Soursop

When I took Alex to Cabrits National Park we saw a tree with soursop on it. I picked one and waited a few days until it was ripe to try it. It was o.k. but a little sour... I think next time I will try a soursop cheesecake recipe if I can ever find some cream cheese here on the island.

For all of you who have never heard of this fruit here are a few links to learn more about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soursop
http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/soursop.htm

Red Rock Haven

Today I went to Red Rock Haven with Alex and some friends and their children. Red Rock Haven is a hotel/restaurant right on Pointe Baptiste beach in Calibishie, Dominica. It's a great place to relax and have a good meal. I had the Caribbean Pizza again which is delicious! Instead of a tomato/pizza sauce base, it has an avocado base. Yummy! They also have the most delicious key lime pie I have ever had! I posted a bunch of pics to facebook if you want to see more, but here are a couple and a video of the waterfalls that I took yesterday.

Victoria Falls

Today I went hiking with some other Ross "spouses" to Victoria Falls. I have been to a few other falls on the island (Middleham, Trafalgar) and this is by far the best one I have been to so far. I loved the hike, loved crossing the river and getting into the water. There were also a ton of bay leaf trees so I picked a few to bring home with me. I posted a bunch of pictures to my facebook account if you have facebook. Here are a few pictures though for your enjoyment.

Cabrits National Park / Fort Shirley

Yesterday I took Alex hiking at Cabrits National Park. It is only a few minutes drive from where we live and it was my first time going there. Click on the link below for some pictures from the hike:

Cabrits National Park / Fort Shirley

Keith has been having some pain in his tooth and it got to bothering him so much that he made a dental appointment. He was a little worried about seeing a dentist here in Dominica so he went to the health clinic at Ross and asked for the phone number or a good dentist. So today he had his appointment at Amour Dental Clinic in Portsmouth. It turns out that he will need a root canal. We considered having him fly to Puerto Rico to have it done, but he feels comfortable having it done here. So he has his first appointment next Saturday. Wish him luck!!!

Papaya

The other day I decided to buy a papaya. I have had the fruit before but have never bought it. So I looked up some recipes online and found one for a roasted papaya with brown sugar. It turned out soooo good.

Today I went hiking at Cabrits National Park with Alex and I found a soursop tree. So I picked one and can't wait to try it. I haven't tried one yet and heard it is really good and really healthy for you. I will post more pics of our hike tomorrow.

More Lobster

Keith and I went out to eat at a local Chinese restaurant called the Golden Dragon in Glanvillia. Someone told me their lobster was delicious so I decided to try their Lobster in xo sauce. I am not sure what xo sauce is but that is what I ordered. Here are a few pics. It was nice of them to leave the heads of the lobster on my plate for decoration. Alex really enjoyed that!

We have had a lot of rain this past weekend. A tropical wave just passed us and now we have another one coming today. I am supposed to hike Victoria Falls tomorrow and I hope that the weather isn't so bad that it is cancelled. I always check the national hurricane center website since it is hurricane season. The bad thing about all the rain is that our water turns brown. Luckily I went to get more water today!

Alex's New Clothes

Here is Alex posing in her new dress and shoes that she got the other day from Grandpa and Nanna. I also have a short youtube video on here of the area where we live. Alex just loves her new home. There are so many kids in the area. The tin shed in the video is actually a home for someone. At first I thought it was a storage shed but I was wrong. It is sad that many people live in homes without running water or electricity.

Recent Video's of Alex

Here are some recent youtube.com video's of Alex. The first one is when we had Marisol over so her parents could study. She is two years old and is such a cutie! The second one is Alex dancing to some of her favorite songs. The third one she is listening to Old McDonald had a Farm with headphones and she is singing so I had to get that on video.

Full of Lobster

Last night we had dinner at the 4 Seasons restaurant at the Sunset Bay Beach Club. We went with some friends, Sylvia, who is a fourth semester student and will be leaving to Michigan at the end of the semester, her husband, and Yunus, their son and Alex's little friend.

