Twas the Night Before Christmas

On Sunday afternoon Keith, Alex, and I met our friends, the Ness Family in Hopkins for lunch and a play. We went to Big 10 restaurant on Mainstreet- the best subs in town! Then went across the street to the Stages Theater to see a showing of Twas the Night Before Christmas. Alex and Beth hadn't seen each other in over 8 months! Alex was bashful as always! We had a great time and I thought the kids did a good job of sitting still during the play. Click below for pictures.

If you notice when you log onto our main blogspot page: bratulich.blogspot.com we added a section called- "My Loopt Journal" We are going to use this as we travel from the twin cities to Miami. We leave on Jan. 10th and we hope to be there in just a couple of days. If your friends with him on Facebook it will also update his status when he updates where we are on My Loopt Journal.

2009-12-27 Twas the night before Christmas

Christmas 2009 pictures

Christmas 2009 in Minnesota

Merry Christmas from Minnesota

We celebrated Christmas yesterday (Christmas Eve) with Keith's family and with my family today! Tomorrow we will open gifts with my family, Alex will be so excited. I have a ton of pictures and am working on uploading them. So I will post them when I'm finished. We did get a lot of snow! So I will leave you with a picture of what it looked like in snowy Minnesota this morning. I made them small so if you want you can click on them to enlarge them:

Keith -- shoveling snow!
The view outside of my windshield as I was driving this morning.
Alex, all bundled up!
Yes, we own a minivan!

More of Alex's 4th Birthday

Later on that day, on Alex's birthday, we celebrated at my parents house. She got what she wished for-- a dinosaur cake. When she blew out the candles she made another wish and said she wished for a pet horse!

She was so excited to see her cousin, Zoe and her big grandma (great grandma). The girls had so much fun together!

The next day she went to the build a bear workshop with her cousin, Kaylee, and a few of her friends that live in town. Alex again got what she wished for-- a pet horse! :) She named her horse, "Hot", after the horse she rode in Dominica. After her horse was stitched together she told me that her horse needed to be married, and that she needed to get a "girl" horse. Nice try Alex! I don't think so! :) Afterwards, her and some of her friends came back to my parents house to play and help finish off the dinosaur cake.

The next day her cousin, Zoe, came over and they made gingerbread houses. They had so much fun! Alex has been having fun everyday since she got off the plane! She doesn't want to leave!

2009-12-21 alex's birthday and gingerbread house

Skymall

Has anyone ever paid attention to what they sell in these skymall magazines? I never really did, until recently. This last time I looked through the magazine I thought I should write a blog about it. Some of the stuff in that magazine is just crazy!!! Let me tell you a few of the things I found:

1. An underwater cell phone system. If you feel the need to chat with your friends while you are scuba diving you might need this! It's only 1799.00 and the cell phone is NOT included! I would love to meet someone who has bought and used this! Crazy!

2. Electronic Feng Shui Compass: This compass helps you align yourself and your surroundings (furniture?) so it fits your intentions/feng shui. Feng Shui your life!! Hahaha!!! Sounds interesting? Would anyone spend 199.99 on that?

3. Sand Names Print- Have your names written in sand with a heart around it, have someone take a picture, and have it framed- all for between 39.99 to 69.99. As the ad says, "No wave will ever remove this memory". Hey I can do that for you for less than half the price! Just email me!

4. Oxygenated Water- I guess I don't know what to say for this one. There really is no point in this! What a scam! Wow! 249.95! For oxygen in your water???

There are so many other ridiculous things in this magazine! It's amusing to browse through!

Alex's 4th Birthday and Kara's 1st Birthday

On Sunday afternoon we went to Paul and Aimee's house to celebrate two birthdays. Kara, Paul and Aimee's little one, turned one and Alex turned 4. Alex was so excited! Especially to open birthday presents. I think this was the first year where she actually opened her gifts herself.

Click below to see the pictures from the "double" birthday party!

