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!

Coconuts

Here is Alex with a carved coconut that we bought from a local. We have seen him selling these coconuts since we got here and we finally decided to buy one. I can still here the coconut water inside. A few weeks ago there was a local in our neighborhood selling them so we bought a couple and drank the coconut water inside. It wasn't so good! I guess it must be an acquired taste. It sounds like the coconut water is good for you. They also sell bottles of coconut water at the store, which I tried once and it was not so good.

I mentioned in my last post about our electricity always going out. Well, it went out again last night! and this morning! So I hope it doesn't happen again tonight. At first our landlord told us that it is because we are not getting as much rain and usual and then last night he said it was a fuse, which makes sense since it is only our block that is losing electricity. It's just not fun spending the evenings sitting the dark! Alex hasn't gotten much sleep the last few nights because of this and I could tell today! I plan to put her to bed early tonight because she has been a bit cranky!

Alex and Friends

Here pictured from left to right is Aidan, Sarah, Declan, Joshua, and Alex. We had to bribe them with treats to get them all to sit together like this! :)

Alex had a busy day yesterday. She went to the pool with her friends, then out for pizza with mommy and daddy and some friends, then home for a nap and then more playtime and dinner with her little friends.

Unfortunately, last night we lost electricity for the third time in five days. Ugg!! I hate that! It is so hot in our home without our fans running and I can't sleep without a fan so it was miserable. Alex didn't get to bed until about 12:30-1am and she still got up at 7:30 so I have a feeling both of us will be taking a nap today!

Losing electricity has been occurring more often. I think it happened on Friday during the day because the power went out on campus for a minute and then the generators turned on. So I guess that is four days out of five. I'm not usually home during the day so when it goes out during the day it doesn't bother me. But at night! I can't stand it. I am so glad we brought along a wind up flashlight that doesn't use batteries. A year ago when we were here it never went out this often.

Secret Beach in Dominica

Yesterday I went on a trip with the Ross Spouses group to Secret Beach. Secret Beach isn't really a secret but that is what they call it. We took a fishing boat to get there, which is really the only way since the beach is surrounded by high cliffs. This is my second time to secret beach. The first time I went with Alex and yesterday I went without her so that I was able to snorkel. A few of the girls saw a sea turtle which is protected here. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the turtle but I did see a lot of colorful fish. Here are some pics of the Secret Beach:

Secret Beach, Dominica

Horseback Riding in Dominica

This morning Alex went with her friend, Marisol, on her very first horseback riding adventure. She was so excited to ride on a "real" horse! When we got there they brought in Taz, a white horse, so the girls could brush and pet her. Alex had no objections to that. She really liked getting up close to the horse. Then they gave the girls riding hats to wear, Alex was so cute in that riding hat!! Then when I lifted her up to put her on the horse I expected her to grab onto me and not let go but she didn't do that at all. She sat on the horse and held onto the saddle exactly like she was told. We walked down a trail and I walked along the side of the horse with her. We stopped at a river and decided to take a muddy path into the river. It was really muddy and Alex had to ride the horse without me walking next to her and she did great! She loved it! Then at the river Marisol went for a walk with her horse in the river but Alex didn't want to do that. In fact, she only wanted to stay on her horse and didn't want to get off. After a little break at the river we walked back to where we started and the girls got off their horses. Then they got to see chickens, baby chicks, and big rabbits. Alex wanted to pet all of them! Then she asked if she could go back on the horse. I said No, but maybe she can come back another time to go horseback riding!

Click below to see all the pics from Alex's horseback riding adventure:

Horseback Riding in Dominica

Guavas and Avocados

Keith took a break out of studying on Sunday to pick some Guava's and Avocados from the trees in our yard. The first picture is Keith and a neighbor kid trying to get some avocados high in the tree. The second picture is Keith in the Guava tree. Alex loves Guavas! It's her new favorite fruit!!

Our Favorite Chinese Restaurant

This is it! George's Restaurant. It's right across from Tomato's on Banana Trail. First semester I was scared of this place because it didn't look like any ordinary restaurant. The inside is one small room, with room for one table with flies everywhere. When Keith was in Dominica alone for his second semester he just fell in love with this place. Now he knows the owners and they are "buddies'. He is always giving Alex free treats when we come here. So when I came back for his third semester I tried it and it was good. Much better than any of the other chinese restaurants I've tried on the island! They have the best lemon chicken and chicken fried rice!

Pool Day

Today there was a pool party with all the kids. Alex had so much fun, although for me it was a little crowded. It started to rain but that didn't stop anyone from swimming in the pool. While we were there a fisherman came up from the sea with some lobster he had just caught. He had three big ones! I wish I would of bought them, but someone else got to it before I did.

We walk a lot

Here we are leaving our home in Glanvillia. We don't have a car so we walk to Picard, the town where the school is located. It takes us about 20 minutes and I am usually covered in sweat by the time I get there. Sometimes we will catch a bus but there is no real bus schedule so sometimes I will just walk instead of waiting 10 minutes for a bus. At the end of this road we take a right.

In this picture, on the right is where we put our garbage. They seem to come and pick it up about once every three to four weeks. It actually looks pretty good today. Across from the garbage there is another road and that is where we take a left and walk up the road that is in the next picture.


This road leads out to the main road that runs through Glanvillia. On the left of this picture there is a little bar/store. We go here sometimes to get Coke. In the evenings we find many of the locals playing dominos. At the other end of the road is a bar/store that is extremely small. At the end of this road we take a left.


