Ava's Special Day

Woke up and there were NO more episodes of House, MD to watch. And there won't be anymore for several more days. Sigh. Ava woke up and not 5 minutes later was in tears because there is no sushi on the island. So, I told her that Surprise! It's your Special Day! Oh, was she thrilled! I work well under pressure; I was sure I could pull something out.


So we slathered on bugspray and suntan lotion, donned hats and sunglasses, packed bottled water, a big handful of the cute Nevisian money and my cell phone and off we went for a Special Day Adventure. We made it to the end of the street before Ava announced that she was hot, her legs hurt and she wanted to go home. So I Special Day Insisted that she press on. We had to stop in every piece of shade to rest and drink water before we made it down to the main road, crossed it and staggered into Nisbet Plantation lobby. This should have been a five minute walk but I think it took us 45. They have games and a "help yourself bookshelf" so we sat in the lobby next to a window and played Jenga, Operation, tic tac toe, etc. I helped myself to a couple paperbacks before we started down to the beach. Ava had perked up by now, and was looking forward to gathering baby coconuts from beneath the palms that line the yard between the hotel and the beach. (It's really pretty--there's a picture on the link down there.) And today did not disappoint; it seemed like each palm tree had a baby coconut under it and Ava was in heaven. She loves these things. They are cute, and she plays with them at home. http://www.nisbetplantation.com/


We were able to find lots of shells on the beach, which was fun. I've never shell-hunted on this beach before, but the winds have been so high there was a lot of ocean debris to poke around in on the shore. We had lunch at their beach bar, and walked home. Of course, by then it was the heat of the day, and uphill, but Ava ran most of the way. We're just not morning people, but we rally.

When Bob got home we decided to go explore some neat ruins on the east (windward) side of the island. This land on this side is mostly government owned and undeveloped. Broad expanses of hilly pasture sloping down to rough ocean. We poked around in an old stone windmill base and other old buildings. A few had bats up in the top and I was able to find a bat skull for Ava. I had to pluck it off of the bat body and I could just hear a list of diseases being rattled off by Dr. House's team. So I held my breath and washed my hands in the ocean. On the way down to the ocean we had to cross a huge pasture and climb down through a rocky gorge. Ava found two bleached pelvis bones from a donkey (I guess) and then...jackpot! An entire bleached skeleton of a goat. In case you haven't been following, Ava *loves* finding bones, but she can't keep them unless they are bleached out. This skeleton was perfectly clean, and all parts accounted for. Ava exclaimed, and I quote, "This is the best day of my life!" Deal closed on Special Day commitment.

And that was before we got to the beach, where she found a dead sheep (not decomposed) and another skull that was very curious to us in that the horns were still on it, bleached hard just like the bone...usually horns don't do that. Anyway, it was quite a haul and Bob had to drive the car down the pasture to pick us up with all our loot. We never saw another soul on this entire excursion. Thank god!

Easter on the Island

Easter is pretty cool here! We've been having a surprising run of windy days and cool windy nights, good kite flying weather. The Nevisians fly kites for Easter. There used to be some master kite-makers on the island, but their skills aren't being passed dow n fast enough to the next generations. But still, everybody buys or makes a kite (the kids make theirs in school in all grades) and hits the beach to launch them on Easter (thinking all the while, I am sure, about Jesus rising from the dead and ascending to the heavens while trying to keep their strings from getting tangled)...spectacular! Higher on the mountain there was a kite flying contest and I heard there was a four-man kite--I wish we had been able to see that!

The only kite I know how to make is the kind where you tie a string through the handles of a plastic grocery bag. Failproof but kinda trashy, so I just let Ava fly hers in the back yard.

We were invited to a party on Crishi beach by a couple that bought the hotel located there. They closed it for renovations after buying it, but never re-opened anything but the beach bar. They just live in the rest...gorgeous beach, pool, a low trampoline and a painted wooden sailboat sunk in the sand on the beach for the kids to play in. Nice! They are Norwegian and have a little girl Ava's age (I'm guessing that's how we got invited, because we didn't know anybody else there)...they had rented a bouncy house (NOT the Dora the Explorer one. How many choices can there be??) and hidden eggs in the palms along the beach. They hadn't dyed them, but I figured that's a Norwegian thing. The brown and white eggs looked kinda pretty in the beachy setting. Oh, and they didn't BOIL the eggs either, which we found out the hard way when Olympia dropped her egg on my foot. The kids were supposed to 1) Find an Egg 2) Gently transport it to the nearest participating adult and 3) TRADE it in for a Peep. Well, Ava did the math on that pretty quick and decided she'd MUCH rather have a WHOLE RAW EGG! Hers did not survive the day, either, but at least it didn't happen inside the bouncy house. Fun was had but we left before the partying started since we had another stop to make. Also, it was starting to rain again...

