Tobago for less than 24 hours

We were in Tobago for less than 24 hours (as the post title suggests...well tells). We flew in Sunday night around 7 and left Monday around 5. In the mean time we stayed at an awesome house. (one of our friends hooked us up w/ her families house) We also saw 3 different forts, a mystery grave, some lovely scenery, the beach and had a blast of a time.

One unforgettable part was when a bird flew into our van through the open window and slammed into Jeffrey and died. Apparently he's been working out his arms.

For lunch on Monday we ate by the beach. Amanda and I ordered curry crab and dumplings. What we didn't know was that the crab still came in its shell. For the first time I had the honor of spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to get meat out of something well protected withOUT a hammer or anything. They only provided us with plastic sporks. Surprisingly handy for scooping meet out.

All in all Tobago was lots of fun but the beaches in Barbados are still better. :-) Especially for surfing.

Trinidad and Tobago

So I get to go visit Trinidad and Tobago TOMORROW! i'm very excited. Sad to be leaving Barbados, though I will be back for 2 days before i'm gone for good. Excited to see another country and see friends from this year and go to the Caribbean Student Conference.
I'm really going to miss the Caribbean. Though it's hard to believe that this is the first time we're leaving this island for another. stupid expensive traveling.

Summer Project has Arrived...in it's entirety

The summer project group arrived Wednesday. Our first encounter with them was Thursday afternoon for some training. Their first encounter with Cheffette was Thursday night for dinner and the memorable 1st bus ride happened Friday night as they overshot our bus stop and took a night tour of the West coast of the island.

They're an awesome group. 8 students, 4 staff. I spent a full day with Michelle Essary picking up Becky (the last student to arrive) at the airport on Saturday. Catching 4 buses in one day has a way of eating up your time. Might actually miss catching buses after this...in a weird way.

I almost cried on the bus Saturday morning on the way to meet Michelle because it finally hit me that I'm leaving soon; 4 weeks soon. 4 weeks seems like a long time but honestly it will fly by. My time in Barbados has been amazing. Extraordinary. (Allen says I over use amazing.) I have grown so much this year. I have experienced some of the hardest things in my life but also some of the best during this time. I shall not easily forget the lessons learned here.

I'm excited for the next weeks though and what God continues to teach me and grow me. :-)

Glass Art

This guy can do amazing stuff with glass. I saw an exhibit of his at the Orlando Museum of Art.

http://www.chihuly.com/putti/sealife007.html

http://www.chihuly.com/installations/fairchild/thesun001.html

May

Happy May Day! ....yesterday. It was a bank holiday here in Barbados so we took a team work day.

10,000 cookies

Today Amber and I cooked 10,000 cookies. Ok not really 10,000 but we sure cooked a lot. And by cooked I mean baked. Apparently cooked is the wrong word to use. I learned that today too.

Since students are all busy studying and taking exams there's not much for us to do on campus. Not very many people to find sitting around to talk to. Even meeting with my girls is a bit more of a challenge. So Amber and I got creative and decided to spend a morning baking cookies and then deliver them to a bunch of girls we know who live closer to our apartment.

We made 4 types of cookies and came up with a great list of people to encourage with our cookies. I say encouraged because they are edible and delicious if I may say so myself. We made chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin (my favorite), snicker doodles and peanut butter cookies. Basically we were mixing and measuring all morning. Thanks to our oven not working we used the boys and therefore got some good exercise running back and forth too. :-p

For all you taking exams: Persevere!! it will be over before you know it.

Beautiful Creation + me + a camera =

I took my camera to campus one day and the following is what resulted:

frangipani cluster from the pathway

This is a flower in our backyard.

water hyacinth and water lilies

from our backyard too
look at the pattern