After the Hurricane - Lemonade from Lemons.
At the beach
My wife and I booked Turkoise for our 15th wedding anniversary for September 2008. We have traveled extensively in the Caribbean during hurricane season and had always "dodged the bullet". We did dodge the bullet but in the four weeks leading up to our trip, Hanna and then Ike hit the islands. Ike swept through 9 days before we landed and the party we were traveling with was very nervous, however my wife and I like to make lemonade from lemons.
I talked to people at the resort and found that the facilities were not hit except for some landscaping damage. When we arrived, we found that a great number of people had canceled their plans because of the potential for a ruined trip. My wife and I and our other couple friend (also on their 15th) had a phenomenal time and since there were nearly 3/4th of the resort empty we enjoyed some astounding personal service.
While tracking the storms, etc. I had contacted several ex-pats and locals through the Internet to get some first hand (non-corporate) opinions that helped make up our mind to keep our date with a great island. All of them stated the facilities were fine and the best thing we could do is come down to give a sense of normality to the folks living there. The fear was people would shun the island because of the storms.
While tracking down all the opinions on the island, I ran across a post on Trip Advisor about the Nissi House Orphanage and how they are always looking for help. We told our oldest daughter about it and we went out to our local office supply store and bought a few hundred dollars in school supplies for the kids there and once my wife and I were on the island spent one afternoon traveling over there to deliver them. Wherever we go now, we plan to do something like this as a thank you for letting us visit such a wonderful place. The reaction we got from the locals both working at Turkoise and when asking for directions to get to the house was priceless and made the whole trip memorable.
More by this user
6 Comments
Club Med Insider says Mike, Thanks for the great story! What a positive way to live your life! Could post contact information on the Nissi House Orphanage and any other non-profit or charity that you and your wife have contributed to during your travels in the forums? I set up a forum topic "non-profits and voluntourism" in the forums where travelers can share this kind of information. You have taken a really great initiative that I'm sure others would like to follow. The editor Posted March 6, 2009, 9:08 am
Heidi says i love it that you went above and beyond! my husband and also like to connect with the locals, but it is difficult sometimes to know where to go. i like it that you where researching ahead of time. great idea! Posted March 10, 2009, 1:26 am
Gabrielle says great story - and great pictures too. Does anybody here have an idea how to contribute. I have been trying, am looged in and done everything appropriately, but it keeps rejecting saying : only 25o words, even though I only had 90. Is there a trick. If anyone can help, that would be great as I am inspired by all your wonderful stories. Gabrielle Posted March 10, 2009, 11:52 am
Club Med Insider says Gabrielle, You should be able to contribute by clicking on "add your story" on the home page. I'm not sure why it would give you a word limitation, as we do not have one for the stories. Are you typing your story in the box below the title? You will then need to save and proceed to the next step of adding tags to your story before it appears on the site. It could be possible that you need a software upgrade. What kind of internet software do you use? Internet explorer, safari? Do you have flash? Posted March 10, 2009, 3:38 pm
Mike says Here is the information for Provo Children's Home (Formerly Nissi House). It is a thread that one of the volunteers watches in Tripadvisor. It has contact information that you can use to see what they need these days. Thanks Posted March 13, 2009, 2:40 pm
Mike says http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g147395-i212-k2299573-Provo_Children_s_Home-Turks_and_Caicos.html Posted March 13, 2009, 2:40 pm