WMS

Keith is constantly looking into rotations that he wants to do and different residency programs and internships that he is interested in doing.  Somehow, he stumbled across some information about a few different Wilderness Medicine rotations and was hooked.  For those of you wondering what wilderness medicine is, I'm not good at explaining it (because I'm not entirely sure what it entails) and I especially won't be able to explain it in 3 sentences or less, so you'll have to google it.  Not the point of this blog post though----So, through a string of events and more reading on the internet, Keith found the Wilderness Medical Society (WMS).  It's an organized society in the states but there are student clubs all over.   Keith decided he wanted to start a club here at Ross and so far it has been a great experience.

He started organizing it last semester so that it could be official this semester.  There are now over 50 members in the club and some people with really great ideas.  I like to go and sit in on the meetings, everyone seems to have a little sparkle of excitement in their eyes.  Keith has a great presidency for the club, which I am grateful for.  Everyone is really dependable and more than willing to pitch in and help with everything, which has relieved Keith of some of the stress I think he was feeling. 

Anyway, they have been able to do some fun activities so far and I am excited to see what else comes from this semester!

Their first event of the semester was showing this years Warren Miller film, "Children of Winter."  Keith was especially excited about this for multiple reasons.  The main reason being they got the film and advertising poster for free, which is a $1,500 package.  Since they had no representation down here, they sent this years film along with 2 older films all for free!

The second event they hosted was a bonfire "welcoming social" of sorts.  They roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and had a local lady talk about the herbs and other natural things found on the island that the locals use for medicine.  It was a lot of fun and the sunset was absolutely amazing!

The club also organized a hike up the highest mountain in Dominica (and in the Caribbean I hear) but that will have to be in another post!   Stay tuned......

Beaches

Dominica doesn't have beautiful white sand beaches, like some of you may imagine, (and I don't sit on the beach soaking up the sun while reading a book all day like some of you may imagine) but we do have some fun beaches and I do get to enjoy them often.  Here's a look at some of the beaches I've gone to lately.

Quite some time ago, the Ross Spouse Organization went to Batabou Bay, which is on the north end of the island.  It was absolutely beautiful and since it's mostly on the Atlantic side, we got to ride some really fun waves!

Marissa, Ben, and I out riding the waves! (Marissa's smile in the top photo was too cute not to post)

Here's the view when you are hiking down and finally come around the last corner to the beach!

View of the Bay along the trail that you hike/walk down.  

Another beach I love that's a lot closer to our neck of the woods (but far enough you still need to call a taxi) is Purple Turtle Beach. All of the other times I've gone, the beach has always been nice and clean and raked.  This time there was litter everywhere, which made me sad, but we still had a lot of fun!  I went with a group of friends that Jacquelle, from our church, has been getting together on Thursdays to go and do fun things.  (Thanks Jacquelle!)

Tamara showed everyone how it's done on the rope swing. (Don't miss her in the top photo, she climbed the palm tree part way but blends in a bit!)

This last Thursday, we went to Coconuts Beach, or PBH as the students know it.  (Portsmouth Beach Hotel is right on the beach where we often times go)  This beach is about a 5 minute walk from Ross campus and the beach that we most often go to.  I went snorkeling and was blown away with how much I saw!  It was one of my best days snorkeling on the island!  I was able to get a few underwater photo's with our new digital camera, sadly, it died after I took about 10.  Hopefully I'll get some more underwater pictures taken and posted on here before we leave!

Here's some of the Roy kids again.  I had to post this picture--look how cute little Kemiahs sandy-bottom onesie is.

My sand ball.  These things are harder to make than they look and I was FINALLY successful in making a big one!  Sand balls are surprisingly heavy too!  

And here are some of the snorkeling pictures.  It's really hard to take pictures under water.  It's too dark to really see the camera screen so you just aim the best you can, take a lot of pictures, and hope that you capture some of what you saw!

"Kick to the Crunchies!"

I know, I know---the title of this post is absolutely disgusting and inappropriate.  It's a phrase that has been banned from the Taylor household (by me) except for really appropriate occasions, which is now.  Since first semester we have been seriously considering staying in Dominica for our 5th semester, rather than going to Miami or Michigan.  Over the past year, we have really got our hearts set on staying in Dominica.  We love it here (although it may not seem like it at times) and we're nice and settled.  Anyway, if we stayed in Dominica rather than going to Miami, we would save a lot of money, close to $4,000 just in rent (between May and August).  Anyway, we put in our application to stay in Dominica and sadly we were assigned to go to Miami.  :(  We are really unprepared to leave next month but I'm sure things will come together.  So, in 5 weeks we will be leaving the life that we love in Dominica,  flying home, we'll try to find a car we can afford, pack it up, and head to Miami.  

And so the adventure continues......