Drink up me hearties, yo ho!

I just couldn't resist the Caribbean connection there!  Last night the SOs had their annual Wine Night.  It was kind of like a get-to-know-you for all the significant others.  Everyone brought a bottle of wine (or soda if you don't drink) and we all chatted and played a game or two.  I was one of only 3 of us who stuck to the Sprite, but no one seemed to are about that.  Here we all are looking shiny with sweat (as usual down here):

There were still quite a few SOs who didn't show up, but the ones who did were so much fun!  People kept telling me that having nothing to do down here would be rough, but so far, I'm adjusting perfectly.  And with these girls to hang out with everyday, I think I'll be alright!

La Sagesse

Today I went to the beach (it's called La Sagesse) with a group of about 15 other SOs.  My life is awesome, right?  This beach is very secluded and has a little river running into it.  And the water in the river was cold!!  Hallelujah.

We enjoyed our time here a lot, but I somehow didn't get a picture of myself or any of the other girls, sorry!

The craziest part was when these clouds started rolling in.  It's hard to see but that dark strip between the clouds and the water is darker clouds.  After being on the beach for about 3 hours we heard the longest, weirdest thunder I'd ever heard.  It almost sounded like faraway speaker beats, but we could tell it was coming quick--I've never seen clouds move as fast as they do here!  We quickly packed up and left, narrowly avoiding getting caught in the rain, which followed us back home.

When I got home I saw our stray cat friends hanging out in front of our apartment.  I haven't talked about them yet, so here's a picture I snagged of them the other day.  They don't like people, so when I came to the window to take the picture, they started walking away.  This is the best I could get!

We also have a lizard friend who hangs out on the porch.  Fun!

Thank goodness we have these friends because I'm pretty sure they keep out all the bugs!

Babies

Ok guys, this post is not related to Grenada and is more serious, but bear with me!  There is something that Bryant and I have been struggling with for two years now.  We've really only talked to our immediate family and a few close friends about it, but I've decided I'm okay with people knowing about this aspect of our lives.

We can't have babies.  Well, at least we can't have babies even with a fairly high level of medical intervention.  We both have done pretty much every test available and have been told that there is nothing wrong.  It's a legitimate diagnosis: unexplained infertility.  It means we should have babies, but for some reason we don't.  And before you start thinking that that's good because it means it'll work eventually, let me tell you that there are many people diagnosed this way who can't ever have children.  I'm not saying that to be pessimistic, just to circumvent any comments to that effect. :) Now besides just getting tested, we have also done three cycles of fertility treatments that all failed, and the only thing left for us to try is In Vitro Fertilization--which costs about $8,000 and is pretty far down the line for us if we ever do it at all (I like the thought of adopting much more). 

We did what was called Intra-Uterine Insemination (IUI).  If you don't want to know what our fertility treatments involved, skip to the next paragraph (warning: it's long and detailed).  Here's how it worked: I went in for an ultrasound on the third day of my period to get a baseline reading on ovary size and uterine lining thickness.  Also on that day I started taking either Clomid or Femara, which causes your body to mature more than one egg.  I took those pills (2 or 3 a day) for 5 days, and let me tell you they were terrible.  Clomid made me have intense pain in my abdomen and I also started seeing these little black lines that weren't really there.  The Femara wasn't as bad, but it made me feel nauseated and tired all the time (it's actually used to treat breast cancer, go figure).  Three days after that, I would go in for another ultrasound to check my follicles.  The follicles in the ovaries are the things that hold the individual eggs.  The ones that have mature eggs growing in them get very big and dark and can be measured on the ultrasound.  Either that afternoon or the next day, I would have to get an injection in my stomach that I was supposed to give to myself but was too much of a pansy to do (thanks Jess and Aubrey).  By the way, I was allergic to one of the chemicals in the shot so this always resulted in a very painful welt (fertility drugs really are the worst).  The injection would kick my body into high gear and force the eggs to start moving down the fallopian tubes.  Exactly 23 hours afterward we would head to the clinic, where Bryant would go do his thing, then we'd wait while they cleaned and prepped his specimen.  An hour after that, we'd go in a room, they'd use a catheter and a syringe to insert the specimen into my uterus, and that was that.  I would then have to take some progesterone suppositories every night for two weeks, then a pregnancy test, and when it was negative I'd stop taking the progesterone and the cycle would re-start.  We did this three times and we found out that our latest attempt had failed on Wednesday.

