We had a very busy week getting everyone settled into a new routine. Lyndle hit it hard with classes and studying all day. Logan started his new school and Ethan started going to daycare in the mornings. Lyndle will definitely be too busy to do much blogging. I am not the story teller with all of the detail that Lyndle is so my posts won't weave the stories quite so well. My apologies. I guess that's why I majored in math instead of something more creative.

Logan was ready to go to his new school. His new teacher, Ms. Cool, is a native Dominican. About the first or second day he told her that his ears didn't just quite work right to understand her. She laughed as she told me. I am sure that he will soon have more of a Dominican accent than Okie accent. It sure didn't take him long to pick up his little Okie accent so I don't expect this to be much different. He made a new buddy from Texas, Sammy, in our first couple of days on the island. Sammy is in his class so they are excited to see each other. The school is small with Pre-K and Kindergarten sharing the same classroom & teacher. Most of the kids are like Logan and Sammy - only here for a short time while a parent attends medical school.

Ethan was ready to go to school too. Or so he said. He quickly decided that spending the morning at daycare with some new friends is okay. He's already claiming a new best buddy from daycare - a little boy from Wisconsin named Aidan. He looks forward to going to play with Aidan in the morning now. This frees me up to try to keep up with my work.

I was excited that the internet speed here is faster than what we had in the US. I have been able to keep working my 20 hours a week for Allied. Juggling work and the other aspects of island life is keeping me busy. It's about a 30 minute walk to get the boys to school by 8 am. After that I hike it back to our apartment ( unless someone or something sidetracks me along the way). I have some time to work then until I have to pack up lunch & head back to school to eat with the boys. There is no school lunch program here like we are used to in the States. The parents are responsible for their children over the lunch hour. It keeps us busy to make sure that we are there this extra time during the day, but it is actually a nice time for families and we usually eat with some of the other families. Ethan is finished with day care by lunch time, but Logan still has 2 hours of class after that. Sometimes we Ethan and I just hang out on the playground until Logan is finished. Then we have the 30 minute walk home with the boys. Lyndle can make the walk in about 15 minutes and I can make it in about 20 minutes when we are alone. The little legs that include a lot of jumping and extra steps make the trip a little longer.

A lot more happened this week but I will have to save it for the next blog. This was my trial blog - see if I can figure out how to do it.

East Coast, Commonwealth of Dominica

Took a trip to the East coast of Dominica yesterday, January 8, 2009...the Atlantic Ocean side. We ended up at Melville Hall Airport just on the chance that Brian's luggage may be there...glad it wasn't Vegas. It was nice to see the scenes that we missed on the drive in from the airport on the New Years. It follows the coast for maybe a third of the way. Definitely a wilder side of the island, the windward side, so the ocean has much rougher waves, trees are leaning away from the wind, etc. Spesh was our guide/driver again. I think he knows someone in all the little villages between here and there. I don't even pretend to remember all the beaches we stopped at...Batibou Bay, Woodford Hill Bay, Hampstead Beach. We stopped in Calibisie at Spesh's house there...that is the video above. The pile of fresh fruit that is seen in the video was raided for some fresh squeezed citrus juice as seen in the other video....too good to even describe over ice. Refreshed, we continued on to near the





Red Cliff area for lunch of Jamaicanand Caribbean pizza. The Jamaican pizza had an avacado sauce instead of tomatoe and was topped with grilled chicken, cheese, fresh tomatoes and avacado slices on a thin crust.

While we were waiting for the pizza to be served, Spesh took us around the beach to a cliff, where we timed our passage with the waves to climb out to a point on a small peninsula for a view that is only seen by those willing for the hike/adventure. There are no visible homes here around the small cove, and the Atlantic wind refreshingly blows unhindered from Africa.

