first two, but lots of the third. We passed teeny tiny little villages and shacks where people can survive off the river, a fire and picking local fruit. I saw lots of people walking along the road barefoot with machetes. It seemed a very impoverished and desolate place. It is not developed at all until you get just outside of Roseau. So it’s true that it’s the nature island, but I got an overall sad feeling from the drive. While it is beautiful and wild, it seems that Dominica is not well managed or well organized. The inhabitants certainly don’t care. Their philosophy, true to what I had heard, is to just roll with whatever life gives you. They never get stressed out they just take everything in stride. So after the crazy ride through the mountains, I made it to Roseau, and bought some food in town, which I’m very glad I decided NOT to stay in. I chose a little guesthouse called the Hummingbird Inn, which is perched atop an incredibly steep hill between Roseau and Canefield. It’s right on the ocean, but there are hardly any beaches to speak of in Dominica. There are rocks and where there are beaches with sand, the sand is very abrasive and feels like it’s taking your skin off.
I was happy with my choice to stay on Dominica because of the hotel I stayed in. The Hummingbird Inn was so close to everything, completely secluded and charming, and the owner was generous and open. She and the other guest at the hotel were my entertainment and very good company for the evening and the next morning. We all ate dinner together and breakfast the next morning on a shady patio surrounded by tropical fruits and iguanas and red-throated hummingbirds feeding at hibiscus plants. It was a lovely night and morning. It took about two minutes to get to Canefield airport, the other Dominican airport which serves only local destinations. There I found that there was a departure tax and a tax for having too much baggage which I did not have enough East Caribbean dollars for, so I had to literally run to a bank and get change. It took forever because I guess the teller wasn’t so good with changing money yet, so I made it back to the airport about 10 minutes before my flight was about to leave. I was so relieved to get back in time, but we didn’t end up leaving for another half-hour after that. Not for any particular reason, but because we just did… It’s de islands, mon.
So myself and 10 other passengers piled into a teeny little Cessna 280 and took flight. 25 minutes of flying over beautiful blue ocean later, we landed in Martinique’s Fort-de-France airport. It took me forever to get through customs because the customs guards were asking me all these questions about where I was teaching and why I was there and why did I want to come to Martinique. They were very interested in my purpose. So it was nice to chat with them. I couldn’t believe how friendly they were. And though it took longer than I wanted to get through customs, it was a welcome distraction. I got my bags, which were the only ones left on the conveyor belt, and walked through the empty hallways to the doors leading to the terminal expecting to see someone who would be looking for me. No such luck.
I wandered around the terminal for a bit and ascertained that there was in fact, no one there to greet me. I bought a phone card and called the office of the people who organize the assistants and she took care of the situation within a few minutes. I was told “the lady who you are living with is coming to pick you up immediately”. So I was very surprised, naturally. I thought that finding a place to live would be the absolute hardest thing I had to do while I was here. But that had already been taken care of. As I was waiting for the lady to come, I happened upon another assistant who was waiting to be picked up as well. We have a lot of English people here with us because depending on their major they are required to spend their third year of university abroad in some sort of work environment. He’s a great guy and quite a people person, so we had a good talk in the airport, trading concerns and laughs over travel experiences.
Marie-Ange Ponremy came to pick me up. She’s a beautiful island native with jet black hair and a dark caramel skin tone. We got into her SUV and she drove me into the hills of St. Joseph where I was shown my new residence for the next 7 months. I am told I will have internet in a short while, we have a washing machine, a full kitchen, a nice living room, and two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. There are orange trees, cherry trees and Guava trees all on the property. It’s smack in the middle of the island so it should make most of the other assistants who are scattered all over somewhat accessible. We’re also not far from a lot of things which I think will become extremely important to me over the next few months: A big grocery store, a mall, main roads, etc.
