HASH

So I got to do something yesterday that every individual that ever comes to Grenada should take part in. I ran in the 500th HASH. It is hard to explain just what a hash is because unless you have really done one. But basically it is a 5K or longer or shorter depending on your luck and if you take the right route. Yesterday the course was set in La Sagesse a resort about 45 minute drive Northeast of St. George's. The National Forest is also there right outside this resort and as soon as the race starts everyone takes off following paper trails that were strategically placed by the race coordinator earlier that morning. There is no prize for the one that wins, just water at the end and a free Carib beer.(official beer of the island that is cheaper than water.)
The course of the race contains all types of terrain that you could imagine. Rocks, fallen trees that you have to crawl under/over, jump through, practically climb, tall straw grass that you have to romp through, swampy, muddy areas, cliffs over looking the ocean, tons and tons of thorn bushes(you should see my arms and legs!!hehe), a forest with cows, sheep, ect, climbing mountains, and running down a hill at about a 75% angle, and then through a small little village with all the locals and an intense cricket game going on. GREAT FUN!!!! Only in Grenada!!!! :) Did I ever mention that I love it here? HeHe!!
IT was a blast!!! The race ended on the beach which was nice, cause you could jump in the water afterwards, to cool off!!
I'll try and post some pic so you guys can see what I am gloting about!!
So now my focus is school, at least after I get done with this blog. Anatomy tomorrow and Histology Wednesday.. it never ends.
Just got back from a great motivating church service though. The pastor talked about Jeremiah 29:11, "I know the plans for you says the Lord, plans to give you a hope and a future...." You all know this one. The reminder was just that we are here and to make the most out of life and wherever you are start living your life, do not live as though things are going to get better. Live it clinging on to God for the ride no matter what path or what avenue he might take you on. Eventhough you might not understand what he is doing in your life or the lives of others around you the best piece of encouragment that you can give some one is cling to God and be faithful!! Because through everything He will still be there. Always!
Love all of you!!
Heidi

Encouragement and bearing the burdens

There are alot of burdens that we suffer through in life like veterinary school, being Christian, being a student in Grenada so far away from everything, I could name a million things. I miss being able to just pick up the phone and call my friends that I have always had just a couple of digits away and be able to talk to them about anything and everything. Phone calls are just too expensive. So I just dont call. This has been a new experience for me and I think that it has been good for me, prehaps that I have learned to talk to God about the situation.
Things are rough right now, I wont put on a act. I am barely passing Physiology for the second time in my life and it could possibly cause me to fail out of vet school a second time. I know and trust that God has put me in this place, Grenada, for a reason. There are people in my class though that are going through things that are alot more complicated than what I am suffering and I just try to be an encouragement to them, because they are always an encouragement to me. Everyones always so positive!!
I was listening to a sermon today online from Dwight Edwards ,the former preacher at Grace Bible Church in College Station, and in his closing statement he encouraged everyone in the audience to picture someone in their mind that needed encouragement and help in bearing their burdens. He went on to challenge us to do something for this person. Dwight went through the verses in Galatians especially 6:2, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fullfill the law of Christ."

I've got some good news totally off the above subject. I found a place to live next semester!! It is a 2 bedroom 5 to 7 minutes walk from campus and on the bus route for night time travel. It is really nice. Has a yard for Kole and a washer and dryer. Almost too good to be true!! It is the first place that we looked out. I am going to be living with 3 other veterinary students, Linda, Greta, Jennifer, Lori, and then me. Actually I just listed 4 other students, but one of them is going to be living across the hall in a one bedroom so it will be like she is living with us, which is great!!!
I am very excited. Now I just got to make it to next semester, God willing!!
Take care each and everyone of ya. I love ya and miss ya! Call a friend tonight, you might just make their day! :)

April 11th- volunteering at the clinic

So with all the things going on, I probably should have stayed home and studied physiology however, what better way to learn than to learn it hands on.
I arrived at the clinic a little before 7:30am and the clinicians put us right to work because the 4th termers were not there because they are taking midterms or some rounds of tests this week. There were several dogs that we did kennels on and medicated at first and then we went on to the rooms working with clients. There was this one dog that had been hit by a stone of some sort on its head and so it had a nasty gaping oozy wound that we shaved up and scrubbed, but not before we sedated the little dog with dormitor. To do this I got to put a cathetor in the dog and had absolutely no problem putting it in. It went right in with no prob and I was very excited. Once we sedated the little dog we could see how much damage was actually there. The wound was stinky and discusting and we tested the dog for hw/erl/lymes and it tested positive for Erlichia which is actually the an antibody response. The poor dog had millions of ticks all over it especially in its ears and in it cutaneous marginal pouch (which is that little pouch in the dogs ear). Instead of putting the dog on doxycicline she gave it cephalosporin IV. We shaved it all up and then drenched it in Adams tick and flea and give it a sulf/dex bath. The dog upon waking up I am sure will feel like a totally diffrent dog.

The we got to go into a room with a Rotweiler that was down. It had some kind of small puncture wound on its right front paw but the fact that we had to carry the 19 kilogram animal into the exam room was more of a concern. Blood was taken and a CBC / Chem 12 was run. The results showed that the dog was in renal and liver failure however the total protien was extremely high also so the clinician explained to us that the renal values could be the result of severe dehydration. The dog was also heartworm and erylician positive. The dog was placed on IV at a maintainance level. The clinican showed us how to calculate the amount of IV a dog would need which is as follows.
shock: 90ml/kg/hr
maintainance:90ml/kg/24hours
surgery: 10ml/kg/hr

By the time that we finished with the rotweiler it was time to go to class. It was so good to be back working in a clinic again. I can hardly wait till this summer to work again. It is just so fun. I guess that it is good that I love to do this stuff as much as I do no matter how gross it can get.