Whew, that's a lot of stuff, right? Let me wrap it up by saying just one more thing.  Most importantly, and perhaps I should have led with this, I'm at peace with what is happening.  For about 6-8 months in there (when we started doing all the tests late last year and early this year) I was ok, thinking that we weren't having a baby because of some simple problem that medicine would fix for us.  So I stopped thinking that it would work spontaneously and looked forward to when we would do our treatments.  Then we did our first IUI and for the first time in a long time, I let myself hope.  And when it didn't work, I was pretty torn up about it.  It finally started sinking in that this might never, ever work.  I really struggled for a while.

Then (it's about to get religious here, people), I went to the temple with Bryant.  I wasn't even thinking about this whole baby thing while we were there, but suddenly I just felt like it would all work out.  Not that I would have a baby, just that, no matter what, God loves me.  That He might make me go through some hard things, but if He does, it means I can handle it.  And that if I never get the opportunity to have children, then there is something else He wants me to do.  I'm not quite sure yet what that will be, but I know I can do a lot of good here whether or not I have my own children.  It's been a huge comfort and a blessing to me to have reached this feeling of peace.  I know some people struggle for years with these feelings and I'm so very grateful that at least I don't have to feel inadequate, sad, or angry anymore.  I know God has a plan, and I'm ready for whatever it is.

Now I said I wouldn't feel sad anymore, but I must admit I did cry a little bit writing that last paragraph--mixed sadness and gratitude to my Father in Heaven.  So maybe I should say it's not an all-consuming sadness anymore.  I think I can still feel sad about it every now and then, but it's no longer something that is there in the back of my mind every day.

Alright, I'm going to wrap this up.  I've already rambled on long enough about this.  I just felt that I should be able to share and possibly it will make other people going through something like this feel a little bit better.  Love you all! Oh and tomorrow I'll have a great post about an awesome beach, so don't worry, things will get happier around here!

Lawn care, Grenada style

Yesterday Bryant and I did nothing all day long.  We sat at home and made some popovers, ate some soup, played games and watched about 5 episodes of Star Trek: Voyager.  It was great to do nothing and not feel guilty about it!  Other people, however, worked a lot yesterday.  Take, for example, our landlord's handyman.  He spent about 8 hours working on the little stretch of lawn by our apartment.  Here's the lawn:

Probably half the size of a regular front yard in Utah.  What was he doing for 8 hours?  Well first he used a lawn mower on it for about 2-3 hours.  No joke.  He went over and over each spot, turned it off to do something, turned it back on and mowed some more.  Then there was about a 45 minute break while he dragged the mower away and did who knows what, then came back out with a weed whacker.  Instead of just using the weed whacker on the edges, he weed whacked the entire lawn.  So that was another 2-3 hours.  Then he disappeared for another half hour and came back out with a leaf blower.  Which he used to blow all the cut grass out onto that little road to the side.  Then he walked outside the fence and blew all the grass over against that white fence of the complex next to us.  That took an hour and a half.

I know a lot of you are being skeptical over there, but he started at 11 am and didn't finish until almost seven.  I don't know who taught him how to maintain a lawn, but he probably gets paid hourly.

Now on a completely unrelated note, does anyone know what this fruit is?

They're oranges.  And no, they never actually get orange on the outside here.  So for little Keagan, who once told me that a lime was orange, apparently I owe you an apology because oranges do look like that.

Water!

Today all I did was go to the pool.  Mondays and Thursdays are designated pool days for Significant Others at the University Club.  And here is the University Club pool:

Nice, right?!  And here's another picture from closer down by the pool:

And, just because I don't have much to say about our trip to this beach, I'll include some beach pics. 

This beach is called Magazine Beach and it had some really good snorkeling (not that I know because I was a pansy and didn't try snorkeling at all).
 

We went with our friends Adam, Britni, and their little baby boy Bennett.   I took this picture while sitting on the beach with little Bennett while everyone else snorkeled and swam.

Isn't the color of the water amazing?  And the water is always so calm, no waves over about a foot.  I could really get used to this...

Saint Georges

Yesterday I went with some of the other SOs (Significant Others) to Saint Georges.  Saint Georges is the capital city here and it was the first time I've been since we got here.  There isn't much to it and it's still what Bryant and I have taken to calling second world--not third-world but a long shot from first-world.  The first place we went was to the spice/fruit market.

Looks like any regular old market, nothing too special.

Anyone know what this red fruit is?

Spoiler alert:  It's avocado.  I never knew it could be red!

After leaving the spice and fruit market, we headed over to the fish market.  It was much less pleasant over there, let me tell you.

