Hurricane Gonzalo...The Icing on My Anguilla Cake

Day 1 

We started hearing about some tropical storm warnings and hurricane watches the night before. We weren’t overly concerned about this because this has happened 4 or 5 times since we have been on the island and we have never had anything but a bit of heavy rain for an hour or two. I was receiving several messages from MD1 students with anxious questions…”if the power goes out today, do we still have school?”…”how do they communicate with us to tell us to come back?”…to which I replied, “don’t worry, I am sure this will be no big deal! Go to school as usual and it will all work out”. We showed up to our 8am classes and around nine, our physical diagnosis professor informed us that at noon, the school was going to be closing for the remainder of the day and would be reopening in the morning. She told us that we should stock up on some water and non-perishables as well as candles and batteries, and that we should put our passports in a waterproof bag, just in case. I texted home and let my dad, Lisa, and sister know what might be happening, just so they wouldn’t worry and could let everyone else know if I happened to lose communication. I didn’t want to freak too many people out over nothing but I didn’t want people trying to get a hold of me and worrying when they couldn’t. 

My boyfriend Patrick and I left class early, at 10, to beat the inevitable rush to the grocery store since we had absolutely no water at home. We were standing in line along with about 20 other people, at the only open register in the place. We knew it was bad because even the local Anguillan lady in front of us was inpatient. She turned to us and said “now THIS is ridiculous. You know what would REALLY teach them a lesson…we could drop our baskets right here and just turn around and walk out. They would have to put all of this away”. I chuckled to myself at her sweetness…in North America people would do something like that because they forgot their wallet at home. By the time we got home from the store we had already received an email telling us that school was cancelled for the following day.

The power went out around 3oclock. I don’t have a cell phone here (I just use the phone services that run off of wifi)…so no power here means no cellphone, no electricity, no internet, no water. Great. It was still a bit windy out, but overall the weather wasn’t too bad. Around 5pm the wind and rain really picked up, and from there it got worse and worse. Patrick, my roommate Michael and I stood out on the balcony and watched the storm get more and more severe. A streetlight that was bolted into an electricity pole across the street started swaying back and forth and signs were blowing over. About an hour later we looked out again and watched the streetlight break right off of the pole. The storm went on and on all night long. Eventually the rain stopped and it was only a howling wind. The electricity box across the street even blew right open and a piece flew off of it.

Day 2 

We woke up to a gloomy day, but the storm had finally passed. Looking out the window, Anguilla looked significantly more post-apocalyptic than normal. My room sort of looked like a hurricane had blown through it as well from the hurricane party we had thrown in there the night before. The bathroom already smelled worse than any hospital or nursing home I had ever worked in since we hadn’t been able to flush the toilet. Out in the dining room/living room area, there was mud/muck EVERYWHERE. The house has hurricane-proof windows which kept most of the water out but there were still some puddles and a healthy splattering of mud covering all of the furniture and floors. The dishes were starting to pile up and we were just hopeful that we were going to get power back soon so that we’d have water and could get all of this mess cleaned up. 

Later that day after cleaning up what we could we went for a bit of a drive. There were electricity poles and lines down everywhere. There was all kinds of damage to all sorts of buildings, roofing blown off….you name it. It was clear it was going to take awhile to get Anguilla back to the way it was. Anguilla simply doesn’t have the manpower, heavy equipment or resources to just piece this back together overnight. We decided to stop by Patrick’s place to see if his water was working because we weren’t sure if his power needed to be working in order for his water to work. Sure enough, no power or water there, either. His landlord told us that he heard it would likely be several days until power was back up there, and probably closer to a week until there was power out where my house is!

One of the grocery stores thankfully had a generator so we stopped there in hopes of picking up some more water, and luckily they still had some. We scored twelve 1 gallon jugs. We were also starting to worry about all of the food in the fridge and freezer at this point and we were able to find another small store that had some ice. We got home and filled the large cooler that Lisa got us when she was visiting (THANK YOUUUU LISA) with ice and food we knew we wanted to keep and also threw some ice in the freezer with the rest of the food and tossed the rest in the trash.

Later that night our landlord brought us a big 10 gallon bucket of water with the instructions, “now you all shit in the toilet, then dump some water and it will flush”….well thanks.

