We are in between semesters right now. My goal during the break was to catch up on my blog. I could tell you about June and July but if you are reading this you are likely a bit more interested in more current things going on. I will however post about past months at a later time and keep it chronological. (Our story may not be as exciting as you are anticipating...)
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In the middle of the night (Sunday night/Monday morning) Mark and I woke up to booming thunder and lightning. I don't think I've seen any lightning here at all. We went out on the balcony for a few minutes. I love thunder storms! This was all of Danny that hit us. No crazy wind. Nothing threatening. It's better that way but I admit I was hoping for something a little more exciting. Nothing destructive but maybe something that at least made me feel the need to close my windows and doors. The once hurricane had died down to almost nothing.
Mark is doing Welcoming Committee again during the break. This time he will be at Jenner Hall where new students will go straight from the airport. He loves meeting new people and has no problem being up in front of people. If it wasn't a paid job I don't think I'd be too thrilled about it because he'll be gone so much. All this week he'll be gone from at least 2-9 if not longer. Today he actually came home early because so many flights had been cancelled and tomorrow he has to go in at noon...
I can't believe how sore we still are from our big Boiling Lake hike last Saturday! It was brutal! My calves are surprisingly tender!
There is another tropical storm named Erika that's brewing. It doesn't look like it will be any more then a rain storm to us. It's supposed to come through Wednesday night through Thursday. I've decided I'm not going to get too excited or worried about another storm unless the locals seem concerned. I will make sure we have plenty of water on hand though. Which really is just a good idea around here anyway.
Wednesday evening the kids were playing when I heard a bang and crying. Isaac came down the hall with blood coming down his face from his forehead. I grabbed a rag to press against the cut. It was a big gash that was later measured to be 2 cm long. It looked like it may need stitches. I didn't know what I should do. This forehead bleeding scenario was all too familiar since Isaac hit his head on the coffee table last semester. I was hoping Mark could come home and take him into the clinic like last time and I wouldn't have to take all the kids down by myself. But he hasn't been receiving notifications on his phone properly lately. His phone hasn't been vibrating. I tried calling him through Facebook and sent a few messages...nothing... I've been without my phone for a few days because it hasn't been charging. Mark cleaned out the charging (micro USB) port and it appeared to be working. So I turned it on successfully. Again, I tried to call him but figured he wouldn't answer. Lexi has a phone too but Emma put it in the babysitters backpack on Saturday and we haven't arranged to get it back yet. Not that it would have made a difference. I found the Ross emergency number (which I later realized is on the back of my ID card...) My phone warned me my minutes were low and I was afraid I would loose the call. Lexi went downstairs to buy me more minutes. A security vehicle was sent up to get us. I grabbed clothes for Emma, (at home she only wears a diaper) Kari carried her shoes and Isaac walked down the stairs with the rags pressed against his head. I hollered for Lexi who had been waiting to buy minutes. She came out of the store unsuccessfully and and we hoped in the back seat of the pickup truck. On our way we stopped by the building Mark was in for Welcoming Committee. Just as I stepped in he called me. I had sent a Facebook message to someone I thought would be near him. She had given him the message to call me. Mark joined us and we went to the clinic where we waited for the doctor. He didn't end up needing stitches.
Thursday August 27th
Tropical Storm Erika snuck up on us right behind Danny.
Danny was hardly anything at all. I figured Erika would be similar. Nothing to
worry about, right?
I got up at 6am with Emma which is a little early for her. The rain was coming down pretty
hard and with the wind it was coming into the girl's room so I closed their windows which I have done before. Their windows are the most likely to have rain come in. It was hard enough though that I decided to closed the sliding glass door off the balcony for the FIRST TIME EVER since we moved here. I walked into the kitchen and stepped in a little water on the floor and quickly realized the ceiling by our main door was leaking. I put our buckets in the best place I could and laid some towels down as a protective moat to keep it contained.