Here's Lanelle, Brian, Ethan, Logan and Spesh overlooking the cove Southeast out over the Atlantic. Plug for Spesh here: He operates BarbWire Tours offering "Local Herbs & Foods, Art, History & Local Stories and Guest House". He can be reached at 767-612-0477. If you're looking for kicks and giggles, give him a call from the States just to say "Hi". He's an enchanting fellow, and will probably answer like he takes calls like this every day!

Right before lunch, Spesh asked the boys if they wanted to go swimming...Duh! So, being unprepared for swimming as we were, Spesh started stripping down....Lanelle quickly exited stage left for fear of seeing Spesh au naturale... I was beginning to wonder myself. We stripped Logan down to his skivvies too, and away they went. Spesh did a grand ocean entry by doing a cartwheel followed immediately by a backflip that ended in the ocean. He took Logan up on his back and swam 20 yards out to the island shown. Spesh told us that the guy shown swimming in front owns Tomatoes, a high falootin resturant here in Picard...perhaps one of the fanciest on the island. Ethan didn't end up going swimming...I was a little nervous about it all...that ocean is rough. I consider myself a good swimmer, but I don't know if I'd want to tackle it.

After all the excitement of touring the Northeast coast of the island with 365 rivers, nine volcanos, 360 inches of rain per year on the East side, multiple species of ferns, etc., Brian, Logan and I went on the Indian River tour. That is the river where some of the scenes from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie was shot. Frankly, it wasn't the high point of the day. Following that trip by row boat, we boarded a speed boat, wooden hull and Yamaha outboard motor, for a tour of Prince Rupert Bay here at Portsmouth. We got to see the ocean view of the island, gave good wake to anchored yachts, saw "skipping" fish that skip across the water faster than a thrown rock.

Brian took some neat sunset photos this evening, Friday, January 9th. (Copyright 2009, Brian Henderson, Kimball, NE. Your royalty check is in the mail, Brian...along with your luggage from Liat):

Wednesday afternoon

I'll start off with some photos from the campus of Ross University School of Medicine located in Picard, Portsmouth, Commonwealth of Dominica, West Indies. The first one is Classroom 5, one of several large classrooms holding several hundred people. As you can see there are AV monitors hanging everywhere to be able to see the professors presentations. There are at least two video cameras set up both recording the lectures for later review and broadcast into other classrooms for overflow crowds.

The next image is a shot down hill to the Campus Activities Center across the top of the old sugar cane mill. You can see the old water wheel and some of the concrete and stone aquaduct. Apparently the British and French fought several wars over control of these mills. Hopefully I don't find any unexploded cannonballs.









This is a shot looking generally northeast. Gross Anatomy is in the low building front and center. The 2 story building in the back right houses classrooms, private study rooms, etc. Low building on left in front is Information Technology. The rain you can see in the background got to camput about the time I made it to the front entrance, so I did not get any photos of that.





This photo is of the Prep School where Logan will be attending. It is located on campus, and the daycare center that Ethan will be going to is located in the room right next to it. Don't know how the teachers plan to keep the kiddos out of the Caribbean Ocean...it's about 50 yards on beyond the playground equipment.







This is a shot just missing the corner of the "Subway Deck", yes, that Subway, the one that gives us all a taste of home! Haven't tried it yet, but nice to know it's there. The deck seen in the bottom of the photo is under construction, but looks like a nice study area don't you think? The mountains in the background are the identifying feature of Portsmouth.






This is Logan's "catch". They were laying on the beach about 75 yards North of our apartment, and he picked them up one day when we went down for a swim. The gas bottle for the stove is located in the cabinet right behind Logan, and the stove/oven is at left. There still isn't gas to be found in the community, but we're getting by with our rice steamer. Tonight we had lentils, rice, and some home made salsa that Lanelle put together from fresh ingredients. Had steamed rice, brown sugar (nice sugar, much larger granules than we're used to and similar to "Sugar in the Raw" that is available stateside), and a sprinkling of Nestle Quick chocalate powder. I topped mine off with a fresh grapefruit bought from a nice native lady in the little shed down the road. She was really chatty when I bought the grapefruit....asking about the boys and my wife. We've never met her before, but she's noticed us coming and going and took interest. She asked how I liked it in "her country". That really gave me a goosebump feeling....taking ownership of this....her home....as we were about to cross the main street together, an extra surge of traffic was passing. Her parting comment was "it's so much busier now". "We" are impacting these people, and though there would not appear on the surface to be anything to lose, maybe they're losing "home". I'm loving "her country"; it has already opened my eyes in ways not otherwise possible. We Americans are a spoiled lot. I asked her if she'd ever visited the USA; she hasn't.

