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.

The Dominica shopping experience

As our time begins to draw to a close here, I've realized that there's a lot of little things about life here that I haven't really shared on the blog. I guess I haven't done it because the things here have just become so normal for us.

Life in Dominica is best described as "random," and the stores are definitely no exception. You never know exactly what is going to be in a store, whether its what it normally carries or what it happens to have available that day. Nothing is quick or easy here, so to explain the normal shopping experience, I'll try to describe how I went about getting things together for our thanksgiving meal.

First off I went to the market to get the vegetables and fruits. In Portsmouth, its only open on Saturdays and Tuesdays, but the larger market in Roseau is open every day.

When we first got here, there were only two stores in our area: Tina's is about a 25 minute walk from my house, and her store usually has all the basics, such as eggs, flour, ground beef, butter, and cheese. The second place is James store which is right across from campus. The upstairs floor has mostly household items, anything from kitchen utensils, to school supplies, some clothing, shoes, mops and other random household items. Random very accurately describes everything in every store in Dominica, but especially James store. Half of their items I'm sure have been on the shelves since the 80s, and the other half was imported from China and has Chinese writing all over it. I'm pretty sure the place has flooded several times too, because one time when I went by all the shoes were laid out in the parking lot to dry. The next time i went back, they were all back on the shelves, but their smell was definitely not improved. The first floor has groceries and cleaning supplies. However, here as in all other stores, you have to check all expiration dates on the food to make sure its not too far past the expiration date, you have to check all flour, rice, chocolate chips (if they have them) and powdered milk for either weevols or worms. Also, I have never bought frozen meat from here because the rumor is that the freezers are turned off at night (something I do not doubt).

In the past two semesters, however, we have gotten two new stores. Picard grocery is the smallest but closest. They carry a lot of name-brand items, which are therefore more expensive, but the conditions in their store is very nice. 7-11 opened near James store, and has basically everything that Tina's has, but is a lot closer (quite wonderful).

This picture is of the inside of Picards, the nicest in our area.

This is the inside of James store, the downstairs area which sells groceries.

The outside of James store.

So, grocery shopping. For my thanksgiving shopping, on Saturday I first took the free transport from school for the hours ride to Roseau, the capital. I hit the market first to get the vegetables I needed. Then I headed for the grocery stores. There are two real grocery stores there, and so I had to go to get specialty items that i needed, such as walnuts, whipped topping, cream of mushroom soup and jello. Really special things such as French's onions for the green bean casserole are nowhere to be found on the island--I'll just make those.

So after spending half the day in Roseau, I decided to finish the rest of my shopping at home. First I take a taxi to Tina's because I have to bring back an empty crate of beer to refill it. I am able to get most things there, but she doesn't have any flour or sugar that day, so I head to 7-11. There I am able to get flour and sugar, but I'm still missing green beans. For this I have to go to the shacks, an area by campus where fruits and veggies are sold. Here I can get the oranges and a lemon (miraculously!), but no green beans. So then I head for James store (remember, this is all walking now), and finally find canned green beans. Next I head to another shack that sells apples at $3 EC each, and finally I run by Tomatoes where I used to work and pick up 4 oz. of cream cheese. And then I'm done!! I've finally gotten used to the idea that shopping here is a several hour deal, because no one store has everything, and half the time they don't have the things they usually do. You definitely have to learn to be flexible.

The plan for our lives...

So, a lot of people have been asking, so I just wanted to give you all a quick explanation of what our next step is, and what the next couple years of our lives are supposed to look like.

In January, Sam will be starting his 5th semester, which we are spending in Michigan. This semester will last until the beginning of May, and for Ross students, this is the semester to get oriented to the clinical setting and the healthcare system of the states. At the beginning of 5th semester, Sam will take the Comp, which is basically the final test over everything he has studied so far. This test is specific to Ross, and is extremely hard, because it serves as the "final weeding out" of their students. Those who do not pass the comp (which is 70% first time) will not be able to take the STEP, which keeps Ross from putting out really poor Step scores. The STEP 1 will be taken after he passes the comp, maybe during 5th semester, but probably right after it. This is the first part of the USMLE, the nationwide test that all medical students have to take. This is the first part of it, the second comes after rotations, and the third is after residency.

