Here are a few more pictures of life here. This is the burn on Gabriel's neck when it was almost healed. and then a picture of Gabriel on the left and Zaheer on the right and one of the sea eggs and a gorgeous sunset.

Here are a couple pictures -the first one is a view of the beach out in back of the school and the next one is the front of our temporary campus.

It's been a long time since I wrote and Laura my daughter in law is giving me a bad time about adding to my blog. She is such a great blogger and I can barely figure out how to use this thing. School is going well other than it is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I feel guilty every day that I am not in Utah with the kids but I really need to be here getting through school so I have to suck it up and be tough and deal with it and I hope the kids hang in there. I miss them all constantly but we talk on the phone or skype nearly everyday. Thank heavens for computers. Well where do I even begin.

I had the tv on tonight for a little while and I was watching the food channel and I could not figure out why they had Halloween things on in the middle of summer when I realized it was the middle of October -- I forgot it was Autumn in the States. You can really loose track of time down here. Almost every single day here is gorgeous and the sky is blue and the sea is turquoise and beautiful. Even when it rains it rarely rains all day so it clears up and is gorgeous once again. I don't have too many big adventures here just the day to day routine of studying and trying to keep up with school. Last semester I had Gross Anatomy, Bio Chemistry, Histology and Embryology. This semester I have Head and Neck Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology.

I have two of the most awesome study partners in the world. One is Mark Glover from Palm Coast Florida and the other is Krist Ajibulu from Locust Grove Virginia. We have an unusual school in that most of the students do not live on the Island and they participate online with their studies from where ever they live in the world. I live here so I am lucky and they are all jealous but they are still having to work to take care of their families. This school is for medical professionals who want to return to med shcool for the MD degree. Each semester all the students have to be on Island to take their finals and for clinical classes.

My partner Krist is interesting he will kill me for posting this but he will probably never see this I hope-- One day when I sent him an email it came back with the address name of Tokunbo and so I asked him on skype who or what that was. He was very retitcent and at first he did not want to say. But I was persuasive and so he told me that was part of his name and when I asked what it meant he wrote it down on the skype chat for me to see. His whole name is Adetokunbo Ajibulu. Well acutally at the moment I can't remember his middle name but I remember what it means. Anyway Ade means Crown and Tokunbo means across the sea and his middle name is something like I have found treasure. When I asked him what this all meant he said he is the Crown prince of Nigeria. I thought that was so cool. No one at the school knows about it and I won't tell them but here I am telling anyone who reads this but -- whoever you are you can't tell-- ha ha ha. He goes by Krist which is his Christian name he got from his mother who was royalty from Ghana. He was born in Washinton DC and so he is an American citizen. He grew up most of his life in Nigeria, Liberia and Ghana. The stories he tells are amazing of living through Coups and murders and attempts on his life by crazy witch doctor people. His father was murdered when he was 8 years old. Which is another whole long story but I won't put that here. So someday he will assume the throne. Right now an Uncle who is not the direct bloodline is ruling so when ever Krist wants he will be King.

So for the on campus time Krist came and he was staying at Cedar Palms Villa but he never actually stayed there because he was over here 24/7 studying and so we decided he was wasting his money so we went and got Dr Newman's day bed and put it in my apt so he could just sleep here. He was a perfect gentleman and nothing did or would ever happen if you know what I mean. But all the other women who are students here were already not happy with me because I had not one but two study partners and they were both men. So they were the typical jealous females. I thought it was pretty funny. Both Mark and Krist are black and I am lilly white so that was even worse since a lot of the female students are also black. So I guess the rumors started flying that we were living together in sin. But no one ever said anything to me personally but they did to Krist when he got back to the states after the semester was over. He heard all the things the other women were saying. And he really told them off and he said since I was not there to defend my self he would do it for me and he said that we did not sleep together and he better never hear that kind of talk again. He told me about it and I told him he was my hero. He treated me like a queen, I never could do dishes or clean or carry my own book bag or computer to school. He will make an awesome King. He would be the perfect husband for someone. I keep telling him I am going to find him a wife. He tells me I am the love of his life because he has never met anyone as nice as me. I just laugh.

Down here on the Island there are very loose morals and I mean very loose morals which if I talked about the soap opera that goes on at shcool it would make this a rated XX blog so I won't go into that. And with the crazy men here I get hit on all the time and I have to be very careful. It seems that these black men really like white women and I have been followed around the grocery store and parking lot and restaurants etc. I am just a new flavor for them I guess Well sorry guys you can't have me. I am not for sale. They can't understand the morals of a crazy mormon at all. Zaheers "lady" has been in the US for the past 6 weeks so he has been watching their kids and he has had car problems so he has had my car a lot. One day last week we were on the beach walking --Zah makes sure I am safe but all of his friends on the beach were yelling at him in Patois and wanted to know where they could get a white girlfriend too. Yikes!! Zaheer is nuts but he makes sure I am safe and the crazy men down here leave me alone.

