I apologize for not updating my blog. My mom was doing a fantastic job recording our events during their visit. Josh and I had fun assuming the role of host. This was the first time my parents had visited us as a married independent couple. All the sudden we were in charge! What a great and eye-opening experience.
Josh started classes today. He is officially a second year medical student. We have been frustrated with the school because of their lack of communication and organization. One example: The dean of students sent an email last night, the night before classes began, informing students of their intent to change when lectures will be posted on mediasite. Mediasite allows students to watch lectures through the Internet directly after the lecture was presented. Many advantages of mediasite include double speeding slower professors, pausing the lecture for note taking, re-watch lectures, watch miss lectures, etc. For extenuating circumstances, the school will grant students access to mediasite from the states. Now, mediasite won't be updated as frequently. The email gave no explanation for the change. We assume they are trying to encourage more students to attend the actual lecture. Ironically though, if every student attended the lecture, around 50-100 students would have to stand due to a lack of seating. We are merely frustrated with the lack of communication. We deal with these types of inconveniences daily so they amount to a migraine!
On a lighter note, we have made friends with the man who is painting our apartment complex. His name is Hendrix, like Jimi. We give him drinks and talk to him while he works. Yesterday, he promised Josh a coconut in the morning. Sure enough, we received a knock at the door around 6:45am. Of course Josh and I were still asleep! Hendrix had a huge coconut in hand. He carved a hole in the top so we could drink the milk. I was very surprised how much coconut milk tastes like fresh water. Hendrix says it is great for your digestive system and even helps "clean you out!" Later, we both agreed with him!!!! After we drank the milk, Hendrix walked home with the coconut where he used his machete to chop the coconut in half. Fresh coconut tastes very different than the packaged, sugarcoated coconut I have eaten.
Does anyone know what I can do with fresh coconut? According to Hendrix, I only have two days to use the coconut once opened. So hurry with any suggestions!!
Hope all is well. I will take pictures soon.
On Friday night, a few of our friends hosted a pig roast at their house. Josh was recruited to help man the grill. He arrived at their house around 9 am on Friday to help dig the fire pit and to help prepare the pig for roasting. There was a miscommunication between the butcher and our friends. They ordered a whole 90 lbs big from a local farmer. Apparently in Dominica, a whole pig means all the meat cut up into four parts. The butcher still included the head, liver, etc but he had divided the pig in four pieces. This cultural miscommunication caused a major problem because we had no other means to cook 90 lbs of meat but over a fire. Not to mention a pig roast is mostly fun because you get to see the pig roasting over an open fire. Cooking a pig in an oven just isn't as cool! Josh put his surgeon skills to work and used chicken wire to sew the pig back together. You can see in the picture below how they also wrapped the pig in fencing wire to help keep the pig together. They used re barb poles from a nearby construction site to hold the pig up. 
After around 6 hours of roasting, rotating the pig every 45 minutes, basting the pig in barbecue sauce and butter, and Josh constantly refilling the coals under the pig... the pig was nothing short of perfection. Everyone at the party was raving about how juicy and flavorful the meat was. Josh and our friend Court spent almost an hour being in their element. They cut the meat from the bones, feed guests who walked by and enjoyed consuming meat different than the monotony that is ground beef and chicken.
