Dominica.

Karen, Peter, Erin, Martha, and Megan all excited for Mid Service Training. The happy crew before setting of on our hike to the boiling lake. Shawna, Jake, Melany, Denise, Lauren, Sarah, Karen, Erin, Megan, Deb, Caroline, Amy, and me. At the boiling lake. At Scott's Head, the southern point of Dominica looking east towards the island. Trafalgar falls.

"Dominica" 07/16/2003 This past weekend we had our Mid Service Training in Dominica. It was a really good time. Dominica is a beautiful country. It is unique in that it still has large portions of its original forests. It is also a bigger island than St. Vincent, so it has an entirely different feel to it. The first two days all the Peace Corps volunteers stayed at a hotel up in the mountains. It was really nice because the air was so cool up there. At night I slept like a log. During the day I slept like a log through all our meetings too. It was ok that I slept through the meetings because we spent almost an entire day and a half arguing about whether or not we should be required to have burglar bars on our windows. Nothing was decided. Besides the meetings, MST was great. I got to catch up with all the other volunteers that I went through training with nearly a year ago. It's amazing how little and how much we have all changed. I wonder what our close of service conference will be like? After training, I spent a few extra days on the island. On Saturday, a big group of us went for a hike to "the boiling lake". It would have been a great hike if it hadn't tropical down poured on us the whole way. We did get lucky enough for the weather to clear just when we got to the boiling lake. It was really impressive. On the hike back we took a soak in one of Dominica's many sulfur springs. Some people said that they wouldn't do that hike again, but I kind of had fun sloshing through the mud. It felt adventurous. On Sunday my host, Karen, took some of us for a walk down to Scott's Head. It is the southern tip of the island, and has a terrific view. After Scott's Head we went to a place called champagne beach for snorkeling. It is called champagne beach because bubbles come up from the sea floor to make it look like you are swimming around in champagne. Champagne that has schools of beautiful fish swimming in it's coral reefs. On Monday I went to a place called Trafalgar falls. It is a very impressive waterfall. It also has hot springs nearby. After the waterfall we went to a place called the Titou Gorge. This was the unexpected highlight of the trip. It is a deep gorge about 3 feet wide that goes several hundred feet back to a series of waterfalls. The walls go 40-50 feet straight up on either side. The water is very deep, and an amazing turquoise blue. I takes a good swim against the current to get to the waterfall. I felt like I was in another world. Tuesday it was back to St. Vincent. I think I had a little bit of island fever as I am glad that I was able to get away for awhile. It is nice to be back around people and places that I know though. Hopefully the second year of my Peace Corps service will be as rewarding as the first.