When We Fell in Love With Dominica...

This has been an eventful week.  Friday was Creole Day in Dominica.  It's the day that the locals commemorate their heritage by dressing up in Creole attire, speaking Patois, and singing and dancing to traditional Creole music.  It's quite the celebration.  Creole attire consists of brightly colored plaids called madras, head wraps, white duster skirts, waistcoats (what we would call a vest), and red sashes.  I even sported a madras myself!  Here's a picture of me with my favorite red head here on the island:

Doesn't he look so precious?!  All the kids at the school were dressed up in their madras and a local school came to do a program for us.  It was just so great to see all the Dominicans just loving their culture.  They all love showing off their heritage and helping other people appreciate their history too.  They really commit man!  

Then Jonathan and I decided to take a weekend away.  Next weekend is my birthday, but unfortunately there won't be much of a celebration.  It's the weekend before Jonathan's mini 2 and the actual day of my birthday is the spouses banquet.  So he wanted to have a nice weekend away just the two of us since next weekend is going to be a little crazy.  So we stayed at a place called Jungle Bay.  They gave us a special rate because Jonathan is a student and I'm a Ross employee.  So off we went to the southeastern side of the island.  A place we had never driven before...

We stupidly started our trek around 5:30.  What we failed to take into account was the fact that the sun goes down around here around 6:45.  And once the sun is down, it's PITCH black.  There's no ambient light.  And we had really no idea where we were going.  We drove for 2 hours.  Up SUPER steep hills, on unpaved roads.  Along the ocean where there was no guard rails.  Through villages we'd never been through.  We drove straight down until there was no more island.  Literally.  We drove right out onto the gravel jetty that separates the Atlantic Ocean from the Caribbean Sea.  I had a flashback of a trip Sarah Schwarz, Courtney Lawrence and I took to Waco way back in the day.  Except this time it actually WAS an ocean we were driving into!  Here's a little perspective for you:

On the right is the Caribbean Sea and on the left is the Atlantic Ocean

Here's a birds eye view of what we drove up to:

So needless to say, we had to turn back and find the right jungle road to turn on.  We were finally on our way.  And I feel like we literally just drove straight up until we couldn't go any higher.  And then we stumbled upon this sign in the middle of the jungle:

Hallelujah!  We found it!  We had been scared to death on the drive up.  We both literally thought we were gonna have to spend the night in The Juice (which for those that don't know...that's what we lovingly refer to our Dominican car as...) while taking turns keeping watch.  We were among the peaks of Dominica in a literal rainforest.  We drive in to the resort and we are so warmly welcomed by a friendly staff and escorted to a restaurant straight out of Swiss Family Robinson.  We had amazing food and then were whisked away to our Jungle Cottage.  Here's what welcomed us:

Now mind you, it's pitch black outside.  This little cottage was warm and inviting and we could hear the waves crashing, but we couldn't see anything outside of our bungalow.  When the light of day came, here's what we saw:

I woke up around 8:00 and got in the hammock and snoozed to the sounds of birds and the ocean.  It was pretty perfect.  Then enjoyed a nice hot outdoor rain shower, a beautiful Caribbean breakfast, and the most spectacular Sunday drive in history.  Just see for yourself:

Dominicans headed in to church

See...I told you!  It was a nice Sunday drive with the hubs.  Made us remember that we're living on a pretty spectacular little island in the Atlantic.  It's got waterfalls, mountains, rivers, ocean.  It's simply lovely and untouched.  With the windows down we could smell freshly cut lemongrass, plantains roasting on open pits, fish smoking in hand built smokehouses.  We could hear birds chirping, waves crashing, rivers gurgling, waterfalls rushing.  It was beautiful.  Today we fell in love with Dominica...

PS-Next post will be my 30 Before 30 list!

Bananaquits, Albert, and Jaybirds

Ok, so after much coercion by several people, I've decided to post this story.  It happened way back in April but I didn't want to post it.  I'll explain more later about that.  For now, enjoy the saga of our friend Albert...

One day, while I was home at the treehouse and Jonathan was down on campus, I decided to surprise him with some freshly fried plantains.  Yummy!  We had been living in our new apartment for a few weeks now and I had designated a large basket on my kitchen counter as our fruit and dry veggie basket.  So I bebop over to the basket to pull a few plantains from the bunch.  I had just purchased these plantains at the local market and was so pumped to use them!  As I peer down into the basket, this is what I see...

