One Month!!

 I can't believe that we are coming up on a month! Time is just flying by. We are having so much fun and the kidlets and I are being VERY lazy...we spend a lot of time just laying around and soaking up the humidity in the salty air!

There has been so much going on this past week we went somewhere every day last week except for Tuesday and when you are busy the time goes really fast. I do have a confession to make though....I LOVE GOING DOWNTOWN!! I know my last post was about utter fear of Kingstown but after visiting there twice this week I realized I actually know where to go to get what we need and its nice to be able to take Jacob down there and me do the navigating (for once I actually know where to go, direction is not my strong point) not that down town is really hard there are only 3 streets down there but hey when all of your surroundings look similar its easy to get turned around!

I got some amazing deals at the fruit market this weekend it is probably my favorite place to go but you have to ask A LOT of questions or you may end up feeding your family plant fertilizer, insert my story for the week here it goes like this.....

I took Jacob downtown with me this weekend to do some shopping and pick up our boxes that finally got through customs this week (the kids stayed with Meggie, who is Kohl's new favorites person, he loves her) anyway we picked up or parcels and were heading to pick up our other groceries we needed and I told Jacob I needed to go the  open market for fruit and veggies, he had never been there before so he was game. we picked up mangos and avocadoes and green beans and a melon and decided to keep walking around just too see what else we could find, there was this lovely couple selling all kinds of things and she was trying to talk us into buying guava jelly but I was more interested in the red and brown and tan quinoa looking stuff bagged up and super cheap, sorry I need to do some explaining right here #1 I have NO idea what quinoa looks like, and I make that very apparent here in just a second. #2 in my defense NOTHING is in a labeled bag they prepackage everything in clear bags and just write the price on the outside of the bag. Back to my story so I am trying to get away from the guava jelly and so I ask here "what is this? How do you prepare it ?" and she looked at me like I had lobsters coming out of my ears and said " that's food for your plants so they can grow..." Jacob started laughing and so did the lady needless to say at that point I just walked away! It is people like me that give American tourists a bad image and I apologize to all of you in advance!

I have not said much about the church here on the Island yet....for those of you who may be reading my blog and do not know my background I am a active and devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Yes everyone I live on an Island.....I do hair for a living ... and I am a MORMON!

I did not serve a mission for my church but in a sense feel like I am doing that now I may not be an official missionary but "EVERY MEMBER A MISSIONARY" is my moto here on the Island. I absolutely love and adore every member of our branch and for the strides that they are taking to become stronger members of the church, they truly know the meaning of sacrifice, Jacob and I are exactly where we are supposed to be right now at this point in our lives.

The church is still very young here on the Island, they have strong leadership but everyone is still learning a great deal. We are blessed with some of the greatest missionaries any branch could ask for and I am grateful to them for living there lives the way they did and being worthy to come and help the amazing people here.

There are so many things I would love to tell you about but there isn't enough space on this whole blog to express my excitement for the things that have happened and for all of the things we still have to look forward too experiencing,

I had the opportunity to teach primary today at church and it was an exhausting experience to say the least I knew Kohl had a lot of energy but when you get 4 or 5 kids the same age all together its a crazy bit of work! They were so much fun though our lesson was "I am thankful for my sense of smell and taste" and they were into my lesson for about 2 minutes but they are adorable so it was okay! They love to sing primary songs and they knew every one we practiced, I love listening to primary kids sing!

I want to finish my blog post tonight by bearing my testimony to all of you I know with out a single doubt in my mind that this is the only true church on the earth, I am so thankful for the prophet Joseph smith who at 14 years of age went into a grove of trees and offered a humble prayer unto our lord and savior Jesus Christ for a answer and after receiving his answer was strong enough and faithful enough to fulfill the lords direction. I am also thankful for the scriptures The Book of Mormon is a powerful tool if we choose to take advantage of everything it has to offer us. I know that the Lord hears and answers prayers he knows our short comings and our weaknesses but he is there every step of the way to hold us up when we are so torn down, I have felt his presence a lot since we have moved to this beautiful country, he has reassured me in all that I do and everyday he guides me and keeps me on the path that I need to be on, I do falter and I do make mistakes but he has provided us with the Atonement so that when we make those mistakes we can still find our way back to him he is always there waiting with open arms.

