Today has just been one of those good days ... and it's still early, although maybe the definition of 'early' no longer really applies to the night owl that I am.
This morning while "dem older girls been bade'in" two of the younger ones were eating breakfast (bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast ... I am getting fast at making their breakfast every morning). As they ate and I washed dishes, one of the girls turned to me, "Miss Molly! Look Miss Molly, the sky is purple!" The doors were open and as we peered outside from the cottage, the sky was a very clear, but soft muted purple that seemed to dust a bit of magic on everything that it touched. I told the girls that purple skies are lucky ... that they are wishing skies (if any sky was, I would imagine it would be a purple one).
Believing me to be a credible source, they took this information very seriously, and began to list off different wishes, 'I wish for this ...' and 'I wish for that ...' Their long lists of wishes were both sweet, and simple, and a little heart breaking as they, of course, did not forget to wish to be reunited with their families. The four year old then called out, "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus, please come down for me and Sue*" the older girl dismissed any possibility of this immediately. But seeing as how this was a magic purple sky morning, she amused the four year old as they began to talk about what they might do, if Jesus really did come down through the purple clouds to our little cottage, simply because the two of them had wanted him to.
Mornings like these really remind me why I love so much what I do. To be so privileged as to be able to spend just a little bit of time with children who are so good (even if they're misbehaving), brave, and ultimately just plain wonderful is such a blessing. Heaven bless sweet little children, and the magic of a purple sky.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
The Shawshank Redemption had it right.
As of 8:30 am, after I got off this morning, I became a FREE woman ... and I spent it checking out Sandy Point. To anyone coming to St. Croix to visit ... I AM taking you to this beach.
After some breakfast eating, service related chit chatting, and a well needed nap, me and two of my roommates headed off to Sandy Point. Today was the first time any of us had been to the beach because it's been closed. The laying of sea turtle eggs, and hell bent nature conservists have kept everyone away, and it was closed for several months, but it just reopened a week ago ... but only for limited hours. It's only a thirty second drive from our house to the entrance of the Sandy Point Wildlife Refuge, but it's another twenty minute drive on rough, sometimes deep water covered road to get to the tip of the point. But after some exciting bouncing in the back of a pick, up we parked did an additional little hike to the water, which required us to bend in half to crawl under some prickly bush, we reached the beach.
Heaven is what Josh called it. And I have to agree. Sandy Point is what Heaven looks like.
The water is a brilliant turquoise and there is beach as far as the eye can see in either direction. The water isn't the typical 'clear to the bottom' ocean we're used to (at Rainbow beach even if you're in 12 feet deep water you can still see the sand on the ocean floor below you). The water at Sandy Point looks wild in comparison as it breaks clear onto the surf while remaining a chalky turquoise past the break, giving the water an edge of mystery in addition to it's beauty ... being able to see nothing below you, only the turquoise blue.
The sand itself is coarse and loose (it must still be relatively new, for sand anyways) and walking in it feels a little like walking in warm brown sugar, as your feet quickly sink under the weight of, sometimes to mid calf. All along the grassy shore, there are stakes everywhere indicating where little turtle eggs are 'cooking' and waiting to hatch. If I was a mama turtle, the first ocean I would want my babies to see would be Sandy Point ... no wonder St. Croix is the turtle capital of the world.
The water was cool and refreshing, and it was hard for us to leave, but they close the gate to the beach at 4 pm ... and we had no desire to be stuck at Sandy Point ... no matter how much we were enjoying it.
(I later learned that they do a drive around the area to make sure people don't get stuck before they close the gate .. good to know).
I will definitely go back the first chance that I get. Oh, and for those who do not know (I didn't) the last scene in The Shawshank Redemption was filmed on Sandy Point, so perhaps Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman agree, Heaven. It's Heaven.
(hey Paulette, perhaps a link to a fav. movie will entice you to come?) ;)
After some breakfast eating, service related chit chatting, and a well needed nap, me and two of my roommates headed off to Sandy Point. Today was the first time any of us had been to the beach because it's been closed. The laying of sea turtle eggs, and hell bent nature conservists have kept everyone away, and it was closed for several months, but it just reopened a week ago ... but only for limited hours. It's only a thirty second drive from our house to the entrance of the Sandy Point Wildlife Refuge, but it's another twenty minute drive on rough, sometimes deep water covered road to get to the tip of the point. But after some exciting bouncing in the back of a pick, up we parked did an additional little hike to the water, which required us to bend in half to crawl under some prickly bush, we reached the beach.
