Carlson's Caribbean Adventure

After praying daily for over two years about where Luke should attend medical school, God's answer was pretty clear when Luke was accepted to three Caribbean schools and no US schools. The amazing thing about this was that I had never even heard about the island where we live until about a year before Luke was accepted and we made the decision to come here. Two of Luke's brothers and a sister- in- law had come to St. Vincent with their church on a missions trip to a church here. They told Luke about the medical schools on the island, but Luke had already applied to them. When we decided to attend Trinity School of Medicine on in the island of St. Vincent, it was wonderful to know that there was a church of like faith there for us.  Many of the baptist churches in St. Vincent are spiritual baptists. Thankfully, our church believes and follows God's Word and plan for the local church. It has been wonderful having a church here with a pastor who preaches direc...

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I spend a lot of time alone since Luke has to study so much. Last term Luke was not as busy, but this is one of his busiest terms. In addition to labs and rotations at the hospital, he has many classes which all require large amounts of studying. I've been asked how Luke is doing in medical school. This term, especially, is very challenging, so Luke has started a new study routine. He leaves on the 7:35 AM bus, and he is usually in class from about 8 AM to 3 or 4PM. He has an hour for lunch, but he eats at school. Regardless of when his classes end for the day, he stays at the school and studies in the library until he can catch the 5 PM bus home for dinner. He heads back to school on the 6 PM bus to study in the library until he takes either the 9 or 9:45 PM bus back home. It is incredible how much information he has to study and learn. He works so hard! Many students fail a few classes this term, so he is doing his very best to pass everyt...

Adaptability is key, along with sacrifice to survive this medical school journey. My life is not quite as I had imagined it. Oh, I figured I would get married and probably leave beautiful New Hampshire, but I never imagined that I would leave the country to live on an island closer to South America than it is to North America. Life doesn't always go as planned. For Luke and I, sometimes it feels like our life is on hold, while Luke studies to become a doctor. I'm not allowed to work on the island, and Luke is extremely busy, which means a lot of down time for me with not much to do. However, when life doesn't go the way we had originally envisioned it and especially living here, you learn to adapt. Every once in a while, I'll do something that I do here quite often, like light the stove with a lighter or match, then realize that this is not a normal thing for someone who lives in the states. Our lives here are not really normal when you compare them with young married ...

Before coming to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, I had made a mental bucket list of things I wanted to see or do while we lived in St. Vincent. In just one term, we were able to do quite a bit. The first adventure, I had to go on without Luke because he had to study for his quiz the next day. On St. Vincent's Independence Day, I went with some friends from Grace Community Baptist Church to hike the volcano, La Soufriere. The elevation of La Soufriere is 4,048', and it last erupted in 1979. The trail to hike the volcano goes through a rainforest. It was so beautiful! Very few parts of the trail were flat, in fact, most of it felt like walking up steps. We finally reached the top, and thankfully it was a pretty clear day. I was able to look down into the crater of the volcano and even see some smoke coming out. If we had proper equipment, we could have hiked down into the crater. There is a very steep trail that you can go on and hang...