A go Go GO kind of week

This last week was a big blur of fun (mostly). I can hardly remember what happened when. Luckily I wrote it down :) Last Monday January 5th I'll first mention that Emma turned 8 months old!!! Time just keeps ticking! She has 4 teeth. She likes to bite shoulders, arms and fingers if you let her. She has been trying so many big people foods here in Dominica like rice, lentils and chicken from our new favorite place to eat called Nelson's at "the shacks".  ( "The shacks" is a little area by the north gate of campus where vendors have food and drinks for sale. I've heard there's a pretty good taco salad and smoothie there somewhere I intend to check out sometime.) Emma is and has been on the verge of walking for a little while now. We keep thinking she'll take off walking but she hasn't yet. I'm in no hurry. It might be nice for her knees though since there is no carpet here. We all adore Emma and are so happy she is part of our family! When Isaac prays he continues to thank Heavenly Father that Mommy had her.

Next, I'll mention last MONDAY Mark started orientation. He had a handful of meetings throughout the week to prep for school starting. Three hours of Mark's day was standing in line and all the rigmarole of setting up our local bank account. The kids and I came to campus once Mark was near the front of the line so I could sign the things I needed to. Then the kids played at their school's playground for a long time since it wasn't worth walking home just to walk back a while later. That evening there was a BBQ on the seaside deck complete steal drum playing fun Christmas songs and men cutting coconuts with machetes. We had a nice time eating food and hanging out with new friends.

TUESDAY the kids and I went with a group of friends to Batibou beach. It's about a 20 minute drive and then it took almost that long for us to walk down the muddy trail to the beach. They said it is the most beautiful beach on the island. It was wonderful! Sometime while I'm here I'm going to have to get someone to watch all my kids so I can go relax on the beach alone. I'd probably end up falling asleep. Lexi and Isaac enjoyed getting knocked over by waves and digging in the sand with their friends.

On WEDNESDAY Mark didn't have to do any orientation and we went on a boat tour on the Indian River. There are 365 rivers on the island. As we got on the boat Mark was taking a picture of the kids who were sitting in the front of the boat and then the guide took off before Mark got on so he had to go on a different boat. The ride was peaceful and beautiful. I think "beautiful" might be my most used word on this blog. The island is just beautiful. It is so green everywhere. There are so many interesting colorful plants and flowers. This river we were on had part of it on the movie Pirates of the Caribbean (I think the second one which I only saw once) It's the part when they are going to see the lady Calypso's house. There was a little hut thing there that I understood to be the house they built and used for the movie but I'm not so sure that was a correct understanding after looking on-line. Maybe that was just the general area where they did the filming... Either way it was a fun tour. We could look down into the water and see fish and crabs (I didn't see a crab but Isaac and Mark did).

There are lots of little lizards around!

Here's our one picture of the cabin they said was used for the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean 2.

Waiting for Daddy's boat to come back.

THURSDAY morning my friend called me to see if we'd like to go to the beach just off of campus called PBH beach. (I'm not sure why it's called that). We met up with the group and walked to the beach. The kids had a great time!! Emma eventually fell asleep and I set her on a towel on the beach. I was SO jealous. I've found I'm really tired and could fall asleep really fast if given the chance. As we've gone on trips I always fall asleep on the bus at some point. We have been go go go and done lots of walking. In the afternoon there was a meeting about the kid's school. I'm excited for them to attend the prep school here. They will have field trips fairly often and learn some French. Lexi and Isaac will be in the same class. I'm not sure yet how many students there will be in their class but not many compared to the classes they came from in Idaho. After the meeting we went to the family lounge (which is air conditioned!) and hung out until Mark was done with orientation stuff around 4pm.

A nap on the beach! 

I laid down next to Emma for all of 2 seconds and this tree was her view (if she'd been awake).

As we were getting ready to go it started raining lightly and woke up this little beach baby. 

On FRIDAY Mark only had orientation until noon and to say that he was anxious to go snorkeling seems like an understatement. :)  The kids and I met up with him when he was done with everything he needed for snorkeling and we headed to PBH. Afterwards we walked around the seaside deck where there were vendors from the island to tell you about what they had to offer you. The man from the chocolate factory was there so we sampled some of his chocolates again. If I could only choose one flavor to please everyone in the family it would have to be the mint.

Before we headed home we got to take a tour of the simulation center that is like a pretend hospital with Sim Man who is a $80,000 dummy who blinks, his eyes dilate, he makes sounds, breaths, he can even sweat and all kinds of other crazy things! You had to wear gloves to touch him and feel his pulse. Kari now wants to be a doctor (because she has gloves). 