Before bed, we each took a “shower” using a gallon bottle of water - half into a bowl that sat in the bottom of the shower to wash with and then poured the other half over us to rinse off. Man, if felt wonderful. The effects didn’t last long however - it was a HOT night…it was about 30 degrees all night (or 85 degrees for the ‘Mericans reading this), with no fans and absolutely no breeze.

Day 3

I finally caved and decided it was worth it to use a bit of the water that my landlord brought to wash some of the mud off of the floors because it was driving me absolutely nuts, so I poured some in the mop bucket and tackled it with pretty good results. It definitely made a difference. All of the rugs were still wet so the musty smell was still there but the smell of the floor cleaner helped some. We also caved and tossed everything that was left in the fridge and the freezer in the trash because it was stinking up the place too and cleaned those out. We headed out to try to find somewhere to charge up our laptops because everything was completely dead and we found a restaurant with a generator that had power and working wifi so we were able to charge up and connect with family at home and let them know that everything is OK.

We sat at the restaurant for a couple of hours waiting for things to charge up and while we were sitting there we received an email from our class representative letting us know that power was back up at the school so we would have classing resuming the next day. Wonderful. The classroom was going to smell great!

Night time was probably the hottest yet. We were happy to have charged laptops though to get a bit of studying done and to be able to watch a movie when it got super dark in order to pass the time. We decided to save our “bottle shower” for the morning because we knew it would be a sweaty sleep.

Day 4

We showed up to school after our bottle shower and found that about 60% or so of the class showed up. We were happy to hear that they had at least postponed our Physical Diagnosis quiz until the following Monday. It was sort of funny to hear all of the different stories about everyone’s different experiences so far. Some students were quite bitter about everything that had been going on and others were laughing about the whole situation. Several students had got their power back over the course of the night but most were still without power. Island Harbour (where I live) was one of the worst places hit and I was hearing it could be at least a few more days until power was restored in the area. Many students went to hotels that had generators to stay, something I hadn’t thought about. When we had heard that they were resuming classes already, we couldn’t believe it and were kind of annoyed. Despite not being able to shower and the frustrations of the past couple of days, however, it only made sense to be at school. There was power, running water, internet, flushing toilets, and it kept us from getting further and further behind in studies. So, here we are, still waiting for power, but carrying on. What an adventure!

I want patience, and I want it NOW!

Of everything that Anguilla has taught me, I must admit, it has probably taught me patience more than anything. I have always considered myself to be a pretty patient person, but this place has tested my patience more than anything before. Working as a nurse prior to starting medical school required a TON of patience. I was dealing with elderly people and people who were extremely ill for the majority of my career, and it took a great deal of patience and understanding. Living in this country has taught me patience in a whole new way. This post is all about how that has happened, and all about what I think people should know about living in Anguilla before moving here. These are all things I certainly wish I had known before moving here!

