End of April - begining of May - too much to name!

If you are someone interested in attending the Sint Eustatius School of Medicine and have been reading our blog for information about the school and island use the link below to apply.

https://www.applyweb.com/apply/eumed/

Please use my husband, Todd Erickson, as a reference.

We get a credit credit for every person who decides to attend using us as a reference.

 Thank you.  :)

With our house being so open we have had many little animals we’ve watched grow, die, and as you’ve seen earlier in the blog taken care of in hopes they would survive.  These two little birds are a couple of those.  Todd was cleaning out the garage and in the garage door mechanical part there was a little nest that he knock off unknowing there were babies in there.  So we put them in our cage and fed them for a couple days when the Mommy found them and fed them for another couple days and away they flew!  Katie took some pictures for us while I was feeding them.

 

Living on the island had been soooo fun a lot of the times and we have had the opportunity to try out a bunch of awesome fun things!!  Todd decided that Jase would love to have a skim board and Todd was right!!!  Jase absolutely loves to skim board and he just gets better and better all the time!  Whenever we go to the beach and he takes out his skim board all the kids want to try and think it is so cool! These are picture of Jase, Todd, Katie and me trying it out for the first time! 

Bet you want to come visit us now! 

Lumber Jack Jase!  There is a disease going around the island killing some specific type of Palm, they say it blew in from St. Kitts.  We had a couple of them get sick and die so Jase’s Job was to chop them down!

With Dusty at the fort picking Mango’s! 

 

Another snake in the yard.  The dogs were barking and barking and this is why, we are pretty sure he lives in the yard permanently.

Okay  so check out this!

Of Course Todd could tell the story better but with his studying like crazy again its hard to get him to write it so I’ll have to tell you from what I remember him telling me.  So these guys, Todd, Joel & Saad, are out at white wall doing their spear fishing and there are usually sharks and barracudas swimming around them and sorts.  They’ve had a run in with some sharks, which they scared off, and barracudas before but not quite like this one.  Now what people would tell you here is that if one of these predators come look’in for your fish you just give it to them and save your limbs, but not this stubborn trio. 

So there’s some barracudas swimming around and this smaller one starts getting annoying which Todd shoots cold stone dead in the head– one time- (locals will say ‘one time’ if they get something on the first try or something similar. Eg. I passed the test - one time.) With blood in the water this big sucker shows up and Joel shoots him – but not in the head.  He goes rearing up out of the water dashing around and down to the bottom.  Todd dives down to bring it up to the top, straddles it like a bull, puts his hand in his gills, and then takes the knife to stab it in the top of its head the knife goes hardly in – super tough head – and shoots out from between his legs and right at Joel.  Eventually Todd got on it again and stabs it through the head.  Talk about crazy stupid! I told him no more huge barracudas!  We don’t kill anything that people won’t eat so the big Barracuda Todd gave to a local friend named Tino and the smaller one we took home.  You got to skin it just right and get it off the bones proper of you can get ciguatera poisoning.  But it was sweet meat – as the locals would say – not meaning cool or awesome like we do at home.  It was pretty darn tasty better than the shark we ate the few nights before.  One that Jan (our Rasta friends) had found stuck in his net one morning.  

Here are some fish that Todd caught during another fishing exploration.

This is a little barracuda and a picture of its teeth – half knocked out.

This is a picture of a Cero ( Like a Spanish Mackerel )

Todd holding his fish – ones the left Barracuda & Cero, Right Black Jack.

The girls wanted a picture with the black Jack and Courtney didn’t realize how heavy the thing was!  This picture is hilarious! 

Happy Birthday to Teen!  It was Teen’s birthday and Rachel wanted to have a surprise birthday Party for him so she asked if we would have a party at our house!  So that’s just what we did!  We made some food – Rachel wanted to buy everything – and the kids made him a few little gifts.  They are such sweet and kind people!  We had a nice time with them that night!

The poster says “Happy Birthday”!  Thanks to Jase’s handy work!  He also made Teen a card written in Chinese as well.  They thought it was so cute!

Crazy Dusty wrestling down the big dogs!  The big dogs, especially Patches, love dusty!  They play so nice together.

So during the time Todd had off school I took off the island with Megan Beckett to St. Maarten!  I have to admit I still feel guilty about it but it was great!  We spent 2 nights and 2 ½ days on the island. 

One of the best parts about going to St. Maarten was going to Cost–U-Less!!  People who know me know I’m not a big shopper; in fact I can really hate it, but cost-u-less was super fun.  I got a whole ton of food and Meg and I were like little kids in the candy shop finding all sort of fun things.  At the end of our shopping spree we took our purchases to the men waiting outside to box our things so they could be shipped on the boat to Statia.  Colin was the one who packed my boxes and he has been doing it for about 15 years I think he said, and he was for sure the same man who boxed mine and Todd purchase on our way to Statia almost 2 years earlier.

