Editorial comment: This post was duly written two weeks back – March 17th, but, with no time and less Wi-Fi, I am only now posting. So, turn back the calendar and here’s the scoop.)

I know I promised to write this next post about the amazing, but sadly destroyed, Rosalie Bay Resort where I am staying on the east side, in rural Dominica. However, I am going to preempt that post and instead tell you about my week, the week of March 17th. However, not to keep you unfairly in suspense, here are a few post-Hurricane Maria photos of Rosalie Bay Resort, since it will now be several posts before I do justice to this once exquisite, (and with definite plans to become a future, amazing) place!

To recap, my part of the IsraAID (israaid.co.il/) mission here is to re-roof the homes of school children in 6 rural Dominican communities, all of which are isolated, badly damaged, and completely without power. (And that is on a good day). In fact, nearly 75% of the entire Island area, (not population) is without power. I don’t have the population estimates without power, but, the hardship is real and as is always the case, falls most heavily on those most vulnerable. A bit out of sequence, but, I must tell you how eerie it is to have night fall in these communities and then watch the countryside descend into total darkness as we drive back to our Base smelling heavily of the wood-smoke from the cooking fires being used to prepare evening meals.

On our daily drives to these communities, (road hazards aside – it’s a bit scary to realize how nonchalant one can become about dodging downed power poles and hanging power lines), we experience the exquisite beauty of the island, its coastline cliffs, and unspoiled beaches.

This is jarringly juxtaposed with acres and acres of palm trees stripped bare by the hurricane winds, leaving behind seriously damaged hillsides scarred by the resulting landslides, (just one more omni-present road hazard.)

This next reference is going to inexorably date me – but, “Let your fingers do the walking” was a very popular telephone yellow pages campaign while I was growing up. That construct has never made it here. If you need to make anything happen, you gotta’ show-up in person. Period. Cell phone service is currently an exercise in futility, exacerbated by the bizarre fact that there are two different carriers here, which operate in totally separate universes. While you *can* call between the carriers you must pay per minute, which sucks your phone plan dry. Many people carry a Smart phone for their primary carrier, and a “stupid” phone (local terminology not mine), for the alternate carrier. Even then the bizarre billing plans which we have yet to figure out, consume our credit at a prodigious pace, and are constantly demanding to be topped up.

Either way, huge swathes of the Island have zero cell coverage, awaiting repair, and when you add that to no power or Wi-Fi, you have a lot of very frustrated people venting barely repeatable opinions on the local radio stations. This has given rise to the phenomenon of Dominica being known as the WhatsApp nation. The domestic use of WhatsApp in Dominica is universal – it crosses both networks and typically works on even the most limited cell connection. I am a total fan.

Despite our best efforts to the contrary, we spent this week circumnavigating the island with 2+ hour drives between communities. Logistics are complicated here, and everything takes way more time than feels reasonable. Early in the week we traded in our prior ride for a heavy-duty pick-up, clearly an upgrade. But, equally important, we left behind the two, (I swear standard rental-car issued), CDs – which forced us to alternate between Japanese Jazz and Bob Marley. The Israeli Engineers preferred the Japanese Jazz… go figure.

Since this post has already gotten (too) long, I will end here and continue it later.
Just to summarize, despite our hopes to accomplish much (much) more, it has been a good week, with some important progress on our 3 major tasks, which I will detail in my next post:
1. Finding construction contractors and local beneficiary workers who will re-roof homes for our beneficiary families
2. Surveying our beneficiary home owners to assess the damage and prioritize their vulnerability
3. Acquiring desperately needed materials and tooling needed to re-roof.

Spoiler alert – much of the next post has already been written, and I am going to post it separately in a few days. This will help me do a better job of staying in touch regularly, especially critical since I have heard from some of you that you have no idea if I am still alive, (yes, Mom and Sue, I am – please put WhatsApp on your phone and I will be easier to track down), and eating, (more on that later).

More to come.