Snorkeling and an Electrical Fire

We have had an adventurous couple of days. Brian arrived safely and he has rediscovered is love for snorkeling! I think we have gone snorkeling every single day so far. I am quite burnt! Our other two guests arrive tomorrow. It is so nice to have visitors, especially visitors who bring you cereal!!!!

But nothing is more adventurous than the electrical fire on Saturday night. We received a phone call around 9 pm from our friend Paul. He informed us that a fan had caught fire at Kimi and Cort's house while they were at dinner. Apparently when Cort came home and opened the door, smoke poured out of the apartment. The fan had filled the entire apartment with a thick black smoke which unfortunately coated everything in the apartment. Paul had called everyone in the church and other friends to help clean up the mess because Kimi and Cort were leaving the island that morning at 4 am. (Horrible timing right?!) We had several friends over at our house when we received the phone call so Josh stayed to entertain the guests while I went over to assess the scene. What I found was shocking. In one part of the apartment was Cort, who was covered head to toe in black dust and arguing with the landlords over damages. (The landlords did not want anyone to touch the wall or attempt to clean up the mess... we think they wanted $$$ and a new apartment courtesy of Kimi and Cort). Throughout the rest of the apartment were several families and friends scrubbing walls and removing items from the apartment. The hardest part of the night was figuring out how to remove the black film from the walls and ceiling. Soapy bleach water and rags removed the majority off but there was still a significant tint to the walls. The miracle device were magic erasers! These little white magic sponges made that apartment sparkle. Except in the bedroom where the fire originated, the rest of the apartment looked better than it did before the incident. Most of us worked until close to 2am. Even though it was an unfortunate event, it was incredible to see so many people pull together, especially when many of them were preparing to leave the island themselves.

In fact, the next morning when Josh and I met with the landlord, he was virtually speechless by the transformation. I think he was even depressed because he knew he wasn't getting a fresh new apartment. Cort and Kimi designated Josh and I as their spokespersons since they are no longer on the island. I don't know why though... it isn't like we like to argue or don't take crap from anyone?!! The university is suppose to have a mediator assist us but so far they have been very unorganized and unhelpful. I will keep you updated with our dealings with the landlord and if I receive any pictures from the few people who had cameras that night!

On another note, we have a car!!! Our friends Dhemish and Adriano decided to leave us their car for a few months instead of selling it right away. It is soooooooo nice to have a car, especially one with so much character. For instance, to open the truck you have to pull a string located in the back seat, the only door you can unlock is the passenger side door, there is no power steering, and to lock the driver side door you must hold the handle up while pushing the button down and maintain holding the handle until the door is closed. Oh yeah, and our windshield wipers do not work! The windshield wipers is probably the biggest concern because storms build so quickly here. Josh and I had to wait in Roseau for a few hours last week because it was raining way too hard to drive with no windshield wipers. It is wonderful having a car even though it has made us extremely lazy. I find myself wanting to take the car with us wherever we go...even if it takes longer to drive than it would to walk. Hopefully I will grow out of this phase!!