Just some nice shots of old buildings walking around.

We also we able to have a quick visit to Fort Louis on the French side which was build in 1765 to protect the settlement of the town of Marigot from the rotten British. (hehe) It was really nice to see, I really like that sort of thing. 

 

Another one of the best parts was meeting the Wrights!  A missionary couple Meg had messaged and told them we were coming and they offered to take us around a bit.  They are from Raymond, Alberta, right near from where Todd and I lived before here!  They are so wonderful and kind and easy going!  They couldn’t have made out trip any better!  I truly felt like they were my parents and could just enjoy their company the whole visit!  But I know they had better work to do! 

We went down Upper town and Lower Town – mostly lower town because its better deals for the locals and on the way saw something that looked like it might be a rooster farm for cock fights. Mmmmm….. maybe?

Disney Cruise!  One day we’d like to take the kids… on something fun anyway.  Maybe Disney World – they LOVE Harry Potter so maybe Harry Potter World!

Meg and I enjoyed learning the bus system because its so much cheaper than a taxi, we went to the movie “Hunger Games” with the Wrights, and had some super yummy Thai food!  We saw the famous beach where people get blown away by the planes, but were never quite there for the perfect shot!  But it was pretty neat anyway.

We did take a taxi home from a late night of Thai food because the bus didn’t run by our hotel (1^st night at the Wrights 2^nd might in hotel) that late in the evening.  And in the taxi was what I thought to be a fake frog stuck to the window of the vehicle.  Well I was quite wrong at telling Meg it couldn’t be real when it started to move!  The driver had no idea it was in there either.  He was pretty cool looking, like one of those you see in the rain forest pictures with the suction cup ‘fingers’.  This picture doesn’t do him justice.  I won’t tell you how nervous Meg seamed, hehe love ya Meg!!

A nice walk to the pretty white sand beach, opposed to our black/gray volcanic sand on Statia,  the morning before we came back home.  I think we were both home sick by then but had a nice get away!

 

Home Sweet Home!

Happy Mothers Day crafts done at the Youth and Family Centre!  They had a great time making me presents, and I had a great time being there with them. And some friends! 

The finished products!!
Katie made this lovely heart jewelry box sculpture.

 

Katie & Courtney each made a multi-colour flower.  Katie made the beads on sticks and Court brought home the rose from school and coloured the cup!

Courtney made this beautiful one of a kind heart sculpture that says 'I Love you' carved in the front!

And Jase made this super cool mug that say  '#1 Mom in the World!'

I have the best kids ever!  I love them sooooooo much!

Jase at the beach with his friend Matteï.

I don’t have any picture of the goodbye, but the Lotts left the island.  The girls loved playing with Cara’s hair and having her come for bracelet parties.  They will be missed but are on their next step to Doctorhood! 

So that means another term another group and a super fun BBQ!  We had the group over for a BBQ at the beginning of the term.  We had a lot of fun, some good food and great company. I’m really excited about this new group of people! One the down side a little person pooped in the pool, and it wasn’t completely solid, and Todd had to leave early to go to hyperbaric class, soooooo that left moi!  Steve lent a hand as well and many offered but the lest amount of people swimming with poop the better.  Hahahahah. 

Here are some picture of some of the group!

Nathan with Jase and Stuart and then Nate with some of  the kids trailing behind him!

Farrell Family.  They are doing the three years like us!

Some of the Bridge family – Love this first picture!

Chicken Fight!!  With Katie, Dustin Tolman, Emelia and Stuart!

We have been told that these are called Jumbie Beads and if one is swallowed you will be dead in just a matter of hours.  Very Dangerous and they are all over the island.  There was an article on the internet that a Mia showed me about someone, or some company was making these into bracelet’s and charms!!  A child was playing with one, swallowed a bead and died.  So be very cautious!  When we first got to the island the kids were collecting them and playing with them!!  So scary, I’m just glad nothing terrible ever happened!

A student friend of  Todd’s showed us a new way to eat mangos!  You chill the while mango in the fridge, and then you gently – so you don’t break the skin, moosh it and moosh it until its asll soft and mooshy inside.  Then you bite off the bottom part of the skin and squish it out – like of like a paste.  It’s really good and an easy way for the kids to eat them!

Our Land Lords had someone interested in looking at the house to purchase as soon as we were out of the house.  I was cleaning A LOT and I took this opportunity to take a bunch of pictures of the house – by the way it is for sale!!