Keith, Sylvia, and I ordered lobster and we didn't realize that we could of ordered one dish and shared. The lobster dish is about 85EC which is 31 US dollars. For every order of lobster we got two plates full of lobster. I was so full I couldn't even finish it. I know we couldn't get that much lobster for that price in Minnesota! It is lobster season in Dominica and as we were sitting there we saw some fisherman bringing in more lobster. We will definitely be going to this restaurant again, it was so worth the money!

Purple Turtle Beach

Purple Turtle Beach is a beach near our home in Portsmouth, Dominica. We went there today for a few hours with friends. Alex had such a good time.

Culture Show at Ross University

Today Keith, Alex, and I went to Roseau, the capital of Dominica. We spent the morning there shopping and looking around. Keith really wanted a scooter, but unfortunately we didn't find any. We had breakfast at Cocorico's, went to the market, and bought Alex a new umbrella at Astaphans because the one I bought her last week already broke.

When we returned home we got ready to go to Ross University's Culture Show. Since I am part of the RSO group (Ross Spouses Organization) I made some pretzels (which really didn't look like pretzels) and some choc. chip muffins. Alex was along to help out. She handed out a couple muffins, and then ate a couple muffins! :)
After we ate we went to the Culture Show. We didn't stay long but we did get to see a few acts, one from the Ross Philipino Group, the Indian Group, and RCF - Ross Christian Fellowship.

Tomorrow we are going to go to a local church. It's called Woodford Hills Baptist Church. This should be interesting. I hope Alex can handle it! We have to meet at the school at 6:45 because it is about an hours drive from here. 6:45 is also way too early for Alex. So I hope she isn't too crabby.

Marigot, Dominica

Today I went to a river in Marigot, Dominica with some friends. On the river lives a couple that has a beautiful '"cottage", although I would hardly call it a cottage. The owner thought that the name of the river, "Canal River" was too boring so they named their place the "Coffee River Cottages". It was so neat because the whole place was totally energy independent. They don't pay any electric bills to DOMLEC (The Dominican Electric Company). They use the river for everything, they drink from it and use it for all sources of water in the home. They also have hydroelectric energy and solar panels. I also took a walk around their home and I saw so many different types of vegetation, everything from guava trees to a traveler's palm tree.

Here are some links to some of the tree's and vegetation that I saw:
The Traveler's Palm
Breadfruit Tree- Breadfruit is a common fruit here.
Carambola or Star fruit Tree
Cocoa Tree
Yucca Plant


After coming home Alex, Keith, and I went out to eat here in Glanvillia. I took a couple of pics along the way (I also have some more on Facebook). Click on the picture below to link to our picasa web page to see all the pictures.

Canal River and Glanvillia, Dominica

Our New Home in Glanvillia, Dominica

We have moved out of our "pink" house in Picard, and now live in a "green" house, as Alex would say. Glanvillia is the next town over from Picard and about a 20 minute walk to Ross University. Before leaving some construction workers that we're building some apartments across the road from where we used to live made Alex a few little toys out of coconut tree leaves. One is a bird and the other is a fish. She loves playing with them. That was so nice of them to make those for her.

Our new home is quite smaller than our other place, but it is only for 6 more months and I think we can manage. Our new place basically has three rooms, the bathroom, bedroom, and the kitchen/eating/living room. Alex likes living in the green house more because there are more kids around. The landlords live below us and they have two boys ages 5 and 7 and Alex just loves playing with them. And they love playing with her. Yesterday they came over to ask if she could come out and play. They only problem with playing outside so much is the mosquito bites! We are covered in them!!! And for anyone planning to come here to visit or live.. the anti itch cream does not work!!! So don't waste your money.
After doing some research online I found out that mouthwash (because it contains alcohol), isopropyl alcohol, or a dry bar of soap help to stop the itching. I have tried the mouthwash and the bar of soap and it does work way better than the anti itch cream ever did. Some of the locals have told me the bay rum that they sell here also works to stop the itching.

Tomorrow I am heading to go on a freshwater river tour. It should be a fun day. I will post pics as soon as I have time.

Some youtube video's of Alex

Here are a few video's of Alex that I took in the past few weeks:

Alex listening to Music with mommy




My youtube page also has a lot more video's if your interested in checking them out.