Hurricane Omar...

Hurricane Omar just passed through St. Kitts and Nevis.  His eye past 130 miles away from us, yet he caused severe damage to many parts of the island, especially on Nevis.

For me, at my house in Keys, it meant largely wind, rain and thunder and lightening.  The wind was howling, the thunder booming, but other then that we had no problems at all.  At just

 before midnight on Wednesday our power cut out and it was still out today (Friday) when I left for work.

It also made for a crazy day for my parents who were flying in from JFK (in New York) on Wednesday.  The flight came straight from JFK to St. Kitts (SKB).  It then circled the island for an hour, and was rerouted to San Juan, Puerto Rico.  After refueling the plane there they were all sent back to JFK.  My parents then took a hotel room for the night and flew to Miami around noon on Thursday.  Once in Miami they spent the night there to fly into St. Kitts today at 2:00.

  Their flight had some delay - but is enroute as I type and will be landing at 4:10 - after a THREE DAY SAGA.  I'm sure my parents are going to want to crash for a few days to recover for their journey.

Here in St. Kitts the "strip" on Frigate Bay was covered in ocean water as the sea swelled up very high bringing sand and seaweed into all the bars/restaurants along there.  No structures were ruined so people just have to clean up and reopen.  Other parts of the island were no so lucky.  In an area called Old Road - a large portion of the road was washed into the sea.  Telephone lines were actually IN the ocean.  In a village called Halfway Tree several concrete homes were beat up by the

 sea swells, and the contents of the homes were washed out to sea.  There was major beach erosion, many fishing boats were flipped out of the sea and onto the streets of town.  The bay road of town was also covered in water, dirt and debris from the storm.  A massive clean up and rebuilding process is under way.

Nevis - was not nearly so lucky.  On Nevis, the whole of Pinney's beach was demolished.  M y friend's beach bar, Chevy's was totally wiped out.  So was another bar called Double Deuce.  The Four Seasons Resort suffered extensive water damage and all of their pools are currently filled with sand and seaweed.  Two our of car ferries, the Sea Bridge and the Sea Hustler beached themselves after breaking free from their moorings at sea.  They set themselves around pretty well and have not been budged free yet to return them to the sea.  The whole of the pier in Nevis was underwater and so was their bay road.

This storm passed by as a category 2 hurricane.  With its eye as far away as it was, we were expecting very little to happen to these islands.  The storm approached from a backward direction most storms come from Africa across the Atlantic.  This storm came from South America and moved northeast - very uncommon.  Therefore, it lashed its fury at areas not used to taking the blow of a storm like this.

From all reports there has been no loss of life which is a blessing.  Things can be replaced, building rebuilt, but lives cannot be replaced.

So this was my first hurricane here in St. Kitts.  I was frightened, but we were safe and well protected at my house in Keys.  I had my hurricane radio ready, flashlights and lots of extra batteries.  I took all necessary precautions in terms of having LOTS of extra water and non-perishable food items on hand.  I waited on line for 1 hour at the supermarket to get those things.  Better safe then sorry, right!

Well that is all from here in St. Kitts!  As I've heard many people say, they'd rather a bad day in St. Kitts then a good day anywhere else... that seems like the motto around here.  Everyone feels blessed that so little actually happened to our tiny slice of paradise.

More soon, and thanks for all of your concern and well wishes throughout this storm.

October?? Already!!

Hi everyone!

I hope that this latest post finds everyone OK, and doing well. Things here in St. Kitts have been interesting, as always. I must first apologize for the delay in my posting. We had a major disaster here on the island. One of our main generators at our power plant burned down. It also took with it the cables for one of the other generators. This left the island powerless for a few days. Now we are doing something called "power sharing." This means that we basically take turns sharing the power. You might have power for 12 hours and then off for the next 12. It has been a challenge to say the least. The initial reports were that this could take up to two months to fix. There is now talk that they might have things resolved sooner then that. In the meantime it has meant days without any power at my school, and some evenings with no power at home.

Aside from the generator problem, our house seems to have been zapped during a HUGE thunderstorm, rendering our cable modem useless. Cable and Wireless came to fix it, and gave us a new modem 2.5 weeks ago. But it died that night. From there, we had several weeks of begging someone to come and try again to fix it. Yesterday afternoon a new repair man came, and we are finally back up and running. So POWER permitting I'll be able to post again more often.

Even though there have been some challenges, I'm still really enjoying my new life here in St. Kitts. Since my last post there have been several fun things that have happened. Even school has been interesting. Since there have been many days with no power, it gets very hot, so we've been trying to get outside to find a breeze whenever possible. We've even been doing some of our reading outside which is fun.


On September 15, Mary (who I'm living with, Dominic's wife) had her 40th birthday. Dominic and I organized a surprise party for her at the beach, on the 14th. We had a nice time with close family and friends. We had a feast of enough food for an army out there. We had a wonderful day, and Mary was totally surprised. She said it was her first surprise party ever! Then on the 15th, her actual birthday, I took us all out for dinner at the Shiggidy Shack. It was a full moon and this is the only restaurant with tables right in the sand by the water so we could enjoy the full moon! It was a great night.