I am also very thankful for our Families...where would we be without them is a scary thought. they have supported us every step of the way and will continue to do so we have had enormous amounts of help with everything we have been through this past year and I have no doubts that they have helped carry us through some very hard times, we have the most supportive extended family, that has stood beside us as well we are truly blessed!

I have a strong testimony of the power of the priesthood I have witnessed many miracles at the hand of the worthy priesthood holders in my life, I was very blessed to grow up in a home with an amazing father and the 2 most amazing young men that I have to privilege of calling my brothers I miss them terribly and I love all of them with all of my heart. I am thankful that Jacob is a worthy priesthood holder and magnifies that to the best of his abilities he has blessed our home many times and me personally, I would be lost without him in my life. I am thankful for my mom and the amazing women she is I miss her like crazy but I am glad that she raised me to have the confidence to go out into the world and experience all that it has to offer. I love you all!

I am also thankful for the opportunity that the lord has given me to be a mother. There is no greater feeling in the world than becoming a mother and my two babies are my angels on earth, everyday I look at them and can't believe they choose me, they are the light in my dark times and sun after the rain. they are my reason to get up every morning and my beautiful faces to go to sleep to at night! They are truly my most greatest blessing!

The church is true! It will always hold a special place in my heart and that is the beautiful thing about the church it is the same everywhere you go no matter where you are the gospel is true and so powerful, if there is one thing I could really impress on you if would be eternal families the temple is a beautiful, wonderful, peaceful and amazing place to reside, take advantage of it especially all of my Utah peeps reading this, you never know how precious something is until it is not there anymore I never lived more that 40 miles away from a Temple and I didn't attend it as much as I wish I would have now, you have every opportunity to attend the  temple and I see people here that may only get to see the temple once in there lives please please attend the temple there are so many people waiting on the other side to have there work done.

I love this church and I love my new home, and I owe it all to my Father in Heaven. I say these things in the name of thy son our lord and savior Jesus Christ. Amen

Downtown....ALL ALONE!!

I had the greatest time on Saturday shopping! However it didn't start out that way I was very panicked as I watched the bus bypass my usual shopping market, it goes like this....

Jacob and I woke up on Saturday morning and I was so excited to get out of the house that day even if it was to go shopping, we spent a lot of time in the house last week due to the large amount of rain we got last week and since the storms come up really fast it is hard to take the babes out.

Jacob says too me why don't just one of us go shopping and the other stay with the kids and let them keep sleeping. I may have kind of snapped back "I am going!" and his response was a small giggle and an "okay sounds good".  So I jump out of bed and start getting ready to go!

The van came to pick us up a little after 10, Jacob comes in and says "Have fun see you in a little bit." I just smiled and said "okay, love you" it never dawned on me to get cash from him because I don't usually have any EC money with me, he says to me "just jump in the van  they will take good care of you, don't forget a phone."

I get on the van and we wait for a couple more people and we were off! We drive down into Arnos Vale (this is where our "normal" markets are located) we pass by the Super J which is normal because we always stop there last.....we keep driving and then my heart stops...we drive right past Sunrise Market! Panic sets in because I have just realized that we are going in to downtown Kingstown to shop today!

I am doing everything possible not to burst into tears at this point, of all days for me to go shopping alone why.... WHY did this have to happen today! We get into downtown and I have convinced myself that I am going sit on the bus the whole time we are down there I knew I would get lost if I got off of the bus!

We pull into the parking area and as everyone is filing off of the van I say to the driver "can I just wait here I really don't think I need anything from down here" he just laughed at me and said "you will be fine we won't leave you."  So I get off of the bus and there are 2 other girls that I known Nina who is in Jacobs class and Courtney who did our tour of the island! I can see that they are aware of how nervous I was and they are kind of hanging back waiting me to get off of the van, so I get off and they both say "just come with us" YAY!! Instant relief!

We begin walking down the street and I have absolutely no idea where we are going and then all of a sudden we are in front of Save a lot Market (its like the Costco or Sams club of the Caribbean except you don't have to have a membership) I walk in and was taken back a little they have EVERYTHING! Stuff I have told people we couldn't get here THEY HAVE IT! Not everything but they do have a lot! I was so excited so I picked up a few things that were on my list and then a few more things that we were missing from home and I couldn't help it I had splurge so you will never guess what I bought .......wait for it.....wait for it........BEEF!! GROUND BEEF!!! I could only bring myself to buy 1 one pound package but I didn't care it was BEEF! Best $5.00 I have spent here on St. Vincent!

