Feed My Sheep Orphanage - Mahaut, Dominica
Thanks to a lot of work from Offshore Passage Opportunities(OPO) and the dedicated locals at PAYS in Portsmouth, Dominica hosts a yearly cruisers appreciation week. Hank Schmidt, the owner and operator of OPO, has worked to build and support a local mooring field for visiting boats. The Salty Dawgs chose to rendezvous in Dominica during the same week, and our friends Brian and Shelly hosted the gathering. About 15 boats from the Salty Dawgs, many of whom we knew from our passage from Virginia, arrived here for the party, celebration, and volunteer opportunities. We have all worked hard and partied hard, and I think Kel and I are ready to collapse into the V-berth and binge watch something for a few days.
While here, we built and placed 8 new mooring lines for the anchorage, helped clear a section of the Watikibuli Trail (it meanders 114 miles across this island), framed and constructed two new rooms for orphanage (the 8 orphans have been sleeping behind a tarp in another building since Hurricane Maria), painted and cleaned their kitchen, moved a pile of boulders to support their water tanks, danced late into the night in a Carnival parade, and hosted a music jam session for the cruisers and locals.
We accomplished all our goals and it is a wonderful feeling of satisfaction. However, looking around the shelter before our bus ride back north to the boat, my only thought was: they need a few more months of our time. There is still so much to do. Honestly, I am a bit overwhelmed and we both need some time to process it all.
Tomorrow night, the Dominican government is hosting a dinner at Fort Shirley for all the cruisers. Monday, we will drop the mooring and head to Martinique. We will give a young man we've worked with a ride to Martinique to visit his auntie.
We've met some very dedicated cruisers that spend months here each year supporting the locals in a variety of ways. Some, like Marcario Advantage, live on a beautiful catamaran and have their own non-profit in full swing. Others, such as Sailing for a Smile live on an extremely tight budget and use YouTube to raise funds for schoolchildren in Portsmouth. The Dominican people have welcomed us and shared this beautiful place they live in. They are rebuilding and hoping for a light hurricane season. They have a reverence for nature's beauty and fury. Next year, Kel and I will come back and we want to hike the entire Waitukubuli Trail end to end over a 2 week period.
While here, we built and placed 8 new mooring lines for the anchorage, helped clear a section of the Watikibuli Trail (it meanders 114 miles across this island), framed and constructed two new rooms for orphanage (the 8 orphans have been sleeping behind a tarp in another building since Hurricane Maria), painted and cleaned their kitchen, moved a pile of boulders to support their water tanks, danced late into the night in a Carnival parade, and hosted a music jam session for the cruisers and locals.
We accomplished all our goals and it is a wonderful feeling of satisfaction. However, looking around the shelter before our bus ride back north to the boat, my only thought was: they need a few more months of our time. There is still so much to do. Honestly, I am a bit overwhelmed and we both need some time to process it all.
Tomorrow night, the Dominican government is hosting a dinner at Fort Shirley for all the cruisers. Monday, we will drop the mooring and head to Martinique. We will give a young man we've worked with a ride to Martinique to visit his auntie.
We've met some very dedicated cruisers that spend months here each year supporting the locals in a variety of ways. Some, like Marcario Advantage, live on a beautiful catamaran and have their own non-profit in full swing. Others, such as Sailing for a Smile live on an extremely tight budget and use YouTube to raise funds for schoolchildren in Portsmouth. The Dominican people have welcomed us and shared this beautiful place they live in. They are rebuilding and hoping for a light hurricane season. They have a reverence for nature's beauty and fury. Next year, Kel and I will come back and we want to hike the entire Waitukubuli Trail end to end over a 2 week period.
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