The month went by so quickly! It is hard to believe we are really home. Our minds are still reeling with all the experiences and events of the month. We are so thankful for the opportunities we had and especially all who made it such a rich experience. We encountered such wonderful people and especially thank the faculty and staff at UWI for embracing us.

We already miss the sights, sounds, smells and of course taste of Jamaica. We miss the walks back to the Flat with beautiful flowers everywhere. We now hear the sounds of snow plows instead of the Dove and Crickets. We will have to shop around a bit to find Cho Cho, Bammy(still Christina’s favorite), Callaloo(Cindy’s favorite) and Curried Goat.- Yes, Reggie we tried the goat. It was pretty tasty.

Thank all of you who spent the month with us through the blog. We hope you enjoyed Jamaica through our eyes.

Memories from Jamaica:

Our first day at UWISON

Cindy writing her objectives for the day :-)

Trip to Ocho Rios

Skills Lab (Does this look like George Bush, or what?)

Christina in Hope Botanical Garden

Lovely fish supper with Joyette and daughter AnnaStudent Presenting Tutorial

UWISON staffBetty-Ann and Carren

Ms. Morris :>)

Thanks Joyce!
Good Byes to Lovely Students

Christina's 2nd year students on TMRU

Tania- Simulation Queen

Our very protective guard!!

Joyette and Cindy at Emancipation ParkDawn- Curriculum Guru

Dawn with her always effervescent smile & disposition
Cindy, Mrs. Bailey & Cerese
Jacinth, coordinator of the pathophysiology course for 2nd years

Mrs. Bailey and Christina

View From UWISON

Dr. Hewitt,

Christina and Cindy

Devon House Brick Oven

Yum, Yum Patties

The "wet" Foursome

Last Visit with Frank and Carmen

Last Visit to the Bee Hive

Leaving Lime Cay


The beautiful Jamaican flowers

Sunday evening walk

Last morning in Jamaica
Goodbye Juici! We will miss you :-)
Not even a flat tire will stop Mr. Graham.
Fastest tire change ever!

Goodbye Mr. Graham (proudly wearing his new Duke hat)


Aerial view as we leave Kingston

We arrive in North Carolina to snow and COLD 25 F

BURR...

The last weekend in Jamaica

Our last day at UWI School of Nursing with Dr. Hewitt, Dean of the School of Nursing (center) and our mentors, Mrs. Bailey (left) and Mrs. Dawkins (right). We are so grateful to these three wonderful nurses and ALL of the UWISON staff for our incredible visit!

We cannot believe how quickly this weekend, much less this month, has flown by! Christina and Cindy were able to show Bobby & Ted around campus Friday followed by a relaxing evening at the flat. Saturday and Sunday we ventured to Port Royal and Lime Cay. We toured Port Royal, which was once Jamaica's capitol destroyed by an earthquake in the 1600s. Part of the original town and fort remains which we toured.

Fort Charles

Inside the Giddy House, built in the 1880s, survived the earthquake of 1907 (barely)

Cindy and Ted at Morgan's Harbor Marina & Hotel where we stayed

The coast of Lime Cay, which is an uninhabited island about 10 miles off the coast of Port Royal. We spent the day here being beach bums and enjoying the crystalline blue waters.

Robert shopping for his next toy at Morgan's Harbor!

That evening we went to UWI for a concert: The Art of Steel. Local composers and artists were featured at this event which showcased some calypso and nontraditional steel pan music. What a treat! Afterward, one of the artists was kind enough to show us the pans and talk to us about the art of pan music and how pans are made, tuned and played.

The husbands arrive

We greeted Bobby & Ted at the airport Thursday afternoon. We decided to suprise them by having our driver hold a sign with their names on it while we waited adjacent to the lobby. The unsuspecting men were easy to detect coming out of the airport in their long sleeves!

Cindy & Christina staked out at the airport waiting...

YAY!!!

Ted & his first Jamaican patty :-)

Bobby approves too!!

We departed the airport and drove around downtown Kingston taking in the sites and sounds and smells! The husbands enjoyed patties, ting and cherry juice during the tour. That evening we went to Devon House, enjoying a lovely dinner on the terrace. Although their journey was long, our husbands stuck it out with us and shopped at the grocery store without falling asleep once! We are so glad to have them here and to be able to share with them what we have gained from our experience here in Jamaica and the University of the West Indies.

Last Week in Jamaica

We are coming to the end of our Synthesis here in Jamaica with mixed emotions. We have met so many wonderful people and our experiences have been vast and unforgettable. Yet, we have missed our families and the familiarity of home. Our husbands arrive tomorrow and we look forward to them experiencing a taste of what we have been doing over the last month.

This has been a short week thus far; today is a National Holiday for Ash Wednesday. This has given us an opportunity to complete some of our work and ready ourselves to finalize our experience here. We will meet this week to debrief with our mentors.

Monday was Christina's last lecture day. She prepared and presented a lecture in Pathophysiology which focused on Cardiology. She also assisted in the tutorial with the 2nd year students. The students feel very comfortable with her and seem to line up to ask questions just as they do with their instructor. Just as we are feeling more comfortable, its time to go.

Cindy was in the clinical setting on Monday and visited many students with her preceptor. She especially enjoyed working one on one with a student as the student reviewed her plan of care for the patient and Cindy was able to teach and coach the student in new procedures. The joy on the students face as she realized she had successfully and independently completed a new task gave Cindy even more joy.

Tuesday brought another new adventure. We accompanied two of the instructors to a High School career fair in Christiana. Christiana is in the middle of the country near Knox Community College where we were a couple weeks ago. The drive to Christiana was beautiful as we road in the valley between two mountain chains prior to ascending up the mountain to Christiana. The valley would remind you somewhat of driving in the Shenandoah Valley except the palm, mango, cashew and banana trees made the landscape unique.

Downtown Christiana

For our farmer friends & family, The Jamaican Livestock Association,

complete with a Ford pickup infront

Christiana High School: home to 2000 (!) students grades 7-12

School choir singing The Lord is my Shepherd

The career fair commenced outside under a large tent with school staff and local business' sharing their visions and hopes for the students and a speaker spoke about the students' holding the key to their future. The students preformed drama and songs. Our favorite part was the steel drum selections that the students played. We wish you all could have experienced this with us.

We then proceeded into the school where the classrooms were set up as booths for each exhibitor. We had many students, grades 7-12 plus some persons investigating job changes, stopping by to voice their interest in nursing and we shared some of our experiences, the curriculum plan at UWI and our LOVE for nursing. WE had a fantastic time. It would be interesting to see where these students are in 5-10 years.

The future of nursing!

Students learning about careers in the culinary arts

We returned to Kingston and left the cool mountain air behind. The stories of the area were we traveled, Jamaican history and information on local plants and food were a pleasure to listen to on our drive to and from Christiana. The instructors we traveled with will have an after retirement career as tour guides awaiting them.

Christina & Mrs. Bailey, mentor, expert nurse, friend, flora/fauna guru, with traditional Jamaican headwrap on

Reggie, We continue to learn of local remedies and alternative medications. We will have to share more with you in April at school.