Best news yet

The latest track from NOAA is just out and posted below. Grand Cayman is the third Island from the right outlined in red. Keep praying it moves farther south. We are going over to Kathleen and Keith's for a little while to eat some snack food and maybe drink some adult beverages. Will be back by 5:00 p.m. to update assuming we have Internet. Love to you all.

Scott and Katie

3:00 p.m. update

Its encouraging that in 24 hours this will all be over one way or the other. The news continues to be a southward drift of the eye. Lets all pray that continues.

We have truly seen the best in people in the last three days as our neighbors and friends have banded together. It started on Thursday when a small but concerted group of people got an entire college wrapped up and moved into three rooms. It continued on Friday with a donation of 46 pieces of plywood to cover all the windows when there was no way the college could afford to purchase it or the labor that followed. We saw it yesterday in Lonny and his men riding to our rescue when we had no idea how to put up the plywood at our place and didn't have enough anyway. We have seen it in our neighbors Keith and Kathleen who told us where to move our car, who drove us to get gasoline and additional groceries today when we were vehicle less and we see it in every place where people are banding together to help each other get ready.

If there is one thing that has made us totally at peace with our decision to come to Cayman and work at ICCI it is the way everyone on this Island has banded together to help each other get through this. What an extraordinary thing to see. It is as strong a reminder as we could get that community is very important here and that the decision to come here was the right one.

Windy now but no rain. We have put all the furniture on cans and will post pictures later if possible. We are eating lunch late. Everything is upstairs and the very final preparations are all that is left and those wont happen until late tonight. We love you all.

Scott and Katie

First time jitters

Well that little band of rain has passed through pretty quickly and it is actually sunny out again. Our neighbors went inside for a few minutes and are back outside again now doing work. Fortunately we don't have much stuff and nothing outside while our neighbors with their elaborate yards and patios have much to do in their final preparations. They don't seem to be fazed by the winds and the rain was just a temporary annoyance. We are newbies and everything is fazing us. The latest NOAA track and the announcement on the Cayman Compass website is that the track is more favorable moving south so if that continues things wont be as bad as it looked yesterday. The difference between 80 mile an hour winds and 140 miles is pretty substantial and if it will just move south a little more (and not move north in its track at all) we will feel a little more secure.

Sorry for the false alarm. Will keep updating as long as Internet stays on.

Love you all.

Scott and Katie

1:00 p.m.

Starting to rain and wind has picked up a lot now. We are moving everything upstairs and making final preparations. If we lose internet we will try and get messages out as best we can. Thanks for all the e-mails of encouragement and conversations we have had this morning with family. We love you all.

Scott and Katie

Still nameless kittens

On a good note, we have the cutest kittens ever with us!

And so it begins....

While waiting for Scott to figure out what kind of oil we need for the generator, I asked Keith, "So when should we expect the outer bands of the storm to hit?" He looked at me funny, looked around a bit, then said in his Eastern London accent, "You're seeing it right now."

The winds have definitely picked up and all the palm trees are swaying around. It is a bit disconcerting since the eye of Dean is still 400 miles away. We made a trip to get gasoline and oil for the generator. The first gas station was already out of gas but we were able to find gas at the second station we went to with Kathleen. That station was out of oil so we will not be able to use our generator but have worked out a barter agreement with Kathleen and Keith that we will bring our gas and cook with them after the storm has passed.

Hurley's, the closest grocery store, was going to be open until 3 today but it has decided to only stay open till noon as we are already seeing the effects of the storm.

I asked our neighbor, Kathleen, whether or not we needed to hunker down in the bathroom during the storm (like one would during a tornado) or if it would be safe to be walking around the house since she had indicated that they were not going to raise any of their furniture until the water actually started coming into the house. It was reassuring to hear her say that, since we had boarded up the house, we would be safe walking around, unless our roof went.

The internet has started to slow down so we aren't sure how much longer we will have an internet connection. We haven't seen five bars since yesterday and are now moving between three and four bars (three is the minimum you need for a connection). We are now going to do the last of the preparations and will try to update the blog at least one more time.

It is sad that we were never able to do the grand tour of the house before Dean, but here are some pictures of the outside of the house now that it is all boarded up. Top to Bottom: The front of our unit (the complex has two of these units facing each other), the front of our place (we are the window/door on the left), and the back of our place (you can see the top of our patio doors and our upstairs window). Being one of the middle two units helps with everything (i.e. flooding and wind); our unit only got three inches of flooding in Ivan while some of them got almost a foot.

Sunday Morning Good News

This morning we got the good news that the National Hurricane Center tracking has Dean drifting further south and now moving at 18 mph up one mile in speed. Cayman is now officially under a Hurricane warning after being on a Hurricane watch yesterday. This morning we will finish all of the small preparations in the condo for the storm. This afternoon we will put all the furniture we can on cans of beans and other canned goods that we bought cheap yesterday not to be part of our hurricane food but just to serve as something to elevate the furniture. I helped our neighbor Keith put up some plywood yesterday and will help him again this morning to finish his place. It sounded like it rained over night but with the plywood up you cant see out so we cant be sure. It is sunny now with a little wind. One thing about the plywood being up is that our house is very dark (Katie reminds me that it is like my den of darkness that I used to keep in Fort Worth with all my blinds shut though this is much darker). It will also make this place hot and steamy when we lose power so the battery operated fan we have will become extremely important.

