Survival

 Joel and I are having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that we live here. It seems like it should just be a vacation or something which gives the impression that time is running out, but since we have been here, we have been so busy and done so much it feels like we have been here forever, it seems impossible that it’s been less than a week! Very strange. Here is an update on the last few days. The school held a Welcome out BBQ that was FANTASTIC! Okay okay- so it was no Alberta Beef, but the food was still great, and the entertainment was wonderful! Anyone who knows me and Joel well knows that we have a weird obsession with steel drums. There was a steel drum band in Lethbridge and we did everything we could to NEVER miss a show. I guess that means we moved to the right place hey? The group that played at the BBQ was a kids band and they were fantastic! Loved them. Very impressed. 

 















Wednesday was a busy day.  I was hanging out in the apartment in the morning when there was a knock at the door.  It was the cleaner! (As part of our rent we have a woman that comes to clean our house once a week) So this is my first experience with this kind of thing. I will also note, that we just got our last bag off the plane the night before. Okay, so the cleaner is at the door, and I am mortified that the house is so messy because I am still unpacking.  She said she didn’t care, but I insisted she come back later. She went and cleaned some other apartments and I went on a mad dash cleaning spree.  She came back and my house was beautiful. She gave me a funny look and told me I didn’t have to clean for her, that was her job.  She said next week to just leave the house alone and let her take care of it. I guess we will have to see how next week goes haha. In the afternoon we went on a River Boat trip. This is the same river they filmed Pirated of the Caribbean 2 –when they are on their way to Calypsos house. It was incredible.  I honestly cant even describe how beautiful the river was and how much I loved it. If I could afford it, I would boat up/down that river every single day I am here. (Also,  its about a 15 min walk from my apartment).  There were so many different types of crab, lizards and you can see the fish swimming all around. Its opens right into the ocean so its half fresh half salt water river. Barracudas swim up the river to eat the smaller fish. Its lined with trees, and the tree roots keep the banks of the river from eroding into it.  So you will have tall thin trees with HUGE flat roots. Very fantastic. 

 

In the evening we watched our first sunset on the beach. It was beautiful, there were so many crabs running around on the beach. We were walking home, it was dark out but we had a flashlight so it was okay...mostly. A local dog started following us home, Joel turned around to look at it, and in that split moment when he took his eyes and flashlight off the path...and stepped on a crab...which snapped onto his ankle.  It mostly got his shoe so he was fine, and the crab when running off to the side, so they were both fine. However...I didn’t know what was happening, All I had to go on was Joel jumped and screamed. Not much makes that boy scream, so I went into full survival mode. Again, I had no idea what was happening, I just went with my jut instincts...which I am embarrassed to admit...As soon as Joel screamed,  I pushed him into the bushes and ran as fast as I could away from him. Once I was at a safe distance I yelled back and asked if he was okay. He said it was just a crab and came and caught up with me. His first words when we got back together were “I can’t believe  I included you in my Zombie apocalypse plan”. 

Anyways, the Moral of the story is everyone is safe and happy and we love the Caribbean

Canada to Caribbean

I am starting this Blog as an on-line journal to keep track or my memories and experiences here in Dominica. I will post it for friends and family to read as well so anyone who cares can see what we are up to. Please note before reading- I talk a lot!

To start off, we had about 3 weeks from getting accepted to getting to the Island. It was a very busy, emotional and short time. We tried to spend as much of our remaining time with Family and Friends as was possible. Which pretty much left us with about 3.5 days to pack up our entire house, ultimately leaving behind a huge mess and lots left to be done for our family and friends to deal with. I am extremely grateful for everyone who helped us with the packing, moving and cleaning both before and after we left the house. Your kindness will never be forgotten! Thank you!

Our first plane was from Calgary to Toronto, it left at 12:50pm and arrived at 6:30ish Toronto Time. When we got to Toronto we found out our next flight was delayed. This was stressful since we had another plane after that one that we really didn't want to miss. So we got to sleep a few hours in the Toronto Airport for the second time in almost a month. We boarded our plane from Toronto to Barbados at about 11 and arrived at about 4 -Same time zone as Toronto. Barbados was fantastic! It was beautiful and the people were so nice! We were in a crazy rush though, because we had less then 30 min from when we got in, to when the next plane was suppose to leave. We rushed through customs had to pick up our bags and ran over to check in. They told us they couldn't let us on  the plane because we had to be there at least 45 min early. We begged and pleaded and asked to speak to a manager and begged and pleased again. The Plane was delayed as well so it wasn't a huge deal in that regard. The problem was that because of Hurricane Issac many other planes this week had been cancelled and there were several people stuck at the airport on standby. They had already offered our seats to other people when we didn't show up on time. But they found a way to squeeze us all in. It was a tiny little propeller plane that had only 50 seats. They told us right away because the plane was so full that they couldn't fit all our bags and we would have to wait for another flight to bring them. The Plane was suppose to leave at 5pm but for some reason didn't leave until about 9pm.

It was 10pm when we landed in Dominica. Way to dark to see anything. There was a bunch of school staff there to help us around, pretty much everyone on the plane where students. They helped us fill out our lost luggage forms and loaded us into vans. The drivers get paid by how many people they transport so they PACK you in. The driver was really nice. It was too dark to see much but every once in a while we could see crabs scurry across the road. Apparently the Crabs right now are mating so the females cross the road to go lay eggs in the jungle and then go back to the Ocean (The road goes right along the cost) You need to be really careful, they dont want you to squash the crabs.

The van dropped us off at Jenner Hall at the school. We got there at about 11 30pm ish. Joel had to get his ID picture taken, Fill out forms, Update Information, Sign up for things....Once he was done all that stuff they gave us a wonderful buffet! The food was so so good! It was made from a local restaurant so we got the name number and price list for future reference. The school called our landlord for us and being the fantastic man that he is, he got out of bed to come pick us up at 1am. He took us to our apartment, gave us a quick tour and set up our internet so we could e-mail home. However we were so exhausted that as soon as he left we just crashed.

Saturday we slept in! When we got up we did a campus tour, walked around the Island a bit and ran some errands around time. Just went to a couple little shops to stock up on stuff we needed. We were super disappointed when our bags didn't come in. Saturday night we also tried walking into Portsmouth to find the church, we couldn't find it by the time it got dark so we took a cab home. We tried again Sunday morning, and we found it much easier this time, since we had ruled out so much of the city the night before. Also we saw other people walking to church and just followed them ha ha. Church was great, there are some very nice people, we are excited to meet them and get involved. The rest of the day we spent resting inside, until later in the afternoon Joel went to check on the Bag situation and found that all except 1 had come. Hurray! We unpacked and headed to bed early! Joel has a busy week of Orientation this week and after that the REAL fun begins! And that concludes our first weekend in Dominica.