Dominica is a 108 square mile island in the Caribbean with a population of only 78,000 due to constant emigration as a result of all the hurricanes it seems to attract. I had signed up to escort the ship tour groups but wasn’t chosen, so today (Tues) after breakfast I left the ship and found a local tour guide who was forming a group just outside the ship (for about half the price that the ship offered a similar tour). Dominica is very mountainous with lots of windy roads, great vistas and a very verdant landscape. (Similar I think to Jamaica.) Much of the island is rain forest and the island is the number one eco-tourist destination in the island. The minivan took us on winding roads through the rain forests and into the center of the island where we got out and walked through a national park to end up at a glorious tropical waterfall. Our driver spoke 4 languages and has traveled all over the US and Europe. It was a cool day.
I returned and ate for the first time in the staff dinning room where one of the young gift shop clerks was in tears because she had gotten breathalized by security and found to be above their acceptable limit of 0.08% and had been fired. She was still drunk. Apparently she has already lost jobs with 2 other cruise lines because of drunkenness. She will be taken off the ship in Granada tomorrow morning.
Work was difficult tonight. I had a full room of very attentive people, but it was so hard to get them to DO anything. It was like pulling teeth. And when I would finish they would all clap very civilized golf claps and then the room would become extremely quiet, waiting for my next song. Not one person gave me anything to work with to get a back and forth going. At exactly 12 midnight I concluded my show, feeling drained. I returned to my cabin and in an instant remembered that we might have a new president. I turned on CNN and rejoiced in the news. Let’s all hope that our next president will help bring the United States back on track.
I need to be honest with you. I did not vote. I registered but forgot that I would need to do an absentee ballot until it was way too late. I feel pretty crumby for not voting, especially as I have strong opinions regarding national politics and am not shy about speaking them. I had to decide whether I would just lie and tell everyone I voted, or to fess up. So consider this to be my official confession. Although there was never a question that Obama wouldn’t handily take New York, so…my vote really wouldn’t have made a difference. (I can hear you all screaming now!) I actually made this confession at my show tonight and made all those that didn’t vote to admit to it also. It was a funny moment.
Today (Weds) I woke up in Granada…remember, that tiny little Caribbean island we invaded? I walked around George’s Town and met some locals. Everyone was very friendly, even once I walked out of the touristy section. I walked up a couple of pretty steep roads and got some good pictures of the harbor from a cemetery above the town.
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