We don't want to get too excited by the change in track because it has changed so much in the last 24 hours and could move again when it hopefully now skirts Jamaica rather than hitting it head on. There is another sound that is happening a lot this morning, the sound of planes taking off. We are about three miles from the airport and can see them lifting off from our parking lot. Katie and I have talked about going down and standing in the long lines at the airport to try and leave. It would be hard to get on a plane (not to mention outrageously expensive though money wasn't the deciding factor) but together we decided we were staying. This isn't like the US where you can drive away from the coast after you get your house ready. If we leave it could be a long time before we get back in. From the Ivan experience we have heard that the people who left had a hard time finding out anything and the not knowing was worse than the knowing. We are reasonably confident of our safety so while the absolute safest course would be to leave we are calculating that we have done all we could to make this place secure, it is on high ground and we have moved our car to high ground.

Radio Cayman has an 8:00 a.m. update that we are listening to now. Dean is 490 miles from us now. Maximum winds are 145 miles per hour. Hurricane force winds are extending out 60 miles and Tropical storm winds out 205 miles. We should get 10-12 inches of rain. Little Cayman about 80 miles from here is being completely evacuated. They will be instituting a curfew tonight. The police seem to be out making their presence known. There was a lot of looting post-Ivan so obviously the government wants to do a better job this time. There should be a new track around 10 this morning so keep checking the NOAA website. Will update throughout the day on our status.

Josie and the Kittens

I was awakened this morning by high-pitched meows. One of the kittens, the bravest and most adventuresome, had ventured out from the cage and was frightened. He had made it all the way to the bathroom mat and was in panic mode. Josie was watching him from afar so he was still safe but he didn't realize where he was or how to get back. We aren't sure how good a cat's eyes are at that young; are they still mostly blind at 4-5 weeks (if they are even that old)?

After holding him for a while and getting him to calm down, he climbed down my leg and made his way back to his mom and brother, who was also out exploring. It is interesting that I love the boy kitties because they are so much more fun, make you laugh more often, and get into all sorts of trouble; the two brothers will play, awkwardly, while their sister calmly sleeps or curls up next to her surrogate mother. Scott on the other hand prefers the calm, togetherness of the girls.

After a bit more exploring, this time closer to mom, the brothers decided to curl up with their sister.

Late night wrap up

As darkness fell the sound of drills and saws slowly wound down. There is a strange calm about people around us almost a sense of false bravado behind which is real concern that this one is going to be Ivan all over again or perhaps even worse. We weren't here for Ivan and so that makes it all the more scary for us. We have no sense that hey I survived Ivan, I can survive this.

We caught a bit of the evening news when we were at Elsa's securing our ride to go park our vehicle and the news was pointing out something we had seen, even though the supermarkets and hardware stores were chaotic it was organized chaos and people are appearing to be calm. The sense that we are all in this together is quite strong and you see a lot of people going out of their way to help others just as Lonny went out of his way to help us this morning. The lessons of Ivan have definitely been learned as everyone is getting ready. The traffic today was much heavier than we have seen in a while and it seemed like the whole Island was out and about. Yet as the evening wore on there is a sense we are all just in full on waiting mode. For us it is even stronger since we have no car anymore and while we have our bikes as the weather worsens tomorrow we will really just be hunkering down here and watching the clock.

We have taken all the paintings off the walls and moved everything into cabinets so there are no loose items downstairs except our hurricane tubs which we will close up and move last. We have one full tub of food, one with 11 gallons of water and a third with items like batteries, bleach, flashlights, radio, tools, gloves, boots, tarps etc. We will also move the generator last up the stairs. When Katie's parents visited last month they brought a hurricane kit from Costco which will be invaluable as well. We wrote out a list of things for tomorrow that we want to do as the day progresses. We expect to have power and Internet until late and will blog as much as we can until we feel we have to unplug everything and pack it up. As the storm approaches though, the connection may be slow as we have wireless Internet not a land line. There are three towers on the Island and who knows if Westar keeps them up and running or pulls them down well ahead of the storm.

Katie couldn't bear the thought of the cats being downstairs tonight and convinced me that they needed to get to know the upstairs before the freight train blows through tomorrow night and scares them all to pieces. It was really just an excuse to get them closer to us so she can play with them but that's OK its a nice distraction.

Tonight we made our steak and corn on the cob. We actually watched a few episodes of Scrubs on the portable DVD player to get our minds off what is happening. Tomorrow we eat the chicken from our freezer. If we are going to lose use of the refrigerator and freezer for a while we need to empty it out so big meals tomorrow for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

What we have realized today is that we are really invested in this place. We believe in why we are here and we feel encouraged by the changes we have helped bring about at the college and the people we have gotten to work with. Both of us realize we now view this as our home and we cant just leave it even with what we now face.

The last 60 hours (really since Noon Thursday) getting the college ready have seemed like a month, its hard to remember what we were doing Wednesday that we thought was so important. The waiting part is a double edged sword. It gives us more than enough time to prepare here and at the college but it also is mentally draining because you cant keep yourself psyched up and prepared all the time. The truth is we are scared and this is not an adventure or exciting or anything that three days ago, a lifetime ago, we might have thought. We want it over but we want it not to happen at all, one of life's little ironies.

