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!