Technology

I've made vague reference on this blog in the past to the fact that I work in a hotel here in the BVI. It's true, I do. I try not to post anything particularly specific or sensitive about my work, as I do not want to jeopardize either my employment or my employer with what I post here. Nonetheless, there are days when I just want to use my blog to vent. Today is one of those days.

If you are a business traveler, and the most important aspect of your trip is that you have internet access at your hotel -- stay in a hotel that specifically targets business clientele. Don't tell your secretary that any hotel with internet access will do. A business hotel will have a help desk to get you connected to the internet because you are unable to do so yourself. They will have people trained in technological assistance. A hotel targeted to tourists likely will not.

If you are a business traveler, and the most important aspect of your trip is that you have internet access at your hotel -- own a computer that is fewer than 10 years old. Don't still be running Windows 95 as your OS. Even very technologically savvy people cannot navigate the maze of encryption options Windows 95 throws up. Windows Vista and Windows 7 just ask for the password, and figure out the encryption type on their own.

If you are a business traveler, and the most important aspect of your trip is that you have internet access at your hotel -- know how to change the language settings on your computer. Although I can connect pretty much anything, even a computer running Windows 95, to our wireless network, I can't do it in Swedish. I also can't change the language settings myself, because your computer is IN SWEDISH and I have no idea how to say "Control Panel" in Swedish.

If you are a business traveler, and the most important aspect of your trip is that you have internet access at your hotel -- the Caribbean is your enemy. When the technical help at the hotel fails you, there is no one else to ask. Sure, there are IT guys, but many of them don't make housecalls. And no one in the Caribbean moves at the vital speed you expect.

So, since there are no Swedish-speaking IT guys that will make it here to help you out before tomorrow, allow me to explain to you the concept of limin' ...

Penance

Grey rainy days like today

are penance for all the days we get like this:

I hate it when a tropical wave comes in and it's rain and grey skies for three days straight. But if that's the price for the other 250 or so days of the year, I'll gladly pay the piper.

Hummingbirds

Here it is, not a Sunday, and I am going to write about animals. My reasons for this are twofold. First, I am simply too excited about the pictures HB took on Sunday to hang on to them for a long time. Second, I am changing my posting schedule for the blog to Tuesday through Saturday, and uncertain where the weekly Creature Feature is going to fall.

We learned this past Sunday, that our Q-tip plant is quite attractive to hummingbirds. When I spotted an Antillean Crested Hummingbird flitting about it early in the morning, I figured there'd be no way I'd manage to get pictures. But HB camped out for about an hour, and managed to get some great shots.

Later in the day, our crested friend was joined by a Green-Throated Carib Hummingbird, who obligingly posed on a branch for me, as did the Crested.

Now if only I could manage to get a few photos of the bananaquits that fly in and out of the mango trees, I would be quite content.

Noni

Every now and again, a co-worker of mine or of HB's will give us an interesting piece of fruit, something we have inevitably been unfamiliar with up to that point. The marmy apple one of the gardeners at work gave me is probably the most appetizing of the new fruits we've tried, although the genips this past summer were pretty good, too.

A few days ago, HB received this:

Called a noni, this russet-potato-sized fruit is, as HB's coworkers promptly informed him, not good for anything. Apparently, the flesh is far too bitter to be worth trying to eat. One person told him he could put the fruit in a jar and let it ferment. After fermenting for several weeks, the juices would apparently make an excellent health-tonic, due to the large quantities of micronutrients found in the noni.

Having done battle with so much mold and other spores since living here, I was reluctant to let the noni ferment in the house, so HB and I left it sitting on the counter for a few days until we could come up with a better use for it. Unfortunately, I did not read that wikipedia link earlier, and woke up this morning with a full understanding of why the noni is sometimes called the "vomit fruit".

Into the trash and out of the house it went. Hopefully the next intriguing fruit will be less odoriferous.

Creepy Creature Feature

Just in time for Halloween, today's creepy creature feature is a story that would never happen in the States.

Yesterday morning at work, I was trying to send a fax. I placed the pages in the document feeder, dialed the number, and pressed "Start".

The first page went through with seemingly no problem, but the second page jammed -- an unusual occurrence for our fax machine. Thinking little of it, I grabbed the page and pulled it out of the feeder, clearing the jam. As I turned it over to put it back in the tray, I noticed a long red streak on the page, punctuated at the end by a tiny lizard arm.

Apparently, a small anole had thought the document feeder on the fax machine was a great place to sleep, and was taken unawares when I started faxing yesterday. I had to pull the bodily remnants out of the feeder, but the tail of the anole was caught in something, and I was unable to get the tail out of the feeder, even though I spent an unsuccessful hour yesterday trying to disassemble the fax machine and get the tail out.

The tail is no longer providing enough resistance to jam the document feeder, but every third page or so, we get little pieces of anole skin on the paper as it passes through the fax machine.

If that wasn't enough of a gross out for you, I also found this giant centipede on the property yesterday:

6:15 am

I started a new schedule at work at the beginning of the month. Instead of 9-5, I'm working 8-4, and it's been amazing what a difference an hour makes in my day. Perhaps my favorite change is the different side of the BVIs I get to see when I'm forced to get up at 6:15 instead of 7:15. As the days are getting shorter, and my waking time comes closer and closer to sunrise, I am more and more astounded.

This morning, I walked out on our deck and watched this squall move in.

While I walked the dogs, the squall passed from east to west, "across our bow", as it were, only ever bringing a few small drops to shore. Well to the west, the rain wall and the sun met to form a rainbow.

The longer I watched, the brighter the rainbow became, until it was so bright, it was reflected in the ocean below, giving the strange impression of a rainbow turned on its side.

The whole show was over by about 6:45, and were it not for my recent schedule change, I would have missed it all.

Elections

It is election time in the BVI. With November 7th, election Monday, moving ever closer, the most noticeable aspect of the upcoming elections are the candidate signs sprouting up everywhere.

For a non-belonger like me, the campaign signs are the only part of election season particularly relevant to me. My work permit status, unsurprisingly, does not carry with it the right to vote. I have recently heard a little bit of rhetoric from candidates on the radio, suggesting that all non-belongers should be expelled from the BVI, in order to allow belongers to take their jobs. The economics of this proposition make it extremely unlikely, however, as the government garners far too much revenue from non-belonger work permit fees.

In a territory with a population estimated around 27,000, there are approximately 11,000 registered voters, divided into nine districts. Each district elects one member of the legislative council, which also has four at-large seats, voted on by all voters.

Stakes are high in this year's election. The UK has recently indicated that if the BVI government can't get it together, the UK may require all budgets be submitted to the UK government for review before being passed by the BVI government. Very few BVI-islanders want this kind of intervention, and so the incumbent VIP (Virgin Islands Party) is placed in the awkward position of justifying their continuing in power, having led the BVI to this potential consequence.

The opposition NDP (National Democratic Party) seems to be reveling in pointing out the incompetence of the VIP in budgetary matters, but unlike the VIP, has not yet released their "manifesto", being the written version of the party's platform.

Long-time BVI residents say they are impressed by the unusually high numbers of independent or third-party candidates that seem to be doing quite well pre-election. Many, though, are disillusioned by the entire election process, claiming that the only noticeable difference between governments is in who is awarded the government contracts. The general belief is that contract corruption runs high.

VI News online has a page dedicated to ongoing coverage of the BVI elections, for those interested in learning more.