Family life in Dominica

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Our next destination on Dominica was Grand Fond, high in the mountains. Although it only has a population of 1,200, it is the largest village in the area. In bad weather, the only road in gets blocked. After the 2004 earthquake, sixteen landslides closed the road – food had to be helicoptered in!

We were staying with the Lesley family and, at the village school, we met Mrs. Lesley, the headmistress. The school teaches 87 children from 3 to 11 years old and was built by Oxfam. We arrived during the last period of the day and were able to have a good look around and chat to the very lively and friendly children. They tried to teach us a new hop-scotch like game … with little success.

The school itself was a bland concrete building but they had painted it with bright murals to make it cheerful. Everywhere were signs and slogans - “Boys can do anything”, “Be polite to teachers”, “Contribute positively”.

Brian, a young American from their Peace Corp, had been based in the school for 2 years and proudly showed us one of his projects – a new library. There is a real push for improving literacy, especially amongst the boys and this should help. Brian explained the challenge of finding books with ethnically appropriate characters. He was very proud of finding reading books featuring black super-heros – and a black Cinderella!

After school, we walked up the main street … the only street … to Hattie Lesley's house. We had to stop every few yards and talk to other local people. Once home, we all sat on the verandah to chill before dinner with a glass of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice. We could see the Atlantic below us and were watching the sun set behind the mountains.

We listened to Nickel, their eight year old son, read his school library book and were then allowed to play. Do all little boys around the world want to vroom toy cars to and fro?

Mr Lesley is a prison officer and a farmer. He proudly showed us round his large garden behind the house. It contained a few things we recognised – cabbage, cucumbers, carrots – but a lot of things we did not. He had a large patch of dasheen, a vegetable with a large white tuberous root and leaves like giant ivy. Beyond this were his banana and plantain patches. Then there were his trees – grapefruit, papaya, lime, cinnamon and nutmeg. One cinnamon tree was covered in a passion fruit vine.

Next door, we looked at his neighbour's pepper (as in salt and pepper), coffee and cocoa bushes. Mr Lesley told us he also has a small farm where he and a friend grew dasheen to sell.

Dinner started with local soup, made from young dasheen leaves and coconut milk. We then had some lovely grilled fish with potato fritters. All washed down with iced ginger wine … yes, they do grow their own ginger too.

The following day, Mrs. Lesley was off to a meeting in Roseau and we joined her on the early morning minibus. It slowly moved down the village, picking up passengers and their produce until completely full (18 people with lots of produce in a 15 seater). The driver then picked up speed and turned up the radio volume. We swung along the mountain roads, rammed together and listening to early morning Caribbean calypso music.

Our final night on Dominica was in Ma Bass's guest house … she is a lovely lady and everything that her name suggests. Still no sign of the Pirates of the Caribbean cast – they have filmed the last two on location here and the island hopes for yet another sequel.

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