Jim ....Thank you for this information. You have done such a great job for us all these years. I don't know what we would have done without you...especially in times of crisis...I.E. expired Passport oh boy....

I am praying with every fiber of my being that we can return April 2019...I knew it was not realistic to make the trip April 2018. It takes 4 months here to build a subdivision house. It has to take much longer than that to settle with the insurance...tear down all the existing damaged buildings...ship in the supplies required...get all the furnishings and appliances...fix the landscaping...on and on and on.

and it has to all be done all over the island.

Who gets top priority? How do they get enough skilled labor and where will they house them and feed them when so many of the buildings have been damaged?

Even if we do get to go back in April 2019...will grand case be back? How about the supermarkets and gas stations?

It would be so much simpler if we were talking about just rebuilding Club Orient...but we all know we are not.

I can tell you...if Club Orient is back ...we will be back

I have been extremely upset by all this...I cry everyday. I have been looking at the thousands of beautiful pictures we have taken since 1999...and reread all of my trip reports.

The last paragraph of my April 2017 report is this

I have to say…of all the places we have traveled…. Club Orient is the most organized of all. Check in is always perfect and so is check out. The office staff, boutique staff, wait staff, maids, gardeners, beach workers…. everyone…is always so kind and so helpful and so pleasant. It makes the vacation that much more wonderful. There are some things about club orient that are looking a little tired. The entrance for example…used to be so beautiful….and now it is half dead and overrun with weeds and grass. Much of the board fencing needs to be repaired or replaced. Some of the picnic tables on the patios are warped and rotten. None of these things would keep me from coming back…but it would only take a little time and money to put things back in tiptop shape…
We say this often….if there was no Club Orient….we would not go to SXM….that’s how important it Is to us.

Almost prophetic isn't it? Let me tell you...I would give anything to have it back...just the way it was.