Last week saw some pretty heavy rain up around these parts. No flooding where I live on the island but some places near rivers got it bad. I found a Youtube video on the flooding so you can get an idea. So all that rain and then the wind starts this week. With the ground so wet, the wind just blows the trees down. Yesterday there was no power when I woke and so I went right into the coffee shop to get some warmth and internet. About 30 minutes after I arrived the power went there too. I chilled and watched a video on my laptop hoping the power would come back but after a while I left. I guess the entire island was without power plus many surrounding areas. I stayed up with my gramma, cooked some hot chocolate, soup, and toast over the fire. Then we found some batteries and got out some old radio shows on cassette tapes. Made for some entertainment. Filled up my hot water bottle and went to bed a bit early. Power finally came back on around 4:30am so it was gone for more than 24 hours at my house.

This morning I cleaned up some of the branches off the tennis court up near my aunt's cabin. I also got to take a warm shower and shave :). It's way too cold here. I'm looking for an apartment with a friend since I finally got a job so I should be moving away soon. Not gonna get any warmer any time soon but my new job will have travel so hopefully some warm areas sometimes. Well, until next time....

So I finally found that there is a Seattle Reggae scene. Found a flyer down at this Pan-African restaurant I went to with my Peace Corps recruiter in Seattle. They have a website which is cultureyard.com so I checked it out and saw that Antony B was coming to town! He's a pretty big artist in Jamaica so I bought a ticket not even knowing who I was going to go with. I was pretty excited because believe it or not throughout my whole two years in Jamaica, I never made it to a concert or stage show. I went to one for New Years Eve my first year but the show was rained out. So, I found another returned volunteer in Seattle who I knew somewhat in Jamaica and she agreed to go. I also invited a friend and his girlfriend who I bought tickets for online.

Well, about two hours before the show I got the email that the show had been canceled. Seems Anthony B had made it up to Portland, Oregon the night before but decided there wasn't enough attendance to come to Seattle. What a let down. I had been playing the reggae music cable channel all day on the tv and had all my Cooyah clothes on. I was ready to go! So anyways, quite a bummer. I don't see any other events anytime soon with names that I am really interested in so we'll see what happens. Over at cultureyard.com, they don't seem too happy with the cancellation either.

Just wanted to let everyone know that my photos from the trip to New Orleans are up in the Photos section. They're under the Visiting Friends album.

Some of the interesting shots are of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Bridge. Longest bridge in the world at 23 miles! Some other shots of the effects of Hurricane Katrina still lingering. If you haven't checked out Spike Lee's When The Levees Broke -- A Requiem in Four Parts I'd suggest looking at it. It was an HBO special but you can find it on bittorrent if you're resourceful. Probably find it somewhere else too by now. Certainly interesting.

Gotta thank John again for showing me around while I visited. Hope I can get down there again sometime for Jazz or Mardi Gras.

I guess it was bound to happen. After hearing rumours of Japanese tourists breaking their neck, I now see in print that the dutty wine has been blamed in the death of an 18 yr old girl in Jamaica.

For those who don't know, the dutty wine has been a popular dance in Jamaica for a while now. If you want to see the dance in action all you need is a search of youtube.

Anyways, it's sad but I guess when people want to do something badly enough you can't stop them. Might sound callous but it seems like common sense that if you do something so extreme you could hurt yourself. Sorry for her family though.