Saturday Evening Update: The Shelter Opens for Refugees

As night begins to fall here we have taken a couple of significant steps. After another visit to the college to check on the status of boarding windows (about 80% done and hopefully they are back tomorrow to finish), we drove around looking for a spot to put the car as the likely flooding at our place would destroy the engine (the salt water).

We found a couple of good spots and ultimately picked the Truman Bodden Sports Complex in George Town. You can easily find all the high ground now as the cars are all parked there in mass. We thought we would drive the car over tomorrow but when we spoke with an officer at the sports complex he said it would fill up tonight. We were very encouraged by the fact that all of the police and civic vehicles are parked in the field there at the complex. The field is about three feet higher than the parking lot but the lot was quickly filling up and the officer there told us the lot didn't get any flooding from Ivan. There are trees but at some point you just pick your poison and if trees are being uprooted our little car is going flying all on its own.

We drove back to Elsa and Keith's (they arrived back on Island yesterday) and secured a ride from Elsa. She followed us back to the complex where we parked, disconnected the battery and put it in the back. The car is locked up and as secure as we can make it, if the little guy is meant to survive he will. Katie wants to call the car Andreas. If he survives, Andreas it is; if he dies, his name is Money down the drain.

We also welcomed four refugee's from Cayman Brac into our home to ride out the storm. Josie and her three adopted children will be with us for the next couple of days. Our neighbor Kathleen is a worker with the humane society and they need foster homes for their cats during the storm so with the news that Kira, who is allergic to cats, would not be on Island and needing a place to stay, we volunteered. Josie apparently lost her babies and is now a surrogate mother to three as of now unnamed kittens all about 4 or 5 weeks old. They are in our downstairs bathroom for now but will come up stairs tomorrow in case of flooding. Katie is absolutely atwitter about the kitties. We keep telling ourselves we have to be brave for the cats now so they don't get scared.

The latest track again has Dean moving a little south but it has slowed to 17 miles an hour so good and bad news. We want it to track further south and move faster so the effects aren't as long lasting. By comparison Ivan was five miles off the coast and moving at 3 miles an hour. Tomorrow will be the big day for tracking as the hurricane should hit Jamaica around 2 p.m. and being over land and hitting the mountains there could affect its course. We may update late tonight and certainly by early tomorrow. Will be going to sleep early today since unlikely to get much sleep tomorrow or for next several days as we have been warned that the sound of the hurricane is overwhelming, and then post hurricane, the generators are extremely loud.

The hardest part about all of this, right now, is the waiting. In no other natural disaster do you have so much prior knowledge, which is a blessing and a curse.

Early Saturday Afternoon update

The plywood is in place (thanks to our new best friend Lonny) so we are now getting the house ready. We have moved all of our stuff upstairs and are going to pack up and then put trash bags over important things like the laptop, I-home etc. The problem is not the wind as long as we stay in, its the flooding so we want everything off the ground. After some house rearranging this morning, we ran over to the college to check on progress there and then Katie biked back here so now both our bikes are at the new residence and safely stored in the upstairs bedroom. I went to the hardware store to get some sealant foam that Lonny recommended to use on doors as the water rises and we also stopped at Fosters and got some marinating sauce as well as treating ourselves to some cake and soda. We are having steak, corn on the cob and the cake for dessert tonight, morbidly we joke about our last supper with electricity for a while. Our neighbor Keith says it was six weeks after Ivan before electricity was restored in this neighborhood. The government is better prepared but who knows what will happen this time. The track is back to right at us and it has slowed which is bad news too. Today is a beautiful day in Cayman, hot and humid but the waters are clear and the sky has just a few clouds, you would never know something was up (except if you go to a hardware store or supermarket where it is organized chaos).

I used to think my enduring memory of Cayman would be the sound of the free range roosters. This may change Sunday night and Monday morning but right now the sound of Cayman is drills and saws as everyone boards up.

Will update this evening.

10:45 am update - the cavalry arrives

Lonny has just arrived and brought with him much relief for Scott. We thought that Lonny was going to be able to get here around 7 am and help us get ready but he has had many different obligations to help with different places since he does contract work that we were a bit down the line. Scott puts a lot of stock in what Lonny says since he knows his stuff so Scott was getting very worried the later he was. We didn't have enough plywood and no way of putting it up ourselves and so we needed him to come or else we would be completely screwed.

When Lonny showed up a a trailer of plywood, like gold around here right now, and four extra men, you could tell a whole ton of bricks had just lifted off Scott's shoulders.

Scott had decided that if Lonny said it was safe, we would ride the storm out here. Lonny indicated that once we get all of the windows boarded up and everything elevated off the floor downstairs, we would be fine.

Right now I can hear the electric drill getting all of those wonderful pieces of plywood up over our windows. (We know that after everything calms down from Dean, we will be buying an electric drill, oh, and hurricane shutters.....) When you go outside today, you hear drills and saws all over the island; everyone is getting ready.

I am glad that Lonny brought some relief for Scott because his whole outlook had crashed when he saw how fortified our neighbors' houses were becoming and realized that we had nothing to protect our place. Now, at least, he has been smiling and seems more ready to face what is coming now that we know our house will be protected, we will have a safe place to stay, and we have a plan to get our car to safety.

This morning we thought we had good news regarding the path of Dean since it had moved south of us just a bit, but, after checking just now, it is back to coming right over the island. It has already reached a Category 4, and it is predicted that it will become a Category 5 before hitting the island. The hope is that it will lose some of the intensity before it actually hits us but we will keep you guys updated as the weekend progresses.

