Our Woman in Dominica
I arrived in Dominica early in the morning to what has to be the greenest airport I’ve ever seen! Lush rainforests spread out in every direction and I have to admit I was quite surprised by just how beautiful it was. There wasn't much time for standing and staring, and before I knew it we were trundling along the pot-hole ridden roads towards Touna Village (which roughly translates as "water village" - a name that was probably inspired by the nearby river). This small village is nestled in the Carib Territory, where you can still find the country's indigenous people, the Kalinago. As all land is communal, it isn't possible to sell it – it can only be exchanged - and it is partly for this reason that development in the area is so slow. Although Touna Village is only small, it offers an intriguing glimpse of the gradual changes that are taking place here, and it's not uncommon to find corrugated iron shacks next to attractive wooden houses.
Set amongst rainforest vegetation and surrounded by lush, green mountains, Touna Village has already taken the first faltering steps towards becoming an eco-tourism destination, where guests can visit different houses to experience traditional life. Travellers can try pressing and drinking freshly made cane juice, basket weaving and other daily tasks that will allow them to understand the local lifestyle. The villagers feel that some of their traditions have been lost recently but they are working hard to restore them, so that they can pass on skills such as processing cocoa and coffee, and making cassava bread to their children.
As part of the ongoing development in the area, the whole village is being landscaped. A trail is being added to give easy access to a local waterfall, riverside trails are being restored and traditional thatched houses are being built. The village is on the brink of change and that made it a great time to visit. Very few people will even see it during this transitional stage, so it's pretty amazing that we're giving people the opportunity to actually get involved.
After leaving Touna Village we drove to another area of the Carib Territory, Crayfish River. This rural village is a little more developed than the last with a few small shops dotted around and a man making and selling cassava and coconut bread at the road side. Volunteers are needed to help teach children with special needs, to teach IT skills and to care for the elderly. The thing that struck me most here was the beauty of the location, with green mountains to one side and stunning views of the ocean to the other. No doubt about it - this is one beautiful location! Unfortunately beauty is the only thing that Crayfish River is rich in and poverty is rife among the local people.
We visited an elderly lady in her nineties who was living in a 2 room shack. 1 room had a bed, the other had 2 plastic chairs and a potty - and that was it. There was no running water or cooking facilities. We went to visit her at 1pm and she hadn’t yet eaten for the day. After spending a few minutes with her we had to leave - it was so difficult to walk away, so overwhelmingly sad not knowing when she would she would next have company or assistance. The truth is that there just isn’t a support system in place to look after the elderly in some of these rural villages and although the village council do what they can to run a care program, they can't do it without a steady flow of volunteers.
We also visited the site of the new special needs school which is currently under construction and although I didn’t meet any of the children who will be attending when it is complete, this will clearly be of great benefit to them. At this moment in time, none of the children with special needs in this village attend school, as there simply aren't enough staff to give them the attention they need. Even when the school opens there will only be one teacher, so volunteer assistance is greatly needed.
The remaining 3 villages that I visited were all in the World Heritage Site of the Morne Trois Pitons National Park. Each village had its own personality and area of focus - Grand Fond is looking to develop the beautiful Denyé falls as an eco-tourism attraction, Cochrane is a small farming community that is developing a name for itself because of its yearly Rabbit Festival and Giraudel is renowned for its flora and plans to build a botanical centre to house their yearly Flower Festival. What these three villages do have in common is a need for volunteer assistance to develop effective eco-tourism attractions which will help to bring essential funds into the village or to help care for those less advantaged members of the community.
Although these people are living in poverty, they are trying hard to instigate change and all they need to do it is a little help from volunteers. I visited a member of the village council at their home and saw how traditional the lifestyle is. As with many villagers she grows her own fruit and vegetables in her garden – it’s great to be able to eat fruits such as grapefruit and papaya straight from the tree and there’s always something in season. She also dries and roasts her own cocoa to make cocoa tea and makes her own drinks such as sorrel juice.
This is a beautiful island, with friendly people and a somewhat strange habit of naming the flu after important events of the time – after a couple of days visiting our new projects on the island it was time for me to go, just in time for me to miss a nasty dose of the Chavez.