This photo is from last Sunday afternoon. That's cocoa drying on a piece of plywood along the side of the road to Woten Waven.











Just some shots of flora


































Rope swings and water are not a combination that can be passed up! Glad the rope didn't break and dump my fat patooty in the ocean!











Okay, here is the laundry shot of the happenings in the kitchen sink. Brian, Lanelle's brother for those of you who asked, snuck up and caught me by surprise. Sorry about the little peek-a-boo blue we got goin on here. Still have not lost the farmers tan either. We actually have not spent that much time at the beach, to be quite honest. Since it is close, it is usually just an hour or so at a time, and are usually swimming then. The water is surprisingly cool when you get into it, and takes a little bit for the body to adjust (read "pucker, baby"). It is insanely clear; I walked out out to chest deep and could see my feet yet. Course they're kinda big so maybe that doesn't count.

Another interesting tidbit for you construction types: the walls, floor, porch, stairs are all concrete construction. Roosevelt Roberts, husband of Leona our landlady, is making an addition just out our bedroom door. It is concrete block, approximate block dimension 4x8x16 inches with 3 holes. They are working on the second story now, so the blocks are hooked to a rebar piece bent into an S shape, then hoisted by hand via a rope. Sand for mortar is carried up in old fiber/plastic feed sacks and dumped on the concrete ceiling of the first floor. A not very big man carried a 94 pound sack of portland cement up a flight of stairs, across the handrail, and onto the ceiling. This mix is made right on the floor using shovels to mix, then handed up to the block layers. Roosevelt told me tonight that they ran out of blocks so didn't get as far as they'd like. The ceiling of the second story will eventually be a veranda for our apartment, which will be nice. Don't know if that will happen during our stay, though.

Looking out our East and front door toward the mountains. The little minivan you see is a "bus". This particular street is dirt. The tree that you see limbs of in the right of the photo is a mango, and the shorty on the right of the road is banana. I'm curious to know if the lady in the yellow house has a laundry service....this morning I saw through the red door at the left that it looked like she had a washing machine, and the little low flat roof shed seen just above left of the blue shed has lots of clothes hanging to dry. Quite usual to see chickens crossing back and forth across this street. I still don't know why. It was cute earlier on our walk back from Tina's, the grocery. There was a black mother hen and 3 little black peeps that was in the middle of the paved street along with us walking and a bus careening around the corner. During the chaos, the hen flew to the side of the road into the banana grove, but the little peeps were yet in the road scattering in 3 directions. The van driver screeched to a halt and let the little ones get out of his way, then passed on down the street. Very quickly and loudly momma hen came and gathered her chicks and away they went along their merry way.

Boiling water sulfur springs near Trafalgar Falls taken last Sunday afternoon.


All for tonight. Hope to do a few touristy things tomorrow. Would like to go over to Atlantic Ocean side as I've heard Calibishie is pretty and perhaps take a boat ride through Prince Rupert Bay here in Portsmouth.

Wednesday morning

Did a little laundry this morning. Consists of heating water in the 220V 50Hz electric rice steamer, pouring that into kitchen sink, adding powdered laundry detergent and SCRUB, BABY, SCRUB!!! Tap water here reminds me of taking a bath at Mawmaw Hoover's, there's sand in it. My understanding is that it is fresh water from some river high in the mountains that is caught and piped in. So naturally, a little bita nature comes with it, and fortunately so far no Montezuma's revenge from drinking it. We have a Brita filter, but I doubt the effectiveness of it...brown water in, brown water out. So far the brown water has not lasted long and seems associated with the torrential rain yesterday morning. Anyway, Brian caught me, shirt off, scrubbing laundry in the sink, so will upload that pic if I can get it from him.