1. First of all, just come with no expectations - leave them at home!! If you have expectations, you are going to be disappointed. Bottom line!
2. Leave your laptop plugged in at all times! The power can go out at any time, storm or no storm. There is no telling how long it will go out for. I am staring at my laptop for, oh….probably 16-18 hours a day. When you are a medical student, your laptop is your lifeline. There is NOTHING worse than the power going out and you look up and your battery life is at 13%. Also, in many households, when the power goes out, the water goes out also.
3. The internet is unpredictable and SLOW. It goes out without warning. Streaming videos is impossible most of the time and youtube is mostly a thing of the past. When I came here I thought FaceTime and Skype was going to be a great way to keep up communication with family and friends and it is just unrealistic because most of the time it just doesn't work.
4. Keep all perishable food items in tupperware containers. Bugs are rampant. They can eat through cardboard, ziplock bags, the bags that rice come in, etc. It’s brutal when you go to cook the pasta you bought a couple of days ago, pour it into the water and it is full of bugs! (sometimes that can happen straight from the grocery store, but that’s another story). To keep the bugs limited, keep everything in the fridge, or in tupperware.
5. To go along with #3, raid is your best friend. It will kill just about anything. It might take some time for the bigger critters, but it WILL work. You ARE going to see critters. You will probably see critters that you can not identity. Just spray them and wait. If they are really scary, spray them and go hide till tomorrow, you’ll come back and they’ll be dead.
6. There will be lizards that live in your house. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They eat other critters that are probably worse. Poisonous spiders and millipedes, for example.
7. Wave at everybody you see. Everybody. Otherwise, they’ll think you’re an asshole.
8. Locals are automatically going to assume you are a rich tourist. That is just the way it is.
9. DRIVE CAREFULLY! People don’t wear seat belts. People don’t use turn signals. People drive 10-20km/hr for no reason at all. The roads are mostly very curvy so there are very few opportunity to pass said individuals. If you DO manage to pass these people, don’t get excited. There is likely another one of these people just up ahead and you will soon be behind another one. There are random goats, cows, dogs, chickens and Anguillans everywhere and hitting them is probably not a good idea. People will slam on their brakes to talk to people that they know if they see them walking down on the side of the road or if they see them driving toward them in the opposite direction, so don’t follow closely. On that same note, be careful coming around corners because cars may be stopped in the middle of the street having a conversation. People often drive intoxicated. It is not illegal to drink a beer while driving down the road. There really are not many enforced road rules. I have seen women holding their babies as they drive WHILE drinking beers. JUST BE CAREFUL.
10. Speaking of cars, they are much different here. First of all, the gas is very low quality and extremely expensive. It is between 7 and 8 dollars a gallon and it is “gunky”. Therefore, your fuel filter will need to be changed a lot more often. Your car will have problems often and will have lots of “breakdowns”. Mechanics specialize in “quick fixes” - ductape is their best friend. Tires aren’t made to last and many of the roads are filled with potholes and are gravel with many large rocks. Cross your fingers each morning before starting your car up. Rental cars are slightly better, however they will run you between 300-400 a month. If you have money, that might be a better option for you.
11. One last thing in respect to driving, people honk every time they see someone they know. Which is about every third person. So don’t be alarmed. They aren’t honking at you.
12. The environment is different. It is humid. The water that comes out of your tap is from a cistern that collects rainwater. Your hair and your skin will really be affected as a result. Many people have hair that becomes brittle and hair that falls out as a result, and your skin may freak out as well. The water is really hard on your clothes as well. Leave any clothes that you want to keep in good condition at home. Your favourite soft sweaters for example. Wash them once and they will be scratchy as heck.
13. People here are in no hurry. There is no such thing as “a quick trip to the grocery store” or a “quick stop at the bank”. It is not weird for people to be texting on their phones as they are serving you - this is accepted. Patience is a must! As a student, don’t expect to go and “run an errand” on your one hour lunch break, there is no guarantee you will make it back to school in time. You could get stuck behind slow drivers or could get the avid texter serving you at the bank.
14. If you know you are going to have a late night of studying, make sure you have food figured out early. After 7 or 8 at night, food options are finished. There is nothing open late for food, there are no fast food joints or anything of the sort. There are no “drive throughs” on the island.
15. Air conditioning is EXTREMELY expensive. You will be living in a sauna, all of the time. Just get used to it.
16. Food availability in grocery stores is unpredictable. It is never guaranteed that they will have what you are looking for, so you need to be open minded. For example, you might go to the grocery store hoping for some ground beef. You will go to the fresh meat section, and there won’t be any. You MIGHT find some frozen, you might not. Most times, you will be able to find either frozen ground turkey or frozen ground pork. You need to be innovative. Same thing with vegetables and fruits, selection varies day by day. Also, food is more expensive than at home. Also, just because the grocery store has something one time that you are there, doesn’t mean they will have it the next time, or ever again.
17. When food is expired, they don’t take it off the shelves, they just put it on special, so when things look like a great deal, make sure you check the expiration date. Likely it expires that same day or it has already expired. 
18. Lastly, there is NO recycling system here. This is one thing that I found insanely odd here coming from a place where recycling is so second nature. Glass, plastic, EVERYTHING goes into the garbage can. There is just no way of recycling anything. This bothers many people that come from Canada/USA in our program. It hurts my soul every single time I has to throw water bottles and cardboard boxes and everything else into the trash (which by the way, they just burn twice a week).

All of this being said, I am certainly not trying to discourage anyone or complain! I am sure most people can see that these things are quite trivial. I am simply trying to give an accurate picture of daily life here in Anguilla, beyond the beaches and the beautiful scenery, a true picture of what life living on an island can be like. When I tell family and friends it can be frustrating, and they reply “you live in paradise, give me a break”, they can understand some of the little things that happen each and every day that slowly build up over time. Of course, at home there are frustrations that I am sure could easily be compiled into a list just as lengthy as this one. The frustrations would be different, but there would be just as many. Life here is different, and these are some of the reasons why!

