Settling In

I woke up late today. I got to bed late last night. I decided I wasn't going to get out of bed until I heard the first taxi honk. I figured that would mean it was around 7AM. So, as soon as I heard a bus sitting at the stop I got up. Sure enough it was like 7:03. A lot of getting into the groove is figuring out just how the groove works. Now I've got two alarms I can use. If I get up with the sun it'll be around 5:50. If I get up with the taxis it's about 7:00. Now, some of you might wonder why I don't just buy an alarm clock. Well, the answer is simple: I'm too cheap to buy something I don't need. :)

Shortly after I awoke I was met by a sight so beautiful it made me smile (inside at least, it was too early to actually bother smiling with my face). I decided to take a couple of pictures of it.


Yep, that's laundry hanging on the line Rachel has strung throughout the house. It may not look beautiful to you, but after more than three weeks without a washing machine it really moved me to see clean cloths hanging there. No one even had to walk up or down the hill over it. I also snapped a shot of our living room full of kids.


Once I got settled in for work today I got a great deal done. The game development is going very well. The entire team is motivated and working hard. Rachel also got up and started working hard. We had fried turkey ham, grits, and toast for breakfast. (The toast wasn't as toasty as I normally like, but Rachel did a good job considering we don't currently have a toaster.


Around 10 I decided to go for an hour long walk to see what I could see. To begin with I thought I would take a photo of some scaffolding. I had seen something similar before, but didn't get a picture of it.


That's how most of the scaffolding is made around here :) I continued taking pictures as I headed up the hill and decided to take a photo of construction materials blocking the road.


I soon found out that the road led to a dead end. That explained why no one was complaining about it being blocked.


I went back the way I had come and decided to take a road that look less traveled. Let me tell you, that made all the difference. It was rural to say the least, lol. Of course, there was also maintained property everywhere. Around here if you see land that isn't completely covered by plants then you can be sure someone is clearing the land constantly.


I also came up on a house out there that was under construction. I don't know if the area is actually growing, but it sure looks like it is.


Shortly after I came up on a kind of road tunnel through the jungle. I deiced to stop my exploration there for the day. As I headed back I took a few more photos, including one of a sailboat for Uncle Grover.


I spent the rest of the day working and playing Neverwinter with Joey. He and I also talked a little business. It had somehow escaped my notice that Joey had a lot of experience with salt water fish tanks. I knew that was the case, but I never really thought about it. Today it hit me that he would be the perfect candidate to preform my early shrimp farming tests. Lord willing we may be able to get started in the next few weeks. I'm hoping he'll document the process and progress so I can post about it here. Shrimp farming could be a golden opportunity for us here in Dominica. Time will tell.

At around 4:30 the game crashed. I was planning to take the kids somewhere at 5:00 anyway, so I just called it a day. They wanted to go to... you guessed it! The sea!! I took a few pics for the grandparents. The rest of you will have to excuse my filling the blog with pictures of my kids playing at the coast, but the grandparents really can't get enough of it.


Rachel wanted me to end the post as I had opened it. That is to say show you some more pictures of our hanging laundry. It may not look like much to you, but it's beautiful to us.


One other thing: now that we know we're probably going to be staying in this house for two more months Rachel is getting everything put in it's place. Clothes are going into closets and chest of drawers. She's doing what she does that makes a house into a home. I'm looking forward to our up and coming spacious quarters and the large yard that goes with them. For the next few months, however, I think we'll be quite cozy in our little rental house.

I think that's enough for tonight. I want to get to bed earlier tonight and get up earlier tomorrow. So, goodnight from Dominica.