2009-12-20 Alex and Kara's Birthday

Landing in Puerto Rico

http://www.youtube.com/user/hamr0014#p/a/u/0/gt5hCNKk6Uc

I took some video of our landing in Puerto Rico. Click the link above to see it. I have taken a lot of pictures in the last few days so I will try and keep up with the blog and update it tomorrow.

Alex is having so much fun while here. Yesterday, Sunday, we celebrated her birthday in the afternoon with Keith's family and then in the evening with my family. Then today I took her to the build a bear factory. She loves it here! Tomorrow we are going to make gingerbread houses with her cousin, Zoe.

Antigua

We decided to spend the night in Antigua before heading home to the US. We unfortunately didn't get a chance to explore the nearby islands while in Dominica so we were really looking forward to a night on a nearby island. From Dominica, the flight to Antigua is only a half hour. The only other island between Antigua and Dominica is Guadeloupe. I was really surprised at how different Antigua was from Dominica. It is much more developed! We stayed at a really nice resort in Saint Johns which is on the other side of the island from the airport (it took us 30 min. to drive there). The beaches are white sand (they are black in Dominica) and are so beautiful. I took as many pictures as I could which wasn't much because we we're soooo tired! We were so excited to leave Dominica that we didn't get much sleep the night before. Click below to see the pics of Antigua and I have a video before that of us landing in Dominica and the view from our hotel room in Saint Johns, Antigua.

2009-12-18 Antigua

We are Leaving the Island

 

Here is Alex and Daddy sharing a cold drink at Rituals Coffee House. A great Coffee place next to the Ross University Campus in Picard, Portsmouth, Dominica.

Right now I am sitting at the Melville Hall Airport in Dominica waiting for our plane to arrive. We are flying to Antigua today and staying the whole day and night at the St James Club Hotel. We are excited to see the beautiful white sand beaches of Antigua. Dominica has black sand beaches because the island was formed from volcanic activity.

Tomorrow morning we are flying from Antigua to Puerto Rico, then Puerto Rico straight to Minneapolis. We are so excited to come home! But of course we are sad to leave Dominica.

We will miss all the rainbows, the avocado, guava, and mango tree in our yard, and of course the beautiful scenery, and all the friends we left behind. We hope we get to see them again, possibly in Miami, or somewhere else while doing clinical rotations.

Boiling Lake x2

Yesterday a group went to Boiling Lake. I decided to go along with them because I love that hike. It was my second time going and I am so glad I went. I have been telling everyone that I really wanted to see a Boa Constrictor alive (I've seen them dead on the road) in their natural habitat and I finally got to see one on the boiling lake hike. Check out the pics and videos below:

2009-12-12 boiling lake

Jingle Bells

On Friday Alex's school had a holiday program. Alex of course is a little shy and didn't really sing, but that is a big improvement from last year when she only wanted to sit with us. At least this year she stood up in front of the group. It was so cute to watch!

Friday we are leaving the island for good! We are excited and sad at the same time! I hiked boiling lake for the second time today and saw about a 6 foot long boa constrictor. It was so neat! I got a video of it-- so sarah, you might not want to watch it.. :)

I'll try and post it on here tomorrow.

Laundry

This is where we have our laundry done, it's just around the corner from where we live. I used to do it by hand and hang it out to dry when I lived in Picard, but where we live now in Glanvillia I don't have a line to hang the clothes. The woman who lives here is named, Candy, and she does our laundry. She also has 5 children who live in this small little house. Of course they help out too! I pay 30 ec a week for her to do our laundry.

One of the things I can't wait for when I move back to the states is having access to my own washer and dryer!

Creepy Crawly Things

One thing I am not going to miss about Dominica is all the creepy crawly things we find in our house and in our surroundings. We find these little guys everywhere-- they are millipedes! Yesterday... I came home after picking up Alex from school and found one in our bed!!! Yuck!