I kept strolling through the store keeping a close eye on Courtney and Nina so they wouldn't be waiting on me and I found another pot of gold....are you ready for this......STRING CHEESE I knew I was getting extra kisses from Kohl if I brought home this gem of a find!

Enough of my grocery list.....after we finished up at Save a lot we were the first ones back to the bus so we ditched our grocery bags and Courtney took us on another tour! We visited the fish market which is not for the faint of stomach but if you can choke down the smell it actually is a really cool thing to see! We also went to the Open Market which looks like a parking garage but it is full of vendors selling fresh fruit and veggies and then there is clothing and all kinds of stuff! It was really cool! We went into a couple of places just too look around and see everything and spent some time taking a few pictures. Courtney was even offered a husband, it was awesome! I bought my first mangos on this trip (this is where the EC would have come in handy) but it worked out and I have decided to buy more fruit from the local people selling it on the street it is cheaper and tastes better!

We got back on the bus to head too our last couple of stops and there were only 5 of us that ended up going back in the van so we had some good conversations going and I got to know everyone a little better. Our driver even game me a new recipe to try with plantains and eggs. At this point I figured I had better text Jacob and tell him that we had went downtown and that is why I had been gone for so long, he immediately apologized because he had no idea we were going downtown and I told him it was okay cause Nina and Courtney stayed with me the whole time and I was able to see a lot of things!

Lesson learned for the week...Jamie needs to go with the flow and not stress when something new is thrown at her....its all going to be okay! This weeks picture of paradise......

                                            This is the Kingstown Police Station

                                                This is the open market

                                                This is a sign......

                                            Want some Red Snapper???

                                          The biggest Tuna fish I have ever seen

This picture does not do these fish justice they are

florescent purple!

 

MOTHERS DAY

I LOVE MOTHERS DAY!! I t was a little different for us this year though! It goes a little something like this.....

Sunday May 12th 2013 Mothers day and our first day going to our new branch! I was so excited to finally meet some members and go to church! We wake up at 7 to make sure we have plenty of time to get to church and not be late. We had already arranged for Jimmy to pick us up and take us that morning so we knew we didn't have to worry about finding a way to get there I am not entirely sure it would be  appropriate to pull up to church in a "reggae bus" ( I will tell you more about these buses later.)

We arrive at church and we have to climb a somewhat steep hill to get up to it. but as we are walking up we can see the members and the missionaries and they are all looking at us as strangely as we were probably looking at them. but you would have never known that they didn't know us! I have never been hugged by so many people in all my life! I am pretty sure that every member told me happy mothers day too! LOVE LOVE LOVE  these people!

We were able to meet a few people before church started but honestly I can only remember a few names, we did meet one of the most amazing couples I have ever knows! Elder and Sister Bird are there names and they are here in St. Vincent serving a 23 month mission! Amazing people! Elder Birds mother and brother Kim were here visiting them so we were able to meet them too!

Sacrament meeting started and I just love how no matter where you go the church is always the same! It was s nice to have some familiarity in our world of new things. We are still having a hard time understanding the vincy English but apparently at one point in the beginning of sacrament meeting we were asked to stand up and introduce ourselves but we missed the queue  I guess and just sat there so the conducting counselor just kept right on going like nothing happened! We had no idea this had even happened until we were at dinner later that day.

Sacrament was great we had a youth speaker and the young woman's president spoke to us about the importance of seminary. When ever someone stands up and says good morning over the pulpit the congregation says good morning back to them so if I do this when we come back to visit just giggle at me its okay! After sacrament meeting was over they served refreshments in the kitchen...our meeting house is just that a house so we use the family room as a chapel and then there are three other rooms in the house so the primary meets in one room for opening exercises/sharing time/singing time and then the youth meet in another room for Sunday school and we have gospel doctrine in the chapel when we rotate to our third block of meetings the relief  society meets in the extra room and the priesthood meet in the chapel then the primary kids go outside for class and the  young men meet in the primary room and the young women stay in the extra room for young women.

after sacrament meeting was over we were able to meet the other member couple that he is going to the medical school as well there names are Meggie and Brett and they are Awesome people too! Meggie is the young women president and Brett is the executive secretary.