SATURDAY morning I got up early (not as early as I needed to) to go to the market. The nutritionist at the university was going to be taking people around telling people about the produce. It felt so weird to head out the door alone and flag down a ride by myself. I got on the bus with a lady who has been on the island for a year. She is the spouse of a faculty member. She was kind enough to let me tag along with her and she showed me things. She said never pay full price. They apparently jack up the prices for white people. Eventually we ran into the group that was with the nutritionist and she left me with them. I ended up buying some lettuce, guava, soursop (which I should have taken a picture of! Google it.) and something they say you eat like a squash and the name sort of sounds like Christonee but totally not and that's after asking 3 different people what it was called... It was an experience going there. I don't like trying to bargain on prices and I don't like paying too much for things. It's hard learning to use the Eastern Caribbean (ec) currency. I have no idea what is a good price for things. It really throws me off to see a box of cereal (American Trix) at the grocery store for about $17!!! Don't worry that's in EC but it still ends up being over $6 US! Ugh! I'll have to give it another shot sometime.
I hurried home from the market to gather things and help get ready for our day trip of the island. We walked to the university (as always) and loaded onto the buses. First stop Trafalgar Falls. There were two pretty waterfalls to see at the lookout point. There was a trail to walk further but we weren't allowed to continue. We made a pit stop at little bubbling hot pot. It smelled like Yellowstone Park. We then headed to the Botanical Gardens which had some neat plants but there were so many grumbling tummies that the plants weren't as cool. I heard lots of adults complaining about being hungry so I couldn't blame my kiddos for being unhappy too. Next, it was (finally) time to eat. :) Then we drove out to Scotts Head which is a piece of land where one side of it is the Caribbean sea and the other is the Atlantic Ocean. We heard it's a great place for snorkeling so Mark brought his gear for one last time before diving into the semester. Haha! There wasn't much of a beach. It was really rocky and slippery so it wasn't ideal for the kids. They enjoyed sitting on the Atlantic side (which we weren't allowed to swim in) getting splashed by the waves. We started hiking up to an overlook but it was pretty steep. Along the way were told there was still a ways to go and we needed to head back to the buses soon so we bailed. Mark enjoyed getting some snorkeling in! We then loaded the buses for the last time for the winding, crazy and at times felt much like a kid ride at a theme park ride home. I'm so glad none of us get motion sick!!!

Trafalgar Falls

Little bubbly hot pot that probably had a name...

Botanical Gardens

The countries' capitol Roseau. That's a field for playing cricket.

There's a cruise ship out there. 

 LUNCH! Yummy! Curry chicken, some fish, some sort of quiche eggy thing, noodles, rice...

Scotts Head

On the left is the Caribbean Sea and on the right is the Atlantic Ocean.

Yes, ALL of that happened in ONE week!!! Now it's Sunday we caught the bus for church even though we woke up a little late. We are anticipating the beginning of the first semester. I expect it to take a little while to get a routine figured out. Wish us luck!!! (I'm not reading through this again before I post it so I'm crossing my fingers it makes sense and there aren't too many errors)

We are here!

This is our fourth day on the island. It is Sunday. We got ready for church and waited by the road to be picked up by Serge who drives a little transport bus/van. Our church is a skinny three story lime green building. Church starts at 10. Today I counted at least 35 people but less then 50.

It feels like we haven't been home too much in the time we've been here. Let me briefly catch you up. (I intend to blog every Sunday. We'll see how it works out) Our flights went well. The kids were great travelers. We had a little scare in St. Maarten when our tickets said STANDBY!! We were worried we might not be able to get on the plane. They reassured us we would be able to get on the plane and then we were worried we might not be able to sit together. They took care of us and allowed us to board first so we could all sit together. When we first got here to Dominica my Facebook friend (and friend of a friend and cousin to a sister from our Caldwell ward) Cami met us at the university. After we got some information there, called our mothers, met the landlord, and got all our luggage to our apartment (which I should mention we were lucky that all 10 of our checked suitcases made it with us) we went to Cami's for a new years eve party. It was nice to meet some people and have a place to relax. We stayed past until 1am and were walked home. We all slept until 1pm the next afternoon!!! Thursday when we finally got up we got ready and went on a tour of campus. We splashed our feet in the ocean and went to Cami's for her son's birthday party. That day went by FAST! It gets dark here around 6pm every night and the sun comes back up around 6am every morning (which I haven't yet witnessed) We went out on day trips on Friday to Red Rock (we tried fresh coconut at one of our stops!!) and Saturday to Roseau the country's capitol. The trips were fun and when we got back yesterday we got our swimming gear together and hit the beach before dark.

I have a thermometer that typically reads 81 degrees. It is very humid! Kari's hair is curly here and mine is pretty frizzy! I had a cockroach on my kitchen floor yesterday! Thankfully it was dead! We haven't had too many issues with buys yet but I have noticed we all have a mosquito bite or two here and there...

As a tourist, I'm having a great time but then I come home and remember all I have to figure out. Our suitcases have exploded all over our apartment. We have so much to do. On the list is Mark (re)teaching me how to put pictures on the blog.... We have taken tons of pictures! Sorry you have to wait :)  I expect this week to be pretty busy, crazy, stressful and fun! School starts next Monday the 12th.

