Salybia clinic

This is the group that went to the first clinic of the semester. Check out the huge lymphoma we watched be removed. Then, the doc let us stitch him back up! I was so jealous of that girl - she's also a first semester! I snapped that pic.

can opener

I destroyed it; what can I say? That left part was flush with the handle bars when I started using it.

chocolate

Looks great, right? Tastes terrible. I didn't take the time to slowly temper out the bits of cacao and you can feel the grainy texture in your mouth.

By the way, these are the first fruits that I picked off a tree on the side of the road!

dinner

Nothing like a plate of rice to make a homesick girl feel better.

bug bites galore

Bugs that bite: please, please go away! I count 5 on my arms and 15 on my legs right now. Ick.

sugarcane

Today, I had crushed sugarcane juice with lemon zest/juice. It's the bestest cold drink yet!

I yam what I yam

Guess these starchy vegetables that I mixed with onions and peppers!

Market haggling

It's official: I heart haggling prices at the market!

These sugarcane were $3/bag but I got 3/$5. Sco0o0o0re!

Portsmouth market

I went to the market this morning! gots lots o' goodies:

Raw cocoa pods
plantains
bananas - 24/$2
green beans - $2/ handful - this seems to be the going rate?
sugarcane 3/$5
fistfuls of rosemary and thyme
2 kinds of chinese cabbage - with herbs, for $10
cristophene/alligator pear - $5
tomatoes and peppers - for $5
dasheen/taro and yam - for $5

I am certain that I get the "foreigner's" deal, but that's what I get for not looking local. On the other hand, people do mention that "people who look like me" like this or that. Namely, dasheen. (It's true! I do like dasheen back home.) Also, I ask for the price of bananas by calling them 'figs' because that's the term used here. I am excited to absorb the local color of the language.

I suppose I'm a walking advertisement with my big bags of STUFF.

I decided to go with nothng imported this week, which I will assume is much cheaper. Who eats apples and grapes on a tropical island, anyways?

EDIT: Just to be thorough, this is some more stuff that I bought later in the day. I figured it wouldn't be worth that $1-2 in savings to buy eggs far away from home because they come a dozen in a plastic bag; N broke 8 out of 12 when he bought them in Roseau!

eggs - $9/dozen
1/2 lb black forest ham - $11
1/2 lb turkey - $12
white bread - $3.50/loaf

Interestingly, H mentioned that the local bread here is made with LARD. This sounds disgusting and I'm now so much more motivated to make me own.

To digress, I footed the bill when H and I went to Tomatoes Restaurant to buy deli meat, bread, and my order of fries. Apparently, marbled rye bread costs $27/loaf. Ri-dic. Whole Grain Sa-weet Crunch bread is calling my name! I'm excited to fork over $30 for a muffin load pan now!

Locker

My locker has been squatted! Who wants a freshman locker anyways? It was disappointing to arrive on Friday to find the lock had not yet been cut. It was supposed to happen the day before and I had to borrow a friend's locker on for anatomy lab.

Fruits from a truck

I picked up some citrus fruits from the back of a truck on the way on home from school: 4 grapefruits, 2 oranges, 2 hybrid tangerine-orange things, plus one unknown. I'm guessing it's the taro-related malanga. All for $4 EC (2.67 EC = 1 USD). He also has chayote, which I'll pick up later.

Fo0o0o0o0d

I woke up this morning with the urge to make some rugaleh cookies! Yum. Yum. Then I realized that I'm in the Commonwealth of Dominica and I have seriously no cooking supplies. Bo0o0o.

depths of my backpack

My backpack is so big that I just found some crop pants and toothpaste at the bottom of the bag! I've been hiking up and down trails, traveling all over the island with my bottles of water, toothpaste, and pants!

water pitcher

Items that died en route: space saver and my now duct-taped Brita water pitcher. Bo0o0o0!