 Meggie took me Kohl and I  to the primary room and Kohl went right in found a seat and said "see ya later mom, I am good" and off I went. Jacob and I really enjoyed Sunday school our lesson was on the law of tithing and the law of the fast, I don't exactly know how to describe Sunday school it is like being in youth Sunday school I guess is the best way to describe it...the Vincentian members of the church are amazing people but they are not afraid to tell you about there struggles as members of the church which is something other members may try to hide, but the members here are very open to discussing there struggles with the church as far as fasting and paying tithing go. It truly is an eye opening thing to experience, they may struggle with these things but they DO them because they know that is what they need to be doing to gain eternal life and exaltation. I am going to learn so much from these people and I am so excited about it!

Katelyn got a little fussy because it is so hot and we don't have ac in the building so Jacob stepped out with her and while he was outside Elder Bird came to him and asked if we would come over to there house for dinner after church and of course he said yes! We finished out with our relief society and priesthood meetings which were great too.

We were waiting outside for everyone to come out and chat a little and we were able to meet the missionaries serving here right now there is a sister couple as well as the elders and then the Birds cover both of the branches here on the island both of the elders are from Utah and the sister is from Idaho I think....and the second sister is from here on the island she is sort of serving a pre-mission her call should have been here this week and she desperately wants to go to Utah on her mission so I cant wait to get to church on Sunday and find out where she is going!

Kohl had a great time in primary he made new friends and had a lot of fun, after church he came running over to me and said "mommy get your camera you have to come take a picture of this" so I hurried over to the fence and was looking at the view and I was like its so pretty up here and I started taking pictures of the view and Kohl says to me "MOM!! take a picture of that!" and I m like "of what" he points down the hill and says "of the BOBCAT!"  he had spotted a construction site at the bottom of the hill and there was a small bobcat machine on the site! I nearly died laughing! I love having a 4 year old that can name every piece of heavy equipment you could show him!

We got loaded up in the car with Birds and they took us to there apartment to have dinner, Kim and Elder Birds mother had gotten home before us and already had dinner made and it smelled wonderful! Meggie and Brett were going to join us for dinner too but they had a few church things to take care of before they made it over so we were able to just sit and visit with the Bird family for  a while on there back porch. They literally live on the beach there back yard is the ocean. We had a good visit and when Meggie and Brett arrived we started dinner and sister Bird was "like its just tacos so go for it" there was no "just tacos" about it they were so good they fried the tortilla shells and had chicken and beef and everything you could possible imagine to top it with....mmmm so good I am getting hungry just thinking about them! It was so nice to have something other than ramen noodles!

After we had all reached our taco limit we had a really nice conversation  about families and the gospel and life on the Island. It was great to have some veterans on Island life to talk too! Kim brought out his top secret dessert to share with us so delish caramelized sweet and condensed milk I am pretty sure Kohl ate most of what was left LOL! he was a very happy islander!

As we were enjoying our visit on the porch the topic came up of all the food we are missing from the states and I said I couldn't believe we couldn't get fruit snacks here and Meggie said the same thing, Brett loves them almost just as much as Kohl...and Elder Bird got up and walked into the kitchen and when he came back out he said "you mean these" I thought Kohl was going to have to Indian leg wrestle Brett for the bag LOL. So we all sat and enjoyed a bag of fruit snacks FROZEN! I have never had them frozen before but it is a must try if you haven't Jacob and I both agree they are better that a popsicle!

We decided we had better head home to Skype our mommas and talk with our families, so the birds loaded us up in there car and off we went!

It was an awesome mothers day I was kind of sad that I wasn't able to see my mommy in person and give her a hug and that we didn't get to see Granny or Carla in person either but thank goodness for Skype and Facetime! It was kind of neat to be like a "missionary" for the day! I love our moms more than anything in this world and miss them both terribly! However I  am super grateful that they raised us to be the people we are today we would not be in this amazing place and having this amazing experience if it wasn't for our dear sweet mommies!! We love you !!

I am also thankful for our new found friend here on the Island Elder and Sister Bird and Meggie and Brett! Thank you Thank you Thank you for making our adjustment a little easier and making us feel so welcome! I can not leave out our new Branch family they are so welcoming and so loving!

I promise I will take lots of pictures this week at church but for now the view pictures will have to do!

                                                 this is a peninsula of St. Vincent

                                                        Kohl's bobcat he found

                                                       View behind the church

                                                               Another view

A long walk for such little legs!