Keep us in your prayers.

Saturday Morning Status

The hurricane is now projected to be a category five when it crosses near Jamaica to the south and east of us. Should be a four or a five when it gets to us Monday. The arrival time keeps changing now it looks like four or five a.m. It continues to drift south and that is a good thing according to our neighbors. We want it to pass south because of the wind directions and where our windows are. The problem is that it is slowing down. Ivan buzz sawed Cayman for 36 hours, if this one slows down and stays on line with the Island it could do the same. We will meet with Lonny in a little while and find out about our windows. Will update as we find things out. Today will be a long day of preparations.

8:00 p.m. update

This evening things are looking up from a personal perspective even as the news continues to be bad. We bought a cell phone and have charged it so we can use it in an emergency. I spoke with Lonny Tibbetts, one of our instructors who is a contractor and he is coming over tomorrow morning early with some men to help us with the windows and hopefully with solutions to our lack of plywood and inability to do something about the upstairs window. I also spoke with our neighbors Keith and Kathleen (nice coincidence) who rode out Ivan here. They said that the structures are fine and the windows are fine (boarded up) but there will be flooding. They suggested moving our car on Sunday to higher ground and when they move theirs we will do same and carpool back. They also suggested getting Katie's bike from the college in case we have to be without a vehicle for a while either because of flooding or because there is no gasoline. They also have a good generator and 15 gallons of gasoline so our fears of using the generator without supervision can be set aside. They also said that the neighborhood basically watched after everyone post Ivan and that it would be the same. Based on what Lonny can do and our discussion with the neighbors we may ride it out here.

Tomorrow early we go to the college and get Katie's bike, then back here to meet Lonny and board up windows etc. Then we help our neighbors do their windows and batten down the hatches. Will do another update as information arises or by tomorrow mid morning.

Friday 4:00 p.m. Update

The news this afternoon continues to be bad. At 12:00 noon they broke into all the radio stations and announced that the eye is now headed for Grand Cayman and if there are no changes in direction, (and there have been three in just the last 24 hours) we get hit straight on by it Monday morning. The buildings all around are starting to get boarded up. We spent the whole morning and early afternoon at the college wrapping everything in garbage bags and moving everything to the two inner rooms. We did line up plywood for the college and tomorrow morning some workers are supposed to come nail it up.

We are now home and starting our own preparation. We have discovered to our dismay that the plywood left for us doesn't fit the downstairs windows so not only do we have an upstairs issue but also a downstairs one too. We will spend the rest of the day getting what we can together for the kit to be ready and as best we can the house. We are also going over to check out the librarians residence and see how secure it is. She is being evacuated by her husbands company so we would have the place. She also has hurricane shutters but at present no plywood for her patio doors. We are now reconsidering the college because it will be boarded up. If it does hit at category four which was what Ivan was then wherever we are will not be safe so we are trying to make safest decision possible.

We haven't gotten a cell phone yet and while that hasn't been an issue up until now, it means that at present we don't have ways of getting in touch with people here. Our little car is not going to stand a chance of there is any significant flooding so our biggest worry (besides getting through this) is that we will be trapped with no way of communicating with anyone.

As I type this Katie is talking with her sister Mel on windows live so Internet seems to be fine. We will keep updating throughout weekend until they turn off the power sometime Sunday before it arrives. Thanks for the e-mails with encouragement. Lets all hope that there is yet another change of track and it moves somewhere north or south of here and all we deal with is a tropical storm force winds and rain. Those on windows live watch for us and we can talk etc.

The waiting time

At first this was something to laugh off; then it was a little exciting, the prospect of an adventure looming, but now with the stark reality staring us in the face its just scary. The entire mood of the Island has changed and you can see the concern in everyone's face. Everything really began to get serious when we got to work around noon. Students started calling about classes this evening because they were leaving work to buy supplies and ply wood. When Katie called workplaces today she got answering machines and we all started looking around and realizing everything at the college that wasn't ready. Then the TV appearance for tomorrow was cancelled as the morning show will just be on weather preparations and all the little signs came crashing down on us that this is really happening.

We prepared an ad hoc hurricane plan with 33 different tasks to complete for the college. The plan is from three people who have never been through a hurricane and one who has been through several so who knows if we covered everything. We immediately started implementing the plan as best we could. I went to A.L Thompson hardware to get supplies for the college and a store that had been empty two hours earlier when Katie and I stopped for our supplies was now packed. The supermarket next door had a full parking lot in the middle of the day as well. Katie began moving all the student files into the records room filing cabinets all but one (which was donated Tuesday) of which have damage from Ivan. We cant use any of the bottom drawers because of flooding concerns so moving files in and securing them was a good eight hour long task While Katie did that I began moving computers, chairs, supplies, books and everything else to inside rooms without windows. We have no plywood for the college windows and so I spent part of the evening trying to run that down but so far no luck.

Dr. Cummings and April are not on Island yet and even though they are scheduled to arrive tomorrow there is a good chance the government will not allow in coming flights with people just empty planes for evacuation and besides we don't have food for them. Our business manager is also off island so the college is understaffed as it is.

Tomorrow we will go in early and spend the morning moving everything in the college to safe locations. Hopefully the construction company I spoke with tonight that rebuilt the college will get plywood out to board up at least some of the windows by Saturday evening. In any event at 2 p.m. we are leaving and worrying about our own place. The new house is great but apparently not in the best neighborhood for flooding. Something that we probably should have been a little more curious about two weeks ago. The house is raised but the neighborhood around isn't so there is a chance with severe flooding we could be trapped.

