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!