So last Saturday was our usual weekly shopping trip but we found out on Friday afternoon that they were going to downtown for the shopping ship that week and we decided that we just couldn't do it with the kids and they drop you off and leave you there for 6 hours to do whatever you need to do. Jacob had a fair amount of studying he needed to get done for the new upcoming week so 6 hours of leisure time was just not in our schedule. We made the decision to just take a taxi down to the store Saturday morning and get the things we needed and get back home.

Saturday morning rolls around and I'm not going to lie we slept in until 10..I know crazy! So we get up and get going for the day I had to run over to the other housing unit to get the number for Jimmy's taxi (jimmy is part of our landlord family he is a really funny guy). So I get the number and have Jacob call him while I finish getting Katelyn dressed.

Jacob is on the phone with Jimmy and I hear him say "this afternoon" and I was like oh man I really just want t get this done today. Jacob hangs up the phone and tells me Jimmy is on a taxi run and wont be back until the afternoon. So I start strapping on the baby carrier and Jacob is like "what are you doing?" and I reply "were walking, lets go" and off we went!

It was a great walk we got to see a lot of things that we normally just fly past when we are in the vans, Kohl found 2 horses that he got pretty excited about, we saw a large amount of goats and all I could think of the whole time was "they are only keeping you so they can eat you". Poor little buggers! Half way in to our walk were dripping with sweat by this time I start thinking Kohl has got to be getting tired but he just kept going. I had no idea that my eyelashes could sweat... they do here though!

We get down into Arnos Vale (this is where the stores are) but we have to walk down by the airport we have already walked about 3 miles at this point and the thought of how far we just walked is starting to catch up with Kohl, this is where the "I am so tired, I don't want to walk anymore, why am I so sweaty" starts to kick in! He just keeps saying this over and over by this time Jacob and I are ready to give him to the guy shucking coconuts, then this young kid walks by us maybe 14 years old and says to Jacob "sir you have a really beautiful family" and I almost fell of the sidewalk. Your would never hear that out of the mouth a 14 year old American....we just told him thank you and kept on walking .Vincentians are awesome people!

We finally arrive at the Sunrise Market and begin our shopping...sigh....we actually do pretty good this trip we were able to get some things on sale and buy a few extra things that we had been wanting to get, however some of these things were HEAVY we bought a 3lb brick of cheese REAL CHEESE not the kraft singles I am very excited about this (but what the heck were we thinking!) We also bought a huge thing of hot dogs because they were on sale and we are learning to use hotdogs for lots of things! We also bought Jacobs staple Mt. Dew and we picked up a bottle of sprite for Kohl and I .

We head to the check out and it takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R to check out! We are still adjusting to everyone running on Island time...there is no such thing as hurry here! While we are standing in line we realize that somewhere along this journey we has lost one of Katelyn's shoes which I was kind of mad about because she only has one pair of shoes that fit her cause her feet are so skinny! So were waiting for our turn to check out and a lady says to me "your baby is missing a shoe" and I reply "yes we lost it somewhere" and she just giggles.

Finally it is our turn to check out! yay! I start unloading the cart with Kohl's help of course and I thank him for helping me  just as he throws the eggs onto the counter....I bite my lip and say a little prayer that the check out lady does not have a hemorrhage when eggs start going everywhere, to my amazement not one of them was broken! Halleluiah! As I am finishing getting the last couple of items out of the cart you will never guess what I found...KATELYNS SHOE... someone had picked it up and put it in our cart! Have I mentioned how awesome the Vincentian people are?  Anyhow...we pay and move out of the way and start loading our purchases into our reusable grocery bag and this whole time I am thinking "we are dumb" "why did we buy all of this heavy stuff".

With the grocery bag loaded and Katelyn strapped back into the baby carrier we head off! Not more that a milla second after we step out of the grocery store Kohl says "get me a taxi, I am not walking" so picture this I have Katelyn Strapped on to me I am carrying our reusable shopping bag (which is huge by the way) Jacob is carrying about 5 other bags with stuff in it and we are dragging Kohl half a mile up the street to the next grocery store, What a sight! We walk past the guy shucking coconuts again and he tells Jacob " hey man...get a taxi" we just bust up laughing and keep walking! We make it to Super J which I welcoming us with its amazing air conditioning, I waited out side with our plethora of groceries and the babes while Jacob ran in and got the last 3 or 4 things we needed for the week.

