Update on Dominica

[Grant Gordon]

I got this from friends who visited Dominica just under two weeks ago. We were there last year and have been looking for news about some of the great people we met.

"Our trip to Dominica went well. Through the group Sailors Helping and an american lady Sheron Wahl we got in contact with a center in the
village Mahaut who at the moment have 40 people living there and cooks for a whole lot more every day.
We did a lot of shopping on Guadeloupe and when we reached our economical limit I made a call out on our friends group on facebook.
Today I have transferred the last money over to the centers account and in total we managed to raise about 1700 us dollar.
We never went too Portsmouth since the center was close to Roseau and the roads are in really bad shape.
We heard from others that PAYS are up and running and that they are fairly ok over there.
There are almost no boats stopping at Dominica though and they have a hard time getting any income.
Good thing is to tell yachts to go there. You will have to be self sufficient on food and water though.
When we sailed along the coast we saw that the forests were all torn and without leaves.
The whole island is affected of the hurricane and they didn’t have electricity when we were there.
The water is back but needs to be cooked to be drinkable.
One fourth of the roofs are covered with blue tarpaulin
The cruising ship pier is not repaired so there are no ships coming to the island.
The beaches are still filled with debris and big logs of rainforest trees.
Almost all the fruit trees are destroyed and they haven’t any citrus fruits on the island
The green market opened just a few days before we arrived.
There is a shortage of gasoline, building material, batteries, fruit, water hoses, and many many other things
It will take years to get the island back to what it ones was.
Really sad to see but it feels good to have been there and showing them that they are not forgotten.