Goodbye Dominica...

"I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again..."


Well, Sam is finished with 4th semester. Our bags are packed. We've gone around and said our goodbyes. Yesterday I took the long walk into Portsmouth for the last time, went to Tina's Store for the last time, walked up the hill to our house for the last time. This morning to celebrate, as soon as the boys got out of their test, we bought cigars and went down to the beach. I soaked up the Caribbean sun for the last time, soaked in the warm sea waters for the last time, they smoked their Cuban cigars for (maybe) the last time. Tomorrow we'll get in a transport and take the crazy ride to the airport...one last time.


Although it seems like we're saying goodbye to a lot, it is definitely bittersweet. Unlike a lot of people here, we have loved living on this island. But as we say goodbye to it now, we both know that we don't have a lot of regrets. The education Sam has gotten here was phenomenal, he has no doubts about his preparedness for the clinical experience in the states. We both have embraced the island life here and have gotten to enjoy a pretty good amount of the scenery, people and culture of the island. Overall, we are both very satisfied with our experience here. Honestly, we wouldn't change it for anything. At this time two years ago, we thought we wanted and needed to go to medical school in the states. Obviously, God had other plans and here we are. And now, although hindsight is always 20/20, we both are sure that He was right. Ross University Medical School and Dominica were the perfect fit for us. We have never felt more content and happy (other than missing family and friends) than we have here, which is probably because that comes with being in the will of God. We will never forget this amazing opportunity.

But as Sam said this morning, we are leaving without looking back. We have finished are time here and are now ready to move on to the next phase of our lives. We are excited to see what God has for us in Saginaw, Michigan, and where he will continue to take us. Although nothing is for sure in this world, through this experience we have learned that God does know best, and he will lead us in the path he wants us to follow. All we have to do is obey. And for that, I am thankful--we serve a great God.





My last picture of Prince Rupert Bay and the village of Portsmouth.

Pictures on the beach!

I think its a miracle--I got one with both of them smiling!!

Sunbathing and a Cuban cigar...odd mix? Perhaps!

Well, now all I can think of is....

"I'll be home for Christmas

You can count on me

Please have snow and mistletoe

And presents under the tree"

We'll be home for Christmas!!

Thanks to all of you who tuned in to this little blog over the past year! I hope this last message finds you all well and hopefully we'll be seeing you soon! Have a wonderful Christmas season! Christ is the reason! All thanks be to him!

Love, Katrina

"Campbells out!!" --Sam

Boiling Lake

Well, as of today we have 5 days left in Dominica!! We are both so ridiculously excited to come home and walk on carpet, not be bothered by mosquitos, and sleep under blankets. Actually, we are definitely most excited to see our families, the rest are just extra benefits.

I only have a few blogs left before we leave here. One of the things I have wanted to do on the island since I first heard about it was take the 3 hour hike to the Boiling Lake. This is one of Dominica's claims to fame, as it is the 2nd largest boiling lake in the world. The challenging part about doing this hike is getting there, because it is such a long hike. I have wanted to do this hike for as long as I've known about it, but every time I've tried to get it set up something has come up and it just hasn't worked out. But last week, on very short notice I found out that our friends Ryan and Robb (Ryan is the guy who started inLIGHTin, the youth ministry), were going on Wednesday. So, I basically invited myself and so the four of us (Ryan, Robb, Nathan Robb's brother and myself) headed out on Wednesday morning. It rained steadily for the first hour of the hike, which turned an already muddy hike into a VERY muddy hike. We started out with a short climb then a steep descent for the first hour, a very steep climb and a short descent for the next hour, and then a steep descent and another climb in the last hours. The whole trail was stairs made out of logs and cut into the muddy trail. Pretty much every trail here has stairs on it (see picture above), because if it didn't, the trial would be so muddy you'd end up sledding down it instead of hiking, or it would be completely overgrown within a week. We hiked through the Valley of Desolation, which reminded me of Yellowstone, because there was bubbling sulphur pools and vents scattered all throughout the valley, which was really cool.

When we finally got to the lake itself, we couldn't see the actual lake because of the thick steam that was rolling off of it. After awhile, it cleared up enough for us to see the rolling, blue-gray boiling water. It was like nothing I have ever seen. According to the Dominica travel website:
"It is believed that the Lake is actually a flooded fumarole, a crack through which gases escape from the molten lava below, rather than a volcanic crater. The natural basin of the Boiling Lake collects the rainfall from the surrounding hills and from two small streams which empty into the lake. The water seeps through the porous bottom to the hot lava below where it is trapped and heated to boiling point." It was really cool.

Then we turned around and headed back. The total six hours of hiking stairs definitely wore me out, and my calves certainly felt it the next day!! I am so glad I got to go though, it was a cool experience and I can now say that I "conquered the rock!"

Because of all the rain that day, the mountains were covered in a thick fog. Even though it blocked some of the scenery, it was very beautiful.

There's still a lot of fog in the air, but below it you can see steam rising from the mountains--that's coming from the lake.

These are the awesome guys that allowed me to tag along with them! Robb, Ryan, and Nathan.

The Valley of Desolation. The trail (although it was hard to find) cut through this on its way to the lake, which you can see putting off steam at the back of the picture.

Group shot!

And we made it! This is me in front of the lake.

It was hard to get a clear picture of it, but here you can see the water boiling in the middle, as well as the cliffs surrounding the lake. It was pretty amazing.

That's about it!! I'll probably update you all one more time before we leave the island. Hope everyone is enjoying the cold weather and the preparations for the wonderful holiday season. We're looking forward to seeing you all soon!!

Love,

Katrina

End of November Pictures

Hey Everyone,

Today is the last day of November, and we will be home in 18 days!! We are sooo excited. As the end of our time here gets closer, I've realized that there's a lot about every day life here that I've left out of my blogging. So I'm working on a couple of posts about random parts of life in Dominica, so be looking for those to be posted soon.

In the meantime, I'll give you a quick re-cap on whats been happening in our life the last few weeks. Things have been pretty crazy as we start to wrap up life here. Sam's finished with classes now, so these last three weeks are full of lots of tests. He has a really important test Monday morning, so be praying about that if you get the chance. He is VERY ready to come home and get a short break.

I'm all finished with work now, so I can focus on finishing school and everything else, and also just because I was ready to be done. :) So last week I ran in my first 5k! Pictures of me at the end are posted below. I was pretty happy with my time, 27:40, considering it was my first one and I wasn't training for it at all. So hopefully it'll be the first of many. Yesterday I got to on a hiking excursion with some of the newer spouses on the island. It was really fun. Pictures of that are below as well.

The format on this blog has changed, and so for some reason I can't post the pictures with the words, so all the pictures are below. First off are the pictures from the 4th semester banquet that was a few weeks ago. I had been looking forward to that night pretty much since we first got on the island, and it was really fun. It was nice to get all dressed up and relax a bit with our friends, celebrating completing all 4 semesters on the island! It was a really nice night. There's also some pictures of the spouses banquet, which was a lot of fun as well.

Thanksgiving was nice. We were missing home, but still had a very nice day here. I cooked all the food for us, and it was just Sam and I and James, but we had a good day. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We'll see you in 18 days!!

Love, Katrina

This is me nearly falling to my death (my foot slipped just as I jumped off). Nothing was injured except for my pride (and I did manage a pretty spectacular belly-flop).Fortunately, I jumped again after, and didn't almost die that time, but I don't have a picture of it.