All about Wes - Waterfalls and hunting

I was waiting for Wes to post his adventures, but he is not getting around to it, so I will try to describe what he has been up to. Wes has been involved with the Spouse's Organization on campus, and surprisingly, he is not the only man. In fact, there are quite a few men here supporting their wives. The Spouse's Organization does trips to waterfalls and hiking adventures for those who want to experience the beauty of this island. Wes went on one such outing as well as taking a "boys" trip to a few extreme waterfalls.

The Spouse's Organization went to

Ben's Pool for a day of "water sliding" and cliff jumping. They had a great time.

Next, Wes went on a trip with a few other guys to Sari Sari, Victoria Falls and Abu Avi. He said that we definitely can not take the kids since there are a few river crossings and cliff repelling that has to be done to get there. The trip was intense but the pictures are worth it.

Wes said Victoria Falls was about 30' wide (first pic) and was amazing to see.

Wes made an investment in an spear gun, hoping to hunt down dinner for us (if you ask me, it was just an excuse to hunt something). He was hooked after his first trip. Wes and a couple of friends went out on a night dive because they were told the bio-luminescent fish were amazing to see. They ended up getting a 44" barracuda and three lobsters. They came over to our house to clean and cut up the fish, so I got to take the pictures of the happy hunters. We will probably have a lot more dinners like this and hopefully more lobster!

Wes has also kept his throwing skills sharp. Wes saw a huge iguana in a tree, but his friend Mike couldn't see him, so Wes said, 'watch me hit him with this coconut'. So, Wes proceded to tag the poor iguana in the head with a big coconut, knocking him out for a few minutes. The poor thing lost its hold on the branch and fell out, only to be caught by his tail that remained wrapped around a branch. I guess, after a few minutes, he came to, but did not want to hang out there anymore. (Sorry, we have not pictures of the incident).

Hope you are all well.

Until next time.

The Newells

School - Isn't this the reason we are here?

I know that I haven't waited an entire week to post another blog, but thought I may need to just in case I am no longer able to get to it. My first week of school was rather relaxing. I was really surprised at my stress level and the material we were covering in class. I told Wes that I was waiting for the other shoe to fall because this all seemed like review... It amazes me that we could cover an entire semester of undergraduate work in just one week of medical school! Now I am starting to feel like someone is force feeding me from a 5 gallon drum and all I can do is try not to spit it out! I was told that the success rate here is not really what the school says it is. The school takes its data from those people who made it to 5th semester...looks like around 10 -20% of those actually getting into school make it to 5th semester. Ask me how my stress level is now and it's only week 2.

I had my first "patient" today. She is my cadaver that I will have for this semester. That was a little weird at first, but once you start looking at the pieces, you kind of get over the fact that she is a real person who donated her body for the future of science (I am grateful). She was a 69 year old who died of metastatic breast cancer. Kind of made me sad since mom went through breast cancer about 5 years ago. Made me miss my mom...love you mom!

The kids are loving their school and have made lots of friends, even Jillian befriended a little girl who is more shy than she is. They really like it when Wes takes them to the beach or the swimming pool after school.

Well, I will sign off for now...Wes may have to do all the updates after this since I foresee myself stuck in a book somewhere.

Week Two on the Island

I can definitely say there are pros and cons to coming here for school. I'll try not to say too much about the cons because we will survive. For one, I do not have my books yet...even though I ordered them in March! Actually, I did get an e-mail saying they have arrived on the island, I just need to go to Roseau to pick them up. The cab fare is around $50 - $80 EC to get it AND I have to pay the customs which is around $35 - $50 EC! Talk about pricey! I would recommend buying books on the campus from the upper class men who are selling...but, I didn't know that. Food is incredibly expensive here. You would think that a country that has such a low annual wage per person would have less expensive food items. That is not the case. Everything here is more than in the states by 2 to 3 times. We have seriously cut back on the food consumption. Wes and I will be a lot thinner by the time we are done since we let the kids eat the majority. Milk and eggs are stored on the shelf...not refrigerated. This makes for some interesting omelets! We have already had a rotten egg...bad smell...really.

On the plus side...the weather dosen't change much...it is hot all the time. We get a rain shower about every day, but it feels really good. Karissa and Jillian are loving school and the ocean. They ask to go to the beach every day after school. Karissa has learned to catch crabs. So far she has caught two. The last one pinced her, but she went back after it anyway (after screaming at the top of her lungs).

We do have some wild life in the house...we just found a lizard on one of our chairs. Jillian discovered it and started freaking out over it...we just put the chair outside and let the little guy go on his own. I guess our upstairs neighbors killed all the rats before we got here. I guess there was quite an infestation of them...to the point they had to kill them with their bare hands. Melonie said they were the size of squirrels. I'm glad we missed out on that excitement.

Wes has fallen in love with snorkeling...his back is red from being in the water all day while the kids and I are in school. He goes out with a couple other dads on campus. He found a place where there were a few lobsters, so maybe he can catch some and we won't starve! He said he tried to grab it but broke its anntena off. I think he needs better equipment.

All in all, things are good. This is not the place for materialistic people who are used to being pampered and living in luxury! So, if that is you, don't bother coming down. But the rugged beauty of the island really is breath-taking. The one down side is the trash...seems that people just dump it wherever they feel like it. I'm not sure they have a landfill or anyother way of disposing it.

Well, I guess that is all for this week. Hopefully we will have lots more to say in the time to come.

Oh, and care-package ideas: scented candles, peanut butter and cereal.

Arrival

We have arrived on the Island of Dominica. It was a stressful two days of airports and traveling. We ended up in LAX for about 12 hours before we took off for San Juan. The girls did very well, considering how bored we all were toward the end.

(One of the many lizards that live in our building)

All of the baggage arrived with us except mine. Wes' suitcase has a huge gash in the seam and Jillian's has a slice where it will be difficult to fix. Mine finally arrived with the last flight, but we picked it up today...it was soaking wet as well as most items inside. Seems as if they drug it through the ocean on the way. Wes drug the suitcase to our apartment which is not an easy task since there are really no paved roads and we are up a hill. By saying "up a hill", I am talking San Francisco style. If we stay at this place for the entire time, we will have killer butts and legs!

Living here is different, as we thought, but you just can't get used to some things...like taking a shower with the centipedes. Worms and centipedes are all over and can be found crawling on your walls and floors at any given moment. Surprisingly, we have not encountered many mosquitoes, for which we are thankful. There are some people who have been bitten, but we have been fortunate.

(Caterpiller we found on campus)

Our apartment is not a new or beautiful condo by any stretch of the imagination. It is very small and has a distinct odor. It is very hot and humid here, so nothing every really dries out. Luckily there are no carpets anywhere, everything is tiled. The only thing about that is the floor constantly feels wet.

(Wes and the girls and my stuff drying out)

The girls are having a good time, but are not that excited about walking everywhere. Jillian told us today that she wished we would have remembered the car. Dominica has a KFC, so the kids don't have to starve, but things are spendy here. The milk is a bit different as you don't refrigerate it. That makes me a little leery, but seems to be good. Cereal is very pricey. We found a box of Honey Nut Cheerios for 27 EC which is about $10.00 US. We may have to pay for a bus ride into Roseau to shop for groceries.

We will keep you posted with how we are geting along.

Love to all.