The strange thing is the current weather, sunny and nice. You would never know from looking at the sky what was headed this way. This really is just a period of waiting and watching and constantly checking the net and the radio for updates.

We are debating whether to ride out the storm at a shelter, here at our new home or at the residence of our librarian. We have plywood and nails for the two downstairs windows but nothing right now for the upstairs one and that is what we will spend tomorrow afternoon working on. If we get sufficient covering for the windows we will ride it out here. We don't want to ride it out at the college because the roof leaks, it is in a worse flood plain than our place (of course the whole Island is a flood plain not being much above sea level anywhere), and there is no way to cover all the windows so flying objects would be a tremendous concern. All of the students we talked tonight were glad we don't still live at the college. Even as they warned us about Selkirk drive they said it was better than the college.

The storm looks like it will come through Monday morning. The track is for the eye to be south of the Island. It should be a category four while it passes us at around 8 a.m. Monday then lessening as it heads for the Yucatan Peninsula and then into the Gulf of Mexico. We will keep updating the blog through Sunday afternoon and early evening until we have to move everything or go to a public shelter. If the storm looks like it will track right for the island we are looking at flights but right now there are literally no flights off the island on line so that must mean only evacuation flights. We will make some calls in the morning and see.

Not to be dramatic but keep a good thought for us. This isn't fun.

Hurricane Watch

Well looks like Dean is picking up speed and tracking to cross south of Cayman Monday morning. Katie and I went to the supermarket this morning to get a full load of groceries for our hurricane kit. This afternoon it is over to the hardware store for nails and the home center for some tarps and additional plastic tubs for storage. The mood here has definitely changed in the last 24 hours and you could tell at the supermarket they were putting in the front the big hurricane items like water and canned goods. No price gouging yet so we were lucky. We also gassed up the car and will fill up our gasoline can for the generator.

Several evacuation charters are already being lined up but the college really doesn't have a plan in place. Katie and I are still trying to determine where the safest place to ride it out is, at our new home which is about a mile from the water or to the college which is about three miles in. It is more about what is on higher ground not where is closer to the water.

Will update tonight on our status.

Visit from Leader of Govt Business and Storm Watch

By Scott:

This evening the Leader of Government Business, the honorable Kurt Tibbetts, the Caymanian version of the Prime Minister, was a guest lecturer in our Business Management course. After two cancellations we were beginning to think he was not ever going to come but this evening we got confirmation around 7 p.m. that he would be at the college for the 7:50 class. He arrived driving his own vehicle and it was a stark reminder that on an Island with only 40,000 people even the highest elected government official is accessible.

I was already in a suit from a presentation earlier in the day to Kiwanis so there was no need to run home and get more formal clothes. Interestingly the Leader was in a short sleeve polo style shirt as was the instructor Joey Ebanks who is the manager of the huge turtle farm and very well connected politically (hence his ability to get the LOGB out as a guest lecturer). I still struggle with the dress code here. I want to show respect but at the same time when you are the only person in a suit you stick out like a sore thumb. The lesson of tonight is ask ahead of time and if the speaker is in short sleeves then I come in a sport coat and shirt with no tie, formal enough to show respect but not so formal as to stick out. The lecture and a question and answer session which followed lasted over two hours and went well. I had a chance to talk with the LOGB after the session and thank him for coming to ICCI and speaking with our students. We are hopeful that this is one of many new positive events happening to increase ICCI's profile and stature over the course of the next several weeks.

The other big news here is the changing path of Tropical Storm soon to be Hurricane Dean. The storm now looks like it will enter the Western Caribbean late next week as a category three or even category four hurricane and pass somewhere south of Cayman. That in and of itself will cause problems and the closer to Grand Cayman it is, the worse things will be. Tomorrow Katie and I are going to the store and buying several days worth of canned goods to fill out our hurricane kit. Hurricane fever hasn't quite hit yet but it will by the weekend if the forecast shows it is headed this way and we want to stock up before the shelves get emptied out.

Not looking forward to nailing up the wood over windows and riding out a storm but if that is to be then it is to be. Everyone tells us you really cant know what to expect until you actually go through it. Hopefully we wont have to learn.

Tracking the first big storm of the hurricane season

All the news here is on Tropical Storm Dean. The first real storm of Hurricane season 2007. From now to the end of October every storm will be watched carefully. We expect to see some part of it by the weekend and whether that will be the full storm or just some of the bands from it remains to be seen. It is strange watching the tracking reports and checking every couple of hours to see if the storm has turned etc. Right now it looks like it will move off toward the Bahamas and all we will get is a lot of rain. Either way we have our Hurricane kit up and ready. To follow the action check out the National Hurricane Center Web page at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/index.shtml.

I attended a luncheon on hurricane preparedness last week and today made a presentation to the Cayman Islands Insurance Association and all the talk was about this storm. It is really a different mindset down here with everyone going about their normal lives but constantly checking the weather reports. All of the radio stations have hourly updates. I guess that for the next two months we just have to keep one eye on the weather as a fact of life. The downside of living in a tropical island.

New Place

By Scott:

After a long afternoon and evening of cleaning and unpacking we are all moved in to our new place. After making due in a small apartment for a year in Fort Worth and then an even smaller apartment at the college this place feels like a castle.

