A Week in Review

Wow, today is hot! Well, I guess it’s not any hotter than any other day this week, but it definitely doesn’t help I have a sunburn. How did I get a sunburn? We had a softball double header today and I forgot the sun block. Our softball team lost both games pretty badly, 1-12 and 8-14, but they were still quite a bit of fun. I play left field and did pretty well, if I do say so myself! I had about ten pop flies hit to me and caught everyone but one, which was hit way over my head. I got on base three times and even managed to score once! I know that doesn’t sound like much, but as a pitcher in high school, I rarely got to hit. Our team didn’t let pitchers bat for fear they might get hurt. Tomorrow I have a volleyball game right after church which should be pretty fun, but if it goes like last week, I’ll be getting my helping of humble pie this weekend.
It started raining again on Tuesday which is usually no big deal. But down here, rain always means the water supply is going to be messed with. Luckily we didn’t lose water pressure, but our water did turn brown. Not exactly something I want to shower and wash dishes in. I took Beyla down to the beach for the first time and she loved it! She was terrified of the waves crashing but liked the sound they made, so she was in quite a quandary. Every time she would run into the water she would jump as high as she could in order to miss the waves. It looked hilarious! She made the mistake of trying to drink the water and got quite a surprise! She gagged and hacked and showed her teeth and carried on for about a minute every time water got in her mouth. I almost fell over laughing every time! What a funny dog!
Wednesday I spent the day in class with Kelsie. Pathology was pretty interesting but they showed some pretty gross pictures of different diseases. I can see how a lot of medical students get paranoid looking at all of the things that can go wrong. Later that evening I was invited to an ‘unofficial’ spouses’ meeting. There were only twelve people there and I was the only guy. It was pretty awkward at first, but after a few minutes I was included in the different discussions going on. I met a lot of new friends and after the meeting some of us went back to my house and played the Wii while Kelsie tried her best to ignore us and attempted to study. Here's a picture of us all loaded into our car on the way to my house. Thursday I went grocery shopping for the first time. It was quite an experience. There are four stores in our little section of town and in order to get even half the stuff on a list you have to go to all four stores. It gets kind of frustrating, but I’m told you get used to it. A lot of people go to Roseau, the capital, on Saturdays to go shopping. They have a much better selection at much better prices. Everything here is unbelievably expensive. Kelsie had told me that cheese is incredibly expensive down here and hard to find so I brought down twenty pounds of different cheeses. I know, I know, that’s a lot of cheese! We like our cheeses! I brought down a six pound block of mozzarella cheese I bought at Costco. I found the exact same block of cheese down here for just over SIXTY US dollars!! If that isn’t robbery on the high seas, I don’t know what is!
Tonight we went and ate at a new restaurant in Portsmouth called Adaj for a late celebration of our friend Justin’s birthday. It was pretty good but much overpriced. Kelsie and I both had the Mahi Mahi. It was good but not worth the 143ec we had to pay. The conversion rate is 2.6ec to every dollar. It was worth the money to spend time with friends and to make new ones though. Liz and Justin are two people Kelsie met the first day she arrived and have stayed in very close contact since. Liz has her own blog which I read religiously before I came down here in order to stay connected with what was going on here in Dominica. Both Liz and Justin have become very good friends to us and have helped me and Kelsie out a lot while Kelsie’s been here. I’m sure I’ll tell you more about them over the next year. Liz is a trip! They are both from Arkansas. It seems like everyone down here is southern or from Canada except us. Back to the dinner. There were thirteen people there and everyone had a good time. Kelsie and I arrived on time, half an hour before everyone except one other couple, and so we had time to get to know a couple, Jake and Christi. They are really nice and we instantly hit it off with them. Jake and I had so much in common that after five minutes, Jake asked me, ‘Are we going to be best friends?’ It was pretty funny. I guess it’s one of those ‘gotta be there’ moments. Jake and Christi also told us of a restaurant in Roseau that we can get all you can eat lobster tails for 60ec! That’s awesome! We’re definitely going to head down there soon. I look forward to more meals out with friends. It’s nice to get to know more people and start putting down roots, even if it is only for a year.
I apologize for taking so long to put up pictures and post another blog entry. I’ll try harder in the coming weeks and months to be more prompt in my updates. It sounds like such a long time when I put it that way. Weeks and months…

This is Kelsie and I at the dinner at Adaj.

As promised, I put up a few pictures. There is a picture of our highly competitive volleyball game in action and a couple pictures of a panoramic view from our house. The view from our house is spectacular and the pictures do not do it justice!