When it comes to tiny island countries Dominica is defiantly on that list. When being about a third of the size of Rhode Island and having lots of devastating hurricanes, this is one of the least known and poorest countries in the Caribbean.

We picked Dominica because we didn’t know anything about Dominica. Make sure to say it Doh – mih – NEE- kah. Dominica turned out to be very interesting country with a natural disaster history not a war history and the only Caribbean country today to be populated with Carib – Indians.

Click here Dominica to know what we learned.

The word search is right here DOMINICA_WordSearch

Interesting facts about Dominica

1. It was the last island to be formed in the Caribbean.  
2. It is the island in the Caribbean to be the most densely forested.
3. Dominica has a boiling lake that is the second largest hot spring in the world.
4. At age 31 in 2004, the new president of Dominica: Roosevelt Skerrit was the youngest president in the world at that time.
5. The bird on its flag – the sisserou – is an endangered parrot only found in Dominica

• By Isaac

FOOD

While in the Caribbean, Dominican food is quite distinct from that of its neighbors. They do eat lots of salted meat and fish and use Creole flavors, but it tends to not be very spicy and they use some, um, interesting meats. The most famous dish in Dominica is, in fact, Smoky Mountain Chickens, which are the legs of giant frogs, native to the Island. They also love to grill up opossums and agoutis (like large rats).

We didn’t go that quite extreme and stuck to their National Dish of Calloloo and traditional Fish and Bakes. Other Islands have similar versions but I tracked down a Dominica version. (It’s surprisingly hard to find recipes from Dominica and searches often confuse it with Dominican Republic cuisine.)

DINNER

1. Callaloo – We pretty much followed the recipe, except we used kale instead of Dasheen leaves and cubed ham instead of salted meat. Also we did puree the onions with the kale. And I found other recipes that called for crabs in the soup, so we topped ours with a little crab meat.
2. Toasted Bread

BREAKFAST

Bakes and Saltfish – Followed the recipe pretty closely. And we easily found salted fish in the our regular grocery store.

CULTURE

What Dominica is most known for is its music and dancing. In fact, the World Creole Music Festival is held in Dominica every October, and they have their own very popular Carnival in February.  While calypso, soca and reggae are popular they also have their own style called bouyon  and Candence-lypso.  Both blend many Caribbean styles (and are super fun to dance to!) You can have a listen here: Bouyon Music

We decided to try a little Dominica dancing ourselves. And the kids, reluctant at first, had a great time, and also got quite the work out! We found a few video which clearly demonstrate and repeat key Soca/Bouyon dance moves: Soca-Aerobics, and are fun to follow.

What I learned is that basically you need to:

1. Move your hips in a circle a lot (apparently this is called “whining”)
2. Use dramatic stomps to break up hip circles
3. Wave your flag/rag/shirt around lots

And here’s the kids dancing: Soca/Bouyon Kids. Enjoy!

Sorry for the delay in this week, but next week we promise to promptly present “E is for Estonia!”