The master bedroom is on the second floor at the top of the stairs and has a a full bath attached. It is almost as big as our college apartment was. Across a small walkway is a guest room that overlooks the living room downstairs. You enter the condo through the living room then into a dining area before you get to the kitchen. As for that kitchen it is huge and Katie is very excited about the opportunity to ply her cooking magic in a full kitchen. There is even a second guestroom behind the kitchen and down stairs bathroom that we will use for storage or for long term guests. We have more space than we know what to do with for the first time in our marriage. Katie will post pictures and give virtual tour soon.

Outside a huge storm is blowing through. I don't even want to think about what must be happening back at the college apartment with the leak. We left out the coolers and sheets so hopefully tomorrow we wont find too much of a mess. We did leave our bikes at the apartment and intend to tag team bike them over here tomorrow, Katie in the morning when we have to go open the college up for a seminar class meeting early and me in the afternoon when Katie has a session with her students. Meanwhile no leak or flood issues here.

Our new physical address is either 2 Eggret Walk Red Bay Grand Cayman (which is the address on our lease) or 24 Princess Way, Red Bay, Grand Cayman according to our electric bill. Physical addresses are subject to lots of interpretations down here. No postage comes to your physical address so each company just sort of operates on its own with no consistency. Our mail will still be the Savannah post office that we gave out since its still closer to go there than it is to go to the airport post office which is the next closest. So just keep using the Grand Cayman KY 1-1500, Cayman Islands mailing address. We never did get a box from my mother but have gotten letters so those at least get to us in good shape.

The freedom of having a car and now our own place away from the college is really exhilarating. I think that if we had gotten a car when we first got here we might not have been so anxious to move away from the college but the living there and feeling trapped there because we had no vehicle was overwhelming. The other big thing surprisingly was not having a refrigerator or microwave in the apartment. Every meal we had to walk into the college and get things or if we wanted to watch a movie with popcorn walk in to pop it. That gets old quick and pushed us to move out much sooner as we had really planned to stay rent free in the apartment until December.

Moving Day

By Scott:

Moving day is here. We start this afternoon as we have to proctor an exam this morning. Katie and I actually began our move last night when Katie took over a load in Clay's truck while I had to wait on some students at the college. We will take a load over shortly and our next entry will be done at the new place. last night we treated ourselves to Sushi at a restaurant called the Thai Orchid on Seven Mile Beach Road. The sushi was great and we have definitely found our Valentines Day place. The new car is working out but we are hearing a squealing and will be taking it back in next week to have them check on the fan belts. There was also a mix up with the log showing it as a 2003 and the dealership saying it was a 2004. The dealership is having to clear it up with the licensing bureau and meanwhile we are waiting to get the final insurance certificate for them to clear it up. We really don't care if its 2003 or 2004 as it will have little to no re-sale value when we go to sell it but we don't want to get in trouble when we take it in for licensing and inspections.

There are three weeks left in the Summer Quarter. We are already deep into Fall registration and knock on wood the numbers this year will exceed last years at the pace we are on. The newspaper article seems to have been well received and yesterday I met with the general manager of the Marriott resort who wants to send some of his employees to ICCI. We have gotten a few key donations like a copier, which was incredibly needed. we also have gotten a new white board for one of the classes and a fire proof cabinet. All of that has helped us begin to see tangible changes as well the intangibles of higher numbers. Katie and I are convinced that the road to getting ICCI back to its pre-Ivan numbers is visible we just have to keep pushing the rock down the road.

New Car and Newspaper debut

We picked up our car this morning a 2005 Daihatsu Charade. The interview on Monday has now become an article to be published Thursday but already on line at the link below.

http://www.caycompass.com/cgi-bin/CFPnews.cgi?ID=1024168

Next week Scott is back on television to talk about our Caribcert program along with the President of the University College. Three days to our move.

Tourism reception, movie night and sunday afternoon away

By Scott:

Friday evening Katie and I went with Dr. Cummings and Kira our business manager to a reception at the Marriott resort put on by the Ministry of Tourism for its college scholars. It was a chance to network with some of the big wigs in the tourism industry and also promote ICCI. We were told Friday afternoon that we could have a table for handouts etc. I dont think they expected us to get something together that quick. Fortunately, the college had just gotten a copier donated so we were able to print up brochures that Katie had already put together along with some written materials. We have found that the government treats ICCI like a red headed step child and goes out of its way sometimes to keep us from programs or if they have to invite us making it last minute in the hopes we wont attend. With four of us in attendance and a table they couldnt ignore us and it was funny watching at least two speakers obviously have to depart from their prepared remarks which were only going to mention the government founded University College and add in a reference to us. It was a small victory for the little college that could but a satisfying one.

The food at the reception was incredible and we did get to network with some important people. I spoke with the general manager of the resort and am making an appointment to meet with him next week to do a presentation on the college and partnership opportunities. Its amazing the number of people who dont even know about ICCI which is sad when you consider ICCI was the first college on the Island and is justifiably entitled to claim itself as the birthplace of college education in Cayman. The nice thing is that for the most part when they do find out about us and how they can send their employees to school at night and not lose them during the work day, they are very interested in hearing about us.

After dropping off Dr. Cummings at home we headed out with Kira and Clay to see the late showing of The Bourne Ultimatum at the Marquee. Great movie. We got in around Midnight and fell asleep after a long week and a long Friday night.