It was all enclosed and smelled powerfully of dead fish.  See those clear plastic divider things on the counters?  They dumped fish into them and you could pick one.  There were hardly any left when we got there, so I didn't get any, but one of the girls found a red snapper and pounced on it.  They will clean and even fillet the fish for you in this big sink.

I usually don't have a big problem with fish smell, but it was right around this time that I suddenly got overwhelmed and had to step outside to breathe fresh air for a minute.  Weird.  After a minute I was fine and came back in to watch them finish cleaning the fish.

After the other SO got her fish, we headed back home.  My only prizes from the morning's adventures were this basket of spices,

this bag of guava cheese (really good),

and this sugar apple.

No idea what a sugar apple is, but it sounds good!  I'll keep you posted.  Oh, and I saw this in one of the stores:

It's cologne and body wash for boys.  I almost bought it for Bryant, then I saw the price tag.  $50 EC is about $20 US.  Too much for our negative $37,000 budget. :)

White Coat Ceremony

Last night Bryant participated in the White Coat Ceremony here at SGU.  This ceremony is supposed to serve as a reminder for the students about the human aspect of medicine and is kind of like a graduation, but instead of getting a diploma, you are "coated."  The white coat has the SGU symbol on it as well as a little pin on the lapel.  The ceremony was cool because seeing Bryant wearing that white doctor's coat on stage made me realize this is really happening.  He's going to be a doctor! 

The ceremony started out with an alumna of SGU welcoming everyone and introducing this guy who was important in some way, but I don't quite remember why (sorry!).  Before he started his little speech, he called his assistant up on stage to say she had worked for him for 35 years on Wednesday and gave her a bouquet as a "work anniversary" gift.  So sweet!

After he spoke, the keynote speaker gave his speech.  His name was Dr. Jacobs and his speech was fantastic (at least in my opinion).  He talked about 3 lessons he had learned about being a doctor.  The part that stands out particularly in my mind was when he talked about truth-telling.  He started his career when doctors routinely lied to patients about what was wrong with them.  One patient came to the hospital when he was an intern because she had been on her honeymoon and had started to become very tired and lethargic.  She was pale and bruised very easily as well, so they cut the honeymoon short to come back and check her in at the hospital.  She was diagnosed with leukemia, which in those days was pretty much fatal within a year.  However, the attending physician strictly forbid the interns to tell her what was wrong, saying they would be removed from their internships and he would see to it that they never became doctors.  Instead they were to tell her that she had...oh, I can't remember now.  Something like a mild case of hemophilia and that she would make a full recovery.  So he lied to her when she asked what was wrong.  She was admitted again and again over the next year and every time she specifically requested that he come in and she would say, "Why am I not getting better?  What's really wrong with me?"  And every time he lied.  Finally, she came in looking very wasted and asked the question yet again.  He knew her time was almost done, but still he lied.  After leaving her room he was angry at himself and decided to turn back, but just then was paged to the ER where he spent the rest of the night.  When he returned to her room the next morning, he discovered she had died during the night and neither she nor her young husband had ever known why.  It was a very powerful story and really drove home his point that every patient deserves to know what is happening to them and why.

Then it became even more like a graduation.  Students had their names announced as they walked up on stage and were coated by one of the faculty or special guests standing there.  Once there were 13 of them all on the stage that had been coated, everyone would clap, they would leave the stage, and the process repeated.  For 800 students.  I was so glad I brought the Surface to play with once Bryant was coated!  He was one of the first groups up there and I was so proud of him.

Doesn't he look very doctor-like in his coat?  Yay Bryant!

Afterward we went to a little reception with a buffet and chatted with some of our new friends.

I'm excited for Bryant and I know he'll do a great job.  Thanks to everyone who has supported us (well, more specifically, Bryant) in pursuing this goal!

P.S. Can anyone see my sunglasses line?  I got a little burned at the pool earlier in the day.

First day of school

Today, Bryant officially started medical school. *Sniffle* They grow up so fast!  From now on, most of the adventures will be mine while Bryant studies hard.  I am so very proud of him and his dedication.  I know he'll be a great doctor someday.  Oh, and like the good elementary school teacher I am, I followed him out on the porch to take a first-day-of-school photo.  In the first picture he was rolling his eyes, so I only included the second one.

Grand Etang Rainforest and Annandale Waterfall

We were given an opportunity to take a free tour through the University and we jumped right on that!  We caught a bus to campus Saturday morning to board another bus with a tour guide up to the Grand Etang National Park.

 Overlooking the bay.

 

 What are all these people looking at?

