Orientation Week

September 5, 2010

Hello Everyone!

            Good news is that hurricane Earl had little to no effect on us here in Dominica. We had a very little bit of wind and a very normal rain shower. More good news is that my apartment is in working order again! For those of you who didn’t know a pipe broke in my wall so I had a swimming pool in my bathroom for a couple of days and then they turned off my water so that they could re-plumb my apartment. They started right away on Monday and finished on Friday so I was super excited. For the time being I showered in my friends room and used water bottles for teeth brushing etc. I’m up and running again so very good news indeed.

Rowboats that you take down the river

At orientation we learned about the history of Dominica, how our schedule is organized, the grading system, the promotion system, what happens after we leave Dominica and so on. Overall the general consensus is DON’T FAIL ANYTHING…if you fail then you have to repeat the whole semester not just the class you failed. Their philosophy on that is that if you failed one class then you must have not been focused enough to have truly understood all the material from the semester. I plan on not failing; in fact I set a self-goal to get a 4.0 while here. I read a book this week on how to get a 4.0 in medical school and I learned some techniques to help me reach my goal!

On Wednesday we had a welcome BBQ for dinner, it was nice because it was free dinner. I tried roasted plantains for the first time; which was interesting it tastes very much like potato instead of banana; which you would assume when looking at a plantain. Otherwise the week was full of information seminars and I wont bore you with all the details of what my day-to-day life is going to be starting tomorrow. That’s right tomorrow is officially when I begin medical school classes.

My little friend from the river

On Friday I went on the Indian River tour. The Indian River is the River that was used in many scenes of Pirates of the Caribbean. To travel down the river you much get in a small rowboat and a single person rows you 1 mile down the river to the concession at the end. It is against the law to use a motor on the boats down the river in order to preserve the life, and nature of the river. The river looks like its right out of the movie it has murky water, amazing trees that are up to 500 years old with roots that travel both down into the water and along the land. There are also lots of hanging limbs. The boat ride is peaceful and the views are great. At the concession at the end they serve island renowned “rum punch” I didn’t try any but it looked pretty deadly to me (very very strong smelling). While at the concession there was a young local boy who was so cute. He was washing his flip-flops with just soap and when I asked if he was going to use water he said no wayyy. He is 5 and has a very interesting name that I can neither pronounce or spell. This little boy was full of energy and had a smile that would light up a room he saw my camera and said, “take a picture of me!”  

Indian River

On Saturday we went to the market at 6am again and this time asked lots of questions and learned a great deal about all the different local fruits and veggies. I bought some fresh baked bread, oranges (the outside is green), breadfruit, bananas, and fresh cocoa all for 15EC that’s about $6 US. Oh and I learned about the 4 types of fruits that look like bananas but are not like our bananas. There are green plantains, which you can’t peel and they don’t ripen they just turn brown; you would boil these in order to eat them. There are red plantains, which ripen and eventually you can peel them but you can also cook them to eat. Plantains are very starchy and are close to a potato. Then you have smaller green bananas, which never ripen and also taste similar to a potato. Finally there is the US known bananas which turn yellow and wonderful and you can peel them and eat them raw!

Today I actually printed off all of my lecture notes and began studying in the library for the day! I have a feeling my interesting stories are going to start ending and my simple just studying stories are going to increase. 

Till next time…