We are in the beautiful Island Of Dominica...not to be confused with the Dominican Republic. Not the Caribbean with the all inclusive hotels and drinks with umbrellas. This is everything but! The airport is the size of some of my friend's homes and has maybe one flight a day into the island on a smaller plane you walk up the stairs to get on. We arrived and had a taxi/driver pick us up which in itself was an experience. It took 1 1/2 hours to travel 20 miles. There is one narrow road to get around the island which gives new meaning to car sickness and desperation to find a seatbelt!!
We are privileged to be staying with a long time friend of Mark's in their beautiful guest house. They moved out to Dominica on a whim 2 yrs ago with their 3 children! If you think we are gypsies they wrote the book!!!! Their home and guest house sits way atop of the capital city, Roseau overlooking the beautiful Caribbean Sea! The winding, tiny, narrow roads to get to their home give hills a whole new meaning! They are vertical! Literally!
We began our trip by visiting the local school which has 200 children ages 3 to 11. Very simple, rustic buildings, no air conditioning, tiny rooms, yet the children are dressed in their beautiful school uniforms. Everyone was so welcoming and thankful to have visitors. The whole school sang a "thank you' song to us. We brought a few supplies....borders for bulletin boards, stickers, pencils, can opener, serving spoons, chalk etc.... and the looks on their faces you would have thought we brought 200 MAC computers!
The boys offered to teach dance classes for the month we are here and the students are thrilled! Every Tues and Wed the boys come to the school to teach. As much as the students love it, Keean and Cade are loving it even more. We also offered to paint one of the school rooms. Such a simple thing to us, a new painted room, but these kids gasped with pure delight at their new room!
Painting
Teaching at the School
