“It’s been more of an adventure than usual. We arrived to find that the island was having a general strike. We managed to get a rental car with a quarter tank of gas (all petrol stations are closed), hit the grocery store and made it to the Pierre et Vacances village, almost. There is a barricade across the entrance (see below) Our car is parked out of sight around the bend. Another view of the barricade a couple of days later is below. This convinced me that I need to learn some French as part of our survival skills here. We were on lockdown in our rooms Saturday afternoon for a while because of a fear of violence from the strikers. When we went into Ste Anne the next day there were a few burned out cars along the road where strikers had set up barricades across the roads. We have had our power cut numerous times and lost water once. The P&V village has gone from completely full to probably about 20% capacity. Right after this our car got vandalized and we have been without a rental car since. There are no cars to be had since there is no gasoline. The phones are out and we have no internet access. We have been living off of the stuff in the little store on the premises but the selection is getting pretty limited. (Note: nobody will eat fish sticks. A package of them has been the only thing in the frozen food section since Tuesday.)
Meanwhile, we’re getting great tans and I’m learning some French. Gotta love the Rosetta Stone language programs. Things could be worse.
I finally finished reading the Miami Herald of January 22nd yesterday and am now working my way through the New York Times of the same date. I can’t wait to find out what’s happened in the rest of the world. I sure know a lot about what happened on January 21st.
According to the TV they are now feeding people in the cities out of the back of semi trailers because none of the stores have anything. Hopefully this will all end soon (like before we catch our flight Thursday)
Salutations from us Both….”

There were some pictures of tree limb barricades and a upside down burned out car on the street, as well as some beach and bird shots.

If you speak French (I’m from Lyon myself), come on, go to Libération online, or http://www.caribcreole1.com/, or Franceantilles online and many more on the internet, you’ll find all the info that Fabienne is kindly giving to the English-speaking world! If you hope to find any coverage of social unrest(s) on French television, be it about Gwada or elsewhere, as Gil Sctt-Heron said, “the revolution will not be televised”!!! Don’t look for “disturbing” info on tv or on the radio, even what’s happening in “métropole” is regularly hidden, twisted and distorted except for a few people who probably won’t be broadcasted for long! Though the Internet is not exempt of partisan opinion, far from it!
Mèsi onpil all the same Fabienne, I wondered how to explain the situation to a Jamaican/British friend, now I know! Great job!