Heaven is what Josh called it. And I have to agree. Sandy Point is what Heaven looks like.
The water is a brilliant turquoise and there is beach as far as the eye can see in either direction. The water isn't the typical 'clear to the bottom' ocean we're used to (at Rainbow beach even if you're in 12 feet deep water you can still see the sand on the ocean floor below you). The water at Sandy Point looks wild in comparison as it breaks clear onto the surf while remaining a chalky turquoise past the break, giving the water an edge of mystery in addition to it's beauty ... being able to see nothing below you, only the turquoise blue.
The sand itself is coarse and loose (it must still be relatively new, for sand anyways) and walking in it feels a little like walking in warm brown sugar, as your feet quickly sink under the weight of, sometimes to mid calf. All along the grassy shore, there are stakes everywhere indicating where little turtle eggs are 'cooking' and waiting to hatch. If I was a mama turtle, the first ocean I would want my babies to see would be Sandy Point ... no wonder St. Croix is the turtle capital of the world.
The water was cool and refreshing, and it was hard for us to leave, but they close the gate to the beach at 4 pm ... and we had no desire to be stuck at Sandy Point ... no matter how much we were enjoying it.
(I later learned that they do a drive around the area to make sure people don't get stuck before they close the gate .. good to know).
I will definitely go back the first chance that I get. Oh, and for those who do not know (I didn't) the last scene in The Shawshank Redemption was filmed on Sandy Point, so perhaps Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman agree, Heaven. It's Heaven.
 |
| Sandy Point ... these pictures were taken by me today |
 |
| But these don't really do it justice ... |
(hey Paulette, perhaps a link to a fav. movie will entice you to come?) ;)
Friday, September 17, 2010
Where Everbody Knows Your Name, and They're Always Glad You Came ...
I have been living in the Virgin Islands for about a month now. This alone is a little crazy to me, part of me feels like I have been living here forever, and another part of me feels like a whole month can't have possibly passed by already!
With things speeding by so quickly, I have found a place to sit, relax, and let the world spin by just a little slower. For weeks now whenever we would tell people that we lived in Frederiksted they would mention our relatively close (only close if you have a car) proximity to Rainbow Beach with stars in their eyes and a faraway gaze that seemed to suggest years of happy memories there. This lead all of us Americorps peeps to get really excited to go to the beach and see what all of the fuss was about.
The first time that I saw the beach itself, I didn't quite understand the allure. It's a regular beach ... we live on an island ... we have a lot of those ...
But, Rainbow beach has very few rocks and is soft sand the whole way out, and there is, of course, the Rainbow Beach bar. Wet and sandy you can walk barefoot to the bar that overlooks the ocean and enjoy a sandwich, hamburger, or a caribbean quesadilla, and wash it all down with a mango or pina coloda. The bar tenders are jovial and nice, but I haven't spent that much time in bars over the age of 16, so it took me a second to understand when a small woman in the center of the bar asked if I wanted to keep my tab open, and if I did I would have to give her my debit card.
This same woman when I asked, "What would you suggest for a virgin drink?" replied, "I wouldn't". But she said it with a wink and was quick to make me a SUPER tasty drink.
It's funny, there aren't very many non drinkers here in St. Croix ... and when I say not many ... I mean pretty much none, and the drinking age here is only 18 ... so I am never carded, and people know that that's not why I am not drinking ... and drinking and driving, unfortunately, is a rather common and not entirely illegal acticivty here in St. Croix (there is no 'open container' law here), so people thinking I'm the DD is out too. Weirdly, sometimes when people learn that I don't drink they give me the cold shoulder ... (apparently it's hard to trust a non-drinker in St. Croix ... ;) ) but as people get to know me more ... the fact that my pina colada is virgin matters less and less. In fact, people are beginning to kind of like it, and think it's 'cute', the other day, I did shots with a bunch of my friends at the bar, everyone was having 'mexican sluts' (tequila and pickle juice) and I helped myself to a virgin mexican slut (everyone was quick to point out the oxymoron)... meaning all I had was the pickle juice (frankly, it was pretty tasty ;) ).