Saturday consisted of a bike ride to Bodden Town, a shopping trip into George Town, and 4 or so episodes of Scrubs in the evening. This afternoon we biked over to Kira's place in Spotts. Her complex is right next to Spotts beach with a breaker just about 100 or 150 feet from the shore. The wave activity was really strong and we snorkeled out almost to the rocks to look at all the schools of fish that were in the area. We made dinner with Kira and Clay and had an enjoyable afternoon away from the college. This evening Katie is grading papers for her class tomorrow and I am catching up on my reading for my graduate course. One week to our move and on either Tuesday or Wednesday we pick up our car.

Television Debut and New Car

By Scott:

This morning I made my Cayman television debut appearing on the morning talk show Daybreak. We did a five minute live segment where Dr. Cummings and I were interviewed to talk about the upcoming 37th Anniversary of the college, our new marketing campaign and the new staff. I was very nervous but it seemed to go well. The five minutes flew by and it seemed to be over before it had even begun. Our marketing campaign is in full swing and this afternoon I got a call from the Cayman Compass one of the two daily newspapers on the Island and they want to come out and do an interview Monday afternoon. The only bad part about the TV interview was the 5:30 wake up call after leaving work at 11 the night before.

Later in the morning, Katie and I put a deposit on our new car and we pick it up next Tuesday or Wednesday. We bought it from Budget out of their fleet cars. Its a 2004 Daihatsu Charade, about the size of a Geo Metro. We got the insurance and unlike the US you don't pay monthly premiums you pay it all up front. So today was an expensive day.

Tomorrow night we are going to a reception for the tourism ministry. We are counting the days to our move next Saturday.

Teaching at the College Level

By Katie

This blog entry is dedicated to Gail Loski, Kristy Cummings, Denise Spetter, Aunt Beth Elliote, Jennifer McCaskill-Perry, Bridgette Harris, and elementary school teachers everywhere.

Tonight I taught my first college class, freshman composition. After a year in a fourth grade classroom that felt like doing a tour of duty in a war zone, I was a little apprehensive about taking over this course. Since the current professor had to leave the island quickly and no other substitute could be found, I was told by the Dean of ICCI, on Friday, that I would have to take over the class. (I was not happy about the Dean's decision and complained to my husband all weekend, but, for some reason, he wasn't sympathetic.) Yesterday afternoon, I received all the previous papers, grades, and handouts. I only had this morning to prepare for the class.

In looking through the materials, reading the comments the professor left on the papers, and remembering my college days, I realized how easy college professors have it. Unlike the world of elementary education, college professors are not held accountable for the things that their students do not learn. College professors are able to put the responsibility onto the students. In the world of elementary education, one cannot simply brush aside low test scores on the lack of motivation of the students. In elementary education, it is the teacher's responsibility to teach the material; whereas, in college, it is the student's responsibility to learn the material.

Planning is much easier because, as a college professor, you can continue to move on even when your students have not absorbed the material. The syllabus is set at the beginning of the quarter/semester and then the class progresses at that rate. The college administrators only request to see your general plans for the 11-15 weeks you will be teaching, but elementary principals want to see your daily plans for each block of time. Elementary teachers already are teaching straight for the seven and a half hours they are getting paid for, and yet they have at least three hours of outside planning and grading to do every day, for which they do not get paid.

Since the responsibility of learning the material falls on the student in college, it is not the responsibility of the professor to provide additional help. A good college professor will have the students come for extra tutoring during the set office hours. On the other hand, elementary teachers have to find time to reteach material while also moving forward since they do not have breaks in their day that they can use to help students.

On the syllabus I have received for this class, there is a total of seven items that I will have to have graded in order to figure each student's grade. Within one subject, in elementary school, there is at least 20 final grades that must be input. Since the performance on any given assignment steers the course of the instruction for elementary education, most elementary teachers grade more than double that number of assignments for each subject area.

Classroom management is much easier in college. If there is even a slight disruption in the class, the college professor can either brush it off because, again, it is the responsibility of the student to learn or can actually kick the student out of class. They don't have to worry about that student wandering off, getting hurt, not being under observation, disappearing, and many other options that would all be the fault of the elementary teacher in that situation.

I am not saying that college professors have an easy job but they have a much easier job than elementary teachers.

Working Weekend

By Scott:

This weekend, our ACICS consultant was on Island to work with us on getting ready for the accrediting team visit in October. Between proctoring the Comprehensive Exams Friday night until 10:30 while Katie met with the consultant at the college and then a weekend of meetings, this was not the weekend in paradise we usually look forward to. We were in the office for a good part of Saturday and most of Sunday morning. We knew when we came down here it would be long hours and that has been the case. Katie actually has a much harder part than I do for ACICS getting the Records for the school in the right condition. I have to get the faculty files in order but that is nothing compared to the student records.

We still had some time late Saturday afternoon and evening to go out. We were invited by Kira, our business manager, to go with her and Clay (her boyfriend) out to Willie's farm on the north side to pick some fruit and look at the West Indian Whistling Ducks, an endangered species. We picked some star fruit and cayman plumbs and bought some mangos. From there we headed over to the Morritts, a resort in East End (next to the Reef where we stayed in June). We ordered drinks out on the deck, talked and listened to music as the sun set and the moon rose. The almost full moon glistening on the water and the lapping of the waves was really quite beautiful.

