Cecily and Colin Lees left rainy Britain behind for a new life on the sunny Caribbean island of Dominica, as they explain to Isobel Palmer
Cecily says: “I hadn’t even heard of Dominica when we thought about leaving the rat race 13 years ago and finding somewhere better to bring up our two sons. We were looking for an environment where they could be children a little longer and where our lives could be more balanced.
Colin and I had done some travelling together and had visited a few Caribbean islands – I was born in Barbados and lived there until I was four – and we both felt a draw. He was on his way to do a reccie of a Guadeloupe farm when he read about Dominica in the in-flight magazine. He decided to take a look and fell in love with its beauty and people immediately.
Dominica is south of Antigua and north of St Lucia, and is known as the nature island. It is very mountainous, with rainforest, rivers and hot springs and a tiny population of under 74,000.
I had been in England for 36 years. I was brought up in Coventry and was working in London as a solicitor and commuting every day from Farnborough – we had a regular, non-eventful life.
You need to be adventurous to make a move like that, so I suppose I must be, but I felt completely out of my comfort zone. I had never lived anywhere else, whereas my husband, an architectural draughtsman from Whitley Bay, had spent many years in South Africa and Kenya and had travelled widely, so it wasn’t such a big deal for him.
I was on maternity leave with our second son, Dominic, now 14, and Michael, now 18, was a happy toddler. On the basis of Colin’s trip we decided to come to live here. I came first with two small children and found a hotel to stay in whilst he arranged for our things to be shipped. He joined me a few weeks later and we found a house to rent. My job was still open in England, but at the end of the year I resigned and that was it. Prior to coming here we did not know anyone in Dominica or from Dominica.
The first year I could have left anytime – I missed all sorts of things: the ways things functioned, like the ease of shopping, even chocolate, which was hard to get hold of back then. But I began to relax and enjoy the lifestyle, and now I never want to leave. I just feel so much happier in myself. It’s easy here to take a break – you never have to work at that frenetic pace or feel pressure to buy the next thing and compete. Nobody cares about those things.
It’s been great for our children. Back then, though, we had to find a school for Michael, and someone told us about a new one starting up called Pioneer Academy. I met my business partner Yvor Nassief through the school, which he and his wife started with a few other highly motivated parents. In fact our son was in one of the first classes with just five others.
Yvor also had the idea of setting up an Internet-based real estate agency and we were the first on the island – Safe Haven Real Estate. At that time it was extremely difficult to get information on Dominica from overseas so I thought it was an excellent idea. Colin started a holiday accommodation agency called Nature Island Destinations Ltd.
Now we know a lot of people and feel accepted – we have friends from all walks of life, the islanders accept you for what you are. Socializing tends to centre around the home and family. There are festivals like the Creole Festival in October, when everyone dresses up and eats simple local food. We don’t even have a cinema any more – the roof sprung a leak when they were making Pirates of the Caribbean and it has never been repaired. Ironically, we had to go to America to watch something that was filmed here!
Along the way a friend and I started a small secondary school called Orion Academy, which is still operative after seven years. We have a lovely home and a small-holding where we swim in the river, have picnics and Colin has planted fruit trees – it’s beautiful.
We are still in love with Dominica and its people, and although there have been tribulations along the way we have no regrets about our move and would definitely do it again. It’s a wonderful place to live and there are many opportunities. Sometimes it’s necessary to take chances in life.”
Colin says: “After I met Cecily, we settled in England at first. Cecily was working for the Department of the Environment and didn’t enjoy the commuting, and I was a site architect amongst other things, so when the property bubble burst we decided to leave the UK.
Dominica has been a wonderful place to bring up the boys – they have a far better quality of life. Of course there are less facilities, but what they have, they make the most of. There is more discipline in the schools so the children have a better attitude towards work and they are active and outdoors all the time. They are both Newcastle United supporters!
Life here is very parochial – I love farming our three acres of land and have planted avocados, pineapples, pawpaws and passionfruit. I run a business promoting the island, and the guesthouses, hotels, and car hire companies pay me a commission.
Private rentals are popular and I get quite a lot of business from them. I work from home and don’t go into the capital, Roseau, very often – I see so many people I know and have to stop every couple of minutes!
Dominica is far less developed than other islands – I think because of the mountainous terrain, and a lot of it is protected by national parks.
Our 13 years have flown by and we are very settled. There are frustrations, living on a small island economy, so you have to get off to do a bit of shopping occasionally. But the French islands to the north and south have developed very quickly and it’s like visiting Paris really so we enjoy a trip over there and a meal in a restaurant.
If you’re adventurous enough, there are still business gaps to be filled and opportunities to be had, but you have to be imaginative.
Safe Haven Real Estate
Tel: 00 1 767 448 5718 www.safehavenrealestate.com; www.facebook.com/safehavenrealestate; www.YouTube/user/safehavenrealestate; www.natureisland.com
Tel: 00 1 767 449 6233
