Week 1-do you know who I am?

so its been about 2 weeks of being on the island, I need to catch everyone up. Cayman Brac
is a tiny island and I dont get any phone service, and due to my crazy work schedule, can only check emails every few days.

For the first week, only us, the production dept. and directors were here, basically scouting out locations and getting things ready for the rest of the crew arriving the following week. - Our job, being in the Art and Production department was basically to create sets and backdrops for the movie, but we could only use what was the either already on the island, or whatever could fit into our checked luggage. It was called 'Prep' week but really should be called 'Befriend the Locals and Scavenge the Islands" - week. This included getting to know the local people and seeing what they were willing to get us. Various items ranged from an old peeling paint caymanian rowboat, to garbage from their landfill to fill a yard, to bargaining with local fisherman to get fresh fish for a scene 1 week prior, to learning that there are only 4 hardware stores on the island...and what one store doesnt have the otheres will- learning to drive on the left hand side- customary to wave at everyone as you drive past them, maybe even offering the walkers a ride to the other end of this 12 mils island.

seeing that i am not getting paid for this, and am treating this strictly as a learning experience, I've basically just tried to be helpful and sit back and watch all the madness unfold. Our hours are a minimum of 12, for 6 days a week. we get sundays off..yay!
Our first set was to make a new house look dilapidated. We did this by gathering truck loads of garbage from their landfill and construction sites and strewing it about their front lawn. We also gathered 15 bags of leaves and 6 wheel barrel fulls of palm fronds and tossed them about as well. we took off the hurricane barriers on the windows-took out the screens, removed the lattice work from the base, got a hold of a couple of 'project boats' for the lawn-this took about 4 days- and their is a first for everyhtings- I worked in merely a sprts bra and shorts...in public. and I also found out that I'm no the best at applying sunscreen-I have three different sports bra tan lines, and also a couple of finger tips streaks along my lower back- look like a topography map. I have a whole new appreciation of manual labor. While its fulfilling on so many levels, it freakin tiring! And the schedule is so tight, the ocean is only 15 feet away, and I'm not allowed to take a dip (they use the guilt trip here a lot). But I stay positive in that at least I have the sun on my back and the ocean breeze cooling me off...while you suckas are stuck with 0 degrees ! ha! ;)

so I'm working for with my friend Cindy who is an Art director and her boss Rick who is production- I'm basically assisting both of them . I realize I'm pretty low on the totem pole here, but its weird that in the beginning , my opinion didn't really matter....and plus I was working like a immigrant laborer in the fields, at times I just wanted to shout, "do you know who I am ??" but then laugh it off at how ridiculous I know it is, and am just grateful for having this opportunity to learn something new..and get away from February in NYC