So, after he has taken STEP 1, he'll start his rotations. Those will last for two years, and where he does them could vary. Each rotation lasts about 6 weeks, and because Ross does not have its own hospital like most medical schools, they have to set up special programs with other hospitals that are already established. That means that there is the risk that would have to move to a different location for every rotation. However, there are some areas, usually big cities (Chicago, New York) where you can live during most of the same time and go to hospitals in the same area. If he likes the program in Michigan, he may stay there for most of them, or we may aim for Chicago or somewhere else. This is what we are going to aim for.

After the two years of rotations are up, he'll graduate (in 2011 at Madison Square Gardens in New York City!!)! After that, he'll start Residency, which will last a minimum of 2 years, depending on what specialty he chooses. This is the point where we'll have the best bet at coming back home. We'll see what happens!!

Alright, hope that helps clear things up for everyone. Things are about the same here right now, starting to count down the days and trying to keep up our motivation. Next week is Sam's last week of class, the rest will all be tests. Looking forward to seeing you all soon! Have an awesome weekend!

Katrina

The big news...

Good Evening Everyone!

I'm sitting here eating some amazing hot dog casserole (yes, I have simple tastes) and I realized I haven't posted our news on here yet. So........

WE'RE MOVING TO SAGINAW, MICHIGAN!!!

We are so excited, so proud of Sam for getting the grades to get us there, and so thankful to God for answering all our prayers!! The best part about it is that nearly all of our friends got in there as well, so we won't be alone. I had done a little bit of apartment searching these past couple months, so when we got the word that we'd be going there, I sent some emails off to the ones that loooked best. The manager from one of them called us like 5 minutes later and pretty much sold us on the place. It has everything we wanted, it's in the best part of town, and turns out is one of the most sought-after places for the Ross students who go there. We're really excited about it.

So, now that the big details are done, I've just got to start working out the smaller stuff, like shipping some stuff home, buying winter clothes (I'm not sure either of us even own a pair of jeans anymore), and wrapping up stuff here. Now that we know, Sam and I have completely different reactions. He is completely ready to check out and move on to the next thing, but I'm more trying to just treasure our time here, and oddly am not in as big of a rush to get home. I did however, already buy a cute pair of snow boots online, and Sam bought himself a Carhartt jacket. :)

So needless to say, we are very excited to move on to the next stage of our lives, for a change in scenery, and a whole new adventure in a new part of the US!! God is faithful, as always, and we're looking forward to what he has for us up in Michigan!

Much love,
Katrina

inLIGHTin

I think this is a record for the most blogs in a month!! You all should be proud of me!!

How's life back in the land of seasons?? I can't even describe how weird it is to me to have lived for a year and a half experiencing the same weather!! I mean, sometimes it rains more, sometimes is hotter or cooler, but always the trees are green, always we're wearing shorts and tanktops and DYING when we wear anything more. I have worn pants three times in the past year, and a jacket not even once. Sam is very ready for some cold weather, but I'm a summer girl and love it. I am however, ready to be a little cold for once, but mostly just to have something different. Already we are dreaming of hot chocolate, snow, using actual blankets, and taking hot showers. Things you never knew you'd miss!

Well, we did finally get our applications for 5th semester and ranked our preferences as first Saginaw, MI, second Miami, FL, and third, Roseau, Dominica. At this point, we'd pretty much be ok with any of them, but are hoping more for Saginaw. If you get the chance, please pray that we get accepted there, but especially that we end up in the same place as James and Mary and Marc and Ericka as well. The friendships we've made here have been amazing. I have such a cool group of girls that I hang out with. We're supposed to about our placement for 5th on or before November 5th, which is the day after Mini 2. I'm expecting we will hear no earlier than that date, so you all can start bugging us about it right after that, but we'll also try to let you all know, cuz we're going to be so excited!!