The school hosted an egg hunt for the children. I thought it would be moved indoors because the ground was wet, but no. The students in charge of the hunt figured out how many eggs each kid could get for it to come out even and the number was four. It took Ava about 10 seconds to find hers and the whole thing was over pretty quick (the eggs were just sitting on the grass) so the rest of the afternoon was spent with the kids playing tag. Oh and there were cupcakes. Ava's friend, Nyla, who is also home schooled, came late and missed the hunt so Ava split her haul with her. So Ava comes home Saturday night after two egg hunts covered in mud and with only two eggs. But she had a super great day.

Sunday we drove up to Rick Ishmael's house on the mountain (mad scientist, big house, huge fenced in garden) and Bob hid eggs out there. I had stuffed over 70 eggs and there was only one other child hunting with Ava so she was able to get her fill of the hunt. The other boy's granddad was out there "helping him" find the eggs. He would find one and point and shout until John could scramble over and bag it. John is five, and didn't need any help, but granddad (who teaches at the school with Rick and Bob) is a cardio-thoracic surgeon and very, uh, Driven. Bob says that's not uncommon with heart surgeons. Thank goodness there were plenty of eggs!
The rest of us sat up on the porch (from which you can see all the way to Montserrat) and laughed. And drank Ting (a soda made with local grapefruit juice) and ate cucumber sandwiches.
We had to save our appetites for dinner, because our neighbor, Pat, invited us for a meal, along with a few other folks from the school. And she doesn't fool around! It was like Thanksgiving (Ava's observation) but no dishes to wash. Yes, I offered! We left as they were breaking out the game called Pass the Pig (not the drinking game, as it turned out) so Ava could get cleaned up and tucked in. Hope you all had a fun Easter!

House MD*

*muy dreamy

Bob says he's an ASS, but (eyeroll) why state the obvious? He's tall. talented and soul-tortured just enough to give those jelly-blue eyes gravitas. That's really HIM playing the piano (Netflix all three seasons of Jeeves & Wooster if you don't believe me) (but read the books first as God Intended) and probably the other instruments as well. Plus he can sing.

I've been power watching my way through Seasons 1-3. ("Power watching" sounds so much better than sitting on my butt watching up to four episodes a day while Ava plays outside in the debris pile, right? But seriously, she has made some cool stuff out there. You should see the sculpture she made out of an old carburetor and a feed bag. But it was blocking traffic so I had to get her to remove her installation (PUT THAT CRAP BACK! ALL OF IT!!! STAT!) before it could be photographed. Driveway traffic! No, she was not playing in the street. You were wondering.) I used to let Ava watch with me on my lap. But now she can drop to the floor and fake a grand mal seizure. VERY COOL! And once at dinner she covered both eyes and screamed, "I CAN'T SEE! I CAN'T SEE! WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME!!!" omg that was hilarious. Bob would have thought so too if only he had seen that episode. But it was when she suggested an LP* for the cat that I decided that the debris pile might be more better.

*LP is a Lumbar Puncture for the uninitiated. Everybody gets one and they are SOOO GROSS! But I think I can do one now in case there is ever an emergency. Yay! Also I'm your man for a breathing tube, or in case that fails, a field tracheotomy or in case both of those fail, a shock with the paddles. Time well spent, neh?

Wind and Waves

Wow! a super windy day with lots of huge waves crashing onto every beach. We are going shell hunting this afternoon, see what washed up. I bet our friend Andrew has his surf board out.

Bob got a wild hair and took us to the Jamaican Bakery this morning and literally ordered one of everything. Maybe he is bi-polar? We came out with a dozen little brown paper bags showing grease stains. Everything was baked this morning, and won't be any good tomorrow. Pressure's on! Literally, I can't button my pants.

Ava tried to hack up a lung last night in addition to the sea water she inhaled. No swimming again today, and we might just break down and take her to the pediatrician. Bob thinks I'm crazy (but not bi-polar, just "crackers" ) but I swear her breath still smells like sea water. I finally got up in the middle of the night and gave Ava a dose of Robitussin so I could sleep :) She never woke up while taking her medicine, and she didn't drink quite all the syrup out of that little plastic cup so I set it on the bureau-- and this morning, it was clean and dry. Those crazy ants! Punch-flavored Robitussin.

