We have officially survived in Dominica for one whole week!!

All in all, things are going very well, we are really liking the island, the people and everything else we've discovered so far.

Now that we are more settled into our apartment, the past couple of days we have spent exploring different parts of the island. The school has sponsored a variety of tours for the 1st semester students, so that has really helped us get around (for free!!!) and meet some of Sam's classmates. Let's see....

On Friday we took a bus down to the capitol city of Roseau. It is about an hour's drive over curvy narrow roads, but the views were magnificent. All along the coast are scattered little villages of brightly painted houses that are tucked into the lush hills overlooking the coast. Although we don't have a lot of white sand here, the water is still crystal clear and is always beautiful. the capital itself is very unique. A third of the islands population lives here, and most of the streets and buildings look like they haven't seen a bit of change since they were first built. Walking in them feels like you've stepped back in time for several decades. While there we found a Dominica-version of Walmart that had a little of everything for very decent prices. It was reassuring. The one thing we have had difficulty securing so far is meat. We have the basic staples, but so far any kind of meat is few and far between. Next Saturday we are planning on going to the open market in Portsmouth, so hopefully we'll have better luck there.

On Friday night the school sponsored a bonfire at the beach. It started at 7 pm (which is already dark here), and so we showed up at about 7:45, waited around at least another half hour, and then they finally started burning something. I wish we had brought the camera, because boy do they know how to have a bonfire. They started by stacking logs into a square until it was about 15 feet high, with the middle open, and then they laid palms from the palm trees over the stacked wood, making the whole structure probably 20 feet tall. Then they just lit it and left! they definitely don't have to worry about things burning there that aren't supposed to be burning, but still it was quite the experience. Continuing on the whole fire theme...the best way to dispose of trash here is to burn it, because they don't have a lot of land to spare for a landfill. So walking through town you can almost always catch the smell of burning trash, but it is actually a really good smell. The weird thing is that you'll also see just random columns of smoke coming from the mountains, as people get rid of trash, but I always have to do a double take whenever i see it, and try not to get excited. :)

On Saturday we went with the group up to a place called Syndicate Falls, which you can see in some of the pictures. It was at the end of a beautiful little hike through the rain forest, which was really nice.

Yesterday, (Sunday) we took a tour along the east coast of the island, which winds through Carib territory. The Caribs in Dominica are the only original people group that was here when Christopher Columbus landed. They still face a lot of economic hardships, but they weave beautiful baskets. They also make Casava bread, which is made from the root of a casava plant. It was very good. While we were there we also got to see a native dance performed. After going through the Carib territory, we went into Morne Trois National Park and walked to the Emerald Pool. This was a beautiful pond that was VERY cold. But we tried to enjoy it while we were there, because it is probably the only place on this whole island where you can feel cold.

So now we are back home and ready to tackle orientation this week. Sam's classes will start on Monday, but this week is just orientation, registration, etc. It was been really nice having some time to just relax and explore here, we're definitely glad we came down early. Things will be a little different once he starts classes, but we're excited for him to get started.

We hope everything is going well back at home. We are definitely starting to miss everyone, so keep us updated on everything going on in your lives. We will keep posting pictures and stuff when we do something interesting! That is, as long as our camera holds out (I discovered that perhaps taking the camera to the beach is probably not the best idea, after our one outing almost killed it. So pray that our camera hangs in there for awhile longer. lol). Anyways, we love you all and pray that everything is going well for you--bye for now!!

Love, Katrina

We have arrived!

We made it!!! It is now Tuesday night, we have been in Dominica since Sunday afternoon, and are just now enjoying having a place to call home that has an internet connection. The flight to Dominica went well, although landing here is definately an adventure. The runway is very small, and the plane has to circle down over the mountains and the ocean, come down over a mountain, hit the runway and stop before it lands in the ocean (literally). The airport here is one decent sized room with 3 desks in it, one where the Ross University representative sits to welcome you, one for the customs desks, one for the inspection and then the door leading out to a little parking area where taxis and buses await your arrival. We have posted pictures taken on the ride in. Everyone drives on the left side of the road with the driver sitting on the right side of the bus, so that takes some getting used to, but from what we've seen so far, the left side is more of a technicality. On the curvy, narrow road coming in we generally just drove in the middle until another car comes racing around the corner, in which case both drivers hit the brakes just enough to pull off to the left side and bit and allow the other to pass with maybe 5 inches to spare. It is quite the experience.

