"Where you go, I will go."

Even if it's to Dominica. Don't let my positive attitude fool you. I hate this place. I like the people and the views and the fact that Ryan and I are on the road to accomplishing our goal of him becoming a doctor, but I still really hate this place. I'm tired of sweating ALL day long. Not soft, glistening sweat. Huge sweat balls running down my neck and face all day. Other women have stopped wearing a particular undergarment (it wouldn't be ladylike for me to spell it out) because it is so uncomfortable and ends up being a big sweat-catcher. There is also Dengue Fever going around. You get it from mosquitoes. It's been declared an epidemic. According to Wikipedia... "This infectious disease is manifested by a sudden onset of fever, with severe headache, muscle and joint pains (myalgias and arthralgias - severe pain gives it the name break-bone fever or bonecrusher disease) and rashes; the dengue rash is characteristically bright red petechia and usually appears first on the lower limbs and the chest - in some patients, it spreads to cover most of the body. There may also be gastritis with some combination of associated abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea." One of my friends has dengue fever right now. She has been feeling terrible and has a horrible rash all over her body. So, we wear tons and tons of bug spray. It really burns when you put it on after shaving. I'm tired of smelling like bug spray. Our sheets smell like bug spray. In the past week there have been 2 boa constrictors around campus. Craig saw one and said it was as big around as the top of his arm. Now, I know you don't know Craig or how big his arm is, but he's about the size of my dad. We are living in the Jungle Book. We have to walk around cows all the time, it's gotten to be the normal for us. The other night my taxi came to a screeching halt because a cow was blocking the whole road. The driver jumped out and charged the cow and was yelling and cussing at it to get out of the road and all I could think was that I hate this place. Sometimes I almost cry because I want someone else to cook for us. I want to just run by McDonalds or go to any drive through, but as far as I know there are no drive throughs on the island. And the bugs. Oh my goodness, I'm afraid I'm going to have to be checked into an insane asylum. There are teeny tiny ants everywhere. On the kitchen table, all over the floors and walls and bathroom and our nightstands. When I get in bed at night I have the creepy-crawlies because I feel like they're all over me. I just squish them with my fingers these days. I used to always grab a tissue, but since I'm constantly squashing them, I can't waste that many tissues.

I know that we are here for a reason because we prayed a LOT before we came here. Just please keep us in your prayers. We're not miserable, we just don't like this place and will never return after we complete our 4 semesters here. Before I got here I invited all of our friends and family to come and stay with us. Of course you are still invited, but I have some advice for you. Don't come. If you have vacation time and money to take a vacation, this is not where you want to come. I'm not writing all of this so people will feel sorry for us, I just wanted to give you a realistic picture of our life here. I will say that I feel like we benefit from church so much more than we did at home. At home we did not need as much encouragement as we need these days. I have always loved going to church, but now it is the highlight of my week and I literally count down the time until church starts. When I am in church I feel like I'm in a safe place.