Carlson's Caribbean Adventure

Since Thanksgiving is an American holiday, it isn't celebrated in St. Vincent. We don't get any time off, but we still do our best to celebrate. This year, like last year, Luke had an exam the day after Thanksgiving, but since it was a more simple exam, we didn't have to rush right home after eating to study. This island life isn't always ideal, but we have so much to be grateful for. We have our health, our home, food, friends, a wonderful church, and beautiful weather. During the holidays spent on the island, I'm always especially thankful for technology that allows me to talk to my family in the states. If anything, moving to St. Vincent has taught me to not take as much for granted and to be grateful for all of the little things. T his year for Thanksgiving, a missionary couple graciously invited us to join them for a meal, but with Luke's school schedule and our lack of transportation, we had to decline. Our friends Thomas & Natalie who live right

I love how many opportunities we have here to get involved and have new experiences. This past Saturday, November 11, was one of those new experiences for Luke and I. In the morning, we joined a club from school to assist at the VSPCA Clinic. The VSPCA is the Vincentian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. On this particular Saturday, they were hosting a vet clinic where people could bring their animals to be spayed or neutered or just to see the vets in general. When we arrived to help set up, there were already people waiting with their pets. When registration opened, people registered their pets and received a tag with a number. This way the surgeries could be completed in an orderly fashion. I had been asked to take pictures during the clinic, but I was still able to interact with the animals and help with the surgeries a little bit. Luke was able to assist quite a bit with the surgeries. He wanted to try suturing, but since there were so many animals, the v

I grew up near a lake, and my grandparents owned a pontoon boat, so my summers were spent mostly in the water. I learned how to swim at a very young age and fell in love with snorkeling. I loved how peaceful and fascinating it was to swim with the fish and see under the water. As great as snorkeling was, I always wanted to try scuba diving, but until recently, I had never had the chance. I was that kid at the ocean with my pink and purple wetsuit dreaming about scuba diving. When we first moved to SVG and I found out that Trinity had a dive club, I was very excited, until I realized that we couldn't afford to go diving. You can imagine my excitement when I saw that Indigo Dive along with Trinity's dive club was offering a FREE discovery dive in the hotel pool, to allow students to get a chance to try out the equipment and learn more about diving. Luke and I eagerly signed up. Indigo Dive did a wonderful job, providing equipment and teaching us about the equipment and the hand