New Beginnings

So, Kirsty and I finished our month long internship at the rural clinic about 30 minutes from our new village.  Here is most of the clinic staff that we got to know quite well during our time there.

After leaving the rural health clinic, we moved to our new village, "Turtle Beach."  Here is what our back courtyard looks like.  The first blue door to the left is Kirsty's room and the second one is mine.  To the right is our outdoor bathroom...it has no roof...we can't wait for the rainy season...haha! :)

Here is our living room as viewed from our front door.  If you continue through the curtained doorway ahead, you will find our kitchen.

And here it is!  Nearly all of our neighbors have outdoor kitchens, but as you can see from the photo of our courtyard above, we have no place for a kitchen outside.  So, we turned this second living room into our kitchen.  We are blessed to have been provided such a place!

To end the house tour, here is my room.  Compared to my old mud hut room, I am living in the lap of luxury!   Blessed beyond words!

We are making friends in our new village.  One friend in particular is committed to making us feel like we belong.   Not long after we arrived in the village, she took us with her to see her fields.  We weren't allowed to return empty handed.  We brought back a homemade sack of coconuts, several bunches of green cooking bananas, and some cassava root, which is starch staple here.

Here I am using a coconut grater on one of our recently acquired coconuts...I never walk away unscathed...the graters teeth are quite vicious!  Thankfully my tetnus shot is up to date :)

Lastly, here are our two ferocious rat killers :)  Because we live in a village known for it's turtles, it was only right that we name our cats in honor of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: meet Michelangelo and Donatello :)

The Winds of Change

We're back!!!  Me and Kirsty arrived back on our little island the first week of May.   Our arrival was shortly followed by Sonia, our Australian teammate :)

A LOT has happened since we've been gone...for starters look at Daisy and Haley, the two little ones who were my ever present next door neighbors.  They're not so little anymore!  It was SO fun to come back to my old neighborhood and see the kiddos come running for a hug :)

Our role here on the island has changed.  The government agreed to give us a health contract as nurses....so, here we are hair nets and all!  Haha!

Our first order of business was to step up an internship at the main hospital on the island.  Thankfully, we were able to move into one of the houses in the hospital compound.  We could see the Emergency Room from our front door...which enabled us to be hollered for if need be...haha!

The bathroom needed a little work...I tackled the shower...before I started scrubbing, I actually thought that the tiles were a brownish/yellow color.  You can imagine my horror as I scrubbed away the nasty color!  Let's just say, the previous tenants had been men...haha!

Much better, wouldn't you say!  Haha!  It's amazing how much more pleasant it is to shower in a clean shower!  Aww, the simple pleasures! :)

So, our house had a flaw and it wasn't the grubby bathroom.  We discovered that we had rats!!!  There was no time to lose...we got a cat to catch the rat...or rats...  :)  And it worked!  She was a fine cat...a little odd, but we kept her anyway :)

So, my old housemate, Corinna, went home and got married!!!  Here she is on  her special day with her husband!  They are currently living in Australia.

I didn't miss everything while I was gone.  Not long after I returned I found out that one of my island sisters was getting married...in my old house!!!  Haha!  My camera's attendance was requested...haha!  Here is the bride, with her husband on the left and her sister, Nita on the right :)

I was also able to attend an engagement party for my best friend's daughter Hannah.  She is in the middle.  My other island sister, Naomi, is on the left.  Those are breadfruits hanging from the tree behind us.  Breadfruit is a starch that when cooked tastes like baked bread...hence the name :)  I enjoyed eating lots of breadfruit over my first two years!

So, we finished our internship at the main hospital and we've just begun another internship at a rural clinic.  Welcome to our new accommodation...

Well now that you've seen the house...I mean the room...here's the door :)  We are living in the room that up until a week and a half ago housed the overnight nurse.  Consequently, we often have frantic knocks on our door at all hours.  Thankfully, as you can see we don't have far to go to reach the clinic...haha :)

Lastly, with your help we bought a car!  Thank you!  It has already been a great blessing to us!  We've made sure that we can transport a full size person laying down in the back in case of emergencies once we open the new clinic in our final destination village :)