It's a Small World

When you're driving all over an island that is only 290 square miles and populated by only 80,000 people or so, you're bound to start seeing the same people over again. After nearly 20 days on Dominica, the whole country is beginning to feel like a small town. Every time we drive through Roseau we see the same set of bums, usually in the same palces, and we have even taken to giving them names. The Wall-Walker, The Clapper, Flap Man, the one-armed man, and Moses Patrickson seem to be a majority of Roseau's homeless population. Recently I've also been seeing two mormon missionaries every day. We're also seeing the same cars again and again on the same roads. We know because of the names on the windshields. Tiger Boy, Centipede, Blue Within the Law, King of D Jungle, and The Original Shadow Warrior are among our favorites. People are beginning to know us too. When we tell people we're geologists, most already seem to know we're from Arkansas and are studying the volcano with GPS. Word apparently travels fast here.

In other news:
-Glen left the island today. Leaving us in the trusy hands of Richard, the masters student. He then promptly gave us the majority of the next 3 days off, telling us to go hiking or tag along with the other group of people here
-Speaking of the other group of people here, the other group of people are here. They're the other half of the REU and are based out of Cal State San Bernadino. They seem alirght, especially the prof, but I'm glad I'm in the Arkansas group. The new people seem to be a mix of extremes. There's one girl who grew up in urban New Orleans, one who is California Valley Girl, one who is a sterotypical MIT sorrity girl (she was running laps around a tree in the courtyard today for exercise), and the guys are both non-traditional undergrads in their late 20's.
-There were two 4.0 earthquakes in the northern part of the island on Monday. We couldn't feel them from where we were, and they're unlikely related to a volcano possibly acting up, but it's still cool to get a physical reminder that this place is active.
-I returned to the creek of my previous adventure and walked back to the waterfall yesterday. It was so much nicer since the water was clear and two feet lower. I didn't have that feeling of impending death hanging over me and I was actually able to enjoy the scenery a bit, as well as shake my head in disbelief when I looked up at the slope we had climbed up earlier in the week.