My sunday went well, Brian got to meet Phil the missionary because he went to church with me and we talked to him about the boat. We are going to go out and see it sometime soon. Hopefully it will work out, we will see.
Sorry if I bored you with my above paragraph about the clinic work that I did this morning. It was so fun though.
All of you take care, love you and miss you. Hope all is well!!
Peace out!

Sitting in the captains seat and trying not to press any wrong buttons!!! 

View of the Windward in Carriacou 

Heidi, Leah, Linda, and Greta sitting on a canon in Carriacou 

Blooming cactus and the beach of Carriacou 

WOW.. it must be illegal to have this much fun!!

Today, 6 of us took a boat to Carriacou. This is an island about 1 hour (by boat) North of Grenada. Carriacou is 13 square miles and 7, 000 inhabitants. Their main export is animals and large majority of income comes from the tourists.
We left Grenada about 9am and rode at the very front of the boat the entire way to Carriacou. Feeling like we were on the titanic, we rode the entire way standing up with the wind to our faces enjoying the breeze and just the feeling of freedom. For a couple of hours today we were litterally in paradise!
Once we arrived at Carricou we were surrounded by taxis guys telling us they would give us tours around the island. So after walking around for a while we decided to take the tour bus. Our tour guide, Victor, took us around the island and told us all about the island and its history ect. After about 1to 1-1.5 hours after riding around in the bus stoping at the health clinic and dock and several amazine viewing sites he dropped us out at the Paradise beach. There we did a little shopping, talked to some locals, played with some kids, ate, played with a pot hound, had a nice conversation with a couple from Florida that lives in Carriacou now, and went swimming. We also walked along the beach looking for conches (which we found some amazine ones), built sand animals, partially drew out the entire US states in the sand, and did flips in the water. To sum it all up simply we had a blast just liming (Grenadian for hanging out). This is probably the most fun Saturday that I have had since I got to Grenada!!
I will update my yahoo pictures http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hjmvet/my_photos and post a couple on my blog page. Hopefully I won't make each of you jelous just more anxious to come visit me soon!! Hehe!!

TGIF.... I guess

Tomorrow is the big day we are going to take a boat to Carriacou. I am very excited and I'll be sure to take lots of pictures so that I can make all of you jelous. Just kidding!! Wish all you were here to sit and sip the beverage of your choice right next to me, soaking up the good ole Carribean sun, while dreaming across the crystal blue ocean.
I am going to make this short, because I am going to go work out in our outdoor gym.

Beach Day

So today was one of my dear friends birthdays. She turned 25 day, Happy Birthday Greta!! I aked her what she wanted for her birthday and she said kiddingly,"Skip Physiology and got to .
the beach instead." I looked at her and said, "Okay!" So that is what we did. We studied the material that we were going to go over in class and discussed it outloud to eachother. It was good! I think I got a pretty good tan line also. Hehe! Sorry if I am making you guys jelous!
I am taking classes for scuba diving with abot 10 of my other classmates and on Good Friday we took our first scuba diving adventure in the ocean. It was so awesome!!! I got to see so many amazinly colored fishes and coral. It was so cool!! We are getting some water proof cameras so maybe I can post some once we go diving again.
Take care and let the Lord have all your worries for tomorrow cause today has enough worries of its own!
Love all of ya!

"Alternate Assignment"

These were the words on the back of a Reggae bus(equilavent to a taxi in the States) as I was running toward St. George's harbor this morning.
I have been battling midterms for the past 2 and a half weeks. This would account for the reason that I have been behind on my bloggin. A ton of things have happened since the last recording and I will do my best to remember and catch up on the exciting things.
So after my physiology midterm yesterday, I was pretty upset and honestly I still am today as I write this blog. Things did not go as I hoped once again and I am now barely passing the class. Now I am scared out of my mind because I could fail all over again and be sent home this time with a 37,000 loan on top of my already accumulated loan from failing out at A&M. Also I would be losing my dream for the second time except this time there is no alternate move. I would be a complete failure, my second chance was given to me and I still failed myself. I would be at home, with failing grades from two universities, an incomplete boring masters, and then a degree in Chemistry that I would not use. Pretty pathetic... if you ask me... enough to make me feel very sorry for myself.

So God intervened this morning and smacke me upside the head. So back to running and the bas having the words "alternate assignement" written on the back windshield, this might mean something totally diffent that what the driver wanted me to think, but it hit me hard. I am not here for myself and I am not here just to go to vet school and take Physiology tests, I am here temporarily and here to do Gods work no matter what it might be. He sent me here to this little island of Grenada to do work for him, not for myself and my dream of being a veterinarian. It is really hard to swallow and sometime I would like to catch that bus and ride to my alternate assignment, but I really think that it is staring me in the face... my classmates, the professors, my friends. This is a pretty wild and neat concept and I thought I would share it with all of you. Sometimes, God makes things pretty obvious. He lets you know what He is trying to do, you just got to take your blinders off. I put up blinders way to often.
Well, I gotta get run to class.
Again, I love each and every one of you and I encourage you to think about your "alternate assignment" and let it carry you through your day today!