Three years ago today I started writing this blog.  Thinking back over the last few years, it’s almost impossible to remember how different life was in 2007.  We had just arrived in Dominica, wide eyed and overwhelmed, ready to embark upon this med school saga.  So much has changed since that fateful August day.  We have lived in a bungalow in the Caribbean, a high rise condo in Miami, in Andy’s childhood bedroom, in an apartment in Maryland, and in a townhouse in Atlanta.  Free time went from consisting of a day of sailing to Secret Beach to family day at the aquarium.  We have taken vacations to Antigua, Barbados, Puerto Rico, Lake Michigan, San Francisco, Disney World, and Shenandoah National Park.  We have bought (and then wrecked) a new car.  Most importantly of all, two have become three.  It’s funny to take a look at those initial blog posts and reminisce over how different life was then.  Andy summarized the first blog post below.

Andy’s Thoughts on the First Day on the Island:

A look back… Today marks 3 years to the day since this blog was started. It has been re-purposed several times over already, renamed at least 3 or 4 times, and yet still remains a significant means for updates. It has seen us through 16 very trying months of our lives isolated from the rest of the world on what most would consider to be a poor island nation. To bring things around full circle, Courtney is currently covered in mosquito bites from recent battles with the Georgia version of these pests. We have endured changes in location, changes in friendships, and the biggest kind of family change: an addition. I am only months away from completing my medical education which began concomitantly with this blog. Courtney was blessed with a stable and successful career on this journey as well. In three years, our lives have changed drastically, and the experiences that engineered this change have also changed who we are intrinsically. So therefore it seems fitting at this time to look back and comment on this post from today’s perspective, a culmination of all the knowledge and experiences gain over the past three years.

“Welcome to the Caribbean, where days linger on – teaching you to enjoy every minute of your time here. Hours ebb and flow with the tides as days wash into evenings and evenings wash into nights.”

This rings especially true since my memories of our time on the island seem to all blend together.

“so proper manners take precedence over a need to rush, rush, rush or a need for personal gain.”

Yet as I recall now, a great number of the locals were out for personal gain, and they were not above cheating or lying to your face to make an extra buck. Though there were the occasional few who were very generous, hard-working, and good-hearted.

“In our front and back yards, there are fruit trees, with everything from coconuts to oranges to bananas to starfruit. We picked a few things to start us off, but let’s just say I’m thrilled to have a huge banana tree weighed down by green bananas behind my house. Sadly, they really aren’t ripe yet – even by my standards.”

I don’t think we hardly ever got to enjoy the myriad of fruit growing about the cottage. The oranges, which never turned orange, were difficult to gage when they were ripe. The bananas would be plucked from the trees just before they ripened, either by the landlord (which of course was to be expected) or by some trespassing asshole local (see above).

“For example, we do not have one of those toilet paper rolls on the wall – it just has to sit either next to or on top of the toilet and you have to unwind it yourself.”

After 16 months of this you really miss something as simple as a toilet paper holder. I honestly can’t say I ever got used to the absence of small household “conveniences” like that.

“Also, central air. We only have A/C units in our bedrooms, plus ceiling fans in them and in the living room. Meaning that our closet and our bathroom can get pretty steamy. We’re still trying to figure out the optimal way to cool our place while keeping electricity costs low. The other big weird thing is power. We have to really conserve electricity because you pay based on usage and apparently it can be quite costly, especially with transformers to transform the voltage.”

If there were one thing I could have changed about our life on the island, it would have been this. Electricity costs comparable to US rates to allow us to run A/C 24/7. That would mean needing those damned vents in the ceiling sealed up, but that would have been just fine with me. The sounds of the jungle pouring through them were at times charming, but usually just a means to violate our privacy and a constant reminder that we didn’t live in a “normal” house.

“We’re a little on the far side from campus (10-15 minutes) but since Andy will probably get a bike, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Never got a freaking bike. Would have been useful, though that hill leading up to our place might have been a beast.

“My goals for the next 16 months are to write as much as possible, take as many pictures as possible, rest, workout, and experience things I never would not normally have had the opportunity to under other circumstances.”

At least you met all your goals, babe.

“It really is a different world down here and it will completely change the way we view our world!”

Understatement of the decade.

Well that concludes my homage to our first days on Dominica, three years after the fact. Happy Birthday, blog!