Island Med Student

I’ve learned four very important lessons on my second day here on the island of Dominica.

1) It rains a lot in the rain forest. Yes, yes, this seems quite obvious. But really, it rains a lot, and by a lot I mean like sometimes three times in one hour. The only thing is that it doesn’t rain here like it did in Washington DC. The weather will be completely sunny, and then without any warning whatsoever, it will start pouring. It will pour for anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, and then it will stop. No drizzling, no misting, just pouring. It’s almost useless to try and use your umbrella because by the time you get it out, it may have already stopped raining.

2) It’s hot here. I mean, really hot. When you walk outside, it feels like you’re wading through hot grease, and you begin sweating almost instantly. When you’re outside, your entire body feels like it’s covered with a sticky film. The only thing that brings any relief is the AC. Thank the gods for AC. However, if something happens and there is no AC, you’re in trouble. Which brings me to number three.

3) Not having electricity sucks. Micah and I woke up sweating this morning at 3:00 a.m. and found out that the electricity, and hence the AC was off. Micah checked the electricity box. Sad face! Dang it! No, I don’t mean Micah had a sad face, I mean the electricity box did. Let me explain. In Dominica, most houses do not have standard electricity that you use every month and then pay a bill. Instead, they have a pay as you go service. You walk down to your local dealer, pay them money, they give you a code, and then you enter the code in your box, and it charges it up. There is a happy face on the box to indicate that you have electricity. However, when you’re getting low or run out completely, the happy face turns into a sad face. When you wake up in the morning with no AC in the jungle, your face also turns to a sad face.

4) The mosquitos love me, I mean really love me. I have no idea why, but the mosquitos and other bugs are eating me alive. I’ve been putting on my bug spray every day, yet my entire body is covered with little red bumps. Micah has been completely unaffected. He doesn’t have a single bite on him and he hasn’t even been wearing bug spray! The strange thing is that I’m convinced that the little boogers are invisible, because I never see them biting me. I just see the little, red, itchy bumps all over my body popping up! I guess I can say that I’m very glad that I brought extra hydrocortisone with me.

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