These little guys aren't so annoying. We find them in our house all the time. They don't bite or crawl on you so they don't bother me!

Election Time in Dominica

As I have mentioned before Dominica is having their election day on Dec. 18th. I have been taking some pictures of some of the signage from the different political parties. There are two main political parties, the Labour Party (DLP) and the Workers Party. The Labour party uses the red color. And it seems most people where I live support the labour party.

From what I have read the Labour Party is a social Democratic party and the oldest political party in Dominica. The DLP got the most seats in the last election - which was in 2005.

The United Workers Party is a centrist party- according to Wikipedia (although the locals have told me they are both democratic parties). This party got 8 out of the 21 seats of Parliament in the last election, 2005.

The Dominica Freedom Party is another political party in Dominica. The color they use is green, and I have only seen one car decorated in green. It doesn't seem to be a very popular party. The Freedom Party is considered the Conservative party in Dominica and they did not win any seats in the last election.

Here are some pics that I have taken:

2009-12-6 election time in dominica

Something's Happening!

So a week ago the Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, announced there would be a general election with elections being held on Dec. 18th (the day I'm supposed to fly off the island). Ever since then I have been hearing this song by a group called, Red Plastic Bag from Barbados, called "Something's Happening!" I have asked bus drivers, taxi drivers, bar owners and pretty much anyone else playing this song. They have all told me it is the official song of the Labor Party. It's a catchy tune and I actually like it! I found the song on youtube:


You can see the word, "Lime" in the back of the stage.. Lime is my cell phone provider! :)

I'm not really sure what all the different parties stand for, all I know is that there is a Labor Party (which is the ruling party and a Worker Party. Those are the two main parties and there are others too but are much smaller. Both parties, I'm told, are democratic.

Scooter- Oct 3rd, 1990- Dec. 1st, 2009

Scooter, a shih-tzu that became the family pet my sophomore year of high school, Oct. 3rd, 1990. He was so cute and fluffy! I always remembered him watching out the window waiting for us to come home, sitting outside the shower or next to the bathtub waiting for us to get ready for the day. He loved going for car rides and walks. He always jumped in excitement when he saw us take out his leash! He lived a long life, more than any other dog I've ever known! He was 19 years old, and is now in a better place.

Second Thanksgiving in Dominica

This is our second Thanksgiving in Dominica. Before leaving in the morning we asked Alex what she was thankful for and she said, "I am thankful for the animals on the farm". We thought that was so cute!! We were lucky enough to have two meals. Alex's school provided the turkey for our lunch and we had a pot luck for all the side dishes and desserts then we went to a friend's house for dinner. I was so full by the end of the night that I couldn't even imagine eating another meal. I forgot my camera so here is a pic of some of us that we're there. We did have turkey! A lot of you have asked! It was a Butterball too! It was so great to eat something that I'm not used to eating. It has been a year since I've eaten turkey and it was soooo good! We had fun!
Today, we went to Red Rock Haven for the day. The water wasn't as dramatic as it was last time but Alex was still scared of the waves. It was a perfect day. We got to watch some surfers out there too.

Video from Morne Anglais

Here is a video I took when we finally got to the top of Morne Anglais. It was so beautiful up there!

Morne Anglais

Here is a view of Morne Anglais when I was coming home from our Boiling Lake Hike. I knew I wanted to hike that when I saw it. Victor, our tour guide we used, said he has done it and it takes half the time to hike than Morne Diablotin. So today me and five other girls hired Victor to hike with us to the top of Morne Anglais.

