Moses James is a Rastafarian who lives in Zion Valley on the East Coast of Dominica. He is also an AirB&B host. His invitation to come and experience the” Rasta way of life”  on the banks of the White River sounded too good to miss.

We were picked up at Douglas Charles Airport in the North by Moses Junior, who entertained us by playing his own musical compositions on the car stereo. The journey began smoothly but turned into a white knuckle ride as we hit the small roads which wind through the heavily forested hills. Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017 and recovery is still a work in progress. The damage was sobering.

 

The last time we were in Dominica was for our honeymoon twenty-six years ago. That is a sentence which makes me feel very OLD! Back then, the forests of the fabled “Nature Isle” were lush and magnificent, the most beautiful I had ever seen. Perhaps I’ve romanticised it –  I WAS on honeymoon! – but I remember David and I taking a forest walk where we could reach up and pick cocoa pods, coffee, bananas and mangoes straight from the trees.  We fished for crayfish in a stream using pieces of coconut tied to a piece of cotton. Paradise on earth! With no poisonous snakes or spiders to ruin your day.

Now the forest is patchy, with bare, dead trunks thrusting out of the greenery and broken up with slashes of bare earth – the result of landslides. Moses Junior joked bleakly about ‘our national flower’ as he pointed to sheets of corrugated iron which litter the landscape: 90% of houses lost their rooves.However, the damage was uneven and some parts seemed to have escaped.  The forest is remarkably resilient and already there are signs of regrowth.

 

On arrival in Zion Valley, we were not surprised to find that Moses had been hit pretty hard. His home had been destroyed, together with the communal dining area which he’d had used to welcome school groups. Fortunately, the three bedded wooden guest hut had survived. Moses sleeps in one room and the second has been converted into a kitchen, leaving the third as a guest room. There’s a nice covered terrace outside. So, instead of having a private space, we would be sharing the terrace with Moses around the clock.  Intense!

 

I needn’t have worried. He turned out to be a relaxed and easy-going host with an endless supply of homemade herbal teas and fascinating stories. He cooked for us, delivering healthy, largely vegetarian meals with many ingredients taken straight from his organic garden. He is a herbalist, who knows a great deal about the healing properties of the plants in the forest, taking a hands on approach to the care of his extended family who also live in the valley. He delivered his own children and his two grandsons. Despite the isolated setting of his home, he takes a keen interest in the wider world and had opinions on Brexit (boo!) and Trump (boo!)

 

He has led an eventful and challenging life, living through three devastating hurricanes and being persecuted for his beliefs. Until I met Moses, I didn’t realise that Rastas have suffered and been persecuted for their believes in Dominica  with the ‘Dread Act’ being passed in 1974, authorising citizens to shoot to kill with no fear of recrimination. Moses was shot in the legs, running for his life, by police officers and had his house burned to the ground in front of him.  The act was only repealed in 1985. Their chief crime seems to have been wearing dreadlocks.

 

Despite it all, Zion Valley remains a peaceful and positive place. The crowning glory of the valley is the White River, the noise of which filled my ears as I slept. On our second day, we followed the river up to the Victoria Falls, a challenging scramble and splash through the river. We were rewarded with the sight of an awesome waterfall which can only be reached on foot and a bath in a deep blue pool.

Yes, it was a once in a life time, get away from it all experience. Slowly, I let my first world problems recede and slip away. No wi-fi? Look on it as a digital detox. No hot water?  A cold shower is bracing, or bathe in the river instead. My biggest challenge was the fact there was no mirror. By the end of the trip, I’d got over that, too. After three days of healthy organic food and no booze, I told myself, I must be looking good!