Arrival

We've arrived in St Lucia!!! After waking up at 3am flying from Seattle to Texas to Puerto Rico and finally to Castries St Lucia Caity and I arrived to our new apartment at 1am. Needless to say it was a long journey and I think we are both still in shock that we're here.

We've been talking for over a year about going overseas to do Midwifery at some point before graduating and now 6 weeks before graduation we are FINALLY here. We were greeted warmly by Philip who works for the apartment complex and generously picked us up from the airport and brought our 6 bags up our stairs(I did my darndest to pack light but as many of you know me it's always a struggle). Our little place is on the second floor overlooking two mango trees and Vigie Cove complete with fans and air conditioning in each room (Yes we splurged although we are doing our best not to use the AC to avoid the crazy electric bill that we've been warned about). The warm sticky air of the night brought me comfort, reminding me of my summer nights back east sleeping with only a sheet and a fan moving the warm humid air around the room. Yup that's right here if you breath here you are sweating even when the forecast says it's only 82 the humidity is something special. Caity and I ventured out to town to the bank and the grocery. From what I can gather from the midwives of SMS past things in St Lucia have changed quite a bit. The grocery had a number of things that surprised me but seeing Organic Valley milk took the cake. It was close to $20.00EC's which is about $10.00 US so needless to say I put my first world ways aside and bought the local milk. On our way back home we ran into our neighbor who had been friendly and gracious with our classmates who had just been here before us. He assured us him and his wife would show us a good time around St Lucia and if we ever needed anything such as a lift to the Hospital to not hesitate to ask. Oh thank goodness for kind people in new unfamiliar places. We start at the Hospital on Wednesday and looking forward to what the week will bring with new people and new lives and hoping to open my heart and hands to be of service to this community.