I wore my tennis shoes because I knew it would be muddy, then decided to change into my Keen's and wear socks. I'm glad I did, because my tennis shoes would of been ruined! We parked next to the Giraudel Primary School and started our hike from there. We hiked up a steep road and then went into the forest. Right before going into the forest we were greeted by a cow. I always find it amusing that there are cows in the most odd spots. Then we hiked past a water catchment system and then back into the rainforest. Soon, we found ourselves in an open area where there some more cows! Interesting spot to find cows- I'll call them "mountain cows". Then we went back into the rainforest where we spent the next one and a half hours climbing. It was extremely muddy and full of what the locals call "razor grass"! They call it razor grass because it cuts you! I can attest to that. I now have scrapes everywhere-- my hands, legs, arms! It was so muddy, that my shoes would get stuck in the mud and I would have to reach down and find them and put them back on. Glad I wore socks (which are now in the garbage)!

The view was amazing when we finally got to the top! I had a great view of Roseau and Grand Bay. We sat and ate our lunch we packed and enjoyed the beautiful view. Click below for pictures:

2009-11-23 morne anglais, dominica

Get Togethers and Earthquakes

Yesterday I went to Heaven's Best Restaurant for a surprise dinner for Kristen, a good friend on the island. It was the first time I've been to the restaurant. It was really good food! A little expensive but worth it! Kristen was very surprised! She really enjoyed the get together!! At the end the restaurant staff came out and sang happy birthday and gave her a gift.
This past Sunday evening we went over to Mike and Sindy's house for a potluck. One of the girls, Jennifer, went back to the states early, so we all said our "good-byes" to her.
This is a picture from the fourth semester banquet at Cabrits. From Left to Right- Jennifer, Felicity, Jacquelle, Kevin, Me, Keith, and Jason.

We've been experiencing a lot of earthquakes lately. I usually don't feel them because I'm not sitting still. But yesterday I felt it!!! It lasted a few second and it was loud! I was in our home and everything shook, the windows, the furniture, our whole house! It was amazing! I had never felt anything like that before. After doing some research online I discovered that what I felt was Volcanic earthquakes. Dominica has nine volcanos on it and the island itself was formed from volcanos. Here are some links more about the earthquakes and volcanos in Dominica:
http://dominicapsn.freeyellow.com/
http://www.dominicanewsonline.com/all_news/general/8187.html

http://repeatingislands.com/2009/04/24/dominica%E2%80%99s-morne-au-diable-volcano-poses-tsunami-risk-for-neighboring-islands/ (this is an interesting story about Morne Aux Diables. I can see this volcano from my backyard!

http://www.dominica-weekly.com/news-from-dominica/dominica-volcano-poses-caribbean-tsunami-risk-researchers-say/

http://www.thedominican.net/articles/auxdiables.htm

2009-11-19 Heavens Best and Basket Ceremony

Dubique Falls, Grand Bay, Dominica

We had a busy weekend. Saturday morning I took Alex with some of her friends to Purple Turtle Beach. Then that night we went to the fourth semester banquet at Cabrits. I took a few pics from purple turtle but not any from the fourth semester banquet. Then Sunday we went to a potluck at a neighbors house. We had some great food and the kids had fun playing. I only took a few pics from that night. Then Monday we went on another excursion!

We started out driving all the way to the southern end of the island (we live on the northern end) to Grand Bay. Grand Bay is the area where the first french settlers arrived from the neighboring island of Martinique. We went to the Geneva Estate where the Coal Pot Factory is located. We got a somewhat of a tour of the coal pot factory. Coal Pot began as a youth skills training program for unemployed young women and is now a community company producing handmade soaps and oils using natural products. We all bought a little something to bring home for Christmas.

