From Whence I Came........Post 3

Kanye said it in his hit song 'Touch the Sky' and no sooner had I stepped off the plane as I had resounded it, "Feels Good To Be Home!" And indeed it does. With my travels concluded, having reached my intended final destination, my mood has changed from one of anticipation and expectation to one of focus. The single focus, as of now, is to drive the summer in the way I think it should go to turn expectations into reality. But the final leg of my journey wasn’t short of some drama.

The flight out of Tortola left on time at 7am Sunday 24th of May. Without me! You see what had happened was, I’d left my passport and ticket information on the coffee table while I brushed my teeth and since mom had already started the car by the time i was done, in my haste to bolt out the door I had failed to remember or notice where the passport was or that it wasn’t on my person.

The drive to the airport was about 30 minutes, just cruising, ‘cause we were making good time. And as is usual for me and mom we talked about everything but failed to mention anything that would have triggered the word or the thought ‘passport’. We didn’t notice the grave oversight until we pulled up to the unloading zone and it struck me that I had forgotten it, and I remembered exactly where I had put it! So as mom sped off to retrieve it, I took the place in the line that I would not relinquish for an hour, sitting on one of my bags and staring across the check-in area at the huge clock, watching each painful second slip away and realizing that I wasn’t gonna make the flight. That was 6am.

Mom returned promptly at 7 as the plane roared into the air just overhead. So the only other option was to have the attendant at the counter reserve me a seat on the 1 pm flight, which meant check-in was at 10am. It was 7! But mom was adamant that she wouldn’t take me back home, so for most of the next three hours we just waited and ate and watched planes leave and waited some more. We did happen to meet two Dominican people though, which was kinda nice. I must pause a second to note that it seems that everyone I’ve met on this trip has met someone that I had previously met or knew someone who knew me. Dare I say, therein lies the true joy in ‘small island’ Caribbean travel!

The flight that I got on took me on a tour of the leeward islands...lol. First, a brief stop off in St. Maarten, where I’d been only a week and a half earlier, then to St. Kitts, flying past the island of Stacia and circling the airport and the town of Basseterre a few times. Thankfully the wait in Antigua, when we finally got there, was quite brief and I met two of my cousins who work at customs there.

When i finally saw the Dominican coastline, flying from Antigua, the rush of blood to the head was almost too much for me to take. My heart leaped with excitement and though most of the other passengers didn’t quite seem as elated as I was, my face could do little to hide the anxiety. Strangely, I reacted just the way I thought I would have at seeing Dominica again, even though I initially thought that after the long day I’d had in expectation of the moment I’d just be relieved it was over. So I got to Dominica at 5pm instead of at 10:30 am, as I had been expected to.

My first week here has been incredible and the hugs and kisses have flowed like streams, overflowing their banks. I’ve met family and re-acquainted myself with friends, some of whom I haven’t seen for over five years. I’m brimming with joy and I can barely contain it. Feels good to be home, you know what, scratch that, feels GREAT to be HOME!!!