We 4 went to the BBQ social last night, and Brian stayed to catch up on email, football scores, etc. Had the natives out with kettle drums, 55 gallon steel barrels and other noise making utensils. I don't know what was providing the melody, but it actually was really good music. Found one more Okie, a guy from Edmond. He said he never thought he'd see Oklahoma represented by more than him. Spent most of our time with Kevin and Chris Lynn, another family here that have two boys, Conner, 8, and Sam, almost 6. They're from Texas, so hit it off really good. Our boys are having a blast with theirs, good they're already making buddies. Have met people from NJ, CA, WI and many other places.

"Sand umbrella for router" is something I never thought I'd type. There's sand everywhere, so it gets tracked in, attaches to toys, and many other routes I'm sure, and since the router has holes in the top, I'm considering folding a piece of paper over the holes and taping it there to keep some of the sand out. Our internet speed seems pretty fast, probably DSL and the router has been nice. At first the wireless part wasn't working, but it is now....Woooo Hoooo.

Saw a fresh blue marlin being hacked up with a machete and a couple of dozen fresh tuna. The marlin was probably 18 inches diameter and perhaps 6 foot long nose to tail. The tuna were about 1 foot long and maybe 5 inches diameter. I'm gonna be on the lookout for this again once we learn how to fix it. Our main cooking drawback now is that the propane bottle under the kitchen counter is nearly empty, so our main cooking utensil is the rice steamer (that earlier doubled as laundry water heater)

Okay, going to go get an island foods introduction at campus. There's a lot of fresh produce here but don't know how to prepare it. We had a very tasty Creole eggplant dish last night as well as some Dasheene, hamburgers, ice cream, fresh orange juice that was out of this world, Coke, fresh grapefruit juice, and grilled plantains.

Will try to post more photos soon.

Trafalgar Falls weekend

OOPS, video is 12 meg so didn't want to load...I'll try photos instead.

Travis (he's the man in green shirt) said that an egg will boil in about 5 minutes in this pool....and the pool smells like a boiled egg - go figure. What an amazing weekend; I'll try to give a list of sights, events, people but not necessarily in the order of occurrence. The trip from Portsmouth to Roseau ended up being tame in terms of speed compared to the return trip. Had a younger driver on the return, and I believe he was practicing his Formula One skills in a diesel minivan. They must place lead between the frame rails to keep the center of gravity low enough not to tip over. Just a clutch dumping, gear grinding, accelerator to the floor fun ol' time, punctuated with slamming on the brakes to allow passengers to get on/off.

Anyway, our Sunday meeting consisted of Andrew, Travis and his two kiddos Trenton and Taleah, Brian, and us 4. Afterwards a lunch of hot dogs and mac and cheese, very tasty and certainly a crowd pleaser among the kids. You know, those of us 40 and under!!! It was great to be in Travis's home, and he certainly made us feel welcome. Lanelle and I basically took over their kitchen a few times as Sasha, Travis's wife, is back in Alaska. Travis did a smashing job on some hamburger vegetable casserole though. A little while after lunch, we got dressed in swim trunks for a hike down and up to the hot springs baths. The kiddos had fun splashing around in the baths; the largest one was about the size of a normal hot tub and the smallest on only had room for 1 person. Quite interesting to see the rain falling when looking across the valley, hear it in the canopy above, but not get wet! The rain showers so far are just a mist with defined droplets...not rain and not mist either.