Scratching your head yet?  Oh it gets better!  So I examined the ONE plantain that had been...well...munched.  And I think, "Hmm...if it were a rodent, I should see pooplets around right?  No pooplets.  And it's so precisely munched...maybe something was inside and ate its way out..."  Because there was not another fruit or veggie in that giant basket that had been touched.  Nonetheless, I threw out everything that was in there.  I didn't want to risk it.  And then I did a little looking around the house to see if I could find some clues as to who our plantain muncher might be...

At the time, we were leaving our windows open to get some good crosse breezes.  The windows have screens and bars on them, so it's no big deal.  But I look at one of the windows in the living room and I see this...

Now the picture is a close up, so you can't really tell.  But this hole is no more than an inch tall and less than 2 inches wide.  So I immediately rule out any rodent because 1) If it's a Dominica style rodent it's WAY too big to fit through that teeny little hole, and 2) There is still not a single poop nugget anywhere to be found.  But now I'm confused.  What in the world has munched my plantain??  And then I have it!  It's GOT to be a bird.  We have these little guys flitting ALL around our treehouse...

They're called bananaquits and they have a really pretty little song.  I've seen them clinging to our screens upside down and hopping in and out of the bars of the windows.  I've also seen them do a number on an overripe mango on the tree outside, so at this point I'm convinced that's what it is.  Some cute little chubby bananaquit pecked into my screen, hopped into my basket, had a little snack, and then left the way he came.  Since Jonathan's office is in the back of the house and literally "among the trees", I decide to go back there to see if the little birdy pecked through any of the screens back there.  All the screens were clear, but his desk was not.  Here's a little glimpse of what I saw there...

Ok so now it is absolutely a bird right??  HERE was the poop I had been searching for this whole time.  And it was definitely NOT a pooplet.  Not a rat raisin.  This just HAD to be bananaquit poop.  So I decided to close all the windows in the house and wait to tell Jonathan about my sleuthing skills when he came home.  So he comes in the house several hours later, gives me a kiss, and promptly says "Hey come back to my office, I want to show you something..."  And he drags me back to the office and stands there puzzled while pointing at the poop smear on his desk.  Apparently I was NOT the first to discover that little gift from our treehouse visitor.  He says, "You know I studied back here last night and this was definitely NOT here when I came to bed.  And then this morning when I was packing up my stuff, I looked down and saw this crap stain on my desk.  What the heck??"  And I just die laughing because I'm picturing him standing there scratching his head trying to figure out how his perfectly clean desk could turn up with doo-doo on it the next morning and nothing else is touched.

So we decide to walk down and grab a new bunch of plantains to fry up tomorrow night and get some dinner while we are down the hill.  We come back up, I put the plantains in the basket, and I go to bed.  The next day, I decide to fry up my plantains again.  I go to the basket and I find...another freakin' plantain is munched in exactly the same way!!  Ugh!!!  So now I'm irritated.  So I go back to sleuthing. And I notice it and want to smack myself.  I missed a window.  Yep, left it open.  And this is what I saw...

This time there's a MUCH bigger hole.  So in my mind I think, "Yep.  That little bird told all his birdy friends about our delicious plantains, rallied the troops, and planned a sneak attack overnight all Home Alone style...".  I was just picturing this little army of yellow birds hopping around my kitchen, munching my plantains, and leaving the way they came while me and Jonathan slept in the other room unaware.  Because again, there were not toots anywhere to be found.  What to do, what to do.  This little jerk ripped me off of TWO whole bunches of plantains!  So me and Jonathan decided to MacGyver the situation.  We laid out flour and kernels of corn (birds LOVE corn right?) in a pathway from the pecked window to the basket.  And we went to bed with the window open.  The next morning we both sprang out of bed to see what had transpired.  To our GREAT dismay...this is what we found on our countertop...

\

Ok, so this time I was REALLY confused.  It was definitely not a cute little bananaquit or even a bananaquit army.  But this was bigger than a mouse or a rat.  Those footprints are each about an inch to an inch and a half long.  And they have thumbs for Pete's sake!  So we start researching footprints and poop patterns to see if we can match something up.  I'm convinced it's some sort of ferret or mink or baby opossum.  None of which I want in my kitchen.  We finally zeroed in on this bad boy...

