Election Fever!

It's hot now in Dominica.  Dominica is alive with election fever(not a literal fever).  The current leading party declared elections for December 18 after an ultimatum from an opposing party.  All parties are holding campaign rallies.

United Workers Party Rally in St. Joseph on Sunday November 29, 2009

photo found on www.dominicanewsonline.com

The current leadership is the Labour Party and there are two other active parties - The United Workers Party and The Freedom Party.  I've heard of another party called the People's Democratic Movement but I don't have much information about them.  Each party has their own symbol and color to represent them.  The Labour Party symbol is the shoe and their color is red.  The United Workers Party symbol is the saw and their color is blue.  The  Freedom Party symbol is the hand and their color is green.


My hubby has lived out of Dominica from before he attained the age to vote so this will be his first time engaging in the process.  I've voted before but I've had to change my voting district since I now live in St. Joseph.  We've been listening with much interest to the many news accounts and various party rallies held which are carried live.  It is sometimes difficult to listen to both sides because frequently they hold their meetings on the same night and one radio station would carry one meeting live and another radio station would carry the other meeting live but we are doing the best we can to gather and assimilate and ponder on the information we receive.  We are definitely in prayer about it and we want to make sure we are led by the Lord when we place our X next to any candidate's name.

The Prime Minister and leader of the Dominica Labour Pary - Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit

photo found on www.thedominican.net

The leader of the United Workers Pary - Ron Green

photo found on www.dominicanewsonline.com

The leader of the Dominica Freedom Party - Judith Pestaina

photo found on www.thedominican.net

Come Friday December 18 I will be following with much interest the counting of the ballots in each constituency.  I'm not sure I'll get much sleep that night so I'm going to make sure I rest up and eat more energy giving foods over the next couple of weeks so I'll be alert.  It's going to be an interesting time for sure. I'm excited! It's hot! It's fever - Election fever!

Waitukubuli

Today is Independence Day in Dominica and I am at a ladies retreat which started on Monday evening. I will return home on Wednesday but wanted to share something from last year's Independence with you.

As part of our cultural celebrations last year there was a youth rally held in the capital city of Roseau. I missed the event because I was still dealing with high temperatures but my darling hubby and sister in law took some wonderful photos.

Among the event was a modeling competition. My sister in law Donna was part of the team who sewed the dress of the 2nd runner up. It is really beautiful. Here is a picture of it:

The dress alludes to one of our island's names - Waitukubuli.

Other Scenes from Our Beach Day

Here are some more scenes from our beach day a few weeks ago as mentioned in a previous post called - Wifey Wednesday - Family Time:




















We drove up a mountainside and this was the view. Superific!



Hope you enjoyed the pictures of my beautiful homeland called Dominica. These pictures are West Coast scenes because that's where we live.

My Monday

Monday was a field trip for the boys and another day of exploration for us. My hubby’s parents and our family went to the Dublanc area to do some things and we decided to go exploring afterward. Here are the pics of the boys field trip today:

A view of the sea:

The boys standing on the overhang where we could look at the view above:

There was a craft shop owned by a guy named Jomo:


Here's a sample of the beautiful items in his shop:








Some curtains in progress:

The boys looking at some of the craft items:
Hubby looking at some of the curtains in progress:




He also had a garden behind and around his craft shop. A pumpkin growing at the bottom of the flower:


Pumpkins a bit more developed:

Watermelon seedlings:

The majestic mountains in the area:



A few miscellaneous pictures of around the area:

I have no idea what this used to be but found it interesting:

The boys also had a lesson in how knives and cutlasses(machetes) are sharpened:

After they finished what we came to do we went to the park at the foot of the tallest mountain in Dominica which is 4747 ft. It is called Morne Diablotin.

Hubby and I are looking at the possibility of climbing that mountain with the boys in about 3 months after intensive training to build up our bodies for this hike.


On the way there we discovered this funny looking fruit but had no idea what it was: