Lost Addict

The past little while, Natalynn (one of my good friends down here) and I have started to watch ABC's TV series, "Lost." After the first episode, I was a little hesitant, as the scene was all too familiar. (For those of you unfamiliar with the story, a plane crashes on a deserted island and a group of people are left to survive on their own) Now, I am addicted. After reasoning with myself that if I were to actually get stuck on a deserted island after a plane crash, I would know how to survive now! It isn't all that different to what I've been doing the past 6 months! Anyway, if you haven't watched it yet, I'd suggest waiting until you have a couple of days with nothing to do and have yourself a "Lost" marathon!! Once you start, you won't want to stop!

Change of Attitude

*Apologies for the negativity on the blog*

Although living on Dominica can be a challenge, I am setting the goal to always see the positive in whatever situation comes our way. (thanks to those who spoke in church today)

* I am grateful that the water went out for a day, as it was a good warning to us to get ready for hurricane season. Also, we found that we may want to get more water in storage, just in case.

* I am grateful when the power sporadically goes out, because when it goes out and I am sitting at home in the dark, I am reminded how blessed I am to have electricity at all. Some aren't so lucky.

*I am grateful for the opportunity I have to walk everywhere, because I constantly get to enjoy this beautiful earth that my loving Heavenly Father created for me. It can also be peaceful and it leaves a lot of time in my day for contemplation and deep thought. And---it's great exercise.

*I am grateful for the market early Saturday morning because I can find healthy food for a very good price.

*I am grateful for the days that it poors, it means that there will be a beautiful rainbow shining over the green mountains of Dominica or the sea.

*I am grateful that it is warm year round here, so that when it does rain and I am walking in it, I don't get cold.

*I am grateful for the neighbor children who talk, play, and scream outside my window at 6:00 am, because I am reminded of the joys of childhood.

*I am grateful that my husband is gone all day studying because it means that he is getting an education and that he is fulfilling his dreams. It also reminds me how much he loves me, because he is sacrificing so much now so he can support our family later.

*And I am also grateful for a family who lives so far away, because it helps me to remember just how much I do love and appreciate them!

Days Like Today.......

In the post previous to this post, I was reminded why I like living here on Dominica. Days like today however, remind me why I still look forward to returning to the states! It started at some unknown hour this morning, (or late last night) when I woke up and realized that the power had gone out. (no fan or AC all night--blah!) Keith woke me up when he left this morning (still, no power) and said, "The water is REALLY dirty, you may want to wait to shower, to see if it will clear up." (we had a huge storm last night with lots of rain, lightning, and some thunder) It turns out that waiting might not have been my best option, since we have had no more than one drop of water come out of any faucet in our household since 9:30 this morning. It is now 11:15 pm. Not having water is pretty rough, but the electricity was out all night long and part of this morning, and then again later this afternoon. It makes it a bit harder to live without running water and electricity! (I know it's do-able, but when you aren't planning on it, it's no fun at all!) Luckily, my Mom has stressed to me over and over again (even when we lived in the states) the importance of water storage! (it's come in quite handy over the past 14 hours!) Anyway...... I thought that we were coming to Med School, not a campout! We miss civilization!!

2nd Semester Beach Bash!

On Monday, June 16, Keith took Mini 1 of his 2nd semester. Mini 1= first big test. Why they call the tests mini's, I'm not sure, but there is probably a reason. Anyway, after the first Mini of every semester there is a Beach Bash in which they give away free t-shirts, hamburgers, and juice. The school also rents sail boats and other water toys for the students and everyone heads to the beach to party. There is a DJ right on the beach and although most people get insanely drunk, us non-drinkers still have a lot of fun. This semester Cabrits Dive Center had some people there who were offering to take people on free "exploring dives" (in about 10 ft. deep water) to get a feel for diving. We did it and although there wasn't much to see, it was still really cool. When the sun starts to set, they light a big bonfire on the beach and it's just kind of fun to hang out. We stayed for the lighting of the bonfire and then started home. We were walking with some of our friends, Paul and Natalynn, when we all got distracted by the swimming pool. We stopped for a little bit of night swimming and then finally made our way home. It was great timing on our part, as the power had been out until about 3 minutes after we walked in the door. We had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone at the beach. It's days like those that make me realize.... "Oh ya, I do kind of like it here." (minus the power being out)Here we are hanging out at the beach, you can see some of the sailboats and things in the background.

Live Star Fish!

Sunset on the ocean that we were able to enjoy

The bonfire, just getting started!

The Day of Fathers

I just thought it appropriate to take a little time out of my day to say "Happy Father's Day" to all of the men out there! This Father's Day has been a different experience than any other Father's Day I have experienced in my 22 1/2 years on this earth. I have never had to be apart from my Dad on Father's Day and it's a bit more difficult than I had anticipated. I was lucky enough to have my Mom here visiting on Mother's Day (which meant SO much!). Anyway, I am pulling Keith into the blogging world as we both type 5 things we appreciate about our Fathers!

(all we have down here are wedding pic.'s of us with our Dad's, so sorry for the flashback)

* My Dad, or Chuck, as we sometimes call him, is the prime example of hard work. Dad,
thanks for teaching by example the importance of good, hard, honest work!
* Thanks for teaching us the importance of being self-reliant! It has proven to be VERY
helpful throughout my life thus far, especially since I've been married!
* "Chuckisms" as we call them, are constantly keeping us laughing and although we often
times make fun of them or give the "did you seriously just say that?" look, we all appreciate
"chuck humor."
* There is a lot to be said about a man that (with a spouse of amazing choice) has successfully raised 5 children to be what I would consider decent people. Thanks for raising us in the
gospel and teaching us right from wrong.
* Thank you for honoring your priesthood covenants and being a worthy priesthood holder!
You are an amazing Dad and I am so grateful and blessed to be your daughter!

(for the life of me I could not get this picture to rotate, I think my file is corrupt--sorry!)

1. My Dad is always willing to help us if we need it and has always been a great support.
2. My Dad has an incredible testimony and very strong faith. I admire and respect him for that. He has always been a worthy priesthood holder and any time I needed him to give me a blessing, he was willing and able to do so. He is a great patriarch to his family.
3.My father works hard for his family.
4. He always tells me he loves me. He obviously shows me though his actions, but it is also great that he is willing to voice it because it is good to here as well as see it though action.
5. My dad has a great sense of humor. He is always teasing and cracking jokes and it makes me laugh.


And last but certainly not least, thank you to our grandfathers! There is something so special about Grandpa's that I could never explain! I am very grateful that I was able to grow up with both of my grandfather's and although I don't have them both now, they both hold a very special and dear place in my heart! I am also grateful for our forefathers who sacrificed so much for our benefit.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO OUR DAD'S, GRANDPA'S, ALL OF YOU OTHER DAD'S, FUTURE DAD'S, AND ALL OF OUR FOREFATHERS!

"White American Delight"

The local men have a real passion for women (of all sorts). It is very very common to get "complimented" or hit on, by the local men as you walk by them. They say things from "Hello Beautiful" to offers for marriage. (I haven't personally experienced a marriage offer, but have heard of it happening to multiple women down here.) When Whitney was here we walked to the gym and as we approached a construction sight, under her breath (in anticipation) Whitney said "Hello Beautiful," and like clockwork, not even 5 seconds later we heard "Hello Beautiful" being shouted to us. We both busted up laughing. I thought that I had heard it all (or heard stories at least). I was proven wrong today and I now feel confident I have heard it all. Today as I was walking home from campus, a local guy who had just bathed in the river, wearing nothing but basketball shorts that were BARELY hanging on his skinny body, was leaning against a tree by the sidewalk. He had maybe 1/2 his teeth, a wrap on his head, and as I approached, he started swaying/drunken dancing and singing, "White, American Delight! It would be nice if you were my lover! White, American Delight!" He repeated it until I had passed, and I'm sure waited for the next "White, American Delight" to pass. What a character......or rather, what a drunk!