In the next posting below this, I've included some of the pictures from the first inLIGHTin ministry we had on Friday!! It was kind of crazy leading up to it, because I was in charge of securing enough donations from the area to be able to feed everyone, but miraculously we did have enough food and it went really well. Someone counted over 100 kids participating in one of the games, so we had plenty of interest!! It was great!! The ministry is intended to target teenagers, but because of different school things going on that day, we ended up with mostly elementary aged kids. it was fine and a lot of fun, but we're hoping to find a way to draw in a much older crowd in the next coming weeks. Pray that we would find where they're at and just be very aware of what their needs are right now, and not try to force our agenda's on them. The one's we managed to talk to seem to really just desire relationships, well, the girls anyway. The men in this culture are a whole different issue and need a lot of guidance. You can see last weeks posting for more info. So our first week was definitely a success in some aspects, but also really gave us an idea for what to expect, and what we need to do. Another area of prayer is regarding the woman who is currently renting the building we're using. The owner gave us permission, but the renter, who runs a cafe/bar there in the evenings, was not very happy to have us there. About halfway through she invited a bunch of men in who started drinking, so we had to ask them to at least go outside to drink, and then everyone started arguing and no one was happy. Fortunately, most of the kids were outside and weren't aware of what was going on, but we know is this going to be an issue that we have to deal with before next week. Please pray that the woman would be open and accomodating to us, and that we can work out something that's good for all of us.

Well, that's about all our news! Both of us are just plugging away at school and trying not to think about Christmas too much. We love the island and don't mind being here, but have both realized that a year is too long to be away and are starting to get really excited to go home. Pray that we would be content here and just cherish our last two months here on this amazing island. Feel free to send us an email and catch us up on what's going on in all your lives! Let us know what we can be praying for you, and know that we are SO EXCITED to come home and see you at Christmas!!

Love to all,

Katrina

inLIGHTin pictures

These are the pictures from our first inLIGHTin ministry!



Here's part of the team, hiding in the shade waiting for the door to be unlocked. When the owner showed up to let us in (15 minutes before we were suppossed to start), he told us we looked like refugees camped outside.

Ryan praying before giving the message.

We played chubby bunny for one of the games. The kids had no idea how to play, so Ryan and Liz had to demonstrate!

Although she's obviously not from the age group we were targeting, she's so adorable! Where there's free food, anyone will show up.

Playing capture the flag in Portsmouth's awesome park/cricket field/football field/everything else field.

October news and hurricane...

So, I'm sorry I'm not more consistent in updating this thing. I always have things in my mind to write about, but I don't usually get the chance to sit down and write them out to you. I think the rest of this semester is going to be relatively not-busy for me, so maybe I'll get better with the updates.

Life here has been changing and busy. Sam had his first mini of semester 4 and did really well!! He's really picking up the material well because its new and doctor-ly, so it keeps him interested. It was a huge relief to have this first mini go well though, because it takes off some pressure for the rest of the semester. Even though he has a bit of senior-itis and is having trouble staying motivated, he is enjoying this semester. He's been doing a lot more hands-on stuff through physical exams in class, as well as going through some clinic rotations at the hospital in Roseau. He's ready to head on to the the next step though and actually be in a hospital full time.

I finished my first set of classes for the semester, and am now enjoying fall break! It's been really nice to have the week off, I think I needed the break. I'll be starting my last round of classes and then I will have a degree in December (God willing)!! I know its going to feel really good to have this part done with.