Got to catch up with Dr. Rick Ishmael, our mad scientist friend. He's teaching now at the medical school while working on starting a cancer clinic using his very own cancer drug. He has investors and everything. Sometimes they fly in and he takes them out to dinner and will bring us along. His wife and son haven't moved here, so he has this huge house up on the mountain all to himself with a fenced in Jurassic-park-like garden that you can get lost in. Ava loves going exploring in his yard and came up to the house dragging an impressive a 30-foot length of bamboo that Rick had cut and left on the ground. So he made us all walking sticks out of it. The monkeys were all over his yard. The mangos aren't ripe yet but there are two other things in his yard the monkeys will eat so he never gets a break from them. Of course, we think they are great!

More on Wind and Clouds in homeschool, then it's on to lambs, eggs and birds & Easter. I brought a bunch of empty eggs to fill and hide. The Nevisians fly kites to celebrate easter, which is kind of cool. Will now bring Ava in for some learnin'. She's outside playing in a pile of construction debris. She can spend hours out there. Third World Charm!

(YES, she is current on her tetanus. I know you were thinking it.)

Our first week...

Well, we start the week of course with the traditional freak-out over the ants, my refusal to eat or drink anything I didn't bring in my suitcase until the refrigerator and counter tops were cleaned...but that's all to be expected.

Ava has been getting lots of attention from her dad, conning him into all kinds of play time, heaploads of books at night, and a trip to the beach every afternoon for a swim. Today, in fact, I have to keep her in for the first time. At the beach yesterday she apparently BREATHED in enough ocean water to make her breath smell like the sea all night long, and her chest is all congested. With salt water. I guess this happened while Bob was getting her to stand on his shoulders and jump into the water. Once she came up and gagged so loudly it echoed off the restaurant/bar...that must have been how the ocean got into her lungs. Hindsight. As usual she hasn't even noticed but let me tell you: the breath thing is WEIRD. What would Dr. House say.

We had our book club meeting the day after I arrived, so I sat down and read some of the book and skimmed the rest. Was able to fake it well enough. The woman who hosted the meeting this time (Linda B) lives part-time on Nevis and her home is just breathtaking. She and her husband built it and have been in it for 7 years. It's like being in a very small resort. I found out she has housekeeping AND landscaping people come 5 days a week, whether they are on the island or not. Imagine! Saturday I went on the annual "Home and Gardens Tour" which is a fund-raiser for the Historical Society. The tickets were about $20 US and I rode with two other women. Seven houses on display--a different bunch every year--and they were spectacular, but none more so than Linda's, and she's never even been asked to participate in the tour. Makes you wonder how many ultra-luxury homes are tucked around the island unnoticed.

The island hosted another triathlon Sunday which always bring Olympic-shaped ("HOT") athletes to the area. I was splashing around Oualie beach on Friday watching some of them do laps and jog up and down the beach. Nice scenery! http://www.nevisblog.com/?p=957

The school hosted a barbecue for the students Saturday and they rented a Dora the Explorer bouncy house thing. I don't know why, but Bob always goes to the student functions and we had a very good time hanging around the pool and letting Ava bounce to her heart's content with the few children that were there. There were even veggie burgers!

Well, those are the jumbled up highlights of our week. Ava and I have been talking about clouds and wind in "home school" and making shamrocks. I have also watched almost the entire Season 2 of House, MD, and am trying to make the remaining few episodes last. He's so dreamy.

We're Baaaaack!

Well, well, here almost six months since my last entry, and we are back in Nevis. The month after my last post was spent in Nevis, but with all the excitement of Bob's infected spider bite that sent him to the emergency room twice, and the frequent changing of the wet dressing (puss! blood! gore!) I just didn't make time to write. Then five wonderful months spent in Raleigh surrounded by friends, family and the luxuries of modern life. Ah, good times.

We had smooth sailing all the way, and not a single suitcase was opened at the Customs stop. That always makes me wish I had packed something more interesting than 200 pounds of books, toys and games. We flew through Saint Maarten this time, a wonderful way to avoid the lovely San Juan airport. However, the only planes that go from SXM to Nevis are super tiny. I'm sure there's an aviation designation for the little insect that flew us over to the island. In my seat, I could easily reach my hands out and touch both walls of the plane, then by raising one arm and lowering the other, touch the floor and the ceiling. No beverage service. No cocktail peanuts. Oh, but the view! We flew low (the cabin wasn't pressurized, which REALLY bothered Ava's ears--she burst into tears as we descended) and the sunset was lighting up the clouds and the water and the islands we passed. I saw fish frolicking in the water! I did! I did!!!