I took a quick video of the rain and took down the laundry from the line on the balcony (we have 2 balconies). The kids woke up and sleepily came out to the living room. It was a laid back slow kind of morning. When Mark came out of
our room he had checked his e-mail and told me the campus would be shut down
for the day. The e-mail said to stay home. It felt like a snow day but clearly without
the snow. It was more of a “rain day”. Emma
went back to sleep for an early nap. I had borrowed some Skip-Bo cards and have
been anxious to play it as a family. With Emma napping and Mark home it was the
perfect time!!
We soon lost our internet. (Which didn't seem strange or bad just a bummer). We ended up spending entirely too much time playing the simple dinosaur jumping over cacti game that shows up on the screen when there is no internet. The kids love it. We all took turns playing it. I got a high score of 383 which I was quite proud of since I had struggled getting over 100! Isaac go into the 800s and Mark got over 1200!!
At one point Lexi and I went downstairs to the grocery store. We
used the front door we rarely use which is right next to the grocery store
entrance. We thought it was pretty cool we didn’t even have to get wet to go
shopping. Mark and I each got to take a good nap in the afternoon. We had a pretty relaxing day.
It kept raining.
I know it's not a very clear picture but this is the biggest crab I have ever seen.
Our neighbor's banana tree fell in the storm. They have since propped it back up with 3 logs. I hope it will live. They were out clearing branches from their yard on Friday.
My hair is intentionally NOT in this selfie. Holy poof ball!!
Friday
In the morning Mark took Isaac to campus to go by the clinic for a follow up on Isaac’s head. Mark needed to go figure out what was going on with the Welcoming Committee too. Our internet and phones were still down. We had no way of knowing if campus had internet now or what the status was… Our plan was then to meet at the shacks for lunch. After a while I heard Mark’s voice outside. They had come home early. Apparently Erika was quite a substantial storm after all. Mark said as he and Isaac walked down the hill he could see mud up on the road and tree limbs around and knew it was bad news. The airport had damage and all flights were cancelled. Trees, fences and at least one bridge is damaged, there had been some flooding and 20-30 locals in a small village had DIED! I was totally shocked! WHAT?!? We had NO clue!!!! Mark heard there was a student who had maybe 3 feet of water in their apartment. They took their laptop and waded out up to the second floor. There are around 90 of the 450ish first semester students who are on the island. I feel so bad for them.Who knows what they are going through? They didn’t have time to stock up on anything. The bank is closed so they likely don’t even have any money. Some may not have power. I hope Ross is taking care of them.
This afternoon I baked 10 loaves of bread (2 at a time). We figured someone somewhere would be in need or at least appreciate a loaf of bread. We wanted to offer for students without a place to sleep to come to our apartment. Mark didn’t find anyone who needed help but I felt good knowing we were willing to help how we could.
What do our families back home think? Do they have any idea?? It’s so strange not having internet. I’m grateful we have power. The water was dirty yesterday and now it’s off completely. Who knows when it will come back on? Thankfully we had plenty stored and campus has a large amount of clean water. I’m curious how long it will take to get water and internet back. The university had a meeting this afternoon Mark went to. It sounds like they should get their internet up soon. Fiber optic stuff… I don’t know anything.
It will be interesting to see how things play out. There are so many people off the island right now. About 80% leave the island for the break and there are new students likely stranded in Puerto Rico or elsewhere. All the trips offered before each semester have been cancelled for this upcoming week. It is not even possible to get to Roseau right now.
This picture is a 180. The road on the left is the road on the right. It's just curled.
The water is usually well under this bridge by 5 feet I would guess. It's not very deep here. During the storm the water was flowing above bridge level and temporarily turned nearby roads into rivers! We are lucky this bridge wasn't one of the 10+ bridges that were taken out or we wouldn't be able to get to campus.
Cleaning up near the river.