The people who frequent the bar and beach at Rainbow seem to fill every stereotype. First , you have the hippies. There is one, who is a friend of mine, with long scraggly blonde hair, who doesn't own a pair of shoes, and goes to Rainbow every weekend and brings with him his guitar, his beach towel, and some weed, and hunkers down with other like minded hippies and turtle enthuists down for the turtle season and chill and offer any passerby a puff on their pipe or a swig of spiced Cruzan Rum.
You have your 40+ men who hang out at the bar, having come to St. Croix as young men, and who have never seemed to be able to pull themselves away from the beach, the ocean, and their bar stool. Their skin is dark and leathery from thousands of days out on the water, they always have a smile on their face and a Presidente in their hand, and are happy to offer advice and stories about the good 'ole days on St. Croix.
You have the tourists, who with cameras in hand snap pictures of everything. 'This is a picture of our drink, this is the coaster, this is the bar tender, this is a girl we met at the bar, this is a picture of the sand, this a picture of ...' their cameras and their pink and red faces always seem to give them away, but right now during hurricane season they only sparsely dot the beach.
Then, of course, you have the younger fun seekers and people who suffer from general wander lust, such as myself. This a patchwork collection of college graduates, high school drop outs, and people who are still a little unsure of where life might take them. They work as tour guides (one friend sails people to and from Buck Island), servers in restaurants, or whatever other jobs they can find that pays rent, gas, and car payment, while still allowing for a little left over to get drinks at Rainbow.
The atmosphere is great. Often there is live music playing and people are kind and eager to make friends with the people that they meet, and everyone seems to look out for everyone else. The other day when I was at Rainbow before work (a benefit of not being a drinker) I was enjoying the sun set with everyone else ... but unfortunately the sun was hitting me right in the eye. A guy (with really cute curly hair ... I love me some curly hair) said, 'You need sunglasses!' and before I could say anything he walked behind me, and opened a door next to the stage area at the bar (which I latered learned is his studio apartment ... which is right on the beach ... that's pretty cool if you ask me), when he returned he offered me a choice of several different sunglasses, even a pair of pink ones. I looked at him inquisitively (because of the pink sun glasses) and he explained that he works at the bar and when the cruise ship passengers come they always seem to leave all sorts of things, and he has buckets of sun glasses, flip flops, and towels. So I now have someone's forgotten sunglasses in my room (thanks to whoever left them, I got several compliments! ;) ).
And for now, I get to enjoy my free time in a place where more and more people know my name, but either way, they're always glad I came.
With things speeding by so quickly, I have found a place to sit, relax, and let the world spin by just a little slower. For weeks now whenever we would tell people that we lived in Frederiksted they would mention our relatively close (only close if you have a car) proximity to Rainbow Beach with stars in their eyes and a faraway gaze that seemed to suggest years of happy memories there. This lead all of us Americorps peeps to get really excited to go to the beach and see what all of the fuss was about.
The first time that I saw the beach itself, I didn't quite understand the allure. It's a regular beach ... we live on an island ... we have a lot of those ...
But, Rainbow beach has very few rocks and is soft sand the whole way out, and there is, of course, the Rainbow Beach bar. Wet and sandy you can walk barefoot to the bar that overlooks the ocean and enjoy a sandwich, hamburger, or a caribbean quesadilla, and wash it all down with a mango or pina coloda. The bar tenders are jovial and nice, but I haven't spent that much time in bars over the age of 16, so it took me a second to understand when a small woman in the center of the bar asked if I wanted to keep my tab open, and if I did I would have to give her my debit card.
This same woman when I asked, "What would you suggest for a virgin drink?" replied, "I wouldn't". But she said it with a wink and was quick to make me a SUPER tasty drink.