September 19th marked the 25th anniversary of independence from Great Britain here on the island. There were celebrations everywhere. At midnight on the 18th there was a HUGE fireworks display at Port Zante. It was one of the best displays I've seen yet. There were concerts, parties, and celebrations everywhere you looked. The government paid for each village (town) to have a party the day after, on the 20th. Dominic, is in charge of activities for his village, Keys. So I helped him to organize and get everything together for the celebration. We had to pick up 50 pounds of chicken, 50 pounds of mutton, 30 pounds of saltfish, paper products, seasonings, you name it,we got it! In addition there were 88 cases of drinks delivered from the brewery - malts (VitaMalt, GiantMalt, Smalta), beers (about 4 varieties), Ting (carbonated grapefruit juice), Peardrella (a pear juice), etc. They could not be delivered to the community center, because the door lock is broken, so they were dropped at our house for the night. We had to bring them all inside for storage, it was quite funny. The event itself was a great success. I helped all day (in the rain) as the cashier for the refreshments/food area. I got to see and meet a lot of people from my village. Sadly, I got no pictures that day due to the rain. But I do have one of all 88 cases of drinks on our front porch!

At school to celebrate our 25th anniversary of independence, we had an assembly. We had two guest speakers and then each class shared something with the audience. My students discussed the importance of our flag and told what it all means. The government also gave each school money to provide all the students with a free hot lunch and snack, as well as a huge sheet cake. In addition Cable and Wireless provided each child with a book bag filled with goodies, like a frisbee, a water bottle, pens, pencils and some candy. It was a really wonderful day!

Dominic is really busy in his village, and is the president of the Youth & Community organization. He just finished running his 2nd annal spelling bee. It was a great event. Minister Liburd, the Minister of Housing, was there, members of the Youth & Community office for the island were there, and the reigning Kittitian Superstar (our version of American Idol) came and performed for the event. The children did a wonderful job, and were all showered with wonderful gifts from the government for their participation, as well as, beautiful trophies for the winners. It was a great event. Dominic was surprised at the end when he was awarded two awards himself for all that he does for the community of Keys. It was a great day! I think the highlight was that about 2/3 of the way through the power went out. The event was finished in darkness, but it was still an amazing event!

One awesome thing is that we just got a brand new movie theater that just opened on the island. There was a movie theater here, but it was pretty grimy, showed old movies, and had to run an intermission during each movie to change the reel. The new one, Caribbean Cinemas is a multiplex. It shows 7 NEW movies at a time. It is state of the art with stadium seating in each theater, rocking chairs that are nice and wide, an amazing sound system, a great concession stand, arcade and even automatic flush toilets - which is not common on the island at all!

I've been to it twice so far. The tickets are $15EC dollars each ($1US dollar equals $2.65EC dollars), so I find the price to be reasonable. I saw the Mummy 2 (or something I don't remember the number) and then I saw Lakeview Terrace. It is just really nice to have another option of something to do in the evenings here on the island - and it is a place to go for guaranteed FREEZING COLD AIR!

Another cool thing is that I've done since my last post was to go on my first "hash." The Hashers are a group of people who get together every three weeks on a Saturday to go on a run or walk. They typically set up a course that takes you on a beautiful hike to see really nice views. My first one started in Banana Bay and we climbed up the steepest mountain I think I've ever climbed, but we wound up with amazing views along the way. I went with my friend Tina from Germany, and my friend Javin from here in St. Kitts. We all had an amazing time. This hash was a special one, so afterwards they had beach games, a bonfire and fireworks on the beach. It was an awesome day.

So other then that... things here in St. Kitts are really good. I spent time yesterday working on my car, got a few new tires and yes, splurged $200EC ($80US) on 4 new MATCHING hubcaps for it. They are now secured with 'zip ties' to keep them from falling off. My car actually looks quite nice again!

My parents are scheduled to arrive this coming Wednesday. They are coming in on the JFK direct flight to St. Kitts. For all of you who would like to come visit sometime, the JFK direct flight is Sundays and Wednesdays ONLY. However, it is 4 hours and directly into St. Kitts. It does not get better then that! My parents will be here for about 3.5 weeks. They rented a condo and will be enjoying some relaxing time here on the island. It will be nice to see them and to be able to show them where I work and live, and to have them see our old friends (they have not been here in about two years) and to have them meet some new friends too!

Well, I guess that is all for now. I do promise to try and write more often. Now that the internet issue to the house is fixed that is half the battle, the other half is the power issue! But they say there is always light at the end of the tunnel... this time that light was in the form of a rainbow - right across the street from my house.

I hope everyone is doing well. Please write when you get a chance, I'd love to hear how your year is going so far!

Love,

Ms. Vics