Shiver Me Timbers

Have you ever had one of those moments where you have to stop and take it all in and think... am I really here doing this?... I have had that feeling at least weekly since we got off the plane in Dominica. Today was definately one of those days... OK, so my new favorite place that no ones ever heard of... Batibou. We had some time to kill before school starts again on monday so we got together with some fellow students, called our good buddy Ren, a local man with a van and a plan, loaded up the kiddies and rode a half hour into the jungle toward the atlantic side of the island where Ren dropped us off and said, "no problem, just follow this trail and you'll find it..."

So off we went...

we hiked down this way...

...passed this...which was awesome...

...finally hit a break in the canopy and saw this...

... which reassured us we were on the right trail... we hiked through a little more of this...

... and then we were here. It was deserted...We had the entire beach to ourselves and no signs of civilization in sight. Batibou is one of those places (of many in Dominica) that make you feel certain you are the only ones to have ever been there. It's just coconuts, cliffs and clear blue water. There is a natural rock reef that you can snorkel in, around and through and plenty of sand and sun. Rumor has it they filmed parts of Pirates of the Caribbean here... but many places on the island seem to make that claim to fame so who knows... I've only seen the films once and that long ago so maybe some film buffs can weigh in on the issue- and yes despite the foxy pictures, Leigh is in fact 4 months pregnant still... I swear I'm feeding her at every opportunity...

Update-a-roni

Hello friends and family,


Well, this last Saturday Matt and I got to hang out which doesn't happen very often other than on Sundays. His classes are over (hooray) and he has a good ten days to study for finals, so we took a great/not-so-great trip down to the main city Roseau. Two of our friends, the Taylors, came with us. We had a lovely meal at the only nice hotel on the island and looked around the city a bit.

In the picture above, we are standing on the deck of Fort Young Hotel, overlooking the calm ocean waters. Ahhhhh, tranquil.

This is one of the buildings in Roseau. As you might notice, it is kinda rundown, having no roof anymore. A man known around town as the Spiceman sells spices and hundreds of different home made rums inside. Usually the streets are packed with people and cruise tourists, but it was about 4 pm and everything shuts down earlier on Saturdays around here. It was fun to have the streets to ourselves.

Here are the Taylors and us by a pretty little waterfall. A security guard took this picture, obviously not understanding that we wanted a picture with the waterfall as a beautiful background. Oh well.

Here's Willy in the front seat of the transport for the ride home. On the way to Roseau he got really sick and threw-up twice out the bus window. Poor poor Willy. The drivers here are crazy and the roads are even crazier. Roseau is only 26 miles from our home, but it takes an hour to get there because of all the twists and turns and hills and goats that are in the road. By the time we both got back from the trip, we were spent. So, it was a great/not-so-great trip.

We're back...

Okay, I'm sorry for the one month hiatus we took from writing on our blog. I just wasn't really feeling the blog sensation and Willy has been busy with the grinds of medical school, so he's off the hook. But I have no real excuse.....or do I?>>>>

Well, let me just preface my excuse with a picture.

I bought some of this today. What! Queso in a jar....gross. And I paid a good 15 EC ($7.00) for it. It looked so good on the shelf of the local grocery store. I had to have it. Cheese and carbs have been looking very tasty these past couple weeks. Cookies, blogs and the sound of my husband's sexy voice (things I have always previously enjoyed in large quantities) have brought me the verge of heaves.

So, I pose the question one more time: Do I have a good excuse for not blogging? Yes, I think I do. I'm pregnant. There, it's out on the impersonal world wide web now for all to know.

It's the oddest thing being pregnant. There are so many extremes. I feel like I am a big hyperbole now. Your body changes, you want to cry during episodes of Law & Order, you can eat a ton and then you can't eat at all, you want to nap all the time, you have really strong rude opinions about everything, something is growing inside of you, the smell of certain foods makes you feel like you are going to die...and you get this super exciting feeling that your life is going to never be the same again, but it's a good thing.

Anyways, I'm just getting over the "bad" weeks of being pregnant. I hope to blog a little more

often from now on. I'd also like to publicly send a shout out to my super cool and supportive hubby. He's been so nice and patience with my abnormal emotions and fickle stomach. Although I'm probably biased, I think our kid is going to have the best dad in the world.

Middleham Falls

I tried to create a six picture series so you could see how long the water fall really is. As you can see, it only kinda worked. It was quite beautiful though. Myself and four other ladies went on this hike last Saturday, leaving matt and the other med students to study for their first big exam. The first "mini" is going on right now! Best wishes to my study bug Willy on remembering all the information he studied. Anyways, the Middleham hike took about 50 minutes each way.

We had a guide from Extreme Adventures named Victor who was fabulous. When we got to the falls, the mist was freezing. Victor, who grew up on the island, said he has never come to the falls without jumping in. Four of us followed him down the rocky banks to test our guts and took the plunge into the cold cold water. We jumped off some cliffs and climbed in some caves -it was invigorating.

From the left: Jamie, me, Katie, Aileen, Erica, Mike -the extreme adventure crew :)

Savanne Paille Primary School

What we got here are the four coolest kids in school : (from the left clockwise) Bernard, Mick, Pria and Leon. Kevin was absent the day I took this picture. Every thursday morning I head to the neighboring town of Savanne Paille (it's french so it sounds like savon pie) to help these little darlings with their reading skills. It's one of the highlights of my week so I wanted to document it on the bloggy blog. They get to wear uniforms to school four days of the week. Pria's skirt is always blowing up while we are reading since we sit outside where it is always windy.
Anyways, it's really different working with kids that are from the states and kids that are local. The locals are much more well behaved, which is a nice change from the rascals I do the After School Program with. When I asked the bunch if I could get a picture of them, I thought they'd be hesistant. But they were super excited to have me snap a few shots of them. I even got them to pose with some books (see below) -that made me laugh because it was so staged, but they were still excited about it.
We read books that a family in america collected and sent out to the island. The kids' favorite so far are the Arthur books. They also like the Magic School Bus series of books. Anyways, if any of you want to do a service project and send some more books to the island, it would be much appreciated. The books can be used, they're not picky around here.

"Hey, send us more books cuz we're cute."

To Mother Mary G. and Mother Camille

Happy Valentine's Day Moms. We love you and miss you both. Here is a vase of hearts as our gift to you on this "heartfelt" day. The guy that sold it to us said you would be able to reach through your computer and take your gift --like in sci-fi movies.
Thank you for all the unconditional love and support we've received from you throughout our lives. Hugs and Kisses -Matt and Leigh

January Showers Bring Lots-O-Flowers

Here a collage of just some of the wonderous flowers and foliage found on the island. If you click on the pictures, it will zoom in closer. I took most of these on the way home from church until my camera ran out of batteries (sorry if some of them are blurry).
Speaking of church, did we mention that we walk to church in the mornings: forty minutes, in the rain, up hill -both ways?! No joke --it's crazy. I can't wait to tell my kids about how "hard" we had it. haha.