Yep.  My worst nightmare.  This revolting creature is what we call a Caribbean Roof Rat.  You have to use the Caribbean part because a normal roof rat is about 6-10 ounces in weight.  Caribbean roof rats are about 12-17 ounces in weight.  Observe the stinkin' thumbs on that bad boy.  Gross with a GIANT capital G!  Right then and there we shut those windows tight, vowed to leave them shut forever, and we promptly call the landlord for some d-CON action.  We hung out in the house all day.  Jonathan studied, I caught up on blogging and what not.  We decided to watch a movie in bed around 8:00...

Once the movie was over, Jonathan leapt out of bed to use the bathroom.  He shuts the bedroom door behind him, flips on the living room light, and I hear "OOOHHHH!!  It's a rat!".  Now there are two things I must mention here.  1) Because we have watched the movie Ratatouille about a million times, Jonathan's 'It's a rat!' was totally in a French accent, and 2) Because we live in the Caribbean and it's 90 degrees on a cool day, we were both scantily clad.  Ok, ok fine.  We were neked (yes I spelled it right) as jaybirds.  Out of morbid curiosity, I leap out of bed too just to see this thing.  Which was a giant mistake...

This rat is the size of a baby opossum.  Maybe bigger.  He's got a huge badonkadonk (ahem...butt) and a tail that is easily 6 or 7 inches long.  He is scurrying around trying to find the way out.  And Jonathan I are screaming like babies.  Jumping from chair to chair with brooms in our hands all sorts of naked.  This sucker is FAST!  And what is more disturbing is that HE KNOWS WHERE BOTH OUR DOORS ARE!  He has clearly visited more times than we care to know.  He is trying desperately to escape.  At some point he leaps literally up the wall and I've had it.  I run screaming into the bathroom and shut the door.  I hear Jonathan yelping and saying "Stay in there babe!" and he's sweeping and scuffling and yelping.  Finally I hear the door open and shut and a sigh of relief from Jonathan...

So then we are confused.  Thoroughly.  ALL the windows are shut and have been since this morning.  Wait...oh no...that means this little turd has been in our house ALL DAY! Noooooo!!!!!  And we clearly find evidence of him having tried to escape.  There are chew marks under each of our doors and wood shavings all around.  

For a teeny moment I feel sorry for Albert.  Yes, I named him Albert.  It's better than something else I could call him.  He has been coming in and out of our house eating what, to him, seem like perfectly picked plantains left especially for him.  He is tidy.  Only once did he have that unfortunate mishap in the office with a poo-poo accident.  And he leaves the same way he came.  Now these hospitable new tenants are chasing him around naked while screaming and trying to shoo him out the door!  It must have been a sad day for Albert.  Annnnd...scene.  I am no longer sympathetic.  I want him dead.  REALLY dead.  I want him dead NOW!  So we call the landlord and he plans to come d-CON during the week next week...

Flash forward a few nights later.  We hear this munching sound.  Persistent.  We think "You have GOT to be kidding me...".  We sneak out into the living room and realize the munching is coming from under our back door.  Jonathan goes and looks and there are tiny little rat paws trying to dig their way into our door!  And periodically a scaly rat tale comes swooping under the door.  So Jonathan snatches up his machete and proceeds to try and amputate this tail.  After a few unsuccessful swipes, he just jams the machete under the door.  No luck.  But darned if we didn't find a whole hoard of wood shavings under BOTH our doors from the outside, and LOTS of chewed up window screens from Albert.  Not nice man.  

The happily ever after here is that after Albert's date with d-CON, we have never seen or heard from him since.  No more rodents.  Not bananaquits.  Just two happy little naked jaybirds livin' in a treehouse!  

PS-I chose not to write this for some time because I didn't want my Caribbean friends to never want to come to my house again.  I swear, y'all, there are NO MORE ROOF RATS AT THE TREEHOUSE!

PSS-No, I did not get a picture of Albert himself.  Are you kidding???  We were naked.  And screaming.  With brooms...

PSSS-I apologize to any of my neighbors who may have confusedly peered into the treehouse to find two pasty white naked people screaming with brooms.  We're usually very quiet and appropriately dressed neighbors...

