Dinner with Olga

Remember that is has been windy here. I just looked at weather.com. Well as it turns out, tropical storm Olga has been slowly passing to the south of us. For the last three days we have had the top of this storm come across the island.

Last night the museum had a dinner party for the visiting scholar who is here this week, Dr. Joanna Ostapkowicz, from the World Museum in Liverpool. She is the leading scholar of Taino wooden art in the world. We have been doing materials testing on the duho for the last two days.

We had dinner for a party of nine at Chinese Joan's. Dr. Ostapkowicz, her boyfriend an archaeologist who came to dive, Don, from Ship's of Discovery, Dominic, from the Waitt Institute, our Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and Thomas and Deborah. We had barely started to order when it began to storm. For most restaurants here, dinner is al fresco, you eat outside. At Chinese Joan's, there are tables under a series of four tents. The rain blew in sideways, the wind was strong. We decided to tough it out. It was a warm rain.

Just as the appetizers arrived, the electricity went out over the whole island. We sat under the tents in the driving rain lit by Coleman lamps. We went ahead and ordered, one of everything on the menu. Within thirty minutes or so the lights came on. At Chinese Joan's, everything is made to order. She made each dish and brought them out one at a time (wearing a plastic poncho, remember it is pouring rain). Spicy Chili Chicken, Mushroom Pork, Stir Fry Shrimp, Celery Beef, Peking Duck, and several others I can't remember.

Thomas was on the end getting the worst of the rain. I found out today that he did not get to eat because his plate kept filling up with water. He and Deborah stopped and got chicken at the Poop Deck on the way home.

We were relatively fine until the top of the tent saturated and water began to drip through. We ate until sometime around 10:00 when the watch changed and Don and Dominic had to leave for the Plan B. Deneen and I had gone to the dinner, leaving the boys at home. It was one of the funnest nights I have had on the island.