I'm an Emigrant!

Here is my first of what should hopefully be an interesting blog, tracking the next 28 weeks.

In the past few days, an awful lot has happened... most notably, I now live in the rainforest island of Dominica - over 4000 miles from home.

This is more difficult to wrie than you would expect so I'm just going to bullet point the main things:

• Thank you to those who came to my party and wished me good luck for this massive adventure. I had a lovely evening - despite the tears and it was great to spend time with you all.
• Packing was a nightmare - as to be expected but, somehow I managed to get everything in, including 2kg of Haribo!  
• The 9 hours of flying was tiring and the arrival would have been lovely, had my baggage turned up. I later learnt that this is a common occurrence and the flight company LIAT is infamous for "leaving luggage in any town!" I have now got my luggage back - phewww!
• I have eaten plenty of Dominican food - lovingly cooked by June-June, who cooks lunch for anyone who happens to turn up (probably around 20 people!). Codfish (a salty dish with herbs), Barracuda, Rice & Beans, Dashin, Breadfruit, Green Banana, Roasted Plantain...
• The church is a typical Pentecostal church (although this is in fact rare as the national religion is Catholicism), and the Pastor is exactly as you would picture him - loud, and smiley :) I am yet to see the church in full swing, on a Sunday, but I'm sure it'll be very lively! 
• Yesterday I went up to the mountains in Salisbury with a couple and a farmer, the views were absolutely amazing and the oranges we picked were soooooo yummy :) The drive was rather scary though with incredibly thin, windy, steep & bumpy, unmade roads!

So far everyone I've met has been incredibly friendly and helped me to settle in and find my feet. The natural beauty of Dominica is amazing and the sun is glorious, the odd rainfall expected of the rainforest is dried up with in minutes and today I've seen lots of beautiful rainbows. The buildings and streets are mainly decrepit and in comparison to the UK things are very far behind.

I start work tomorrow at Pioneer Primary School and will be visiting more of the projects soon. 

So far so good.