Alex was accepted into Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine (RUSVM) which is located on St Kitts, and I am tagging along. I managed to hunt down a job working at a small prep school on the campus of RUSVM that caters to the children of professors and older students. Even though my background is in Special Education, I took what they were offering, which was as a middle school science teacher and a preK through 9 PE teacher. It's nice to have a full time job to challenge me and earn us cash, but some times I wonder if it's THAT nice. The way it's scripted now, I 'll be spending from noon to 3 pm, Monday through Friday, outside under the Caribbean sun playing duck, duck, goose, freeze tag, and volleyball. I know that sounds like fun to many, but I am of Irish decent. The sun is not my friend.
We arrived, alive, at about 2pm on Monday, Aug 24th, 2009. Things went well enough on the trip down. We had packed up our lives in Boston, put them in storage in Alex’s parent’s home in New Hope, PA (thanks Paul & Kathey for that) and stuffed our luggage to the gills with clothes and supplies. Our bags made it down with us, although we had to pay US$50 for having a bag that was a bit too heavy (but what’s 15 lbs over between friends?!). What can I say? I needed to pack oatmeal, and textbooks, and computer speakers, and shampoo, and dress shirts, and toilet paper, and sun block, and so on, and so forth, etc, etc, etc. I simply can not live without these things. They are at the core of my being.
We were ready to pay for a cab to campus, when we bumped into reps from Ross who were waiting to greet us. I don't know if they intended to give us a ride, but after some talking they did. We made it to campus with our hulking pieces of luggage intact. Besides a little smashing of my granola bars, everything made it down OK.
The campus is empty right now except for us and a few administrative employees, security guards, and maintenance people. It's a nice campus on a beautiful patch of land over looking the Caribbean. There is a lot of building going on right now as the university looks to upgrade it's facilities. These dorms are only two years old and there are new classrooms and a fitness space slated to be up and running by January.
The first evening we were in we called Mr. Rogers, a local man with a van who, for a fee, will give you a ride to where you need to go (it's about US$7.50 per person). We asked him to recommend a spot for dinner, seeing as how the few places I knew of were all closed because it was a Monday. He brought us out to Sunset Cafe, a nice restaurant with outdoor seating on a stretch of sand called Timothy Beach. I believe it may have named after my older brother, but I'll need to double check that. Dinner was nice. I had the chicken roti, which is an Asian take on the burrito that's popular in India and Pakistan. Al went for the red snapper filet, which she said was delicious. We walked around a bit to size the place up and then headed home.
On Tuesday we decided to head into downtown Basseterre to explore and buy some supplies. There are no busses in the US sense; massive road warriors with municipal employees behind the wheel. These busses are privately owned (and decorated) 14-seat vans that run a consistent route around the island. They will stop anywhere on the road when flagged down. It costs us EC$2.50 for a ride into town, which is just under US$1. It's a pretty good deal.
Downtown Basseterre is not all that large. It's comprised of about 20 small street blocks and can be maneuvered through relatively thoroughly in about an hour. It has a style that reflects the British colonial influence, the vibrant colors of the Caribbean, and the poverty that can be found throughout the island. Despite it not being as common a destination as places like St. Maarten or the US Virgin Islands, there is still a large tourism industry, in comparison to others on the island. There are a great deal of nick-nacks and pirate-themed products to be baught (thank you, Johnny Depp).
Al and I strolled around for a bit and then decided to stop in at a grocery store to buy some start up supplies. Walking around Ram's grocery store it was nice to see the same basic supplies you would find in the states. The way people had been talking to us about their experiences on St Kitts, you would have thought we'd be wiping our rears with sea cucumbers due to a lack of TP. This was not the case. While some things were more expensive (such as two rolls of paper towels for over US$9) there were also deals to be had, such as loaves of bread for roughly US$0.85. In my opinion, the prices weren't that much more outrageous than what we saw around Boston. There were concerns about the freshness of some produce, which was highlighted by observing two young men restocking a freezer with frozen pizzas, only to take a 20 minute break. They chose to leave the door propped open and half of the to-be-stocked pizzas sitting on the ground. Nice.
Al and I loaded up with almost EC$400 worth of groceries (at EC$2.67 to every US$1) and headed home, again on the busses. It was a tight fit, and when we got out the driver tried to make us pay him an additional EC$2.50 for the seat the groceries had 'sat' on. I took out coins worth EC$1.05, looked him in the eye, and said "this is what I have and you're welcome to it." He stared at me for a second as if to size up his options, and then took the change and left. It was nice to stand up for something I didn't think was just or fair, and it was a fine compromise.