It's funny, there aren't very many non drinkers here in St. Croix ... and when I say not many ... I mean pretty much none, and the drinking age here is only 18 ... so I am never carded, and people know that that's not why I am not drinking ... and drinking and driving, unfortunately, is a rather common and not entirely illegal acticivty here in St. Croix (there is no 'open container' law here), so people thinking I'm the DD is out too. Weirdly, sometimes when people learn that I don't drink they give me the cold shoulder ... (apparently it's hard to trust a non-drinker in St. Croix ... ;) ) but as people get to know me more ... the fact that my pina colada is virgin matters less and less. In fact, people are beginning to kind of like it, and think it's 'cute', the other day, I did shots with a bunch of my friends at the bar, everyone was having 'mexican sluts' (tequila and pickle juice) and I helped myself to a virgin mexican slut (everyone was quick to point out the oxymoron)... meaning all I had was the pickle juice (frankly, it was pretty tasty ;) ).
The people who frequent the bar and beach at Rainbow seem to fill every stereotype. First , you have the hippies. There is one, who is a friend of mine, with long scraggly blonde hair, who doesn't own a pair of shoes, and goes to Rainbow every weekend and brings with him his guitar, his beach towel, and some weed, and hunkers down with other like minded hippies and turtle enthuists down for the turtle season and chill and offer any passerby a puff on their pipe or a swig of spiced Cruzan Rum.
You have your 40+ men who hang out at the bar, having come to St. Croix as young men, and who have never seemed to be able to pull themselves away from the beach, the ocean, and their bar stool. Their skin is dark and leathery from thousands of days out on the water, they always have a smile on their face and a Presidente in their hand, and are happy to offer advice and stories about the good 'ole days on St. Croix.
You have the tourists, who with cameras in hand snap pictures of everything. 'This is a picture of our drink, this is the coaster, this is the bar tender, this is a girl we met at the bar, this is a picture of the sand, this a picture of ...' their cameras and their pink and red faces always seem to give them away, but right now during hurricane season they only sparsely dot the beach.
Then, of course, you have the younger fun seekers and people who suffer from general wander lust, such as myself. This a patchwork collection of college graduates, high school drop outs, and people who are still a little unsure of where life might take them. They work as tour guides (one friend sails people to and from Buck Island), servers in restaurants, or whatever other jobs they can find that pays rent, gas, and car payment, while still allowing for a little left over to get drinks at Rainbow.
The atmosphere is great. Often there is live music playing and people are kind and eager to make friends with the people that they meet, and everyone seems to look out for everyone else. The other day when I was at Rainbow before work (a benefit of not being a drinker) I was enjoying the sun set with everyone else ... but unfortunately the sun was hitting me right in the eye. A guy (with really cute curly hair ... I love me some curly hair) said, 'You need sunglasses!' and before I could say anything he walked behind me, and opened a door next to the stage area at the bar (which I latered learned is his studio apartment ... which is right on the beach ... that's pretty cool if you ask me), when he returned he offered me a choice of several different sunglasses, even a pair of pink ones. I looked at him inquisitively (because of the pink sun glasses) and he explained that he works at the bar and when the cruise ship passengers come they always seem to leave all sorts of things, and he has buckets of sun glasses, flip flops, and towels. So I now have someone's forgotten sunglasses in my room (thanks to whoever left them, I got several compliments! ;) ).
 |
| a picture of the bar at Rainbow beach ... LOVE it!!! |
And for now, I get to enjoy my free time in a place where more and more people know my name, but either way, they're always glad I came.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
The Lovely Little Dears ...
First things first, I apologize that it has been so long since I have updated the blog, things have been rather topsy turvey as of late (but all in a good way).
I work with the girls, and I currently am working the night shift, this means that my life right now is a bit of a cake walk. The children are frequently asleep by the time I get to work at 8:30 (even both of our teenagers), and all I do is keep an ear out for the baby and try desperately hard to stay awake. The first evening I brought in 'That Thing You Do' to watch at work. Several people who were on shift that night had never heard of it, and people would stop by momentarily to take a look at the movie, and ask me questions about why I liked it. I had a moment where I was instantly reminded of that website, you know the one called 'Stuff White People Like' (http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/).
Apparently, 'That Thing You Do' definitely qualifies.
The next night we started watching Tyler Perry plays, and I am quickly becoming an addict, (and DOWN with those who are quick to point out that almost every storyline is the same and holds the same message, and frequently even has the same characters ... DOWN WITH YOU ;) ).