MD4....What?!

I wrote this post just over a month ago while I was at home and it never got posted, so I thought I would post it now...I meant to revise it and never got around to it but I thought it was important that I did get it up! I apologize for the late post!

So I know it has been incredibly long since my last post and I am kind of disappointed about that. My goal was to write about this journey much more often than I have been, but time has really been flying. I can't believe I have been gone for over a year already. I really wanted to document this experience every step of the way, but it has been really tough with time constraints. I feel like I've barely had enough time to keep my head above water. On top of that, with all of the stress I have often felt myself feeling like I could write a post but I didn't want them to all consist of the negative feelings and stress that I have felt along the way. Overall, I have really enjoyed this experience although in the moment I often feel completely miserable and overwhelmed and I didn't want those to be the only feelings reflected in my posts.

It is so hard to believe, but I'll finally be starting my MD4 semester next week. I am on my MD3 break right now, sitting on the porch at my dad's new place. I have the 90s station playing on the Sirius radio station, and it is bringing back so many memories. It is hard to believe how fast time flies. I think back to when I started out as a fresh MD1 and how it felt like this point would never come. I would look up to those who were in the shoes that I am now walking around in, and it felt like I would never be here. Regardless, here I am. I am now speaking with many students who will be starting out brand new next week, and this is the third time that I have been answering the same questions and addressing the same anxieties. Now comes another group of students, overly optimistic about how wonderful everything on the island will be, and with that intense desire to learn and get this ball rolling. In four short months I will be receiving my white coat and getting ready to move on to the next chapter in this crazy adventure...moving to Chicago, getting ready to take the USMLE step 1 exam, and getting into hospital rotations. When you look at this path in the long run, it is such a long one with so many obstacles and so many hurdles. I've learned to focus on one thing at a time. The next test, the next set of block exams. That's the only way to go about it without walking around feeling completely hopeless and overwhelmed.

The MD3 semester was by far the most challenging and trying so far. In one semester, we had to tackle Pathology, Pharmacology, Microbiology, Psychology, Research, and CCBS. Each and every week was filled with quizzes, assignments, and of course, block exams at the end of every month. Expectations from our professors rose significantly. There wasn't the same sense of security as there was in previous semesters. There was a constant feeling of "if I mess up even once, I can jeopardize everything". I didn't make it to the beach once from the time I was there on my MD2 break until the end of MD3. It was impossible to even let one day go by without ensuring that every effort was made to make the best of it and to make sure I was learning as much as possible each and every day. Feeling homesick became a part of my life every day. It was impossible to not feel disconnected from everyone and everything that was happening at home. For the first couple of semesters I was completely infatuated with the beauty of the island. Finally, it came to the point where I just missed home and everything that was there. Being home right now feels absolutely amazing. While driving around I can't help but take everything in and realize just how beautiful it is here. The green grass, the trees, the lakes....civilization. On the island, it is so routine and everything is always the same. We drive down the same road to school every day, see the same people, and do the same things. It feels like living in a tiny town where it is impossible to leave. I try to connect with people at home but the internet connection is so awful it makes it near impossible to have a simple conversation with family.  I have never gone so long without seeing my family and friends. For the last four months I've felt on edge, resentful of anything that kept me from doing what needed to be done. A line up in the grocery store or someone driving painfully slow in front of me made me want to scream.

I was very fortunate to be able to have lots of visitors during MD2 and the MD2 break. My mom, stepdad, aunt and uncle, and grandparents all came to visit me in February. They stayed in St. Martin at a resort but I was able to go and spend time with them twice. Two of my great friends from Barrie came in March so I could spend some time with them. My sister and cousin came for the first part of MD2 break and then my stepmom and stepbrother came for the second half. That all helped a lot and I was thankful everyone got to see what it was all about, though of course they didn't get the whole experience. Sitting here today though, I don't feel anything except blessed to have the opportunities I have. Being home is such a great reminder about how many amazing and supportive people I have in my life. When I am away I feel so alone sometimes so it was really imperative that I was able to come home, refuel, and be reminded of all of the reasons I am putting myself through this incredibly difficult course. I feel like this post is already getting so long and I haven't talked about half of the things that have happened over the past several months, yet another reason why I need to make sure I write about this more often.