The trail down the hill to the river from Travis's is one of the really steep ones as is the one by the boiling cave. Standing on their deck you can hear the river below about a quarter of a mile away and several hundred feet elevation difference. (Wish I had my GPS handheld for getting some of those details...it's hard to describe). I didn't hear if the river is the one that flows from Trafalgar Falls, but land contours would lead me to believe that to be so. It's not a large river, perhaps smaller than the Washita near home, but loses elevation pretty quick and is strewn with many large boulders. Then up the other side is not hardly as steep where you walk about 1/2 mile to get to the hot springs. Along the way there is an exposed piece of rock/dirt that is spewing sulfur smell...wonderful. Somewhat straight ahead under a bamboo canopy that looks like a tunnel is the boiling springs that the video above shows. Left of all this and up a fairly steep rock road are the baths. At the intersection of these roads/trails, local vendors have shacks set up to sell souveniers; shacks that remind me of the peach stands in Stratford, OK only smaller...about 10' wide and 5' deep little bamboo framed, tin roofed shelters. On around the corner toward Woten Waven is a slow decline, a hairpin curve, then......boom the bottom falls out. It is at least a 45 degree decline and perhaps more; one car we met when climbing back out actually stopped and checked his emergency brake before rounding the hairpin curve. The decline is about 50 yards long and ends at another creek, up which the boiling cave can be seen high up on the creek bank. The the walk back down the road; Ethan made it up to about the last 50 yards then finally gave up. I was pretty amazed that he did that good seeing the steepness of the road in places; he had a little companion, Trenton, to hold his hand and keep him encouraged. That last 50 yards carrying him got my legs burning. To get an idea of the walking distances that we're covering sometimes, 10 miles Saturday and a little over 9 today according to Brians pedometer. Monday morning we were up at 5:30 to get ready to catch the bus back to Roseau (Rose Oh), on the bus at 6:30 and off for the winding steep drive. It's a fairly short walk from where that bus dropped us off and where we caught the next one for Portsmouth. Thankfully so since the boys weren't ready to be awake and I was packing a 40 pound duffle that had all 5 of our clothes in it. Then Formula One...I don't know if I'll ever get any coastline shots in the public bus. I literally several times dug my heel into the bottom of the seat to help me keep my balance...and that's setting down! We travelled with Andrew and was very glad for his knowledge of the streets in Roseau. Maps, if they can be found, of the town look neat, but the reality of the closeness of the houses/shops, narrowness of the streets, and general chaos going on around you, plus the fact that the streets aren't marked with very lettering can make you have the lost feeling pretty easily. At least some of the streets in Roseau have street name signs, quite different than Portsmouth.

Monday, Jan 5th found us back here in Glanvillia at the apartment. Lanelle had to finish up some of her work from last week plus get her hours in for today, too, so she camped out hooked to the ethernet wire! Logan and Ethan needed some "down time" after the busy weekend, so they stayed with Mom while Brian and I went to campus for me to get my laptop configured for their network and get a student ID. I did get the laptop job done, but the line for Student Services was about 50 yards long and moving somewhat at an amputated snails pace. I caught an upperclassman on the welcoming committee and he suggested we come back later. The third 1.5 mile one-way trip got my laptop back and my number at the 203rd spot on the list for getting ID. They were calling 79 about the time I left for the last time, so I figure by noon tomorrow they'll be glad to see one more heat stricken smiling face. Bet that photo will look worse than my drivers liscense and passport combined. After the final trip back, I found that Brian had ran the boys down to the beach to wear some stink off while Lanelle worked. She and I headed down that way to find them, along the way hollering out a greeting to Spesh when he toot tooted his horn at us. Brian, amazingly, had kept the boys out of the water and they were having a ball building sand castles. I decided I'd had enough walking for the day, I'd just swim awhile, so off with the shoes, shirt and various other distracting items and into the water I went followed closely by two rowdy Okies. The water feels somewhat cold when first getting in, but refreshing nonetheless. It gets up to my neck about 20 yards out, and the wave action that far out does not affect your ability to stand up; closer to shore, the larger swells will carry you in and turn around a wash you back out. Brian and Lanelle couldn't be convinced to come in yet though. Walked back and started making supper of steamed rice with fresh thyme, and two root based spices. Thanks for the seasonings, Spesh! Mixed some canned chicken in, sliced some fresh tomatoes, and called it good.