The work is so sweet though. I have a group of amazing little girls who are so easy to love, it's almost ridiculous. One of my first nights, the little six year old in our bunch came to me and asked if I could sing to her until she fell asleep. As I sat on her twin bed singing "Look at Teddy" and "Tomorrow We'll Go to the Fair" I just felt full. There is something so incredibly satisfying about helping little ones to fall asleep. Their bodies, originally rigid with fighting sleep seem to melt as I sing, and coo, and stroke their backs, until slowly each muscle gently releases and the next thing I know, they are little puddles of sweetness fast asleep on their beds.
The baby sometimes will wake up in the night and because she shares a room with a 13 year old and a 6 year old, I try my best to snatch her before she wakes them up on a school night. When she wakes up 1 or 2 am, I pick her up out of her crib and put her on my hip as I grab a saucepan to boil some water. While we wait for the water to boil, and then for the water to cool in the freezer to drinkable temperatures, I give her kisses, rock her back and forth, and give her zerberts on her bare little belly (she's still never quite sure how much she enjoys those zerberts ;) ). She'll giggle and clap her hands (hand clapping gives this little baby girl A LOT of satisfaction in life) and her sweet little gray eyes just sparkle.
We have three older girls who are just little gems. The are sweet and kind and eager to be our friends. They like to gossip, watch movies about teenagers in the states, and play with each other's hair.
The children here LOVE my hair. Frequently they ask to touch or comb it or style it. In fact the very first time I met the children I was given a lovely hair style that I was asked to wear all day by a six year old girl, and two five year old boy hair styling assistants.
Mornings are full and begin at 5:30 am (I feel bad that we wake them so early), but we have to in order to fit in baths, breakfast, getting dressed and doing hair all before we leave to drop them all off at school. All of the children, excluding one, go to school in uniforms. The girls go in skirts, and dresses, wearing frilly socks and shiny patent leather shoes. I don't know how comfy they are in their uniforms, but I think that they are absolutely darling as you take them to school and you see them disappear in a sea of white collared shirts and gray and plaid dresses, while the boys wear white collared shirts and khaki pants to school. They are all just sweet and affectionate ... and I miss them on my days off. I have no idea what I'm going to do at the end of the year.
I work with the girls, and I currently am working the night shift, this means that my life right now is a bit of a cake walk. The children are frequently asleep by the time I get to work at 8:30 (even both of our teenagers), and all I do is keep an ear out for the baby and try desperately hard to stay awake. The first evening I brought in 'That Thing You Do' to watch at work. Several people who were on shift that night had never heard of it, and people would stop by momentarily to take a look at the movie, and ask me questions about why I liked it. I had a moment where I was instantly reminded of that website, you know the one called 'Stuff White People Like' (http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/).
Apparently, 'That Thing You Do' definitely qualifies.
The next night we started watching Tyler Perry plays, and I am quickly becoming an addict, (and DOWN with those who are quick to point out that almost every storyline is the same and holds the same message, and frequently even has the same characters ... DOWN WITH YOU ;) ).
 |
| From Tyler Perry's 'The Marriage Counselor' |
The work is so sweet though. I have a group of amazing little girls who are so easy to love, it's almost ridiculous. One of my first nights, the little six year old in our bunch came to me and asked if I could sing to her until she fell asleep. As I sat on her twin bed singing "Look at Teddy" and "Tomorrow We'll Go to the Fair" I just felt full. There is something so incredibly satisfying about helping little ones to fall asleep. Their bodies, originally rigid with fighting sleep seem to melt as I sing, and coo, and stroke their backs, until slowly each muscle gently releases and the next thing I know, they are little puddles of sweetness fast asleep on their beds.
The baby sometimes will wake up in the night and because she shares a room with a 13 year old and a 6 year old, I try my best to snatch her before she wakes them up on a school night. When she wakes up 1 or 2 am, I pick her up out of her crib and put her on my hip as I grab a saucepan to boil some water. While we wait for the water to boil, and then for the water to cool in the freezer to drinkable temperatures, I give her kisses, rock her back and forth, and give her zerberts on her bare little belly (she's still never quite sure how much she enjoys those zerberts ;) ). She'll giggle and clap her hands (hand clapping gives this little baby girl A LOT of satisfaction in life) and her sweet little gray eyes just sparkle.
We have three older girls who are just little gems. The are sweet and kind and eager to be our friends. They like to gossip, watch movies about teenagers in the states, and play with each other's hair.
