From All Over The Island

Today was the island wide fellowship for the Church of Christ in Dominica. It's basically an all day affair, but we decided to leave early just because we have to keep up with so many children. From the very beginning I wasn't sure about us staying the entire day and had voiced my concerns to Dilian earlier in the week. Having thought about it he decided that I had a point and arranged for transportation to take us home shortly after the main service. He dropped by last night to let us know that everything was setup and that we just needed to be ready to head out at the normal time.

Shortly after he left Granny got to talk to a few of the kids. They had a fair amount to say to her. :)


I got up late (the phone that acts as my alarm was turned off), but still had plenty of time to get ready for Church. In fact, I let everyone else sleep for another hour (except for Elizabeth who was already up). Brother Freddy was here to pick us up a little after 9AM and I think the bus was full and headed for Castle Comfort (where the fellowship was being held) by 9:30 or so.

They have a much larger building than Scotts Head (which is hardly surprising considering how close to Roseau they are). It's also a very beautiful building. The tile work on the floor was very interesting.


Brother Dilian was main speaker and the topic was “Complacency”. The sermon was well thought out and well delivered. All Dilian's sermons have been good, this one was excellent. I missed bits and pieces chasing after this child or that and I had to watch from outside because the building was packed and I thought it best to keep the kids outside. (There was actually a crowd out there with us. As big as the building is it wasn't big enough for everyone who was there. Especially considering how warm it was today, lol.)

The services ran about an hour longer than normal. After that there was a dinner. We had been gone for over five hours by the time we got home (Castle Comfort is about 20 to 25 minutes from here). It wasn't a problem at all, but we had left Ben home. He had a little stomach trouble this morning and thought it would be best if he stayed home. He's old enough to make those kind of decisions, so we left him. When we got home I asked him if he had been worried. Amazingly he said “Yes, I was. What took you so long?” I figured he wouldn't even have known what time it was, lol.

As soon as we walked in we got ready and headed down to the sea. Isaac was asleep and Rachel wanted to come so Ben stayed home and watched Isaac and Titus with Alec. (Neither of them wanted to go anyway. In fact, I think Alec went and took a nap.)


Once we got down there I pulled out the underwater camera. I was looking for things of real interest rather than the same old same old. While I was looking around Gabriel spotted a Lion Fish. (That boy has got some good eyes.) We hadn't seen one yet and I went to try to snap a photo.


He saw it from about that far away. Can you see it? (Keep in mind he didn't know it was there, lol.) I did get some closer shots for people with less powerful eyes.


Then I swam over to see if that little lobster was still in it's little hangout. It was.


Here's Abby diving, a fish that was bigger than it looks in the photo, and a great shot of a sea anemone that closed just as I took the picture.


Patience is a virtue, however, and the second shot caught it in “full bloom”.


To wrap up I snapped a pipe fish (I think), a flounder who thought I couldn't see him, and a school of small fish I thought were pretty.


At the moment I am worn down and burned out, but it was a great day. Tomorrow looks like it's going to be super busy. I have to go to town and try to get the Internet hookup ordered for the new house. We want to file for our extension before the end of the week and move Saturday. It's going to be a little Robinson Crusoe for a week or two, but I think we'll be alright.

Either way, I hope you enjoyed this post. It's time to bring it to an end. So, goodnight from Dominica!

Here There Be Sea Urchins

OK, now the title of my post probably makes it clear that I saw some sea urchins today and I will get to that in time. First, however, I have to rewind to last night. The combination of hot and tired is messing with my brain a bit so I forgot to mention that we had pancakes for dinner last night. I made up some milkless eggless batter (from a recipe I found on the Internet) and Alec and Gabriel cooked them up. Rachel had recovered enough by that time to eat a few. They were actually very good and are another cheap meal. So, in all probability, we've introduced a little more variety into our breakfast menu. I want to start making biscuits soon, but we need to buy a biscuit cutter first, lol.

Before we move on with what happened today I have to share some “last night” pictures. They are: Ben with Titus tied on his back, Alec in his role as “Captain Magma” the superhero, and Caleb holding Titus without Titus screaming. Caleb wanted me to take a picture of it. It's not a rare thing, but I guess it makes him feel good that his baby brother likes him :) Anyway, here they are:


Now we can move on to today. This morning after bakes Rachel started making fired green banana chips (Alec had actually made a small batch last night). They taste almost exactly like potato chips and nothing at all like bananas. The process was so successful and the product so delectable that we plan to buy a frying basket and make up loads at the time as a regular snack.


A little later in the morning I took the kids down to the section of beach where I wanted to take some photographs. We tried to sneak out, but Felicity caught us as we were leaving so we took her as well. It ended up being me, Gabriel, Alec, Libby, Abby, Caleb, and Felicity.


OK, that image went a littlw weird didn't it...


It was at this location that I took all my underwater pictures. I had been snorkeling around for about 30 seconds when I popped up and told the boys to take the kids to the section of beach where we normally went. You'll be able to tell why from the pictures. Believe it or not I wasn't trying to take a lot of pictures of sea urchins. I was trying to get shots of the fish, but the urchins were all over. Also, the batteries in the camera died... we have got to get some rechargeable batteries for it... I would have got a lot more pictures had the camera held out.


Obviously I need to go back with more battery power. I think I'm just going to sneak down there during one of my walks and not take any of the younger children with me. We don't need any of them stepping on one of those things.

Anyways, when we got back Isaac began throwing a very loud and extended fit. After a few minutes Rachel came up with a way to solve his problem. Then she made herself a fruit smoothie out of frozen banana, fresh pineapple, and some ice.


Rachel snapped a shot of Gabriel trying to take a nap before she started cooking pizza for dinner.


Obviously, I snuck a couple of kid pictures in there for the grandparents. :)

It's early, but I wrapping up here. We want to get some rest before tomorrow. It's probably going to be a long day. I'll try to get plenty of pictures. I'll also try to get pictures of anything else that happens tonight. For the moment, however, goodnight from Dominica!