"[A reporter] called the Mago Estate Hotel to contact us about our horrible story. Incredibly, the hotel management told him we were no longer there. In fact, we were still at the hotel reporting our story to the police. Later he declined to interview us because, we were told, a government official did not want the story in the news. "

We spent the rest of the day at the Soufriere hospital, at the Soufriere police department as well as at the scene of the crime with the forensic officer and other police officers.  I was in communication with US Embassy personnel.  I also was going to be put in touch with a reporter. He called us at the Mago Estate Hotel. Incredibly, the hotel management told him we were no longer there. In fact, we were still at the hotel reporting our story to the police. Later he declined to interview us because, we were told, a government official did not want the story in the news.  Now Amy and I felt frustrated, unsafe and frightened, but mostly we felt sad.  We were ready to leave Saint Lucia.

By 3 PM that day Amy and I were on an American Airlines flight back to the United States.  Almost twenty-four hours after the attack Amy was in the Emergency Room of our hometown hospital.  A doctor examined her and she was given medication for most sexually transmitted diseases.  She also was given what are called “prophylactic HIV drugs”:  drugs that are normally given to HIV positive patients that also are helpful with preventing HIV in persons who had just had sexual contact with an HIV carrier.  We do not know if the rapist is an HIV carrier so it is better that she takes the prophylactic HIV drugs.  We feel that the drugs are particularly important in light of the statement from the doctor at the Soufriere hospital that AIDS is Saint Lucia is a big and largely undocumented problem.  Amy has a price to pay for the drugs, though. They cause her nausea after eating and they are potentially damaging to her liver and kidney. 

Three months after the attack Amy gets tested for HIV.  Then she gets tested again at six months.  Only six months after the rape will we know whether we are in the clear.  Amy is attending trauma therapy.  She finds it hard to feel safe and hard to sleep at night.

Let me tell you a little more about Amy.  She is a very kind, decent and loving wife.  What I find amazing about her is her sweetness.  She never, ever speaks ill of anyone.  Her main expectation in relationships is that she be treated with respect.  In turn she always treats others with the utmost respect.  Amy is one of those people with a big heart.  She is genuinely concerned about the well being and dignity of people everywhere in the world as well as the well being of the world ecology. I admire her enlightened and respectful outlook.  Even after five years of marriage I still learn from her example.

As for our vacation destination, we could have picked a resort somewhere else in the Caribbean where we would have never met local people.  Or we could have gone on an European vacation.  Instead it was in Amy’s and my heart to go to a location where we would be in contact with the wonderful landscape, nature and people of the Caribbean.  And in all our research on the internet and with vacation magazines, there was no place better Caribbean destination than Saint Lucia.  But after our horrible experience I would advise any tourist to never visit Saint Lucia.

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