The children here LOVE my hair. Frequently they ask to touch or comb it or style it. In fact the very first time I met the children I was given a lovely hair style that I was asked to wear all day by a six year old girl, and two five year old boy hair styling assistants.
Mornings are full and begin at 5:30 am (I feel bad that we wake them so early), but we have to in order to fit in baths, breakfast, getting dressed and doing hair all before we leave to drop them all off at school. All of the children, excluding one, go to school in uniforms. The girls go in skirts, and dresses, wearing frilly socks and shiny patent leather shoes. I don't know how comfy they are in their uniforms, but I think that they are absolutely darling as you take them to school and you see them disappear in a sea of white collared shirts and gray and plaid dresses, while the boys wear white collared shirts and khaki pants to school. They are all just sweet and affectionate ... and I miss them on my days off. I have no idea what I'm going to do at the end of the year.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
baby centipedes, an unfortunate allergy to bug repellent, and cops
Before I get started, I have to share some news! I have GIRLS!!!!!! (so I'm super excited, even though I was just a little bummed at first, because I had fallen so very much in love with the boys) and I work the night shift first ... which I think will be good for my naturally nocturnal nature. :)
So last night we discovered a couple interesting things ... since poor Megan has gotten here (a week ago) we have found at least one centipede every day and a couple days ago I killed a microscopic centipede in my room, and then Josh and Hayley killed one in their room ... and we think it's official ... there's some kind of centipede love shack in our house producing little centipede babies. We all decided to pitch in for Terminex, and now we're each going to be paying $9.00 a month to get rid of the little buggers! Which I am excited about!! No more having to fall asleep with my flashlight in my hand, just to check for sounds and etc. of moving centipedes, no more having to always wear shoes just so I have a weapon at my disposal at all times, no more having to douse my bedroom floor with Clorox water (I've done it so often that my room smells a little like an indoor pool sometimes, and I'm sure that my bedroom floor is clean enough to perform surgery on), and no more feeling a centipede crawl across my foot while I'm getting some water at the fridge ...
Also, we're all infested with some kind of little bug ... which may or may not be biting us while we sleep. Everyone else sprays themselves with bug repellent before they go to sleep ... I have an unfortunate and previously unknown allergy to regular skin repellent (my whole body gets hot and I get a deep red skin rash at the site where I use it). But either way I figure terminex will also help that ... as well as the purchase of a natural bug repellent.
Now onto the more exciting news. So you have to remember, it is dark here in St. Croix at 7 pm everyday and none of us are used to it quite yet. So it will only be 8 or 9 but it feels much later to all of us, and we all seem to wind down and go to bed around 9:45-10:00 (we're very exciting people, if you can't tell). Anywho, it was 9:40, and Josh and Hayley had already gone to their room, and I was sitting in the front room with Megan and Jerisa and we were chatting about this or that when Jerisa noticed a cop car pull up in front of our house. I went to the door to check and because it was idling for a little while in front of the house I decided that it must be Judy's son (who's a cop) because he had said that he would drive by on his shifts in Frederiksted just to check on us.
So, like an idiot, I walk out and begin waving at the cops in the car. They either didn't see me, or they chose to ignore me, and I heard one of them say, "They said that he's supposed to be running through here." And I saw a cop get out and walk closer to the "bush" (which is the jungle area by our house). Immediately it clicked that this wasn't a social visit. I closed the door behind me and decided it would be best to also lock it. I told Megan and Jerisa what I had heard, and we watched as the cop car turned into the lot of the vacant house across from ours, turned off it's lights and waited trying to be unseen. This was more excitement than we'd seen in a while, so I went to Josh and Hayley's room and asked if they wanted to see someone getting arrested, they jumped out of bed with a resounding YES, and we turned off our house lights and watched the scene unfold through our windows. Another cop car came and there where several cops waiting at the edge of the bush trying to hide and not be seen until someone popped through it. A few of the cops were holding their guns pointing them in the direction of a small path that runs through the bush.
