Reminder

Just a quick reminder that two weeks from tonight, you can watch me on Jeopardy!

To find out when and on what channel Jeopardy! airs in your area, click here:

http://jeopardy.com/showguide/whentowatch/

Epiphany

Not commonly celebrated in the United States, January 6th marks the holiday of Epiphany, often referred to as Day of the Magi or Three Kings' Day throughout the rest of the world. January 6th is the 12th day of Christmas (Boxing Day, or the 26th of December, being the 1st day of Christmas), and marks the day that the Three Magi/Kings/Wise Men arrived in Bethlehem to present their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus. 

Just like in the US, Epiphany is not celebrated in the BVIs either. Here, it was just a standard work day. No parades or special religious services, just another January day. 

But HB and I had a little celebration of our own. You see, a gift finally arrived that had been a long time coming. It may be as valuable to some as gold, frankincense, or myrrh, but to me, it is indeed a prize. Mailed on September 1, the blanket that my mother sent finally arrived yesterday. 

More properly, it arrived in the BVI on the 26th of September, to the East End Post Office. Since I'd already checked the East End Post Office for it twice before that date, I had no idea it was sitting there. But yesterday, someone from the Post Office called my work to let me know I had a package that had "been [there] for quite a long time", and when I went to collect it, it proved to be the blanket both my mother and I had long ago given up as missing. 

I hope you all had such a fruitful Epiphany.

Lower Main Street

I took a walk down Main Street the other day, one of my favorite parts of Road Town. No longer the vibrant center of commerce it once was, I imagine it represents what most of Road Town looked like thirty or forty years ago, before the advent of offshore banking and cruise ships. Here are some photos from the lower part of Main Street.

Sunny Caribbee Spice Shop is kind of a cornerstone of Main Street, located as it is at the only real bend in the road. Their fresh and dried herb and spice selection is extensive.

GoodFellas ... Shoe Store? Many of the shops on Main are painted vibrant colors, but so too are many of the living spaces above the stores.

What exactly are the daily tasks of the Commissioner of Oaths?

Such pretty gingerbread trim.

Some important Club or Association was at the top of these steps.

Maybe a Broncos fan lives here?

This is the Pre-Colombian branch of the BVI Folk Museum

This vine put me in mind of Sweet Pea -- probably a sub-tropical relative.

The BVI Song

Since the on the Hyundai broke a few months ago, HB and I have primarily been listening to the one radio station that is broadcast from the BVI and plays music, 106.9. There are other stations broadcast here, but they primarily play church sermons. 106.9 plays a variety of reggae and hip-hop, so it's not really our usual fare, but I figure some music is better than no music to keep me company on my 30-minute drive to work. Lately, we've been happy the radio has been tuned to 106.9, as when we get in the car around 8:05 every morning, the same song has been playing.

The song that is brightening our day is not one that you've likely heard, unless you've been on Tortola. I have no idea what the title is, HB and I just refer to it as the BVI song. I've looked for a recording of it or lyrics for it online, but to no avail (so few BVI-centric items are on the internet). So here's a sampling of lyrics, sung in Caribbean patois, from what I can remember:

It's a beautiful day, such a beautiful day in paradise
The sun is shining, the palm trees sway; it's very nice.
Beautiful faces, Friendly places, ... something something ... be
This island nation is home sweet home
For you and me.

It brings a smile to our faces every time.

Cooking in the Dark

I know I promised there would be more, exciting information about how to import pets to the BVI today, but I am afraid I am going to have to postpone that until later in the week, as I want to share with you the difficulties we've been having lately with our utilties.

I've been avoiding writing about the inconsistent nature of our running water since it began a few days before Christmas. Having written so much here already about the questionable quality of our utilities, I didn't want to make it seem like the entirety of our existence on Tortola concerned battles with intermittent electricity and water.

You see, city water has been shut off about every other day since the 21st of December. Ordinarily, we could rely on the cisterns in our building to fill in the gaps of city water service, but our main (largest) cistern has a clogged pipe right now. We have three cisterns, but the two functioning cisterns have seemingly run dry trying to keep up with the demand. As a result, we've been making do with only having water occasionally.

We've had to take a few showers using one-gallon jugs of water that we'd stored for just such an event. Those have been ... refreshing(ly cold). When we hear the toilet tank start to fill at 4:30 in the morning, we both get up to take showers, in case the water cuts out again before the alarm goes off. Essentially, we've been doing our best to simply accept the situation and move on.

Last night, though, we returned from a swim at the beach to find the water still off, and as HB took a jug-shower, I started cooking dinner. I grabbed a gallon of water and filled a pot to boil my pasta, started sauteeing some vegetables, and the power went out. Now, thankfully, I did not need the oven for anything, as it cannot be lit without the electric starter. Also, thankfully, the stove burners can be lit quite easily with matches. So as I stood there in the dark, trying to cook dinner and maintain a semblance of normalcy despite the lack of electricity and water, I decided it was time to write about utilities again.

We lit some candles, and used our battery-operated lamps, and the electricity came back on about 20 minutes later. Dinner was delicious, and we had water again when I left the house this morning. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the water will still be on when I get home tonight; otherwise, it's more jug-showers for HB and me.

Tortola, Ho! Part 4a: Pet Import Permit

Once HB decided to accept the job in the BVIs, the matter that became front and center for us was how to move the dogs with us. Research was definitely the first step, and these are the sites that were most helpful for us:

Pet Import Info:

BVI Conditions for Pet Importation

Pet Importation Information (not an official site; may contain incorrect information)

More Pet Importation Information (not an official site; may contain incorrect information)

Caribbean Pet Entry Requirements (great intro resource for people going somewhere other than the BVI)

The first website listed actually provides the first two pages of the BVI Pet Import Permit Application. The third page, which is not shown in that link, is the Permit Application itself, which is a brief, fill-in-the-blank form to provide the basic information about the pet, its owners, and its shots. The difficult part comes in all the things that have to be attached to the Application. To obtain a blank Application, you can call the BVI Department of Agriculture at 284-495-2110, and they will fax one to you.

The primary item that needs to be attached to the Application is a Health Certificate. In the case of people coming from the US, the Health Certificate must be filled out and signed by a USDA-certified Vet. The Health Certificate must then be sent to the USDA APHIS field office for your state and be stamped and signed by the APHIS vet. To find your APHIS field office, go to: www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/area_offices/

Note that if you are planning on flying your pets, most airlines require the Health Certificate to have been stamped within 10 days of the flight. As a result, you will need to plan on sending your Application (with attached Health Certificate) to the BVI by fedex, with a return fedex envelope. Application processing usually takes about 2-4 business days. In our case, we didn't know about the 10-day requirement, and so had to get a second Health Certificate filled out and stamped in order to get Flash and Roscoe on a plane.

So, getting a piece of paper filled out by your vet and signed by the USDA doesn't sound too difficult, right? Tomorrow, we'll examine all the components that go into preparing the Health Certificate.

New Year

Happy New Year from the British Virgin Islands. A little trivia for your New Year's Eve party next year: Here, the 31st of December is known as Old Year's Night, not New Year's Eve.

HB and I were thinking last night that at this time last year, we had no plans to move to the Caribbean, or to move anywhere. All indications were that we would settle in to our rental in Florida for another few years, until we decided on our next adventure. Instead, our next adventure decided on us.

What was unexpected about your 2010?