I feel like I have grown so much and learned so much over the past year. Both about myself, about the world, and about medicine. I can truly say I feel like I am learning to think like a doctor and that I have discovered exactly who the person I want to be is. Everything I have yet to tackle lies ahead of me and although there are days I feel uncertain, more and more I am feeling like I can do this. I have had days where I second guess the whole decision. I think about the fact that I had a great job, where I was doing what I loved, was able to make a difference for people and learn. I watch my bank account rack up more and more debt. I watch my friends and family members moving forward in life, getting married and having children of their own and I think about the fact that I could be doing those things if I had stayed put. These thoughts never last long though because I can't imagine doing this any other way. I have met so many amazing people and made so many great connections and all of that never would have happened if I had chosen the beaten path.

So, on to the past few months. I have stayed in my role as Historian on the SGA and have continued building the school website and trying to help other students. I also took on the role as Secretary of AMSA (American Medical School Association). It is an international organization for medical students and practicing doctors. At our school, we put on various workshops in order to try to help provide students with learning opportunities that aren't a part of the normal curriculum, help plan health fairs and other things of the like. We initiated a program called "Teach Me Tuesdays" in which students teach the other students about things that they have experience in from their past careers and experiences. I've also continued as a member of Red Cross in Anguilla...all things that keep me headed in the right direction and allow me to do more than just what is required in terms of bookwork required for school. One of the things that really stood out for me this semester was learning how to suture. Our pathology professor took a very small group of us and taught us how to suture on the cadavers. I can't wait to practice more and I can't wait to be able to apply this in clinicals.

Our $500 donation to The Blossom Center

Anyhow, back to present day. I am a little over five weeks into MD4 now. I will admit, this semester is going pretty slowly. The workload is definitely still there, but lighter than last semester was. The anxieties are still there too, but they are different than other semesters. I am starting to think very seriously about board exams and residency. I am still feeling very homesick. I hate being far away from my family and knowing that I still have to be far away from them for quite some time. I have been trying to start some board review. It is so tough. I am realizing how very far away I am from being ready to take this exam. For those who are reading this that aren't going through this process, the USMLE step one exam is the first of 3 board exams, and it tests all of the material that is covered during the basic sciences. The score that you receive on that exam is the main determining factor on if and where you get a residency. I am realizing just how much I didn't learn and didn't retain in some of my classes. My grades have been quite good throughout this whole program, yet I am still very weak in many areas, especially microbiology, biochemistry, neurology, and pharmacology. I know I have some time but it is so much to learn. Time and money are both huge factors and I hear stories of people who take years to prepare before they are ready. It is a balancing act between working on current courses and starting to chip away at preparing for the "big test".

I only have 65 more days left on the island, and truthfully I CAN NOT WAIT! I remember when I first got here, I felt like I would never be ready to leave! I think I've got a little bit of island fever and I can't say that I will miss it here. Anguilla really is the ideal place to do what we are doing. There are no distractions because there is absolutely nothing here. I have been a mover and shaker my entire life. My life currently consists of three places right now: school, my bedroom, and the grocery store about every other day. I miss the variety of the Western World. It gets difficult seeing the same people every single day with no opportunity to change things up. I compare it to living in an extremely tiny town where there is no road out, which is definitely not my style. Those who know me well know that I don't sit still for long. At home, I had my bar tending friends, my school friends, my nursing friends, my family, acquaintances, the list goes on and on and on. Here, I have a very small pool of people who I sit in a tiny room with for 8 hours a day, and if I feel like doing something after school - yep, those are my options for people to hang with. Don't get me wrong, they are a great bunch, but school is what we have in common.

I start the next step of the process in February. This consists of a 4 month semester is Chicago - 2 month board review and 2 month of "mini clinicals" - a rapid sweep through the major clinical rotations, surgery, ob-gyn, family practice, internal medicine in the like. The idea is to orientate us to clinicals. After that we are finished until we take and pass the board exams and then we continue with our clinicals. Chicago will certainly be the exact opposite of life here on the island so it will definitely be interesting! I should probably end this now and get back to the books! Thank you all for reading and I will definitely post again after the White Coat Ceremony which is on December 12th!