Saturday
Still no water and no internet. I don’t really expect it to come back soon but I want it to! We are sweaty, sticky and stinky. Showers would do us good. It rained off and on throughout the day. I spent a bit of time outside collecting rain water. We needed to be able to flush our toilets! We also filled up the washing machine with water. I can’t imagine living back in time before there was running water!! I do NOT envy my ancestors. Mark went to the church to work on something with President and the elders. He gave them most of the bread loaves I made to take to people. Later, I went downstairs to the store to stock up on a few more items. I talked with our landlord. He has two gas tanks set aside for us and a box of water bottles. He said if there’s anything we’d like him to set aside for us he will. There is no way to get more supplies at the moment. If we run out of money he’ll start a credit for us. It was nice to know he’s looking out for us. His wife Tina is overseas right now and obviously he has no communication with her. It feels so weird not being able to communicate! I hope this doesn’t last too long… It could get interesting. By time the water comes back I may have enough dirty laundry to keep me occupied for months! HA! Thankfully I had washed all the cloth diapers before the storm and I have extra disposable diapers around. It’s hard not knowing how far I have to make the water stretch. How do I wash dishes? I have some paper plates but we ate soup for dinner. Tonight Mark went to campus with plans to exercise, SHOWER and shave. Perhaps we should’ve planned to make a family outing to campus but we didn’t so I guess we’re going to church stinky tomorrow. The schools gym had a small amount of flooding so it was closed. The CAC building with the gym is the lowest point on campus and the only place on campus I'm aware of that had any issue from the storm at all. Mark learned that the power on the island is run by fuel so if/when that runs out we’ll all be without power. I’m not sure how long the generator will run… Hopefully things will get resolved before any of that even comes close to being an issue but who’s to say? Mark is supposed to go to campus every day at 4 for an update. He still has to meet on campus on Monday for first semester orientation even though most of them are not on the island. Wow. I’m glad we didn’t just arrive on the island!! I would be in tears in a fetal position.
While this beauty was napping...
I was in the gutter. (I took these pictures the next day when it was sunny and not raining...)
Sunday
This morning I used a little bucket of rain water and a washcloth to clean up and become as presentable as possible to go to church. The kids could use a wash down too but we didn’t have enough time before church. As we headed out the door I grabbed a loaf of bread to put in my backpack. I wanted to be sure there was bread for the sacrament just in case and if it wasn’t needed I had another thought in mind. We walked out to the road to start walking to church and a driver stopped. Mark told him that he didn’t have any money on him and we would walk. The driver told us to just get in anyway. The locals here are often so kind. We talked with him on the way and he told us fuel had been delivered to run the power so our power should be good Church was good. One talk was on patience. He talked about having patience in our trials. Through our trials we are humbled, depend on God and grow spiritually. At one point he mentioned going on visits last night. Mark leaned over to me and told me those visits were delivering my bread. After he said that I felt wonderful inside. I know that the Lord was grateful for my efforts. It was as if He had personally thanked me. I played “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” for the closing song. That song has become Lexi’s favorite and she requested that I play it today. I love the Spirit I feel when that song is sung. It strengthens my testimony in my Savior every time I listen to the words. After sacrament meeting it was announced that the children would go have singing time and the adults would meet to assess the needs of the branch after the storm. I went upstairs to see if there was someone to be with the nursery children. I stayed and played with 3 little kiddos (Emma included). I’m not sure exactly how the adult meeting went but when I saw Mark he said we needed to go home and empty out as much of our big water containers into smaller containers as we could. He was going to take our three 5 gallon water jugs and go with the elders in their truck to get drinking water to others.