Then we headed to the town of Dubuc to hike to some obscure waterfall that I found in a guide book. None of us had ever been there (including our guide)before, so we didn't know what to expect. When we got to the town we found a couple of local men that showed us the way. It was very apparent that this was not a heavily traveled path. One of the men brought along his machete so he could cut the brush away for us to get through. It wasn't a long hike, but it wasn't easy either because there wasn't really a path. We discovered a natural water slide that I slid down! It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I did it! Click below for pictures from the whole weekend and the video of the natural water slide:

2009-11-16 dubique falls

Cliff Diving in Dominica

On Thursday I went cliffdiving with some friends and we had so much fun! We had two cliffs to choose from, a 50 ft cliff and a 20 ft cliff... Unfortunately, I couldn't get myself to jump off the 50 ft cliff, but I did do the 20 ft cliff. I took a ton of pictures and video. I will post them below. After cliff jumping we went to Cold Soufriere in the "drive thru volcano". All of Dominica was formed from Volcanic activity and there are lots of spots to go to see volcanic activity (Champagne Bay, Boiling Lake, and Cold Soufriere). I can see from looking around that we we're in a crater, it was neat and beautiful!

On Monday I plan to go to the Coal Pot factory and visit Dubique falls on the other end of the island! I hope it doesn't rain!!!

click below to look at the pics--these are from horseback riding, cold soufriere, and cliff diving.

2009-11-12 Horseback riding and cliff jumping

Horseback Riding with Alex

Alex went horseback riding with Marisol for the second time last Sunday. She had so sooooo much fun! She loves horses (and elephants and dinosaurs) so much she now wants one as a pet (and an elephant and a dog and a cat). She learned how to stop the horse and make the horse walk!

Welcome to Miami!

The more I think about Miami the more excited I am getting! I just looked at the Miami Zoo website to see they have so many animals.. including Elephants. They don't have elephants at the MN zoo or the Como Zoo (nor the Saginaw Zoo), so this will be very exciting for Alex. Alex wants an Elephant as a pet, so it will be good for her to see what a real one looks like. Maybe then she will realize that a real elephant probably won't fit in our house!

Miami Here We Come

We we're notified today that we will be going to Miami in January! Of course Miami wasn't my first choice, but that's ok! I will survive. I am thinking of all the positives about living in Miami. First, I get to practice my Spanish! I do have a college major in Spanish, but I have been out of school for 12 years so needless to say my Spanish is a little rusty! I have also never really seen Miami (other than airport layovers) so I am excited to see a new place! I'm sure they have a lot of museums to enjoy, a zoo, nice restaurants, and so many other things that they don't have here in Dominica!!!

Anxiously Awaiting

Today is the day we find out where we will be going for 5th semester, Saginaw, Michigan or Miami, Florida! I can't wait to find out so I can start finding a place for us to live.

Meanwhile I will post the pics from Red Rock and the Arts and Craft Fair at Ross University. Alex and I had fun working the kids table (selling the crafts the kids made a few weeks ago). Afterwards, Keith met us and we had some overpriced food and we bought Alex a Dominican Doll. The dress on the doll was really the reason I bought it. A handmade Creole outfit.

Sunday I took Alex to her second horseback riding lesson. On Sunday she learned to stop the horse and to make the horse walk. She loved it!!! and now wants a horse and an elephant as a pet. I don't have those pics yet but I will post them as soon as I upload them.

2009-11-07 red rock and art fair

Red Rock one more time

On Wednesday, while Keith was back in class, Alex and I decided to go to Red Rock with some other "spouses" and her friend, Marisol. The sea was extra rough so we really couldn't swim in it but it was so beautiful. The waves we're the biggest I've seen. I could of sat there for hours watching it.

After taking a couple of pics of Alex and Marisol making sand castles I went down to the water and a huge wave came, washing my camera away. I was quick to grab it, but it was all wet! I was told to take the battery out and let it dry for a few days before turning it on. I couldn't wait and later that night I put the battery in and it turned on. The camera is OK but I think the viewing screen is a little messed up.

We have a busy week this next week. Monday, we will hopefully find out where we will be living. On Wed. I plan to climb one of the mountains in Dominica, Morne Anglais, and then on Thursday go cliff jumping. Not sure if I will have the guts to do it. It's a 50ft jump into the Atlantic ocean. We'll see!

After Mini Fun

Yesterday Keith had his second big test of the semester. He has two more to go before the end of the semester and before we can head home!

