Dominica |
SEASON'S GREETINGS and HAPPY NEW YEAR from the LEES FAMILY in DOMINICA |
A
new year message for our friends and family who we seldom see these
days, since re-locating to Dominica a mere 18.5 years ago. It is
several years since I last posted a similar message and as we have sent
no Christmas cards this year it seems appropriate. This is the first
Christmas we have spent at home without our boys, so I will start with
a picture of us when we were last together at the beginning of the year. Below is a shot of Michael, who turned 23 in July, interviewing our neighbour at Newfoundland, Jem Winston, for a 30 minute documentary he made contrasting life in Dominica with life in the USA, where he has spent several years studying.
 Dominic will turn 20 in February. He completed his high school education in Canada in 2014 then spent a year at the Toronto Film School before deciding to study to be an electrician. His new course at Georgian College in Barrie begins in January. He is pictured here with his girlfriend of over a year, Julia, and her twin sisters.  2015 began with a visit from Cecily's long time friend, Opal, who still lives in London but has bought property here in Dominica not far from where we live and intends to relocate here eventually. She was here for the openning of Carnival in early February.   Cecily has begun easing herself out of the company she has run for the past 16 years, Safehaven Offshore and Real Estate, in preparation for a well earned retirement. I will probably continue to do their photography and graphic design work.  We were having a pretty good year until late August, when fallout from man made climate change struck in the way of a natural disaster, just one of many to have occurred around the world during the hottest year on record so far. In the early hours of 27th August, a category 3 tropical storm "Erika" passed slowly over Dominica, dumping a staggering 15" of rain over the entire island in just 12 hours. A deluge of this magnitude has never before been witnessed in all of Dominica's recorded history. Every river to our tiniest streams became raging torrents. Roads and bridges were damaged or destroyed, vehicles got washed away, houses flooded and some small communities in the east of the island became isolated or destroyed by land slippage. Over 60 people were reported dead or missing.   With the corporate puppet masters still pulling the political strings, the issue of climate change globally is still bieng treated far too lightly. It is my contention that a significant contributor to global warming is the additional release of methane into the atmosphere from a decade of fracking by "cowboy" contractors, the failures and contamination of which go largely under reported in the mass media. I make reference to the side effects of this destructive practice in my latest webpage devoted to this flawed and financially unviable industry, published in November 2015. In the absence of our boys this Christmas, the void was filled by our "surrogates", Jack & Paul, our long time friends from Guildford who visit regularly at this time of year. On Christmas Day Cecily prepared the perfect Christmas dinner of turkey and ham with all the trimmings. On Boxing Day we drove up to Newfoundland and spent an enjoyable 1 night stay with Jem at 3 Rivers.  On New Years Eve, my relative, David, arrived by ferry from Martinique for his first visit to Dominica, along with his wife, Harriet, and daughter, Amy. On New Year's Day we were invited for lunch by our friend Steve, who has a farm at Layou Park. He is a wonderful chef and we had a great time with he and his neighbours.  Till next time - here's wishing you all a happy and fulfilling 2016. |
       27 August 2015 Tropical Storm Erika  damage caused by TS Erika       
|
|
|