We all reminded each other that if this turned into a gun fight to hit the deck, as we continued to peer through the windows, some eating ice cream, and me eating my dinner as we watched. *Here, I have to interject, the week before we moved into the house there was a murder a few feet from us in the bush where a man was stabbed and then set on fire, and there has been a huge man hunt for the perpetrator ever since, so we don't know but we all assume at this point that that's who they're trying to catch*
The cops continued to stand and wait, guns cocked and ready. At this point, my roommate says, "I thought that when I moved to the Caribbean I would miss the show COPS, but now I just watch it live outside my window!" Then after a few minutes they shined a big light into the bush ... waited a little while longer and then got back in their cars. As they were leaving, Jerisa heard one of the guys say, "I really want to catch that guy."
So that was our entertainment for the night ... living in the Caribbean is NEVER boring, I can say that much! ;)
So last night we discovered a couple interesting things ... since poor Megan has gotten here (a week ago) we have found at least one centipede every day and a couple days ago I killed a microscopic centipede in my room, and then Josh and Hayley killed one in their room ... and we think it's official ... there's some kind of centipede love shack in our house producing little centipede babies. We all decided to pitch in for Terminex, and now we're each going to be paying $9.00 a month to get rid of the little buggers! Which I am excited about!! No more having to fall asleep with my flashlight in my hand, just to check for sounds and etc. of moving centipedes, no more having to always wear shoes just so I have a weapon at my disposal at all times, no more having to douse my bedroom floor with Clorox water (I've done it so often that my room smells a little like an indoor pool sometimes, and I'm sure that my bedroom floor is clean enough to perform surgery on), and no more feeling a centipede crawl across my foot while I'm getting some water at the fridge ...
Also, we're all infested with some kind of little bug ... which may or may not be biting us while we sleep. Everyone else sprays themselves with bug repellent before they go to sleep ... I have an unfortunate and previously unknown allergy to regular skin repellent (my whole body gets hot and I get a deep red skin rash at the site where I use it). But either way I figure terminex will also help that ... as well as the purchase of a natural bug repellent.
Now onto the more exciting news. So you have to remember, it is dark here in St. Croix at 7 pm everyday and none of us are used to it quite yet. So it will only be 8 or 9 but it feels much later to all of us, and we all seem to wind down and go to bed around 9:45-10:00 (we're very exciting people, if you can't tell). Anywho, it was 9:40, and Josh and Hayley had already gone to their room, and I was sitting in the front room with Megan and Jerisa and we were chatting about this or that when Jerisa noticed a cop car pull up in front of our house. I went to the door to check and because it was idling for a little while in front of the house I decided that it must be Judy's son (who's a cop) because he had said that he would drive by on his shifts in Frederiksted just to check on us.
So, like an idiot, I walk out and begin waving at the cops in the car. They either didn't see me, or they chose to ignore me, and I heard one of them say, "They said that he's supposed to be running through here." And I saw a cop get out and walk closer to the "bush" (which is the jungle area by our house). Immediately it clicked that this wasn't a social visit. I closed the door behind me and decided it would be best to also lock it. I told Megan and Jerisa what I had heard, and we watched as the cop car turned into the lot of the vacant house across from ours, turned off it's lights and waited trying to be unseen. This was more excitement than we'd seen in a while, so I went to Josh and Hayley's room and asked if they wanted to see someone getting arrested, they jumped out of bed with a resounding YES, and we turned off our house lights and watched the scene unfold through our windows. Another cop car came and there where several cops waiting at the edge of the bush trying to hide and not be seen until someone popped through it. A few of the cops were holding their guns pointing them in the direction of a small path that runs through the bush.
We all reminded each other that if this turned into a gun fight to hit the deck, as we continued to peer through the windows, some eating ice cream, and me eating my dinner as we watched. *Here, I have to interject, the week before we moved into the house there was a murder a few feet from us in the bush where a man was stabbed and then set on fire, and there has been a huge man hunt for the perpetrator ever since, so we don't know but we all assume at this point that that's who they're trying to catch*
The cops continued to stand and wait, guns cocked and ready. At this point, my roommate says, "I thought that when I moved to the Caribbean I would miss the show COPS, but now I just watch it live outside my window!" Then after a few minutes they shined a big light into the bush ... waited a little while longer and then got back in their cars. As they were leaving, Jerisa heard one of the guys say, "I really want to catch that guy."
So that was our entertainment for the night ... living in the Caribbean is NEVER boring, I can say that much! ;)
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