Our barrel came in today, so was very glad for the extra supplies. We got by quite lucky...import duty was only EC23! They have a handling fee at the airport for the carrier, and we owed the driver EC80 for the trip. Thanks, Ren Stevens! Quite a story...we met a 4th semester student and his wife, Dwayne and Rhoda, who gave us Ren's name and number and a great recommendation. I call him today and ask if he can take us to pick up the barrel...He's already at Melville Hall airport. I asked him if he could pick it up while there, he told me to call Amerijet and give authorization, Amerijet says they require the request to be in writing, so here I am thinking I'm done. Half hour later I call Ren and he's got it! We agree that he'll call when 15 minutes from apartment so I will be there...right on time he comes. Out steps Ren Stevens, we shake hands, our first time to meet in person!!! We get the barrel unloaded and into Leona's yard where we start transferring the goodies to a duffle bag for the trip up the stairs. We've put most of the items away now and it was good to have the supplies.

All for now.

Trafalgar Falls trip

The trip to Roseau did not yield any photos. Nissan bus (minivan) filled with 17 people, at least 2 suitcases, laptop bag, purses, two shopping plastic bags. Driver was furious about some passengers inability to pay for the trip until next week, so listened to him yelling about poor financial situation, starving children, and any other insults that could be thrown the way on the hapless dude that had no funds. One driver tried to bilk us by charging EC$100 for trip when it should, by law, only be EC$45. Andrew then called Travis, our friend in Trafalgar, who arranged for a taxi to pick us up and bring us here. Ride up was similar to Spesh farm trip only paved. Impossible to describe how steep the mountain roads are along with the straightest segments lasting approximately 45 inches. 45 inches because that's the distance between potholes. It really is a lovely experience, though, and we're having fun doing it. There is a ton of work to try to figure things out, where stuff is, etc. I'm (Lyndle typing now...Lanelle has access to composing, so will try to keep it clear...after next week, I'll prolly be pretty scarce though) feeling very comfortable in our community now. I still wouldn't want to go out alone at night, but several of us together last night to Iguana Cafe was no problem. The "supermarket" Tina's is just down the street about 5 blocks....what's that? That's right, most of the streets are as winding as the cow trail they likely replaced and absolutely no such thing as street names, etc. No organization whatsoever to where the streets go except they avoid the houses and the sea. It gives a nice feel once you're used to it though, just difficult to expand your horizons beyond the immediate community. Back to the drive down to Roseau along the coast....there are some beautiful scenes, just impossible to photograph due to rough road. I told Brian to try to get a 30 second video clip just to emphasize the movement of the camera...don't know that he could change his camera to video mode....fact is, don't know if he even saw his camera although he was holding it the entire time. There is a cruise ship docked in Roseau now, so town has a scattering of lost looking white folk...kinda like we looked, I'm sure. Very nice little diesel Nissan minivan took us to Travis and Sasha's. They have 5 children, though Sasha and 3 are back in Alaska now trying to find work. Trenton and Taleah (not sure of spelling) are hear and near our boy's ages, so before long every lizard withing 100 feet was cringing at the top of the palm trees hurling coconuts in protest. They, the lizards, still sound upset about it long after dark. My boys have turned their attention to each other and fighting over how much covers the other one is hogging, not realizing that covers aren't necessary. But, hey, it's something to fight about. Travis had some leftover chicken and potatoes with rice as a side dish that we had for supper. Their "mothers helper" had fixed it...very delisch. Travis had this ghostly look of despair on his face at the arrival of 6 people at supper time and basically turned Lanelle and I loose in their kitchen. Hope Sasha finds all her dishes on her return. We really just kinda jumped in there and made ourselves at home, opened 3 cans of tuna, mixed in mayo, set on bread and leftovers, and promptly ate ourselves silly. Travis