The sad news for us is that our friend Mary left last week to go back to the states. She's about 5 months pregnant now, and needs to be closer to home for medical care. It was really hard to see her go and a little tough getting used to life without her here, but its good that she can be back home now. Continue to pray for her and the baby's health (everything looks good so far), also pray for our friend Ericka who's about 6 months along and has a high risk pregnancy. Before Mary left I got to put together a little baby shower/going away party for Mary. It was a lot of fun and turned out pretty well, even with our limited resources. The pictures of that are below.

In other news....there is a young pastor who just moved here as a missionary with his wife who is a student at Ross. He has been led to start a youth ministry in the town of Portsmouth near the school. One of the biggest problems in society is the youth, because most of them are raised in fatherless homes, and end up having children of their own at very young ages. Overall they are just kind of neglected by society here. So pastor Ryan has been led to minister to them! Its going to be a very exciting ministry, because it is obvious that God is with him and will use him to accomplish great things here in Dominica. I'm excited to see that God is working in the people here and am excited to jump in behind. So, next week, Friday Oct. 24th will be the first meeting of in-Light-in. We have no idea how many kids will come, but we have a place, we have some volunteers, and we have some ideas for how to reach them, and we'll see what happens. We would really appreciate you all praying for this as it gets started, because the need here is so great. We are relying solely on donations for food and other supplies, so pray that the community responds generously. We have no idea what to expect with this, so your prayers would be greatly appreciated!! If you want to check out Ryan's blog and get a feel for where his heart is at, check it out at: www.millertimejedidiah.blogspot.com

I think that wraps up most of our news! Actually, as I write this right now, we are experiencing our first hurricane! It actually didn't hit our island directly but passed a bit north of us, but it has definitely still affected us. The rain and storm surge were so bad last night that when we woke up this morning, pretty much the whole island was shut down. The prime minister told everyone to close their businesses and stay at home. None of the transports are running because near the water, the roads are blocked by boats and other debris that have been left in the road by the waves. There were also a lot of mudslides blocking off some of the other villages. It's pretty exciting. The doors are open in our aparment, and even from all the way up on the hill, I can hear the waves. The beach is almost a 10 minute walk from our house. So its pretty impressive. The water is completely brown, but we've actually had electricity for most of the day, for which I am very grateful for. I had to work still today (the owners make TONS of money when everything else is shut down), but tomorrow I'm hoping to go take some pictures of the water before it dies down too much. I wish everyone could have seen the rain we've had. It's just amazing to me coming from dry Colorado. If Grand Junction ever got as much rain as we've had here in the past 2 days, I think it would go back to being a lake instead of a valley! We've actually had rain every day for at least the last month. It's been pretty amazing. I'm actually not sick of it yet, although everyone else is, because I enjoy the change.

Ok, I'll wrap it up. That catches you up on our news! Oh, for all you who are wondering, we still don't know where we'll be living after Christmas. They keep telling us "you'll get an email this week," and then it becomes "oh actually it'll be next week." And that email is just to give us the applications for either Michigan, Miami or here in Dominica, then it will be a few weeks after that before we hear where we've been accepted. We plan on applying to all three places, but we're hoping to get into Michigan. The program and living conditions there seems to be the best option. So keep that in your prayers if you don't mind. You can be sure that we'll let you know when we do finally hear!!

Ok, that's it! Check out the pictures below, and send us an email to catch us up on your news if you get the chance! We love and miss you all....

Katrina

Baby shower and goodbye

Mary's baby shower! Even though we weren't able to buy cute baby things, we still managed to have a fun party complete with cakes and lots of riends. Everyone enjoyed being able to support Mary and the baby, as well as say goodbye to her before she left. Overall I'd say it was a success!

Before Mary left, the four of us went out for a nice dinner at a restaurant on the beach. It was nice to spend some time together with the four of us, without having to cook!

This is a picture of all the girls in my Bible study! Almost all of us are spouses, and its really nice to have a good group to fellowship with.

This is Charlie, the cat we're watching for a couple of months. The sink is one of his favorite places to sleep!

And of course, I have to include a sunset picture!