This is the end of the road where we take a left. Across the street is the Glanvillia Community Center and the Golden Dragon Chinese Restaurant. We will follow this road until we get to the University. We will pass Tina's, a grocery store we frequently use. I am so happy because I just found out Tina's sells flats of Coke. I can get 24 plastic bottles of coke there for 40.70 ec.
That is better then spending 3-5 ec per bottle!

This is the road that takes us to the University. It curves to the right just after Tina's, the grocery store. If we take this road in the other direction it will stop at the ocean and if you take a right it will go into Portsmouth.


This is the curve. Unfortunately there is not a sidewalk. There are also no speed limit signs! After the curve in the road is the Annex. The Annex is where the 1st semester med students have class. Keith also goes there to study in the evenings or on weekends.



After the curve the road goes up a little and then heads back down. On the right you can see the Annex. We keep taking this road to the University. There is a KFC and a Rituals Coffee on the right hand side after the Annex. Rituals is a coffee shop similar to a Caribou Coffee or Starbucks.


At the bottom of the hill the road flattens out and this road leads us to the school. We usually take a right by the shacks and go into the school that way. There is usually a guy that parks his pick up on this road and sells fresh fruits and vegetables. I would never walk this at night. Luckily Ross provides free transportation to your front door after 7pm. The transports leave from the Library, the Annex, and the PACE building near the swimming pool every half hour after 7pm and they continue through the night until 2am.

This is a tough walk in the heat of the day!!! So now you know why I need to take two to three showers a day--especially if I have to push Alex in a stroller!

A lot of people ask if Glanvillia is safe. I say it is. Of course I am not walking around at 10pm at night. It is easy to get to and public transportation is not hard to come by. To take a transport to the school from Glanvillia is 1.50 ec.

CALLS Daycare in Portsmouth, Dominica

CALLS (Center where Adolescents Learn to Love and Serve) is in Portsmouth. It is where many children go to learn life skills, such as learning to read, write, and simple arithmetic, as well as job training for students who could not continue their training at a regular school. They have a daycare on site for the students and others that work in the community. The daycare was in need of much repair. So we decided to help out where the children sleep and play. The kitchen of the daycare is also in much needed repair and that is our next project. Actually the kitchen will be a big project. The oven doesn't work and when we moved another oven out that hadn't worked in a while we found a lot of rat poop underneath it! Yuck! Here are some before and after pictures of the daycare (as well as some pics of the kitchen):

CALLS Daycare in Portsmouth, Dominica

A few videos of Alex

Here are a couple of videos of Alex in Dominica. The first video is of Alex watching a cruise ship coming into port in Roseau, Dominica. We had a great view from our hotel room. The second video is of Alex having fun with friends at the Ross University pool. She has such a great imagination and loves pretending! And lastly, the third video is of Alex and her little friend Ben having fun in our apartment. It was a rainy day so the kids had to stay inside all day. Luckily they never got bored and had a lot of fun with each other!

Since we got back from Roseau it's been raining. On Thursday we had to stay inside all day which is tough with such a small place to live. So today when we got up, Alex and I went to Cabrits National Park with some friends. This place is totally underrated! I love it. We we're only there for a few hours and the kids had a blast. We saw snakes, hermit crabs, and black crabs. Cabrits is very close to where we live and only costs 12ec each way by taxi. Today was nice because one of the people we went with had a car. If you want to see more pics of Cabrits I have them on my facebook page. I also have tags associated with each blog post on this site so you can easily look up things on this site. Find the list of tags on the right hand side of this page.

This afternoon I went to a local daycare in Portsmouth to help get a daycare ready for an overhaul with some other spouses. Today I helped clean the walls and tomorrow the painting starts. I am taking pics so when it is finished I will show you before and after pics! I hope the kids love it!

Roseau, Dominica

We spent the last two days in Roseau, the capital of Dominica. We don't have a car and didn't want to pay the 120EC for the taxi so we took the bus, which is only 9ec. Here is a pic of us waiting for the bus in Picard. We waited for about 40 min. for a bus, then it was about an hours drive. They don't have a specific bus schedule here like they do in the states, you just have to wait by the side of the road.

The bus driver was so nice, he dropped us off right at our hotel, which wasn't necessary, so we paid him 40ec instead of 18ec. We didn't have to, we just wanted to.

Our hotel room was fabulous. We stayed at Fort Young Hotel again, it's the best hotel on the island! We had a beautiful view of the ocean and we didn't want to leave! Which we didn't. We spent a lot of time at the hotel, which is what we wanted to do-relax! We have been to Roseau many times before so we weren't interested in sightseeing.

Here is the view of the sunset from our room the first night. The sky was so clear and beautiful!

The next morning, Tuesday, we watched the Carnival cruise ship stop in to Roseau.


As we watched the cruise ship I thought about the time we had taken a cruise ship to see some different islands in the Caribbean. But now the cruise ships come to us. The cruise ship was only on the island for about eight hours before it took off again. Eight hours is definitely not long enough to get to know this island. There is so much here to explore!

This is the view of our sunset the second night. I loved all the colors in the sky! If you want to view the pictures in a bigger format just click on the picture and you can really see the pics. I will also add more to facebook. Below is a link to our Roseau trip back in 2008. We did more then because we we're new to the island.

2008-11-09 Roseau Weekend