POWERLESS

The girl who normally plays piano in Sacrament Meeting has been gone the past few weeks and I have had the lovely opportunity to substitute as pianist. Usually, I don't mind. Such a task has proven to be a bit harder than it would have been back home. I don't have a piano here and until recently, hadn't touched any type of musical instrument since January, when we first came. Since we don't have an actual piano at the church, just a keyboard, it added to my "handicap." The past 3 weeks I've just been waiting for something to happen, the keyboard to get bumped or jarred off of it's stand (which is balanced with a thin paperback book) or for me to do something like accidentally hit one of the preset buttons that will send the keyboard into some inappropriate song. Today was the day. I was almost exactly in the middle of the opening hymn when all of the sudden, there was no sound when I pushed the keys. I looked up to one of the members sitting at the front and mouthed "I have no power!" After quickly checking around, he took note that the AC had stopped and that the power, like it often times does, had gone out. I just put my hands in my lap and kept singing. As I looked into the congregation, everyone was staring at me, apparently not catching that the power had gone out. We started the 3rd verse of the song and I was still getting questioning looks and glances. (how do I silently tell a whole congregation that the power went out?) The song ended and the chorister turned and looked at me with a "What in the heck are you doing?" expression. Luckily, when the guy conducting got up, he cracked a joke about it and people starting laughing with understanding instead of staring with confusion. This is the first time in a year that the power went out during church and of course, the odds were on my side. With no power, an apartment on the top floor of a building during the summer in the Caribbean with no fan or AC gets unbearably hot. After a cold shower to cool off (and cool off we did, there's no hot water when the power is out) we packed up our computers, Ipods, personal dvd player, and some snacks and headed to one of the Ross lecture halls across the street from our apartment. We then enjoyed hanging out in a nice, quiet, air conditioned place in which we could not hear our local neighbor boys singing (quite loudly) along to the Back Street Boys that was blaring from their apartment. Ohh.... (sigh) life in Dominica.

Worthy of a Post

I know that Whitney left a week ago and I'm sorry for the back-posts, but it's better than nothing....right? The weekend before Whit left, we joined a group from the Ross Spouse Organization (RSO) on a hike to Sari Sari Falls (pronounced sorry sorry) and Aba Wavine Cyrique (pronounced....well, nobody I have talked to knows, including some of the locals). It was physically one of the most challenging things I have done while on Dominica but we had a lot of fun and we were able to see some really cool things.

We started the hike to Sari Sari Falls and it was pretty hard-core jungle, but beautiful.....
.....we ran into one of these..... (as Whit said "A real live Boa in the real live jungle!")
.....hiked a tough trail, sometimes using all fours, and finally got to this......
....which was beautiful! There were vines hanging down everywhere and we were surrounded by green!
We then drove to our next destination: Aba WAvine Cyrique. We scaled down the side of a crazy steep mountain using only a rope and tree roots. It's probably the craziest thing Whitney and I have ever done (I've done the hike once before) but it's really amazing. To get to the part of the mountain you scale down, you have to go up and down an insane amount of stairs. Whitney and I counted on the way back and it was 701 stairs! Our legs were shaking pretty hard by the end of the day! We didn't take pictures on the way down the mountain side, as it was very similar to rock climbing and our hands were not available for picture taking. When we got to the bottom this is what we saw...
....then walked along the beach to see this......
...took some time to enjoy it...
...and on the way home, the group stopped for a cold pop and Whitney sat and made friends with one of the local girls who was sitting out on a chair, swinging her feet, and eating her cookies.

Yes, it was a great adventure, and yes, we were WAY sore the next day. It was my favorite day with Whit here though and I just thought it was worthy of a post!

Sisterly Love

My younger and only sister left on Wednesday to go back to Idaho, which brought some tears on my part. It was a great experience to have her hear though and it was fun to have someone to hang out with constantly for a few weeks. Someone to go swimming with, walk to the grocery store with, go to the market on Saturday morning with, to help me in my primary class, and everything in between. Here are just a few of the many pictures we took while exploring the island during the few weeks that she was here.

Ren and Whitney eating star fruit. Ren was our neighbor before we moved and we have made pretty good friends with him. He also is a tour guide on the island and he gave us the BEST tour ever one day. He took us to multiple places, taught us a lot about Dominica, and even took us to meet his extended family. It was a great experience and he did an amazing job.
Whit and I at #1 beach. Yep, that's what it's called. It is a huge beach (for Dominica) and it so beautiful! This is the beach that The Black Pearl docks on (in Pirates of the Caribbean 2). Dominica is the island where the crew runs into the Carib Indians that try to eat Jack.
While she was here, Whit just wanted to fit in. I put her hair in cornrows and although it took a while, it was fun and she looked great!
We got tired of taking pictures of our faces, so we got creative. Whitney is giving me the bunny ears and the camera the thumbs up.

Hiking through Dominica
Whitney and I at Emerald Pool. We got in and swam across (the water was far from warm) and then we hiked up behind the waterfall. This is one of my favorite places on the island, and Whitney enjoyed it as well.

Whitney and the neighbor boy Glenn. Glenn tried on the snorkel gear and then wanted to see Whitney in it. They became pretty good buddies by the times she left.
On the beach by Ross University the last night that Whitney was here.As hard as it was when she left, it was SO amazing getting to spend 3 weeks with my sister. We were arguing one day and I realized, I even miss fighting with her! Thanks Whit for coming and spicing up our lives for a while!