We started walking home. Along the path we take there is a small shed like shack that caught my eye the very first time we walked to church. I’m in awe that people actually live in there. I’ve often smiled at a cute little kid peeking out the window. One day about a month ago I randomly thought about stopping there and dropping off a loaf of bread. It felt like such a strange thing to do. Today I had brought a loaf of bread and we didn’t need it for the sacrament. As we neared the house I saw people at the window. When I say window I mean a rectangular shape hole with no glass or blinds of any kind. A piece of wood large enough to cover the hole was propped open above it. There was a lady there with children. I said hello and asked how they were doing as I walked up to the window. I made small talk about how old the children were and talked to them. The lady was the mother of 3. A 4 year old girl, 2 year old boy and she said she had a 1 month old baby boy sleeping. There was also a 5 year old girl there who was her friend’s daughter. I told her I had an extra loaf of bread with me and offered it to them. I handed it too her and wished them a good day. I often think of that little home and feel incredibly blessed to have the things I do. “Because I have been given much I too must give….my loaf of bread…that he too may be comforted” Before we neared the shack Mark had just mentioned he heard in the meeting the stores where out of flour. We could have easily eaten that loaf of bread ourselves. It felt so good to give.
When we got home we poured water from our big containers into smaller ones so Mark could take them. He left with the elders and delivered drinkable water from the school to members of our branch and some local neighbors. (THANK YOU to my in-laws for sending us with collapsible water storage containers). He got sunburned hanging out in the back of the pickup. We invited the elders to come over for dinner tonight. Mark came home temporarily before heading to campus for the daily 4 o’clock meeting. He left a little early in hopes he might be able to get a message to our families but they were done. He learned we get to have a 1 minute satellite phone call to the United States at 10 am tomorrow morning. I wish I could tell my mom I’ll be calling J haha. I really hope whatever the media might be saying about the storm isn’t freaking our families out. Maybe it’s not even talking about it but I’m sure Googling it you would likely learn something scary sounding. We are safe and doing VERY well especially when you consider our island is in a state of national disaster!!! We have never even lost power. We have enough food and water stored to last for a while. Things for us are nearly normal. Mark heard 11 bridges were damaged and 22 people are still missing. Also, he heard there are automobiles and dead cows that were washed down the rivers to the sea.
I saw my landlord was outside and I went out to talk to him and see what kind of update he might know about anything. He was able to get word out to his family members that he is fine. His wife is apparently in New York. I told him I had heard the airport was damaged and he verified he’d heard it was pretty substantial. He said the river took back its course. I guess the river used to run through the area where the airport is. Apparently the same thing happened to a few small villages around. Those poor people have nowhere to call home. I asked if this has ever happened where you can’t get to Roseau. He talked about Hurricane David that came through about 35 years ago. It destroyed homes and such with strong winds and very little rain. This sounds like it may be worse. The bridges here are flat with the road. The cables for telephones and internet run underneath bridges. So when the bridges were taken out so were the cables. We can only speculate how long it may take for them to fix those issues.
The elders came over for dinner around 7. Mark made lots of tasty pizza. We also treated them with our favorite treat Blend Tec “ice cream”. The flavor tonight was Tea Time chocolate cookies. I was shocked to learn they hadn’t tried Domino cookies! They actually didn’t even know what I was talking about!! I fixed that problem right away and pulled out a package for them to try. Dominos is likely the first local thing we bought on the island. They are somehow addicting. The Dahles of Dominica love Dominos! :) I plan to send lots back to our families for Christmas time. They will probably think we're silly to love them so much.
While the elders were here I was standing near the kitchen window and heard water outside at the neighbor’s outdoor sink and hollered out the window if the water was on. She said it was coming. I responded that was good news.
OUR WATER IS BACK! Well, it’s a super tiny trickle but it’s water and it’s not even brown! Shocker!! Before going to bed the water pressure was enough to take my first shower in 4 days. Here that probably compares to 2 weeks in Idaho!
We heard tonight that the airport runway has been cleared but not for any commercial planes. School is supposed to start NEXT Monday! I don’t know what Ross is going to do! This is so bad for Dominica’s economy!! Tuesday morning Ross is supposed to announce how they are going to proceed with the semester. We'll see what this week has to bring. Hopefully nothing as exciting or devastating as this past week!