found this place, it's like an 8 bedroom bed and breakfast, by chance when some guy was about to lose it to the bank. Industrious as he is, they now have an 8 bedroom estate with a view of Trafalgar Falls, hot sulpher springs a 13 minute walk, and all the fresh tropical fruit in their backyard that you can possibly immagine. If any Rossies are following this, let me know and I'll hook you up. They, though remote, have good internet service, thus the blog update. Travis has some rooms rented out on the bottom floor, but the whole upper floor is theirs. We're glad to be here and able to have meeting in the morning. Maybe tomorrow afternoon will yield a trip to the hot springs for a little splash around. That usually ranks pretty high on Logan and Ethan's to do list. Aside, when we went to Prince Rupert Bay beach this morning, they were finding sand crabs. I hooted at watching the boys trying to "stomp" them. Those little dudes can scat now, and sideways to boot with their little claws angrily gesticulating their displeasure. And they only have 2 fingers to begin with! The would remind you of a spider at first glance, but much faster. They're about an inch across including legs, cute as a button. I almost caught one, but it skittered into its hole just in time. Their holes are interesting...they're in the sand that is wet from the waves coming ashore, are about a half inch in diameter and who knows how deep. We tried to dig one out, but at a foot depth we gave up and let it have its rest. I could just picture it at the bottom of the hole, match in hand above keg of dynamite, declaring to itself that it would, after all, have the last laugh if things got rough enough. Cooking...we came to the apartment and discovered that the propane bottle, located under the sink in the kitchen, was empty. Apparently, there must be a shortage of propane (gas in the local lingo) on the island, so haven't found any to cook with. Don't know what the Dominicans did to tick off Chavez down thar in Venzy, but it musta worked. Note to USA: find out! Anyway, I'm eyeing any dead timber laying around in case we have to start a bonfire in the street. I would be curious to find out what the cooking fuel is for the BBQ grills that we see scattered around. It smokes like the dickens, but smells good...prolly hashish or something. Never mind the electric bill, honey, I'm lit up enough as it is. They tell us that electricity will be tolerable on the finances as long as the a/c or a microwave is not running. So far, no need for a/c, but they say it gets worse. I'm already looking at ways to waterproof our bed and stand it up in the shower stall. Either that or harness a local goat to a generating treadmill. Not sure what the carrot at the end of the string will be...maybe leftover hashish. Just be glad you weren't on the BBQ there goaty boy. Market this morning.....prolly got jipped right out the chute on the tomatoes that I bought at EC24 for 2 bags containing about 15 tomatoes. Makes me sorry I didn't save more of ours from the Oklahoma garden. I'm thinking liquid nitrogen frozen tomatoes launched from Key West in water balloon slingshots might be a viable business. Where's Michael Phelps when you need him. Anyway, bananas are cheap, EC2 for a bunch similar in size to ones in Walmart at home. Plantains, carrots, and mangos are cheap. Didn't find any fish, but may have not walked close enough to the water, either that or the local fishermen suddenly went catch and release on us. Spesh's brother is a fisherman and Spesh said he'd hook us up...tuna and several others he mentioned. The vegetable sellers like to hawk the fact that their produce is organic. It's amazing that the American buzzword is known here, yet they haven't a clue about Roundup, Treflan, and other farm chemicals we call normal. Does anyone know what is wrong with this? This has truly been eye opening from several different levels. Organic yet littered, simple yet scarce....wowzer. Will sign off now to catch a little shut eye.

New to blogging...hope it's a better option than facebook or email for combo text/photos

Saturday, Jan 3, 2009

Here is a shot of the boys just across the street east of the apartment looking at a hen and her 2 chicks. Brian, Logan, Ethan and I were leaving to go check if we could fill the propane bottle so we can cook! We have to go about 100 yards north to the main road in the area. Gotta go...Andrew is coming for trip to Roseau and further to Trafalgar Falls.