We have everything on our list (or so we thought) and we are getting ready to hit the pavement....yes we are dragging Kohl still, when suddenly this taxi pulls into the parking lot and slows I pray that Jacob and I are on the same page in our minds and to my surprise we are YAY! We jump into his cab faster that a fat kids runs into the bakery on free donut day and he took us home!

Glad to finally be home we begin unloading everything and we are telling Kohl how awesome he did and thanking him for doing his best on our 4 and half mile walk that day! We get everything put away and are sitting down a brief moment sweating our guts out....Kohl opens the fridge and says "hey where is my yogurt......?"

Yep we forgot his yogurt!! Luckily we were able to tame the beast with a popsicle and a promise that we would not forget this week! Heres to another adventure on the Island!!

This is how we roll....

Our first trip downtown!

Trinity is such a great school they really go out of there way to make you feel as comfortable as possible with your new surroundings. One of there activities they do with the new student and there families is a tour of the Island which included a trip into down town Kingstown.

 

 

We do live in Kingstown but the island is divided up into sections and each section has a name for instance we live in Villa and Trinity is in Ratho Mill so it is all Kingstown but that's how you get around down here there are no addresses or street signs you just tell your driver you need to go to Calliqua and then when you get there you tell them where to stop.

 

They showed us around the most common areas of the island that we will be in most often and then we headed down town. Down town is where the port is so all of the cruise boast dock there and it is where all of the "by sea" deliveries are brought so down town is a huge tourist attraction. There are people everywhere all of the sidewalks are filled with people selling all kinds of things mostly fruit and veggies and that kind of stuff but it is also where all of the "department" stores are located so if you need clothing or kitchen things you have to go downtown to get them.

 

They took us to lunch first at a place called The Cobblestone Inn at it was really good we tried breadfruit and plantain there and both of them were really good. I really want to learn how to prepare plantain because I have always hated them and now they are one of my favorite things! Breadfruit is exactly like what it sounds it is a huge green ball that you have to peel and cook before you eat it. It has the texture of a potatoes but it tastes like bread. They use it in salad that is pretty much potato salad to us. I also want to learn how to prepare this as well!

 

After we all finished lunch they took us too a few stores and showed us where to find things we might need. There is so much down there though you can not possibly see it all in one day they have a fruit marked down there that is huge butcher shops, restaurant and hotels. The hospital is also in downtown. There are a number of schools downtown mostly high schools and 2 other colleges I think.

 

It is a must to go down town at least once if you come to St. Vincent, I don't think we will go there a lot because it is so busy all of the time and it is a lot of walking for Kohl but you do get to see a lot of interesting things! 

 

I fell like this post is not very exciting but there is honestly so much to see down town and we were only there for a few hours. Next time we are down there I will take some more pictures and do another post about it! Todays picture of Paradise.....

This is a breadfruit still on the tree

Kohl on the bus ride down town



Shopping.......trying to love it!

So if there is one thing I can honestly say I am really working hard on liking on the Island it is grocery shopping, I get anxiety when I think about having to go to the grocery store. There are a lot of American foods here in the grocery stores but being able to afford them is a whole different thing!

Our first shopping trip here was pretty eventful, any shopping trip after you move is overwhelming I think, you always feel like you need to stock up on things and buy all of those things that you can't live without (ie...flour, sugar, brown sugar, canned veggies, etc...) you get the idea. Well when you live on an island you don't just go to the store walk down the isle and find those things if the store has flour and sugar they are divided in to ziploc type bags and you have to make sure you grabbed the flour and not powdered milk. When you get it home you have to find some way to get it air tight so that the humidity doesn't get to it and when your living in student housing your not exactly equipped with those things...(I have pancake mix in a pyrex bowl with a lid sitting on my microwave right now). So needless to say I am learning...slowly!

