Refreshed and Rejuvented

Hello friends,
How was the rest of your week and weekend...I guess that most of you are getting back into the swing of things after being on March Break.....our break isn't until Easter here so we will have from the Thursday before Good Friday until the following Monday off , so 11 days in total.....sounds good to me!! I am really looking forward to a chunk of time off as I haven't had that since I arrived in Saba (I started my job just 6 days after I got here!!)

It is 27, sunny and beautiful here this morning...I am sitting at my laptop, looking out my patio doors in our bedroom, feeling a gentle breeze blowing through my room, doves cooing, birds chirping, kids are gone to school (my monday off) and I can't think of a better, more soothing way to enter the week! I had a fantastic weekend and I hate for it to end.....I always enjoy the weekends so much......on Friday night we (the SOS, significant others of saba, basically spouses of med students) had a goodbye dinner for a spouse whose husband is finished here the end of April and she will be leaving.....(we have welcome dinners for new SOS members and goodbye dinners when they leave and a whole h ost of other interesting and fun events, like the easter egg hunt that we are doing for the island children) We had dinner at an amazing restaurant and just sat and socialized for a few hours....it was very nice and relaxing......on saturday I had an SOS meeting at the park and I have been voted as Co-president of the SOS group as the current president will be leaving end of August...so the next few months the duties will be transitioned over to myself and another spouse, Rachel.....Rachel is very interesting actually, her husband is a PhD who teaches here at the med school and he has decided to attend the med school so he starts next semester (in May) Isn't that neat? There are alot of people in that situation....Saba has what we call non-trads....older persons (over 30) who have had former careers, like chiropractors (there are 5-6 here) pharmacists, physician's assistants, paramedics, etc etc. It is a very interesting pool of students.....now there are your younger people too, but alot of these non-trads kicking around. There is even a 53 year old man here from NB who has been a government employee there for years and is going to retire from there soon...and his son just completed his 5 semesters here too.....this older gentleman is planning to become a phyician and then go do missionary work in his native home south america, which I think is awesome! (his wife is from PEI by the way.....small world!) I told him that I would love to join him andhis wife sometime in a few years when they are down there doing their work.....it is a dream of mine to do some missionary work at some point (gotta get Joe finished school someday first!) So back to Rachel, she is a really nice person, close to my age, with three 5 year olds that they adopted and a 14 year old son.....so she and I are going to take over the leadership of the SOS group, which should be exciting......so what was I telling you about? oh yeah, the weekend......on Saturday we had our SOS monthly meeting and we had praise team practice for church as well....Joe and are taking over the leadership of the music ministry at our church here (it is a student church) and it is so much fun....we are really enjoying ourselves....and again meeting and spending time with some neat people....Sam, the current leader who is from Toronto, but originally Hong Kong, I think.....The other Sam , who is from Winnipeg but originally Korea.....Shauna, from Ontario and Rapha who grew up a child of missionarys and has been all over the world (really cool person) There are some amazing characters in our church and it is so neat that we have come from all over the place and all kinds of different and unique backgrounds, yet because we come together for the common purpose of worshipping God together, we are like family....it is really neat.....we just automatically have so much in common and enjoy spending time together....So back to the weekend, Sunday evening we had a birthday party for one of the student's wife, Lisa.....we had a great time! The kids and I also spent the afternoon playing down at the tidal pools yesterday so that was lots of fun.....the waves were crashing over the man made rock wall and soaking us! So as you can see, weekends are wonderful and very enjoyable....why can't everyday be a weekend I ask????? Who made this work thing anyway?
I am in the middle of some planning for myself......just trying to reorganize my life here to get a better balance.....there are some social work prospects on the horizon, not sure what they will be and not likely any full time work but some interesting prospects none the less....so I heading in that direction....I met with the social worker, Edith who flies over here once a month for 3 days from Curaco.....she is a really neat lady who has been coming here for 25 years now.....she comes again next month and I am going to shadow here around and see what she is up to! She is a jack of all trades and when i asked her what she does here on Saba, she said "everything" from housing issues to parenting to marital issues etc etc.....so I am interested in seeing what happens there.....Saba also brought a child psychiatrist over this month (and they do every 2-3 months) from Curaco as well and I went down to the hospital and met her.....very nice lady....we had a great chat and I pitched myself to her and how I could be of assistance to her when she comes here (meet with kids in between and write progress reports to her etc, do some counseling with the parents, coping strategies for the kids etc) She was very interested and thought that would be great if we could somehow find a way to work together......now to convince Saba?? I also had an email from a lady at an organization asking if I would be interested in putting on a parenting course for young adults.....so, things may get interesting here before long......like I said , this is the direction I am heading.......
Joe is in the middle of exams right now again, so he has been studying alot this week.....well he does every week......so much material to cover, I feel for him! Glad that it is him and not me.....I think that overall he is really happy to be in med school.....
So all in all, I am feeling lighter this week....the post visit/company blues have subsided and I am not feeling as homesick.....also the great weekend helped......to have friends to spend time with and hang out with......I still do miss all of you and once I find a way to use the phone cheaply, I will start making calls....but for now email will have to do.....anyway take care friends, have a wonderful week and God Bless.