Ross student cars.

Tim's car has broken down several times. It is a kind of joke, even with Ross students. When Larissa was here, I had the honour of catching a ride in a Ross student car. I think that 2 of the 4 doors opened from the inside, 1 window did not roll down, and it didn't have a proper trunk latch or something. I am not exaggerating or knocking it. Our family does not even have a car of our own here.
Shelby's on the other hand, have a pretty decent car that has not broken down, as far as I know.
Back to the story, Tim's car broke down again. It was towed from the shop because the mechanic can not fix it with available parts. The car is some kind of foreign jobby that was not imported to the states, but was obviously imported to Dominica. So the part, a distributor, will take 6 weeks to get here from Europe. Until then, Tim had the car at the shop and promised to get it out of there so they could have that space for other jobs. Well, he paid the mechanic, the mechanic paid the tow driver and the tow driver towed it to the bridge on the other side of the river!
You have to understand the river here in Trafalgar. When the rain falls heavy, the water comes over the bridge making it almost impossible to cross, probably not for a tow truck, but that is another story.
The river was high so Tim's car stayed on the other side of the river last night. Leroy, the owner of the place we rent, helped tow it the fifth of a mile uphill to get it here. He towed it slightly uphill from here so they could roll it back into its place. Travis called for Trevin and they all pushed a little and the car rolled back, the only problem was that Tim didn't turn the wheel sharp enough and hit the palm tree. There isn't any significant damage, but they hit the tree!
Just thought it was funny. No pictures today.

Sickness, rain, and shadow bunnies

Lately, we have been dealing with sickness. We are doing all we can to attain health in all of us, but we are contending with Caribbean diseases to which our bodies are not immune. The soil, water, and air are different here than at home. It may be considered more pure, but the diseases here are not what our bodies can fight off when we continue to contract every disease (it seems).
Swine flu has hit the island. A police officer who just came back from the US has brought it into the country. I am planning on staying home as much as possible. Travis can buy groceries when he is in town for school. As for the children and I, staying home seems the best option.
Taleah is showing signs of tonsillitis again. So far, colloidal silver, ibuprofen, and coconut oil are helping. We are trying to keep from using mainstream antibiotics as long as possible to keep from having antibiotic resistant viruses or bacteria.

It has been pretty rainy here but some of the sunsets are spectacular! Here is one not-so-spectacular sunset that is a little blurred; it takes forever for my camera to take a picture in the dark! By the time I was able to take a good picture, most of the color was out of the sky.

Miss Taya at the neighbor's house.

Trajun at the neighbor's house.

Taya and Trajun

Last night Trajun was laying down to go to sleep. I was attempting to entertain him with some shadow puppets on the ceiling. I made an evil bunny with my hand and he said, "No, no, no." and covered his head with the blanket and would not come out! I couldn't help but shake with laughter. I tried to show him that it was just my hand, but he was adamant about keeping his head covered.

Master Trajun

Trajun has arrived at the age where he tells people off. When Trinton and Trevin are arguing and carrying on, Trajun will walk in the room and use gibberish to tell off Trevin. He has done this a few times to me and I have turned my finger to him and told him to knock it off.
The other night we had a dog pile and one of the littles started fussing about being held. Trajun started wagging his finger and yelling at Dad because he was the biggest one in the pile. We were laughing so hard that we couldn't tell him no!
Trajun has a major interest in cars. Any toy car he sees is his. Any car that drives by he tells us about. He knows which are buses and which are cars.
Here is a pic of Trajun and "Uncle Ash" before we went to the Saturday morning market. Every time we see a "bus" like this Trajun yells "Ash's bus!"

A summer day in the Caribbean

This week we have had heavy rains. The water has been shut off a few times, we have had brown faucet water and very low water pressure. It seems to be better today. Yea! Clean showers.
This river is flowing over the road that is at a low point in the Roseau Valley. I think it is called Roseau river, but I am not sure. It is the one that flows beside the town of Roseau and meets the ocean right by the open air produce market. Travis took this picture 2 hours after he came across it in a car on his way home from school. The bridge was dry. In this picture the water is about 4-5 feet higher than normal! It is a good thing it goes down within 2 hours and that there is another way out of the valley.

Here is Trafalgar Falls. Usually you have to nearly strain your eyes to see it, but this picture shows what happens when we have heavy rains.

Here is a pic of the river with Tim, Trinton, Taleah, and Spot standing by.

Here are Trevin, Trinton, and Trajun right after a run in with the hair clippers! This time, Trajun got up on the chair and sat with the loud clippers going. Last time was such a fight, I had to physically hold him down!

A Walk to the Falls

Travis and the children walked to Trafalgar Falls with Bene (Ben ee) and Julie. They came and stayed last night for a bit of rest. Wonder if they did get rest with my five?
This is the Daddy of the Falls. There is another smaller falls called the Mommy hidden to the left.

Bene is 6 months pregnant. Julie is the daddy.

Here are our middle three. They almost look like they are all the same height!

I think this is a good picture of Trinton, Taleah, and Taya in front of the Falls.

Here is Trevin needing a haircut.

And Trajun wearing his outfit from Grandma Lorna and Grandpa Ben.

Updates

I know, I should have been more on top of this thing. It has been a very busy past 8 months. The children are doing very well and growing fast. Travis is nearing the middle of his MD2 semester; he just passed first exams. I am working on courses for medical transcription.
We sat for a new family picture.

We are out of here in 10 months!! So, if any of you plan to come down, make plans.