Now back to the actual shopping trip...so we walk in to the grocery store Super J here its kind of like the Wal-Mart of the island  because there are 2 of them...LOL.... so the first thing on our mind is budget...budget...budget, so we begin shopping knowing we have to keep Kohl in mind and find things he will eat...we bought like 8 packages of ramen and 4 boxes of apple juice, Kohl can survive those are his 2 staples we are looking for anything we recognize...we grab PB&J the all in one kind they call it stripes here I think it is called Goober back in the states, we figured we were killing 2 birds there cause now we didn't have to but both peanut butter and jelly...(we are thinking we are flipping smart at this point).  We grab other things mac and cheese, dry pasta, hotdogs, bread, and the essentials like TP and paper towels etc etc...we get to the meat section...They have chicken, beef, pork and GOAT! Yep goat (insert gagging here). We quickly realize beef is not an option it is way to expensive,  so we move on to chicken its all drumsticks, wings and BACKS! Not 100% sure I knew you could eat a chickens back but you can in the Caribbean! I have never been an avid cooker of chicken on the bone so it scares me a touch so we decided to pass on that for this trip 2 things left pork and GOAT...pork was about as pricey as beef so we also choose to pass on that and I was not going near the goat!

We decided that we would just substitute our protein with other things like eggs and PB so were hit the frozen section just to see what we could find and low and behold they have pre packaged ground beef there so we check it out and its still pretty pricey but I see another ground prepackaged meat next to it so I grab it because it was only $6.60EC so that's roughly $2.80 US that's totally affordable so I check it out and its ground turkey...not exactly the most appetizing thing but heck we will give it a try for that cheap (had it tonight...not good).

so we do one last scan around the store and grab some fruit and veggies and head to the check out we had about a half a cart of groceries so I was thinking this isn't going to be too bad and we could survive a week on what we have. The price just keeps going and going and I was like this is nuts! The grand total $532.00 EC I almost fainted! It was just about $200.00 US and I felt like we hadn't bought anything hardly! I wanted to cry! We are never going to survive here!

We get home and unload everything and I still feel like we have nothing! We sat down that night and made a list to e-mail to family of food to send us...our families are AMAZING they all went out and bought everything we asked for and it is on it way here! YAY!!! we aren't going to starve! We love our families we would be lost without them!

So on a positive note we have gotten better at shopping our first Saturday here we went with the weekend driver to the store and he took us to a different market called the Sunrise and it is a lot cheaper than Super J but you can't get as much there so we now go both places and are beginning to figure things out!

We truly do love it here! The Vincentian people are amazing! However the next time you go into Walmart relish in the fact that you are paying only $.98 for Mac and Cheese we pay almost $2.00 for a box. I have a lot more shopping experiences I will share in later posts! Just another day in Paradise!

This is us waiting for the bus to take us grocery shopping! Were just 3 beach bums and our daddy Dr.

Getting here...overcoming my flying fear!

Jet lag does not even begin to descried the feeling we had when we landed here.... Tuesday April 30th woke up at 5:00am got ready and finished packing our carry on baggage. Left for the airport at 6:30 am still feeling pretty good.

Arrived at the airport about 8:00 am flight doesn't leave until 10:40 am we get checked in and send our bags through security 4 of the 5 make it right through....they open the 5th bag and start taking everything out of the bag and I mean everything it was full of medication and baby food, sunscreen and aloe vera (which we have already used a lot of). I start to panic that they aren't going to let me take it with, 5 million things are going through my head ....what am I going to feed her....what if I cant get baby food there....we can't possibly afford to buy formula down there. Then the greatest thing starts to happen the security man starts putting stuff back in the suitcase first the formula...wahoo! Next the baby food...yay! Then everything else one by one...... fabulous! Crisis averted!!! Jamie can resume normal breathing.

By this time is was 9:00 am we decide to sit and chill with our families one last time before we board the plane by 9:30 I am anxious and feeling like we just need to go and get the good buys over with....so we gather our things up say our goodbyes and the tears are rolling.
 Amazingly enough we blow right through security with no problems and for anyone who has ever traveled with a baby knows that it can be hard to get stuff passed them (at this point I have my emotions under control). We find us a seat in the terminal and wait by now I am sobbing again and people are looking at me like I am some kind of crazy person at one point one of the flight attendants that is going to be fling with us asks if I am okay and if there is something she could do for me, I politely tell her I am fine and about 15 min later we begin boarding.