The Picture

So I was having a conversation with my best friend back home, Sara.  She and I have been kind of in the same car of a similar roller coaster lately.  Our lives have always sort of been "cosmically connected", but it has felt, in the last 15-18 months, like God has us tethered together.  We are both going through a season of waiting in our lives.  She's waiting on the perfect job opportunity for her husband Jared so that she will be able to stay home with their nearly 11 month old little girl Emma.  I am waiting for God to answer mine and Jonathan's prayers for a baby.  We talk often about how unfair it is that these things just haven't come easy.  We talk about how painful waiting is.  How glorious it will be when it does happen.  And how tightly we are both gripping that hope that God will see through to completion these things that He has started in us.  I have to remind myself (really convince myself some days) that God follows through with His promises.  And I BELIEVE whole heartedly that He has promised these things to me...to us.  In Psalm 21:1-7, David is rejoicing.  For God has granted his requests.  David stayed true to his faith, stayed in constant prayer, and clung tightly to the hope that God would come through for him.  And He did!  David says, "You have granted (me my) heart's desire and have not withheld the requests of (my) lips."  We know that David wrestled with God.  He spent years of his life in a season of wait.  Trying desperately to absorb what God was trying to teach him during those seasons...learning the nature of God along the way.  And when God came through for him, He came through in a big way!

I got some great advice from my sweet Sara in regards to this painful season of wait.  She said, "Write it down.  Remind yourself every day.  Write it because it's your heart's cry!"  And it is.  This picture I'm going to paint here really is my heart.  Wide open.  I think about it every day.  I dream about it really.  It's a snapshot of my hopes and dreams for my future family.  What I want for me and Jonathan.  What I want for Bernice and Charlie, and Patrick and Nicole, and Mom and Dad, and Amanda and James and Carolyn.  What I want for our grandparents.  What I want our lives to look like.  It's what my heart is literally aching for.  I feel like it's so close, but also so far away.  And writing it down could either make it that much sweeter when it does happen, or equally devastating when it doesn't.  But I don't care.  I've been wounded enough along this road that if it does end in disappointment in 8 months, I'll just brush myself off and paint a new picture.  Keep right on hoping and believing that if He has continued to foster this deep seeded desire in me, He will see it through to completion...

It's July 4th, 2014.  Jonathan and I have just returned from living in the Caribbean for nearly 2 years while he completes the first half of medical school.  Coming back to the states has at once been a bit of a culture shock, and also intensely gratifying.  It's SO good to be home!  We still have a long road ahead of us, but we are more than halfway done with medical school and he'll be off to start clinicals in just a few weeks.  We are spending this holiday in Granbury, Texas.  My parents have recently completed the building of their retirement home in Pecan Plantation, a fly in gated community.  Me, Jonathan, Mom, and Dad are all sitting on their back porch watching the dogs play in the backyard.  Enjoying the hot summer sun just chatting about life and the future.  Not long after, my sister Amanda and her husband pull up.  They come in carrying sweet baby Carolyn and their newest addition.  They let their dogs into the yard to join the party and they hand me Carolyn so I can kiss her sweet little cheeks.  Soon, Bernice and Charlie are there with Patrick and Nicole in tow.  They come into the yard and commence hugging everyone's necks.  They sit down on the patio with us and join the conversation.  The gang's all here and it feels incredible to have everyone together at one time.  We have missed family time so much these past 2 years.  Then up the drive comes Sara and Jared and Emma.  They pile out of the car and just barely get the doors shut before Jonathan and I are wrapping them up in hugs.  I can't believe how big Emma is!  She's nearly 2 years old and she's walking and babbling and being silly just like her daddy.  They follow us into the yard and we all sit together on the patio.  We talk and laugh and watch Emma and Carolyn play together in the yard.  I sit back in my chair, Jonathan kisses my cheek and puts his arm around me.  He reaches over, pats my pregnant belly, and smiles.  And I feel that little flutter of tiny arms and legs inside me and I smile too...