The first thing you notice here is the humidity. As soon as we stepped out of the plane it was like stepping into a "wet blanket" as Sam describes it. We are hoping that we adjust to that well, right now the most valuable thing we own is the fan we paid about US $30 for. The scenery here is amazing. It is definately a thick, steep jungle. The banana trees took the largest beating from Hurricane Dean, so hopefully that doesn't hurt the locals too much. You can see pictures of them all blown over. Everything else appears to have stood up well despite the hurricane. The people are prepared for them. A lot of the windows across campus still have boards over them, and the beach is strewn with what we imagine to be excess debris, but those are the only obvious signs that we can see of a hurricane passing through. Another thing that I love about the island is that all the buildings are painted in bright yellow, green, purple and pink. They look absolutely wonderful.

We were able to find a good apartment on the second day we were here. The school brought all us new arrivals on a tour of the available apartments, and it was obvious that everyone was going to be fighting for the cheap ones, so we grabbed what we could in a hurry, and lucked out. Although it isn't big it has everything we need: screens and burgler bars on the windows, kitchen, internet, bathroom...the basics. We will try to get pictures up soon. It is very nice and I think we'll really like it. The best part about it is the view. From the front porch we can see down the mountain over part of the "town" and out onto the ocean. Absolutely stunning (Katrina's favorite part). And in the back, there is a nice, healthy avocado tree (Sam's favorite part).

The food here has been good so far, although we haven't found any genuine creole food, which is supposed to be the dominant style. Everything right around campus is geared towards the students, so there is quite a bit of variety. So far we've found lots of chinese, some indian, some pizza and a bunch of "shacks" as they're called that supply basic american food for the students all day long. The best thing we've found so far is the fruit. It's everywhere, and it's amazing! So far we've tried Bananas, mangoes, pineapple, starfruit, guava (not our favorite), passion fruit, avocados (which technically are a fruit, i think), canips, and tomorrow we're going to try bread fruit. all of it is abundant, and very cheap, so we are likely to eat a TON of it.

Although it is an adjustment, I think we are really going to like it here. Sam is really excited to be a medical student, and we love what we have seen so far of the island. I have started working on my class work (and by working I mean, I've logged on, looked at everything i have to do and then started writing this) which started on Monday, and it seems like that should go pretty well too. We'll try to keep you all updated as we continue to explore the island. We have the rest of this week to run around on our own, then next week Sam starts his orientation stuff, and classes will start for him next Monday. It's so exciting!! Thank you all for your prayers as we carry out our new life here...We love and miss you all and are thinking about you! Please comment and send us emails and stuff, so we can keep posted on everything back at home. Bye for now!

Katrina

Still Here...

Well, Hurricane Dean is still trying to drown our little island, so we are going to go exploring in Puerto Rico today! I talked to the guy at american airlines and he said (insert Desi Arnez accent here) "Ha! amigo... you are not going anywhere today." We got on a flight tomorrow at 11:00, so hopefully that will go through and we can carry on with our plans. For now, Puerto Rico!!

Hello Puerto Rico

Well, We made it into San Juan without a hitch. We missed the storm headed for texas, and all our bags and stuff made it in. The hotel network won't let us get onto skype, so if you are waiting for us to get on, well, don't bother at this point. Everything is good here, but we're not sure what is going to happen tomorrow. Ross closed campus and opened its hurricane shelter today, so that doesn't sound good... but AA says our flight is still on, so we have no idea what's actually going to happen tomorrow. If we do fly tomorrow, we'll pretty much go straight to a hurricane shelter to wait out the storm. It will make the apartment buying process easier... if it still stands, then bingo - home. Anyway, I'll try to post again before we leave to keep everyone updated. Miss you all lots! Adios!

Leaving!

Well, The day has come. We are headed out to Denver today, and our flight leaves tomorrow. Trina and I are WAY excited - There's just one problem... There is a "tropical storm" that is headed straight for Dominica that is supposed to be a category 2 hurricane by the time it reaches the island chain. we are supposed to land three hours or so before the hurricane reaches the islands, but we may be spending some extra time in an "extended layover" in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Good times.