 

 Oh yeah, this guy.  He was cute!

 

After getting out of the bus and "awww"ing at this guy (seriously, everyone said, "awww" every time he came close) we started our hike.

 

 

Now most of you know that I am not a very athletic person and hikes are not always my forte, but here in Grenada, I'm a hiking superstar!  Well, either that or everyone else just whines a lot.  This hike was probably 20 minutes long with a VERY slight elevation change--Bryant is guessing 50 yards difference.  Really a very easy hike in my book, but you would think we were hiking Timpanogos from the way people were talking.  I honestly heard someone say, "Are we hiking the Mount Everest of Grenada?!"  And people were panting and complaining and asking how much further.  I barely got out of breath, and Bryant didn't get out of breath at all.

 

 

And when people found out the whole hike was for this viewpoint, some people were upset.  I personally thought it was beautiful, but this picture doesn't do it justice because I held the camera above my head to take a picture over the angry people in front.  Moral of the story: go hiking in Utah and you will be the superstar of Grenada hikes.

 

After we got back down from the viewpoint (and left most people in the dust, or rather, mud) we went down to this little lake.  Bryant made a remark about wanting to fish there and was quickly reminded that it was a national park and therefore illegal to fish.

Afterward, we got back on the bus and drove to the Annandale Waterfall.  Our one regret here is that we didn't know/forgot about the fact that we were allowed to swim here and didn't wear swimsuits.  But we waded and it felt so very good.  One thing you need to learn if you come here is that you will always be sweaty, and cold water is the only way to stop it.  Oh, and by cold water, the water was probably 85 to 90 degrees. 

After everyone was done with the waterfall we went back down to campus and from there to our little apartment.  Oh, and there is this guy who we have seen multiple times that I think looks uncannily like someone from Bryant's family...






 

And yes, I did take pictures of him while pretending to take pictures of other things.  So what?

Rain. Oh, and church.

Today it rained 15 times.  Fif.  Teen.  Times.  The rain really isn't bad, it's the fact that when it rains it becomes so incredibly humid that you're almost underwater.  Every tiny hair on my head curled up and frizzed out today.  Bryant, of course, is unaffected, but this was the first day the whole week we've been here that I have wanted to turn on the air conditioning and the sun was behind clouds all day!  Never knew that would happen. 

Also, we went to church today and I must say, our church has the best view on the island.  I forgot my camera--I know, who goes to church without a camera?--so I didn't get pictures, but I promise next week I will.  We also made friends with the Primary President earlier this week, which meant I got to do singing time in Primary.  Cutest kids EVER in this Primary.  One of the little 5 year old boys (a student's son, not a local) decided it was too hot, untucked his shirt and unbuttoned it all the way.  Then he volunteered to come up and help me with singing time and I (awful teacher that I am) told him he had to fix his shirt.  He asked me to do it for him and he was just so cute that I agreed, so I buttoned it up and tucked it in for him and he was the best little helper in the world.  I miss teaching!! 

Grand Anse Beach

Yesterday morning, Bryant and I caught a bus to another bus to the secondary SGU campus.  This one is located in Grand Anse (pronounced Gran Dance) and has a gate that allows it beach access to what has been named in National Geographic as "the best beach in the Carribean."

 Guys.......I live here!!

 

Also, there was this little 2 inch fish that decided I was its mother.  Honestly, it swam right next to me, never touching me, always about an inch away for about 20 minutes.  Really, it swam hard against the waves when they came in or went out so it could be right next to me the whole time!  It only stopped when I got out.  So cute!

Oh, and we saw this sign on our way home and had to take a picture.

When Bryant saw it he said, "What is the click....oh, a gun!"  Hopefully you all caught that, too!

SGU Campus

The campus here is very pretty, right on the ocean, but not as well-maintained as we are used to.  There seems to be no grounds crew to keep the lawns from looking brown and dead (which they do) or a cleaning crew to keep the buildings from getting dirty (which they are).  Nevertheless, I thought it was pretty enough to warrant a few pictures.

No, I didn't get my pictures confused, this beach is right on campus.  About 20 steps away from one of the buildings. 

 

 

 See the beach to the right?  That's where the pictures above came from.

 

VERY pretty, but note the dead grass.  It seems incongruous to me, but oh well!  Oh, and this picture is for all my ice cream loving family and friends.

That's $17.23 in US dollars, friends.  I would like to say I'll never complain about the cost of ice cream in the US again....but that's not true.  Everyone eat lots of ice cream for me, please, because I won't be eating ice cream any time in the foreseeable future!