How I literally LONG for the reality of that picture.  It is my heart's desire.  My heart's cry!  I want my grandparents to hold my children.  I want our parents to gasp in shock and excitement when they hear us say we are pregnant.  I want to be in that snapshot just relishing in the fact that Jonathan and I fought the good fight and finished the course...and we're starting a new one!  I want to be reminded that my God loves me uncontrollably and unconditionally.  I want Him...no I NEED Him to grant this desire of my heart.  The desire to be a mommy is me at my core.  A wise friend of mine, Elise, made a very astute observation the other day over Cokes at The Tomato.  She said, "Rachel, if it wasn't something God wanted for you, don't you think He would have provided ways for your heart to move on from that want?  Instead He has placed you here where you are surrounded by children and babies every day!  He's continuing that desire in your heart, strengthening it, making it more and more real..."  It's true.  Every single day of my life here I am snuggling babies, kissing little freckled cheeks, drying tears and patching up boo boos, hugging children and letting them know they are loved.  I champion for them, feed them, make them laugh, teach them.  It's like a trial run!  It's at once soothing and also unnerving.  Because as the hole in my heart and the emptiness in my womb are lessened briefly by the smell of the crown of a baby's head, those voids are also brought closer and closer to the surface.  They become more raw, more tender, sometimes they become even more painful.  I become more vulnerable.  I am forced to remember that those precious babies are going home with someone else.  My own precious babies are still yet to come...and who knows when they'll get here...

We have considered adoption (after all it's insanely cheap comparatively and relatively simple here in Domincia), but after much prayer and consideration, we both just feel like it's not right.  We are getting the big fat WAIT from God.  He's got a different plan.  How I wish He would reveal just a tiny glimpse of what He's got in mind!  In the meantime, I'm just clinging to the hope that that snapshot is that glimpse.  I've got a death grip on it really.  I want it to be true so badly that at times while writing this post I've had to suck in a ragged, painful breath of air to soothe the pain in my heart for a minute.  Have you ever wanted something that badly?  Do you long for something right now?  Is there a hole in your heart, a void in your chest, that desperately needs filling?  What is YOUR heart's cry?

My heart cries...no WAILS...for motherhood.  My soul longs for it.  My arms ache for it.  And one sweet day my God will finish what He has started in me.  And the title of that post will be I Always Knew He Would...

Wait With Me,

Never Did I Ever...Until I Moved to Dominica...

I feel like I have lots of "shaking my head" and/or "face palm" moments here in Dominica.  I've been contemplating this week the paradigms that have so shifted in the past 14+ months that we've been living in the Caribbean.  The things that make me think, "Wow...in a short 9 months time my life will look SO different than it does now."  So I thought I would share some "Never Did I Ever...Until I Moved to Dominica" moments with you tonight...

Never Did I Ever...try to cram 13 teenagers in a room smaller than my bedroom and try to teach a music class...Until I Moved to Dominica...

Never Did I Ever...consider purchasing (and actually purchase) a beater TANK of  a car that has parts attached with duct tape and think it was at once a true instant gratification investment AND the equivalent of a Rolls-Royce...Until I Moved to Dominica...

Never Did I Ever...swim in the seemingly poop free ocean and come down with E. Coli 4 days later...Until I Moved to Dominica...

Never Did I Ever...buy more okra in a month than my Pa could grow in his garden in a year...Until I Moved to Dominica...

Never Did I Ever...stack 3 dirt cheap mattresses on top of each other (a pretty sweet idea until they get misaligned and you accidentally fall off the bed) and feel like the Queen of England-James Store Style...Until I Moved to Dominica...

Never Did I Ever...sing silly songs and color crazy weird pictures with Kindergarteners 5 days a week and love every second of it...Until I Moved to Dominica...

Never Did I Ever...consider it a great day when Subway has soup...Until I Moved to Dominica...

 Never Did I Ever...eat/drink passion fruit at least 3 times a week...Until I Moved to Dominica...

Never Did I Ever...wear my hair in a ponytail almost daily, rarely blow dry it, and almost never wear it down...Until I Moved to Dominica...

Never Did I Ever...have to tell my husband that my hair was "full of secrets today" because it was so poofy from humidity that it was three times it's normal size...Until I Moved to Dominica...

Never Did I Ever...have to consider "boob sweat" a real and serious situation to which my attention needs to be brought on a daily basis...Until I Moved to Dominica...

Never Did I Ever...consider the presence of geckos in my house a good thing (neither would I EVER have allowed one to sleep in a washcloth on my bathroom counter because he looked so peaceful)...Until I Moved to Dominica...

Never Did I Ever...scan trees to see if there was ripe fruit on them (and 9 times out of 10 there IS!)...Until I Moved to Dominica...

Never Did I Ever...blow a fuse in my house from turning on my shower head heater and it electrocuting itself...Until I Moved to Dominica...

Never Did I Ever...have to have my husband turn on and preheat my oven every time I use it because I can never remember my celsius to fahrenheit conversions...Until I Moved to Dominica...


And the list could go on.  I guess there will need to be a part 2 at some point...