well folks, i meant to update this on monday and now here it is Saturday and I'm finally doing it! Better late than never, I suppose. This was kind of a crazy week.
Last weekend it RAINED. and when I say rained, I mean, I never knew that much water could come out of the sky for that long! It wasn't a tropical storm or anything, but we certainly got wet. Which shouldn't be a problem, except that Dominica's water supply system, whatever that may be, somehow gets overwhelmed when we get a lot of rain. We've noticed before that the water pressure gets really low and you sometimes can't shower for a couple of days but can still do things like wash dishes and flush the toilet. But we got so much rain this weekend that we lost our water completely. For those of you who don't know, I'm a bit of a procrastinator, and although I'd been told that you should always have 4-5 gallons of water around to drink, I hadn't exactly gotten around to it. And when the water runs out like that, of course none of the stores have any left to sell. But we did ok in the drinking department, because it was only out for the night and part of the day. The problem was, this was the night my body decided to have diarrhea issues, and we couldn't flush the toilet! Yeah, it was pretty bad. I felt like a true Dominican as I made trips back and forth to the little river by our house carrying every bucket i could of muddy rain water up to the house so that i could flush the toilet. All I need to do is learn how to balance one on my head while carrying two others in each hand, and then i'll fit right in! That was a lesson learned. STOCK UP ON WATER!!!
On Monday, my friend Mary and I ventured out to the other side of the bay to a national park with a bunch of hiking trails and old fort ruins. We loved the chance to get outside, hike around and explore our island a bit. The fort was used by the british to defend the ships in the port against enemy attackers. In the eighties they restored the main part of the Fort which you can see in the pictures. But if you take a variety of hiking trails through the forest, you find the rest of the fort that is overgrown now. They are absolutely beautiful. We definatley are planning on returning again, because the view from the top of the Cabrits (the hills surrounding the fort) are supposed to be amazing. The nice thing is that the area is only about 3 miles from here, so it's easy to walk to and free to get in. Like I said, it was wonderful to get out and explore and do some hiking.
The rest of the week Sam was focused on studying. He had his first anatomy lab practical on friday afternoon which he is "cautiously optimistic" about the results. He said he thought it went pretty well, but we won't find out what the actual results are until next monday. The major test is this coming monday, his first "mini" over all the lectures they've covered so far. Keep him in prayer for that--he's put in a lot of study hours that should pay off well. We're excited to see how he's doing so far.
We've unofficially added another member to our family--her name is Mooch. She appeared on our doorstep last week sometime, and because you can see every single bone in her body, and could tell that she has puppies somewhere, I of course had to feed her. She's a very friendly dog and is actually really polite about getting food. She will just randomly show up, I'll feed her and she'll sleep here for a couple hours and then go back to wherever her babies are. We aren't allowed to have pets in our apartment, so she just stays on our porch. It's kind of fun having her...we'll see what happens when she shows up with 8 little puppies, all wanting food!! Sam already swears we can't keep any, but we'll have to see. :D She left today before I could take her picture, but she'll be back and I'll get one then and post it for you all to see.
well, that's about it for now. I'm finishing up my last couple weeks of these classes, almost ready to start the next two. I've also been babysitting quite a bit. Last Saturday I got to take 4 of the kids i babysit with one of the dads and mary and go visit a dominican fruit farm! It was on a hill in the rainforest, but was really cool. Next time I'll bring a camera.
We really miss you all back home. Hope everything is going well, hope to hear from you soon!
Love, Katrina
Last weekend it RAINED. and when I say rained, I mean, I never knew that much water could come out of the sky for that long! It wasn't a tropical storm or anything, but we certainly got wet. Which shouldn't be a problem, except that Dominica's water supply system, whatever that may be, somehow gets overwhelmed when we get a lot of rain. We've noticed before that the water pressure gets really low and you sometimes can't shower for a couple of days but can still do things like wash dishes and flush the toilet. But we got so much rain this weekend that we lost our water completely. For those of you who don't know, I'm a bit of a procrastinator, and although I'd been told that you should always have 4-5 gallons of water around to drink, I hadn't exactly gotten around to it. And when the water runs out like that, of course none of the stores have any left to sell. But we did ok in the drinking department, because it was only out for the night and part of the day. The problem was, this was the night my body decided to have diarrhea issues, and we couldn't flush the toilet! Yeah, it was pretty bad. I felt like a true Dominican as I made trips back and forth to the little river by our house carrying every bucket i could of muddy rain water up to the house so that i could flush the toilet. All I need to do is learn how to balance one on my head while carrying two others in each hand, and then i'll fit right in! That was a lesson learned. STOCK UP ON WATER!!!
On Monday, my friend Mary and I ventured out to the other side of the bay to a national park with a bunch of hiking trails and old fort ruins. We loved the chance to get outside, hike around and explore our island a bit. The fort was used by the british to defend the ships in the port against enemy attackers. In the eighties they restored the main part of the Fort which you can see in the pictures. But if you take a variety of hiking trails through the forest, you find the rest of the fort that is overgrown now. They are absolutely beautiful. We definatley are planning on returning again, because the view from the top of the Cabrits (the hills surrounding the fort) are supposed to be amazing. The nice thing is that the area is only about 3 miles from here, so it's easy to walk to and free to get in. Like I said, it was wonderful to get out and explore and do some hiking.
The rest of the week Sam was focused on studying. He had his first anatomy lab practical on friday afternoon which he is "cautiously optimistic" about the results. He said he thought it went pretty well, but we won't find out what the actual results are until next monday. The major test is this coming monday, his first "mini" over all the lectures they've covered so far. Keep him in prayer for that--he's put in a lot of study hours that should pay off well. We're excited to see how he's doing so far.
We've unofficially added another member to our family--her name is Mooch. She appeared on our doorstep last week sometime, and because you can see every single bone in her body, and could tell that she has puppies somewhere, I of course had to feed her. She's a very friendly dog and is actually really polite about getting food. She will just randomly show up, I'll feed her and she'll sleep here for a couple hours and then go back to wherever her babies are. We aren't allowed to have pets in our apartment, so she just stays on our porch. It's kind of fun having her...we'll see what happens when she shows up with 8 little puppies, all wanting food!! Sam already swears we can't keep any, but we'll have to see. :D She left today before I could take her picture, but she'll be back and I'll get one then and post it for you all to see.
well, that's about it for now. I'm finishing up my last couple weeks of these classes, almost ready to start the next two. I've also been babysitting quite a bit. Last Saturday I got to take 4 of the kids i babysit with one of the dads and mary and go visit a dominican fruit farm! It was on a hill in the rainforest, but was really cool. Next time I'll bring a camera.
We really miss you all back home. Hope everything is going well, hope to hear from you soon!
Love, Katrina
2 comments:
Congratulations you two! You are doing a great job and we are so proud of you (Except for the not buying water part!) Keep up the good work, Sam, and keep having fun, Katrina! We are glad you are happy there . . but we miss you.
Have another great week!
Sounds like you are doing well out there. Miss you guys!
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