Oh, the luxury of lights and clean towels!!

Yesterday we experienced what we were warned about long before moving to the island- and that is, blackouts. I knew that the Caribbean experienced a lot of those, especially because I lived in the Dominican Republic for a couple months, so really it was not a surprise for me. And those who made it through the "big blackout" in the summer of 2002 (0r '03?) know that it is not the end of the world to do without lights for a while. In fact, it can be a good excuse to get outside and do other things! We first lit some candles in the kitchen so that we could at least have a bit more light, as it was starting to get a bit darker.

Our lit candles: (we are thankful that we brought some!)













Since we pretty much have no food in the kitchen right now, we decided to walk into town and see what was open. Luckily a Chinese restaurant called "Brothers" was open, so we grabbed a table there. It was really cool, because the whole place was lit by candlelight. I have to say that I am really a fan of a candlelit ambiance. It was a nice atmosphere! Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on whether you see the glass as half empty or half full), the lights came back on about 10 minutes after, and you could see everyone very clearly (and that is not always a good thing, right???) Annnnyway, Martin ordered General Tao chicken and I ordered chicken curry. Very yummy!! And we had leftovers, which is always a bonus for poor med students.
There were some good parts to having the power back though- our cable and internet finally worked!

Other than the blackout, the most interesting thing that happened is that we got our laundry done!! And you may be thinking okay, what is so exciting about laundry? To us, it is a luxury to have clean clothes that smell FRESH, and especially.... ready for it?? Drum roll please...... CLEAN, NON-STINKY TOWELS!!! That was by far, the one thing that made us jump for joy today. You know those commercials where people use laundry as a natural happy drug?? Well that was us today! Yes, we learn to appreciate very small things on this island.
See, it is so freakin humid here in Dominica that if your towel gets really wet, forget about it, it is going to remain disgustingly smelly until it is washed in a machine and dried in a machine. And by disgustingly smelly, I mean "wet dirty dog's bum" smelly. It would be like taking a fresh shower and then rolling around with your dog whom you haven't bathed in months... it just defeats the purpose!!! Not to mention the towels would leave a nice stench behind in the bathroom making us nauseous every day... we even tried washing the towels by hand and leaving them outside to dry, but NOPE! The dirty dog smell just came right back. Not only do the towels get gross, but so do our clothes because we sweat a lot in them. Even just a walk to campus is enough to cake the clothes in sweat on a really hot, humid day. So there was no escaping the nastiness, until we discovered Pat's laundry service. Thanks Pat! We owe you big time for making our laundry smell fresh and rosey!! Well, actually we owe you 27 EC for 17 lbs. of laundry..


The best part of our day, right here:





OH JOY!















Peace, love,happiness, (and clean laundry),

Stef xoxo