IGA and yoga

We were walking toward campus and saw this fire truck so we took a picture. 

Since everything was closed on the 1st for New Years we couldn't go to the store until the 2nd after we returned from our adventures to Red Rock. Our first time to the grocery store IGA and what do we buy? Potatoes! 

IGA has these cute little carts. I can already tell they are going to be a problem but don't they look cute and happy in this picture?? :) 

On campus there is this deck right on the edge of the water that is used for yoga. We walked out there to check it out and Lexi and I tried being yogalike. 

Red Rock Trip

We had to meet in front of the north gate of "by the shacks" at 9am for our hike to Red Rock. I really wasn't sure what we had signed up for except that Cami was going and taking her 5 kids so it would be kid friendly and we'd know someone we were with...   

The bus first took us to this look out point in Calibishie (the town's name). 

 By the road there was a man with a spread of fresh fruits. Coconuts, grapefruits and bananas. This was our first time watching someone cut a coconut with a machete. I was SO excited! 

How cool is this?!?!?

After we drank the coconut water he broke it open for us to eat the insides. 

We got a banana for Emma to enjoy back on the bus. She loved it!

As we drove we saw these fisherman out on the water. 

We also saw this contraption that is used for catching fish. Fish swim in but can't swim out. 

Not sure why this vehicle is like this. Perhaps it's getting fixed...

We got out of the bus and walked through the trees to get to Red Rock.

This man's name is Lester. He was SO good with the kids. He had them all pretending to be airplanes following him in a line to this point where he told them to sit and wait for their parents to come take pictures of them. 

It was gorgeous!! We kept getting hit with the salty mist. Soon I could hardly see out of my sunglasses. 

 Mark took these photo sphere pictures that show you more of our surroundings out on the rock. Each of the 3 shown below are a few different pictures stitched together. 

 I'm sure it was said but I didn't hear who made this doorway. It was between rocks down some steep narrow steps. Those who wanted to climbed down to take a look inside. Once a few adults got down there the kids were eager to join. I stayed up with sleeping Emma baby. 

After Red Rock we headed to the "chocolate factory".

 Kari is holding a cool pod full of seeds that is fun to shake. 

Here's that factory! The chocolate is cooking in there. 

This is where the cocoa beans sit to dry before they are cooked. 

From what I understand it's just this man and his wife that make the chocolate. I could be wrong though. They have nice chocolate bars with wrappers and they can be purchased at the grocery store. I don't know the whole process they do here. Most importantly I got to TASTE what they do here!! He let us sample lots of flavors. There was dark and milk chocolate, mint, spice (which I believe was cinnamon, nutmeg and perhaps something else) ginger (which was crunchy) and the one I found most interesting was pepper. The pepper is a little red pepper called a bird pepper. The idea of pepper in chocolate did not sound appealing to me but I'm being adventurous here and I gave it a try. I actually really liked it. The heat of it was comparable to a cinnamon bear and it was smooth. It was a very fun stop I didn't know we were going to make. Their yard or garden area was also very well kept and beautiful.  

Next stop? Lunch!! We went to a place called Poz. I wouldn't be sad to go there for an overnight get away (if that was ever possible! Ha!) They have beautiful rooms with a king size bed and bathroom. The rooms are up high overlooking... beauty!! 

Look at how inviting this pool is!! Mark was relaxing poolside. Rest while you can Mr. Wannabeadoctor. 

I climbed up the stairs as if going to one of the suites to show you coconuts in a tree!

This man was breaking rocks open to make a cool looking rock wall. I thought we took a picture of it but I guess not... It looked cool.

For lunch we had hamburgers, mahi mahi fish, coleslaw and fries. Pretty tasty stuff!! 

Our driver Marcus and "Mok" when they say Mark the letter r kind of disappears. 

Our first trip on the island was amazing and exciting!!! Loved it!!!!

A New Year

Happy New Year!! We're in a new place trying to figure out our new lives. Everything is new. After our travels and a late night parting with new friends we slept in until 1pm!!! All of us! We needed to be at the university at 2pm for a tour of campus. The night before the kids worried about what we would eat for breakfast. We solved that problem by sleeping through both breakfast and lunch! Hahaha! We walked to campus as fast as we could and were a bit late but able to join a tour group that included a few people that got to the island when we did. At the end of the tour I met up with Cami at the CAC (not sure yet what that stands for) building to sign up for a trip to Red Rock for Friday.
Then we ended up going to her house to hang out while Mark went to find us some food. Most everything was closed because of the holiday. He came to Cami's with yummy chicken, rice, lentils and green salad. It was so tasty.

Afterwards we walked to the beach nearby and stood in the ocean for just a few minutes before heading back to Cami's. It gets dark around 6pm so we hurried back before dark. It was her son's 10th birthday and she had invited us over. We ate bread bowls with a tasty white bean chicken soup. Later there was chocolate birthday cake. Then we went home to unpack a few things and go to bed.