A couple weeks ago Boy (Gabrial) came to me and showed me his neck there was a 4 inch across raw burned looking skin. He had got some sap from a certain tree on his neck and burned the skin off. He had been going to the clinic to have them help cure it since the hospital burned down when I was in the States between semesters. A couple days later we went in search of the kind of tree so I could see this "burning bush". If I can figure out pictures I will post a picture of his neck. Zaheer also asked a couple weeks ago if I at sea eggs. I had no idea what he was talking about. It took a few days until I figured out he kept talking about sea eggs and that is the local name for sea urchins. We went to the beach and found people diving for them --- thousands of them. They crack them open and sell the raw insides for 5 EC apiece. YUCK !!!! to say the least. I know they are used in sushi but EWWWW!! Well it is 5 o'clock in the morning and I need some sleep so I will write more later.

Well I thought I had better add some to my blog or I will get out of Med school and have no recollection of what happened.....other than studying. Well lets see what has been going on. I drive to school everyday because I am a spoiled American and I refuse to take the bus. I took it once with my old landlady (before I moved into a nicer place) along with Sam and Joseph. We only went to the grocery store and back but that was enough for me. The buses are actually 12 seater vans that have no schedule or anyway that I can figure out where they are going or when they are going of if they are going. So nope not for me.

The school is located in a temporary place while they finish a new school a few blocks from where I live. ( you can check it out our beach location on Google Earth it is the southern most tip of the Island of St Lucia across from the Hewanorra Int'nl Airport at Anse Sable (Sandy Beach) in the town of Vieux Forte ) But I don't care if they ever finish it because I bet we have the most beautiful view of any school on earth. It is in an old beach resort and so we are right on the water and I can look out of the school and see Moule-a-Chique which is a little peninsula with the light house on it and Maria Islands the other direction. So if things go according to plan we will be in our new school by December. But knowing how things go on the Island it will probably be years before it is finished. They moved the school to the southern part of the Island last year along with another med school. The government wants an educational campus area of the country and eventually move the Capitol from Castries to Vieux Forte. I don't ever see that happening because there is nothing here. Well at least from my point of view. We do have one KFC restaurant and two little grocery stores and a couple of gas stations. Then there is "downtown" Vieux Forte which I am terrified to drive in. The streets are super narrow and they have these unbelievably deep rain water ditches that are often 2 feet deep and if you get your tire in one tough for you. Half the roads are one way but everyone drives both ways usually anyway. If I need to go into the town I always make Zaheer drive me. He works for the school and has been a huge help to me. He found my car for me and my apartment. He helps us with everything.

I have been trying to walk on the beach almost every day lately and it is so beautiful and relaxing and fun to watch all of the wind surfers that are always there. People swim out to the larger of the Maria Islands but I think I would drown or be eaten by a shark. So I won't try it.
They don't call it swimming here they call it taking a sea bath. I have had only one sea bath since I have been here so I decided I have to take more or I will get back to the states between semesters and still be a pasty white women. I stick out like sore thumb here as it is. Zaheer and Boy (Gabriel another guy who helps at the school sometimes) told me the other day that the word around town among the men is that they all want to know who the "sexy white woman is". OH BROTHER!!!!!!!! I was so embarrassed when they told me that I decided I was not leaving the apartment ever again. They think it is hilarious. I am so self conscious when ever I go out. Now all they do is tease me.

I have not learned how to cook St Lucian yet but this weekend a bunch of us are having Zaheer teach us how to cook some native things like fried breadfruit balls and things I can't pronounce. The native language is something called Patois which is a French creole language
and some other native dialects mixed in. I cannot understand a word they say other than Bonjour. So I will make another post and tell you all how the cooking went.

I am here.

Hi to all, I cannot believe I am on the Island of St Lucia, West Indies that's in the Caribbean in case you don't know. It is hot and humid and green and beautiful. It is not the USA that is for sure. I am here to study Medicine at Destiny University School of Medicine. I am very excited but terrified at the same time. It is all Keith's fault I am here since he decided to check out of this life last year on June 27, the same day as the Prophet Joseph's martyrdom. People tell me that it was not a coincidence....who knows though. But that is another story. I miss him terribly but I need to take care of myself and family so I figure continuing on with my education and becoming a physician is a good way to do that.
So anyway here I am. I live in the little town of Vieux Forte which is on the southern tip of the Island. I have a really cute apartment in the same complex that the Sr missionary couple in the branch live. I bought a car yesterday for 3,500 it is as Laura calls it a "naggin wagon". Ha ha ha.(inside joke)
I have become friends with Dr Lois Newman. She has been a lifesaver for me. When I came down a month ago she picked me and Joseph and Sam up at the airport and drove us everywhere. I appreciated it soooo much. She teaches a lot of my med classes and is funny and eccentric and has a mind like a steel trap. She taught for years at Jefferson med school in Philadelphia. She has done so many interesting things she even did a lot of the research that was used in the world court against thalidadmide an anti nausea drug used to treat morning sickness that caused severe birth defects.
I start class next week so this is my last few days to be able to goof off. Tom, Laura and Ella flew down from the island of St Maarten where Tom is going to AUC med school to help me get settled. Thanks Tom and Laura and Ella. You guys are awesome.