Last night we went to our neighbors house for a few hours. Alex had a lot of fun playing with her friends, and Keith had some fun playing the Wii.

This morning I asked Alex what she wanted to do, and she said she wanted to go make sand castles with daddy. So we decided to walk down the street to the ocean front. This area is normally where the fisherman are, but since today is a holiday (Independence Day) I figured they wouldn't be there. When we got there we realized it was too dirty with garbage scattered everywhere to build sand castles. So we decided to keep walking, and pretty soon we ended up at Purple Turtle Beach. A little farther than we we're planning to walk, but that's OK.

Click below for the pics:

2009-11-03 purple turtle beach with daddy

Slow Down!! Iguana Crossing

The school put up this new sign and I have always been meaning to take a picture.. but someone else I know got a picture of an iguana crossing in front of the sign! You can click on the picture to enlarge it if you can't read the sign.

One picture I really really want to get before leaving the island is a cow at the drive thru speaker of KFC! I saw it once but didn't have a camera on me!

Happy Halloween from Dominica

We have celebrated our second Halloween in Dominica. They don't celebrate that holiday here, but at least the school and the Ross Spouses Organization put together activities for the kids. The kids love dressing up and getting candy! This year Alex was a Princess. It was easy and we got the costumes from someone who left the island last semester. Alex had two different dresses to wear, one for friday and one for saturday! She loved it!

Click below for the pics:

2009-10-30 Halloween

Happy Creole Day

Here is Alex at school in her Creole dress. They are having a presentation with students and faculty about Dominica's holiday. Today is a day where Dominicans speak in their french creole language and dress in traditional creole clothing to celebrate their independence. They have spent the last month celebrating their independene. On November 3rd is Dominica's independence day, and this year it will be 31 years!

I had to have someone else take this picture. I was sitting in the back of the room. I knew if she saw me she would not sit with her friends. She did end up seeing me after a while and ended up sitting with me throughout the presentation.

Dinosaur Fossils

Alex has really really been into dinosaurs! She now wants to become a Paleontologist to study dinosaur fossils. She loves to read dinosaur books, watch dinosaur shows, play with toy dinosaurs, and sleep with her stuffed dinosaur "bob" the T-Rex. She eats, sleeps, dreams, and lives for dinosaurs! She talks to me about them everyday! She is very good at knowing the different dinosaurs. She knows which ones eat meat and which ones eat plants and she can look at a picture and identify various different dinosaurs. Even dinosaurs that most people haven't heard of like Parasauralophus, iguanadon, oviraptor, protoceratops, etc.!

The other day her little friend Sarah came over to play while her little brother took a nap. After having lunch, painting, and watching Dora we went outside to find dinosaur fossils. The pic above is Alex and Sarah pretending to be Paleontologists!

Alex Videos

Here is Alex singing her "version" of This Old Man. She is so cute!


This video is of Alex playing with the green water at the Montessori school at Crescent Moon.

Crescent Moon Cabins

Yesterday Alex and I went to Crescent Moon Cabins in Dominica. Here is a map of the location.

You might have to zoom out to get a good view of where it is located. We live on the northern part of the island. Crescent Moon is only 30 miles away yet it took an hour and a half to get there. That tells you how the roads are here in Dominica!

It was a nice place to relax. We got to see their greenhouse where they grow things such as cilantro. Cilantro is hard to grow in Dominica because of all the rain so it is very hard to get. Actually I have never seen it for sale here! They also made us a great lunch-- egg frittata with goat cheese, starfruit, papaya, salad greens with cucumber and a great dressing. We also had starfruit juice to drink with our meal. Then after the meal we had a cheesecake and some Dominican coffee that they roasted right there for us! It was so delicious!!!

After our lunch we headed to a Montessori school that is on the Crescent Moon grounds. It was so neat to see. Alex just loved it! So did I! I wish there was something like that here in Portsmouth!

