Dominica Community Service: Big Papa's and wrapping up projects

During the week the group had a night out on the town in Portsmouth. After a hard day's work, we headed to a popular beach just outside of town where we bathed, waded around in the warm, calm waters, and had a go on the makeshift rope swings attached to the palm trees lining the water. After we'd worked up an appetite in the hot sun we headed to Big Papa's restaurant for a fantastic meal. Big Papa was kind enough to close the restaurant just for us and brought in his regular reggae deejays early so we could get some dancing in before the late night regulars took over the dance floor. Inevitably, the dancing moved its way outside the restaurant onto the beach.

On Friday we reached some important milestones. First, we finished the Summer Enrichment Program. To celebrate, we brought in juice and cookies for the kids and everyone received an official handmade Certificate of Completion. We also finished painting the inside of the primary school. Next year's school kids ought to enjoy the livelier classrooms, complete with multiplication tables, the alphabet, hopscotch squares, and murals of SpongeBob, Dora, and others.

Over the weekend we headed to the Carib territory in the west of the island. The caribs are an indigenous people who migrated to the island from South America by way of Trinidad. They are fairer skinned than the typical Dominican, with straight black hair. Our explorations of the Carib villages were hampered a bit by persistently rainy weather, but most of us picked up a memento from the trip. We stayed at a lodge run by a former chief of the territory where we had a nice dinner and breakfast.

Sunday was Sports Day for Putney! Again, the rainy weather tried to slow us down, but we could not be stopped from learning cricket, playing soccer, throwing the frisbee, and playing a little yoga ball soccer.

Now it's back to work for our group. The chicken coop is coming along nicely. The finishing touches on the mural have been slowed down by the rain, but our students have been resilient in their efforts to finish it. There's a lot to finish up this week... wish us luck!

Russell and Eliza

Rainy weather made for a slippery and muddy game of soccer (er, uh football)

The group had a night out at Big Papa's restaurant in Portsmouth. The day
started at the beach down the street, followed by a lovey meal, then
dancing to reggae music on the beach outside the restaurant.