I had a little while in the room to unpack things and get situated, but I had to leave again in a few hours because for the first three nights, all the assistants for Martinique, that is, everyone who’s doing the same thing as me here for this year, was to stay on the south end of the island in Sainte Luce. I was a little sad to have to leave my apartment, but the gathering was good. Such a wide variety of people from I think about 13 countries, some Spanish speaking, some Anglophone. I’ve been really happy with everyone I’ve met, my only concern is being able to get in touch and seeing them when we’re all over the island, because not all of us will have cars, and the public transportation system leaves quite a bit to be desired, I’m afraid. So I’ve been struggling with the idea of separation from all these awesome people who I’ve met.
A lot of them have taught English in other places before and a lot of people studied abroad in France and came here for sort of the same reasons that I did. They had already done mainland France, so why not give Martinique a shot. All the University students from England had the same mindset as well. So most of the people are around my age and are kind of like me so it’s great. We are all currently gathered at a little “campsite” which is really like a collection of nice bungalows with phones and a kitchen and a bathroom with shower and four little beds. There are four assistants to a bungalow and I’m with a group of awesome girls. One of them is from London and the other two are American, one from Pennsylvania and one from Colorado.
Wednesday night we had a little show put on for us by students of Martinique Tourism. They showed us traditional dances and gave us a lot of information about the island. We all went to bed fairly early and I was up at 5:30am to go for a run on a trail that leads around the entire southern point of the island. I call it the Highway 1 of running trails. It was one of those runs that makes me so excited to explore more and very sad that I won’t be living in the southern end of the island so I can run it every day. So I got to enjoy it while we were down there. Thursday we spent the entire morning sitting in the meeting room having information thrown at us and trying to fight off the boredom because a lot of it was important. I’m basically becoming a citizen of another country and there is a lot involved in that process. My first order of business is to open a bank account and the next is to obtain a French Social Security number, then to sign up for insurance, then to apply for a housing scholarship. Unbelievable. I’m just trying to take it one step at a time. After the marathon 5-hour info session, we had lunch and then we all went down to the beach. The gorgeous, turquoise, calm waves, beautiful sand, shady trees and hot sun beach. Oh my goodness it’s too good to be true. As I stepped into the warm waters for the first time, I couldn’t believe that this is my reality for right now.
Friday was the same as Thursday except a little more interesting. I finally met one of the teachers I’m going to be working with. I think she’s a great lady and I really look forward to working with her a lot. She gave us lots of good information and offered to help me run errands by taking me around. I am worried about the other school I’m working at though because it’s much further away and it’s so hard to get places. Plus I haven’t heard a peep out of the teacher who I’m paired with there. Marie-Claude, my teacher at Dillon, assured me she’s very nice. So I’ll just have to wait and see I suppose.
Friday afternoon the girls from my cabin and I went into the little town of Ste. Luce and walked around. Everything is closed between 12:30 and at least 2pm here so it’s difficult to plan your day. We arrived exactly at 12:30 as everything was closing so it we didn’t spend long there. I bought some postcards, we walked around, then headed back to our bungalows and went down to the gorgeous beach. Friday night was a fiasco. There was supposed to be a cultural exchange between us and some Martinique students but no one gave us any details and we didn’t know when to come and they hadn’t planned their presentation at all and it was awful. So that night put us all in bad moods. And the next morning we went on a forced treasure hunt through the southern part of Martinique. We went to a rum distillery (where I had the best limeade of my life) and a few other spots that are famous in the south. The best part was lunch at this restaurant that was RIGHT on the beach. I had Dorado with “sauce chien” which means literally “dog sauce” but it’s just a name for a very common local sauce that tastes like pico de gallo except better. There’s no dog in it. There was also a fried plantain mach and potatoes au gratin, and some awesome little crab beignets and avocado salad. Mixed with the atmosphere of being right on the beach, it was a very pleasant afternoon.
That sort of concludes the stay with all the other assistants and it's a very detailed history of my first days in the Caribbean. I am enjoying it here. I don't quite feel centered, but I feel like it's just gonna take time. There will be more to say later.
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