We find our seats and get settled....its time to take off (I am now in super panic mode) don't throw up....don't throw up......don't throw up you can do this people fly all the time.....we are airborne...I keep my self busy playing with Katelyn and watching a movie with Kohl and the next thing I know we are landing in Houston and I'm thinking hmmm that wasn't so bad. We now have 20 minutes to make our connecting flight so we are running through the airport (Huston is a huge airport) as we are running up to the gate the flight attendant yells to us "are you the Baileys?" and we yell back"yes we are hold the plane!" We barely make it! By now its 4ish they are taxing us down the runway and we stop on the airstrip after 15 min they come on and tell us we have an engine indicator light on and we have to go back to the terminal....my worst fear...plane trouble! I am now about to have an anxiety attack! We sit at the terminal for 15 min and they tell us we have to deboard the plane....anxiety attack subsides and our flight is delayed until 5:10 we finally have a few minutes to eat!

 We board our second plane in Houston and take off! 6 hours of flying is too much for Katelyn! We hit turbulence so we had to be seat belted in most of the trip and she hated that. We were all exhausted when we finally landed in Trinidad at 11:15pm now we have to go through customs, we have no idea what we are doing and we tell the lady that she just kind of giggles and says give me your papers we will get you taken can of! We breeze right through customs! yay!

 Okay so now take a minute to picture this! It is midnight....we are in a strange country....we have two small kids and some crazy guy takes us OUTSIDE of the airport! Jacob and I immediately know we have to get back into the airport! So we drag all of our luggage and our two small kids through a sea of people and find our way back into the airport! Wow talk about scariest 10 min of my life!

We had to spend the night in the airport in Trinidad so it was a super long night with no sleep for Jacob or I! We can finally check in for our flight at 4:00 am and we depart at 6 am! So I have yet to mention the changes in the weather at this point if you have ever been to California or the East coast you have an idea of what humidity is....times that by 100 at least! You are wet from the moment you arrive in Trinidad! I didn't know my body could sweat this much! I am pretty sure I have already lost 5 pounds!

 So we finally board our plan to St. Vincent! Let me take a minute to explain the utter fear that passed through my body when I walked out on the tarmac and there was a double PROP plane waiting for me! DOUBLE PROP! Not jet engines! DOUBLE PROP!! I have the feeling of vomit coming up my throat! Yep we are going to die! That's exactly what is going through my mind! We Take off and I keep my eyes closed most of the flight! We finally start descending so I decide to finally look out my window....UTTER FEAR! I see nothing but water! Now would be a good time to mention my terrible fear of water!  I am so afraid of water I don't ever take baths! So you can imagine my fear when I look out of the window and see nothing but WATER!! What! where are we going to land!?!  I look over at Jacob and see land out of his window! Small amount of relief! We land and go to get off of the plane! The airport is literally a shanty LOL! I really did laugh out loud! It took us 30 seconds to go through customs at ET Joshua Airport and our ride was waiting for us outside!

 Can I just say CULTURE SHOCK! It is so beautiful here but there is poverty here too! There are a lot of people that make there living selling fruit and vegetables on the street. One thing for sure though the Vincentians are so friendly! They are so welcoming and so nice! They are all willing to help you and make you feel very welcome! Island life is such an amazing thing! We are continuing to adjust one day at a time. Tomorrow Jacob starts school so now the adventure really begins! Tune in next time for Our first shopping trip! Todays piece of paradise!

This is ET Joshua Airport

The begining.....

I decided to create this blog so that our family and friends could follow our adventure through Med school....however I am also creating this blog for myself to prove to myself that I will grow from this adventure the homesickness will subside and we will all survive island life!

For those that may be following my blog and don't know all of the details my awesome husband Jacob was accepted to Trinity University school of Medicine located on St. Vincent Island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a quick geography lesson...we are south of the United States about 2,000+ miles (that is a guess) our closest land mass is the country of Venezuela we are considered a Caribbean Island and yes Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed on our island as well as on the grenadine islands!

It is as beautiful as all of the travel agency's make it seem! everyone's first reaction is "your so lucky"....or "I would die to live on an island in the Caribbean"...."your going on a 2 year vacation" and while all of these things are true it is not all positive.  I do like it here and it is beautiful but I am terribly homesick although everyday gets better. We have challenges...we have no vehicle.... The cost of living is outrageous.....and food is EXPENSIVE! Not to mention we have no income we live on student loans and are allotted only a certain amount and we have to make it last 4 months.

 Now that we have an introduction to the blog I will go in to a little more detail in the next few posts about getting here and our first shopping trips and our first experience in downtown Kingstown! I hope you will all enjoy this blog and some maybe will find it helpful! I will try to give you all a little piece of Paradise in each post!