after arriving at the school

Once we got to the school and was safely on solid, unmoving ground we found all of our luggage again. They had just unloaded the trucks and you gathered you stuff up again and made yet another pile of your belongings. This would actually be pretty embarrassing if not everyone was doing the same thing! But once again we gathered all of our stuff and the office found someone to take us to our house. I am so glad we had pre-arranged housing. Some people came not knowing where they were going to be living, so they stayed the first night at the housing office and the next day they were taken on a housing tour to find a place to live. I think this is a great service, however with two kids and that much luggage it was nice to have a place already lined up and waiting for us. Mostly because it ment one less gathering and moving of all our stuff:)

When we got to our house, we unloaded the luggage and met the landlords. They were awesome! Kyler was asleep by this time so it was nice to be able to lay him down somewhere. Our landlords stayed and visited for a while, and our neighbors who we had met online came over to introduce themselves. But then everyone was gone and Erick and I looked at each other, and at the same time thought, "We have no water, no food, we don't know where anything is, and the kids are hungery." We didn't know what we were going to do, and then all of a sudden someone knocked on the door. It was Craig and Ralna Wade. They are third semester, and they were looking for a family that had two kids that were suposed to be coming in that day. They were hosting them for dinner that night and help them get accuainted with the island. They had gone to the Housing office and they told them that we were the only family with kids that had come in that day and told them where they had dropped us off at. Luckily they have a vehicle here on the island, so they drove up looking for them and found us. We could not have been any more blessed. They are awesome people, and immediatly Ralna said, "Okay get in the car and we will take you to Tina's, she is the only store still open and get you some food and water. They showed us around the store and helped me through me shock!

The Stores here are like convienent stores back home. There is only one register and a small counter. They acually stuff quite a bit of stuff in the stores especially for how small they are. But it was a real shock to see and know that this is where I will be shopping for the next 16 months. The prices are in sane, I bought a box of Post Honey Comb cereal for $25.00 and a box of generic lucky charms for $8.00. I was about to cry when I checked out with only a few groceries and they told me my total was over $300.00. Rlana kept telling me, "It's okay, this is what we all do, we have to feed our families and there will be good days and bad days and we just deal with all of them." It was nice to have her there helping me, and knowing that she had been there too.

The next day was not quite as eventful. We went to breakfast at the school, toured the campus, and had lunch at Subway. It tasted so good to have a turkey sandwhich. We then went to the bank to open an account and the cell phone store to get phones. We stopped by Bryn's school to see where she would be going and that was really fun for her. It is really cute and looks just like a school back home. The classes are really small since it will only be kids of students and professors attending. After this he had held the kids off long enough, they had been asking to go swimming since they woke up, so we went to the beach.

It was really fun. They don't have huge sandy beaches like some islands, since this island was made from a volcano, but they have beaches, and they are still really fun. Kyler was a little hesitent at first which is not like Kyler with water. But he finally warmed up and then loved it. After his first turn out in the middle with Erick it was Bryn's turn to go out with him. Kyler was standing right by me, and I looked down to turn the camera on to take a picture of Bryn with Erick and when I looked up Kyler was gone! He had ran to the water and had fallen down, so he was under the water and couldn't get up. It scared all of us so bad, and we had ANOTHER huge talk about how we have to be careful at the beach. I should have know better anyway with Kyler, but I only glanced down to turn the camera on and he was gone.

On our way home we got in our first rain storm. It rained really hard then all of a sudden stopped. When it first started it was like the kind of rain back home, that when it starts you know it is going to be a long, cold day. However here, it is still really hot and humid even when it rains, and then it just stops and it's over. It doesn't ruin the whole day.

The first morning!

A view from our house. This is looking back to the south. The kids love to see all the sailboats!

The Tennis courts, that made Erick so happy to see!

Bryn on campus at the basketball courts.

Kyler Found a basketball court, and between that and the water he is happy!