Where does the time go?

Time is just flying by. I can't believe I only have two weeks left here. Then it's back to reality. 

I'll try to do a decent recap here and post some pics. In addition to several days of feeling poorly the internet here is also quite unreliable. In fact it can go down just when it's a windy day. My landlord got them to come look at it on Monday and it is doing better at least. Before it would go down every time they made a phone call! Needless to say, I have so much schoolwork to do I'm behind on!

Friday, April, 3, 2015
Ok, so if you'll remember, here I am on the island of Bequia for the Easter weekend. I recuperated from my migraine and am finally feeling hydrated! 


That means it's time to head to the turtle sanctuary!! 

The Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary was started in 1995 by a local Bequian who was retiring. Its mission is to help the endangered Hawksbill turtle. The sanctuary finds hatchling turtles and rears them for 5 years to improve their chances of survival. Apparently normally only 1 in 3000 survives. :( We saw turtles from ages 7 months to almost being released. Plus there is one who is 17 - this is Old Hegg. He has a deformed shell and would not do well so he is a permanent resident. 
 

Welcome sign

Outside of the sanctuary

Sanctuary view

Enough with the outside, let's get to the cuties!
 

Pool of babies 7-9 months old.

Baby close-up.

Me holding one. So cute!!

View from inside.

Bigger turtles. I think 2-3 years old.

These guys were scratching their backs and loving it!

Us with Sister Glynn.
She and her husband were nice to give us a ride!

 

Some turtles accessorized. Or actually the purple is for wound care.

The famous Old Hegg!!

Underwater shot! Loving my new camera!

See - I was really there!

After a donation to the sanctuary, our tour and buying a souvenir shirt, Sister Glynn and her husband gave us a ride to the Lower Bay beach. It was down yet another steep winding road and the plan was we had to walk back up to get to the bus stop. 
 

Rented a chair for 10EC ($3.75US) for the day.
Everyone wears long pants and shirt to the beach, right?

View above my chair.

Bay view.

After a dip in the ocean and lounging for a while, I went for a walk down the beach. There were several restaurant/bars. On the way back I checked one out that had a lot of people. I ended up meeting a man named Trinny (pronouncd Tree knee) who was on a crew for Zulu - one of the boats in the regatta. The boat was owned by an American from Nantucket. There were a lot of Americans there partying. Many of them have been coming each year for 20 years or more. 

I got Shamin from the beach and we had a couple beers courtesy of our new friends. After hanging out a while, Trinny's brother Nolan gave us all a ride up the monster hills. Yay! We were right near a lovely view that Trinny said we had to go see.
 

New friend Trinny.

Welcome to Friendship!

People here have taken the open concept floor plan to the next level!
Actually the owner died and part of the house was torn down.

In the distance is Mustique - an island with multimillion dollar homes.

Dinner after a long day. Local beer, with beans, rice and tomato.

Saturday, April 4, 2015
We spent most of the day resting and working on some schoolwork. That evening we made plans to meetup with our new friend Trinny and get out on the town! What a night it turned into! We hit up a couple bars, headed out to Paget Farm/Friendship to a small bar so they could get BBQ, then went to a place close to the apartment and ended up playing dominoes for a long time. Turns out we had some beginners luck (?) and Shamin and I won the first couple games. Then it got competitive! The fun part if when you put down a domino people slam them down. The more heated the game, the louder and harder the slamming! At one point the three of us played with Rolo the ambulance driver on Bequia. We definitely held our own against the guys and I won the last two games! 

After dominoes we checked out a dance party being held at the nearby hard court (basketball court). It was an outdoor party on the court with DJ, beer sales and even a bubble machine! A lot of the music was reggae or rap remixes of 90's pop and dance music. I had the best fun! We left a bit after 3am and the party was still rocking until about 4am! It was just down the hill from the apartment so we could hear it. The Bequians know how to have a good time!
 

Part of the SVG Coast Guard fleet.

Boardwalk

Boat with party lights.

Shamin and me at the dance party.

Trinny, Nicole - one of the nursing assistant students, and me at the dance party.

Bubbles!

Sunday, April 5-7, 2015
I woke up feeling perfectly fine on Sunday. We had planned to go into town to see the Easter festivities - they have things like a laughing contest, Maypole, crying contest and more. But after I'd been awake a while I started having severe abdominal pain. It wasn't rush to the hospital pain (not that the one on the island was even open), but bad, intermittent pain. I contacted my NP via email and she thought I was probably having pain from an ovarian cyst. She gave me the 'get help if' checklist and I laid low for a few days. Overnight on the 6th I started having GI symptoms and there was my dehydration again! 

Anyway, due to this I still haven't done clinic time on Bequia and Sr Glynn was worried about me! I took the 4:30pm ferry back to the mainland and the waters were rough. I saw a teenage girl vomit and several people lay down looking ill. I, the already sick person, was fine! But when Shamin told Sr Glynn about it, she thought it was me who had gotten sick! She is so sweet and was worried. I will say their plan to have me go back and forth every week didn't sit well with me, but not due to my health. 

I am assigned with Sr Allen here and she has meetings every Tuesday plus sometimes other commitments. I think they should have found me a different preceptor as the idea of going to Bequia every week, traveling up all the hills with my suitcase, paying the ferry fee, etc just isn't ideal that frequently. But I am making the best of it and overall enjoying myself!

Wednesday, April 8, 2015
I was still feeling weak and lightheaded from my illness, so today was another rest day. I did take a few pics around my apartment - as requested! It's a nice place. The owners live upstairs and remodeled the downstairs apartment because eventually their daughter, her pastor husband and two kids will live here. He is just waiting on a transfer. By the way - the pastor is the only vegan I've met here! They are Seventh Day Adventist.

My kitchen.

Kitchen shot.

Looks like a picture is hanging on the door.

Close up of view.

Living room with my makeshift desk.

Balcony view.

Mango trees are everywhere! I am steering clear due to allergy.

Thursday, April 9, 2015
Ok, finally back to clinic!! This time I headed on the van to Layou for a diabetes/hypertension clinic. I have to walk up the hill some to get to 'town' where the van stop is. Most of the time there are people all about and many are nice and help me get on the right van. Vans have certain destinations and the people here just know it. There is nothing written on the vans. It's chaotic, but it works. All the van drivers have an assistant guy, called the conductor, who does money, opens the door, tells people where to sit and watches the stop to see if the driver should stop. It's a vital role and seems most often to be the younger guy. 

The Layou van takes a different route than the other vans I have been on and a couple nice young guys, drinking 'very strong rum' at 7:30am helped me get on the correct van. Even the alcoholics are friendly here! I had an interesting conversation with them about marijuana grown here (illegal, but supposedly world class) and legalization laws and politics.
 

Outside of the clinic.

Just inside the door. This is where the nurse gets vital signs and checks you in.

Exam room.

Family planning education poster. No IUDs here.

Census data. Layou has about 2500 people.

After clinic, Sr Allen drove me partway home and stopped a couple times for photo ops. 

Buccament Bay

Nice resort that isn't doing to well. They need the new airport!

Sr Allen then dropped me off and I walked the rest of the way. There were some good sights still. 

These birds apparently snack on the small lizards that are everywhere.

See the pink in the distance? That's my apartment up the hill.

Getting closer - just one major hill to go.

The longer the day, the steeper the hill.

Ok, so that's a wrap for now. This is so long already. I have a ton more schoolwork to catch up on tomorrow and then I will try to get caught up on posts. 

Coming soon - night on the town and scuba!