mold

[seff]

do people's clothing really get moldy after a few months on the island ?

[wolfvgang22]

do people's clothing really get moldy after a few months on the island ?
They definitely can! But it you can minimize the problem by taking a few steps.

First, it is much more humid on the western side of the island (the bottom, troy hill). So things mold a bit easier there. I've lived on both sides of the island, and the western side (Upper and Lower Hells gate) get a little less rain, especially in the lower hells gate neighborhood, which is the least humid.
The island of Saba is basically a big extinct volcano, and so the more up on the mountain in the trees you are the more the humidity/mist there is. More water vapor in the air = easier for your clothes to mold and your computer to rust inside.

The main thing to prevent mold on your clothes, I found, was keeping them dry and having good ventilation when you store them. Dirty clothes should be laundered as soon as possible, especially if they are moist from sweat. If you have to put them in a laundry hamper, make sure they are dry first and that the hamper has lots of ventilation. Generally it was better to hang clothes up rather than keep them folded in drawers or on shelves, for more ventilation. Maybe others have other tricks I don't know about, that's what kept the mold off my stuff after the first couple of moldy episodes.

An aside about laptops and moisture:
A laptop is a necessity on Saba, as lectures are in power point format. Some people store their laptop in a rubbermaid plastic box with large silica gel packs that absorb moisture, and maybe even run a de-humidifier in the house to keep the house less humid, but after a while some students I knew who attempted this grew weary of fighting that losing battle, but it might be worth a try for you.

What many of us found was that if you just leave your computer running a lot of the time, the heat and internal fan will keep it drier and prevent rust in a lot of laptops - I never had any rust with this method, but a friend still got rust and corrosion on his motherboard. The other thing you should do for a laptop is to always wait a moment if you can when entering an airconditioned room at the school before you power up the laptop, so that condensation doesn't form inside your machine. But I never waited and got away with it just fine. :p
Make sure you have a good surge protector in your house/dormroom/apartment. I had one, and it actually caught on fire after a power surge in my house on the island, but the electronics connected to it were ok. Some of the neighbors got new kitchen appliances in that incident. I purchased an uninterruptable power supply as well, but never used it very much, as power outages on the island have become more infrequent.

Have a backup plan for a replacement laptop, such as insurance or a warranty, as things can and do happen to them on the island. My laptop worked great until a friend plugged his laptop in right next to mine on a classroom surge protector. We heard a Zap! and both of our laptops had dead power supplies. Since we both had laptops that had uncommon power supply bricks that were not readily available in the schools computer technology office or on St. Martin, we ended up both having new laptops purchased and shipped to us by relatives.

[seff]

i see, thanks for the advice

do you think it would be advisable to bring a ton of ziplock freezer bags to store clothes and other items in so they dont get destroyed by moisture??

[wolfvgang22]

maybe if the ziplock bags are airtight. i had a some success with those travel/storage vacuum storage bags that you can purchase at wal-mart or target near the luggage, but any fabric you put in there gets wrinkled really bad. I still got mold on things I put in regular ziplock bags; they either weren't airtight or I could never get all the air and moisture out before I sealed them.

[MDisME]

I was also told to never use your computer outside of air conditioned buildings...

[JLea]

The problem with condensation comes when you take the computer OUT of the air conditioning into a hot, humid environment. A glass of iced tea forms much more condensation when it is taken outside.

[darkmansaad]

dude, i think people have gone throu saba for long enough without getting mold on their clothes and having their computers not explode from condensation. These are trivial issues that should be the last thing on your mind if you are applying/getting ready to go to the island. Something tells me mold will be the last thing on your mind after you get slammed by your first Path/Pharm block

[seff]

dude, i think people have gone throu saba for long enough without getting mold on their clothes and having their computers not explode from condensation. These are trivial issues that should be the last thing on your mind if you are applying/getting ready to go to the island. Something tells me mold will be the last thing on your mind after you get slammed by your first Path/Pharm block

probably.. but when I do get 'slammed' on my path/pharm block, at least I wont have mold on my clothes or a computer that just exploded..

[darkmansaad]

the point of my post is that i didnt know anyone with mold on their clothes and no ones computer exploded. However, people who worry about such scenarios lose focus on things that matter

Darkman out

[wolfvgang22]

The problem with condensation comes when you take the computer OUT of the air conditioning into a hot, humid environment. A glass of iced tea forms much more condensation when it is taken outside.

Heh, you're right. Shows how much thought I really put into the condensation issue, after all. Mold on my clothes was more of a issue for me.

darkmansaad is right, focus on your studies first. but also have a back up plan in case your laptop dies for some reason.