Click below to see more pics:

2009-10-24 Crescent Moon

Art Projects

Alex has been loving the box of arts and crafts that Grandpa and Nanna sent. Here she is with the cow puppet she made with one of her little friends, Aidan. This past weekend she spent some time water coloring with friends and she has been doing art projects the last two days after school. She loves coloring, painting, and making things! She is going to be a creative little girl.

She also does a lot of art projects at school. I have been taking pictures of them since she has been doing so many. The next time she brings one home I will have to post it. She is getting so good at drawing pictures. She especially likes to draw pictures of dinosaurs (since she wants to be a paleontologist). She draws the eyes, legs, and even spikes if she is drawing a stegosaurus!

Tuesday in Dominica

Here is a group of "spouses" on campus- Analeah (who's back is to the camera), Chrislyn (who is waving), Andrea, and Mike. We play board games every tuesday from 1-3 while our kids are in school or napping. We play in the CAC (which is the same building as the gym). It's air conditioned and cold. I love it!! Here we are playing "Ticket to Ride". I've become addicted to this game and love it. I pretty much win almost everytime I play. I hope to get this game when I get back to the U.S. and I hope some of the spouses continue with this even after I leave.

We have two more months left. It feels like a long time so I'm really not counting down, although Keith is. He can't wait to get off this island! Neither can I for that matter. We still aren't sure where we will be for fifth semester but we do know that from April 29th to June 9th Keith will be in Chicago to study for the Step 1 exam. He is taking the course through Kaplan and the course is expensive but it includes hotel and food.

Alex and her new Dinosaur

Here is Alex and Daddy with Alex's new Dinosaur that she got from Grandpa and Nanna. She calls the Dinosaur Bob. Keith helped her come up with that name! In the background is our neighborhood grocery store, Tina's. It's closed as you can tell. We're waiting for a bus to pick us up and take us to campus. Alex loves this dinosaur and it's been coming with us everywhere!!!

Aba Wavine Cyrique

Today I went on an excursion with the Ross Spouses group to Aba Wavine Cyrique which is on the Atlantic side of Dominica in the south. It took us over an hour to get there and it was a beautiful drive. We started the drive on the northern part of the island where I live, and drove up along the Caribbean sea and then at Layou, just south of Roseau (the Capital of Dominica), we drove inland and across the island to Rosalie, on the Atlantic side. Riviere Ciriques is just south of there.

We started our hike walking down steps and then when we got to the cliff we used ropes and vines to get to the bottom. It probably wouldn't of been so scary if it hadn't been raining during the drive there. The ropes we're wet and the ground was muddy, so it was a little stressful. My knees we're shaking a bit because it really was a little scarier than what I was expecting. Finally after about 20 minutes we reached the bottom and the Atlantic Ocean. It was so so beautiful. Victor our guide found a coconut and cracked it open without a machete or knife. Check out the youtube.com video below of Victor opening the coconut and the view of Aba Wavine.

We enjoyed our time there. We relaxed in the sand and climbed on the rock under the falls. It was a great day! I thought the hike back would be twice as long but it wasn't. The hike back took half the time and was very easy. Going up was much easier than going down. Victor decided to stop at the Layou River on the way back. Layou River is the longest river in Dominica and it also has some hot water that we got to bathe in.

2009-10-15 aba wavine cyrique

Dominica's Independence Celebrations

This month Dominica has a lot of festivities scheduled to celebrate their independence from Great Britain in 1978. Last Sunday I was able to go to Cabrits National Park in Portsmouth to the Northern District Culture Finals. There are three districts and they each have their own music/dancing competitions and at the end of the month the last competition is in Roseau. It was neat for us too see the dancing and listen to the music. The only instrument I recognized was the accordian. The other three instruments used we're instruments I have never seen before, but they look like they are made by hand. They called this music Champagne, which I am not familiar with. The dancing we saw was called "Heel and Toe". I'm sure they had different types of dancing later in the evening but we had to leave to get the kids to bed. I'm sure I will go back next Sunday. Here are some video's I took of the festival:

Video at Scott's Head

Here is a video I took at Scott's Head- the southern part of the Island of Dominica where the Atlantic and Caribbean seas meet:

Scott's Head and Champagne Bay

Yesterday I went to Scott's Head and Champagne Bay. I'm so glad I got the opportunity to go. I am leaving in a few months I had not been to the best snorkeling site on the island. Scott's Head and Champagne Bay are on the southern tip of the island (I live on the northern tip). Both areas are protected from fishing so the fish are so much bigger. It was unbelievable and beautiful. I wish I had brought an underwater camera. Champagne Bay was my favorite because it was so clear, the fish we're huge, and there we're bubbles coming up from the ocean floor (hence the name Champagne Bay). It was an awesome sight! Alex loved it too! I even took her out in a little floatie so I could snorkel with her next to me. She had a lot of fun!

Click below to see pictures from my trip:

2009-10-10 Scott's Head and Champagne Bay

Alex with her Island Friends

2009-10-08 Playtime with Friends

Click above to view some recent pictures of Alex with some of her island friends.

I haven't gone on too many trips lately because I've been to so many places. There are a few places I haven't been to yet. Champagne Bay and Scott's Head are a few of them. These locations are known to have the best snorkeling on the island. The area there is protected so the fish are bigger. Luckily there is a trip there on Saturday so I'm excited to go. I hope it doesn't rain!

Owls and Beach Parties and Movies

Last week a neighbor of ours found some owls outside her front door in the morning. Alex and I had to go and check them out. They we're so cute! They clicked at us and spread their wings probably to tell us to go away. They looked like they just wanted to take a nap! After coming home I went on the internet to try and figure out what type of owls they were and I think they are an Ashy-Faced Owl. If anyone else knows let me know. It looks like the Ashy-Faced Owls live on the island of Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic) so I don't think it is too far fetched that these owls the type that I'm thinking.
Yesterday (Saturday), Alex went with some friends to a birthday party at Ti-Bay beach. She had so much fun playing in the sand and in the cardboard castles. How creative of the parents to come up with this. The kids just loved it!
Here is Alex with Jose and Jiovanni, the two boys who live below us. We invited them to the campus movie on Friday night! We saw the movie, Up, and it was so good. The kids loved it! Unfortunately there is not a movie theatre in Dominica so it is nice the school does this, although I do wish they showed more children's movies. It was so nice to spend a few hours in the air conditioning!

Keith has his first big exam of the semester tomorrow. He has been studying so much! I think he will do a good job though, but it is still stressful for him.

Princess Margaret Hospital in Dominica

Here is Alex playing at the park over lunchtime with her friend, Kenley, while Daddy spent the day at Princess Margaret Hospital in Roseau.

Keith left at 8 this morning for the bus ride to Roseau. When he got home about 6:45 this evening he said that there is no way he wants to spend his 5Th semester here. I was very interested in finding out what a hospital is like in a 3rd world country.

The hospital is not air conditioned (except for surgery) and he still had to wear his shirt and tie and lab coat! Talk about hot! He said the hospital was like a bunch of different buildings and it was all open (the windows and doors) most likely because of not having a/c. Patients do not have individual rooms but they have wards, which means the patients are in one room. He said it reminded him of the ER back home. There are a bunch of beds with curtains around them.

He did get to view two autopsies today, which he found interesting. Although this is not something he wants to do for a living. One of the autopsies was of a stillborn infant, the baby was born at 35 weeks, and the second autopsy was a 20 year old man that died from being punched in the chest.

Keith only has class tomorrow, Wednesday, and then has the rest of the week to study for his first "mini" exam on Monday. We are so anxious for this semester to be over with so we can get back to the United States. We miss the cold weather!