Jaws of Life Yoga

Well, we've been here a week!  Ava has resigned herself to the resumption of studies, and Bob is stepping up with recorder lessons, computer class and some pinch hitting on the maths.  Bob has also taken Ava snorkeling twice since our boat trip, and we are amazed at how she has just taken off with it.  She can even dive down to get shells.  Clearing her snorkel ain't pretty, but she gets it done.

Bugs: lots.  We've had lots of rain, and the mosquitoes are starting to work together in coordinated maneuvers --any day now I expect to see them airlift the cat right out of here.   We sleep under those billowy white mosquito nets you've seen on TV.  My bedtime routine involves some serious tucking in around the entire perimeter, and I have LEARNED that the TV remote, my book and reading light have to all be under the net before the perimeter is sealed.  Once in I feel like a cupcake under a cake dome.  But the nets WORK. 

I was talking to some fellas in the yard and stood right in a humongous ant nest.  So cool.  Looked down and my shoes (thank goodness I was wearing real shoes) were SWARMING with biting ants.  I did a great little dance while kicking my shoes off and wiping the ants off my legs.  One of the guys came over to have a look (after he was quite finished laughing) and asked me if I had any sevin.  I thought he was asking about my shoe size and it took awhile to sort that out.  The ant bites are UG-LY.  I won't describe them.  There is pus.

Enough about bugs--there's more, mind you, but tonight I took a yoga class!  One of the faculty women (and Bob's friend,) Stacy, picked me up and took me to the gym downtown for the class, which started at 5:30, cost a ridiculous $7.50 and is taught by a local woman who is a grandmother.  I was wearing new yoga pants and had the hot pink yoga mat Bob gave me for Christmas.  The class started off with eye rolling!  Really!  I can totally do that.  Obviously, I needed to be taken down a peg.  The instructor cut the air conditioning off while I was busy rolling my eyes, and proceeded to lead us through TWO HOURS of the most advanced class I have ever had.  No relaxing meditation.  Extreme positions I don't even know the names for!  Poses named after some pretty darn obscure animals and states of mind.  Shoulder Stand with Windmill Legs?   Disemboweled Crab Seeking Enlightenment?   Trying Not to Pee Pants While Waiting for Bus with Head on Backwards? I was gushing sweat and praying for it to END.  Finally it did end.  I pulled off my best corpse pose EVER.  Slunk out to parking lot and ate my emergency half a candy bar.  Somehow, I need to come up with a believable conflict for Monday evenings for the foreseeable future.  And an alternate use for my new hot pink yoga mat.  Help?








 

Photos

Yesterday we accompanied Bob on a boat tour run out of the scuba shop he works for as a dive flunky.  He doesn't get paid, but he is getting free instructor training and free dives. The boat is called Monkey Business...some of the tourists go on it for a scuba dive or class, some to snorkel, others just to cruise around and drink rum punch and listen to music.  Ava and I were glad to be onboard.  Ryan led the snorkel group, and gave Ava first class treatment, towing her around on a life ring so she could just fishgaze and relax.  She had a blast.  That girl loves a party.

So here are a few pictures of our first few days.  My view from the back of the plane into Nevis.
Bob on the boat on the way to the dive site with his first scuba students (looking all bow-flex buff)
and Ava with a fruit punch and her snorkel buddy, Ryan. 

Graduation and Goodbye

I can't believe it has been almost a year since we were last in Nevis.  That really is too long.  My first full day here was a whirlwind of unpacking and shopping and then graduation ceremonies and festivities at the med school. We stopped in the Chinese store for a broom.  That is a fun store to poke around in--everything you could want including shoes, groceries, office supplies, rice cookers and human hair.  Really: human hair.  It was market day downtown so we bought lots of fruits and veggies, and Bob and Ava got ice cream cones on the way out of downtown.  We stopped by the home improvement store for two toilet repair kits.  Despite the fact that, according to Bob, throwing a bucket of water down the toilet "works great!!!" Ava and I prefer to flush.  Bob has gone native, apparently, in our absence. 

Thanks to Mary Jo, who went shopping with me, I had a dress to wear to graduation this year, and I am so glad I didn't miss it. The studends had planned to hold the ceremony on the beach but we got an amazing amount of rain today (so of course we lost power and internet at the house) so we were relocated to one of the huge classrooms on campus.  I love watching the kids get their white coats and take the Oath of Maimonides. I always get a little misty-eyed!  Dinner afterwards was wonderful.  The graduating class does fundraising to pay for the reception after graduation, and this year they broke all records and threw a dinner on the beach at Nisbet Plantation with open bar and a band.  It was spectacular.  I was still tired from travel and unpacking and almost didn't go, but it was worth it.  A wonderful buffet by the pool with four chefs at the end grilling mahi mahi, snapper, shrimp, and on another grill, steak and chicken.  Lots of island salsa and local hot sauce...and a dessert buffet that Ava swooned over.  When it was time to go Ava was still dancing in front of the band under a tent. 

It was also a sad day because we learned that a friend of ours, Jim Johnson, had died the night before in a house fire on the island.  I had mentioned him before on the blog--he came over when we thought Ava had gotten mixed up with a poisonous frog, and he is the one who led the rainforest hike I blogged about.  Just unbelievable and we don't have the details, but he was such a treasure to the island.  We are thinking of his family.  I always pack a smoke detector in my suitcase because I am afraid of a housefire.  Huge tanks of propane outside the kitchen, the wiring is probably not up to US code, and it's not like we can just dial 9-1-1.  I don't know what the circumstances are with Jim's death, but we have stayed in two homes that have only one door, and the windows all have metal louvres that would prevent egress.  For the cost of a cheap plastic smoke detector, you buy yourselves a few extra minutes to get out.  Check your batteries, my friends!

I have to run--we are getting on a boat to go snorkeling while Bob gives a scuba "resort course" to three tourists!  These are his first victims...I'm taking my camera!