Sunday afternoon, after we finished with the consultant, we borrowed the van and went over to the condo to do an inventory of the furnished items and get our key. We are just two weeks from the move and really can't wait. I think both of us feel we will have to slow down and once we aren't living at the college that will be a little easier. After the inventory we headed to Cottage beach to try the snorkeling there. This beach had a lot of seaweed and it took a while to get out to clear water. The seaweed though had a number of really pretty looking species of fish swimming in it and couple of things we weren't sure of but were definitely alive. The beach wasn't as nice as Cayman Kai or even Beach Bay but we want to try all of them on the Island and can now mark this one off our list. An early dinner of Chili a la Scott (one of the few things I can cook well in our Dutch Baby) and a couple of episodes of Scrubs on the lap top followed.

We called it a very early night on Sunday, I went to sleep around 7:45 and Katie followed not long after. This will be a long week as I make a presentation to the Cayman Human Resources Professional Organization on Tuesday and on Thursday make my television debut on a morning show doing an interview to promote the college as the new Dean. Katie continues with registration and tonight becomes a teacher again. Our Freshman English Composition professor had to leave Island and so Katie is substituting for the rest of the quarter. We will let you know how that experience is for her.

A visit from Katie's Parents

By Scott and Katie:

On Thursday, Russ and Gail stopped off in Cayman during their seven day cruise of the Caribbean. They got off the boat at around 7:15 in the morning and we met them in the harbor at the dock terminal. We drove first to our new place and showed them the condo. The owner was kind enough to let us in and show them everything. we are very excited about our pending move and counting the days to August 11th. From there we headed to Fosters and a true Scott and Katie breakfast buffet. A quick tour of the college followed and then out for a tour of the Island.

Our first stop was Beach Bay and some snorkeling. There were several schools of fish in the swim area and a couple of very large fish swimming around that we were able to follow. Scott's new prescription mask enabled him to really see everything and we bought a good mask for Katie and good snorkels and they are fast turning into the second best investment after our bikes that we have made.

From Beach Bay we drove east and then north. We stopped first briefly at Rum Point to look around and then headed over to Cayman Kai beach and a second round of snorkeling. There were tons more fish at Cayman Kai but a strong current and heavier waves meant we were exhausted by the time we got out of the water. We then drove over to Portofino in East End for lunch on their deck.

Russ and Gail had to be back to get on their boat by 2:45 so after a brief stop at the college to pick up some stuff we headed back to George Town and dropped them off at the terminal. The day went far too fast but it was great to see family.

Cars and Condos

By Scott:

When we first decided to move down here we expected to stay in the college apartment for six months for a variety of reasons. It would save money, it would mean we wouldn't need a car and it would give us time to find an affordable place, near work without the pressure of having to pick something immediately. But, through our first eight weeks on the island it has become increasingly clear that we needed to get away from the college when we weren't working and by living here that was all but impossible. That combined with the ever present leak has led us to push up our plans to move out.

Yesterday we went to look at a Condo behind Grand Harbor which is about 5 miles from the campus (a block and a half from Hurley's in Red Bay on the main road back toward George Town). The place is very similar to my old townhouse. It has two floors with three bedrooms, two baths, a huge living room and kitchen and a nice outside patio. The foundation is raised and the neighborhood doesn't have the low water areas that always flood when it rains. It is fully furnished (which is the norm here on Cayman). We both liked the place when we saw it and today we are signing a lease (12 months with an option on an additional 12). We got a great rate because the market is really down. We really weren't looking for a place that big but got it for the price of a two bedroom and actually for that size in George Town we would be paying double, we move in August 15th (or maybe the 11th depending on how things go today).

Getting the condo also meant we now need a car, so after looking at the condo we drove the van over to Budget and looked at cars. We saw one we liked and the price is right so we are going to get a small used compact car the first full week of August. Here on Cayman when you buy a car you pay for it up front, so between the move in, utilities turned on and the car, August will be an expensive month in the Cummings household. Less eating out and more pasta from the grocery store for a while.

We have fixed our ticket issue with Cayman Airways. They are still flying us to Miami but have gotten us a nonstop from Miami to DFW so no layover in Houston on the return trip in December.

We have both finished Harry Potter and are now in the process of going back and re-reading parts to pick up anything we might have missed the first time. On Sunday I spoke with my sister Johanna on the web cam and with my brother Kevin for just a moment when he called Jo and she put the phone up to the camera. Katie's parents arrive in less than 48 hours and now we can show them our future home. Will post pictures of it shortly.

Harry Potter Day

By Scott:

All week Kathleen has been all a twitter about "Harry Potter Day" on Saturday and while I have been looking forward to the day when we could get the book and see the movie (which debuted on Island last night), Katie has been practically beside herself. Sort of like me on "First Day of Football Season Day".

The day started at about 4:30 a.m. as I got up to drive Elsa and Keith to the airport for their trip to Jamaica. Katie graciously offered to come with but jumped pretty quick on my offer to drive them while she stayed at the apartment and slept. I dropped them off at the airport and headed back to the college as the sun came up which is around 5:30 here on Cayman. That meant Katie and I have the van until they return next Wednesday. The morning consisted of going back to sleep for a few hours and then waiting while the A/C man fixed the HVAC unit for the library.

Around noon we headed to George Town to address Katie's craving for Mexican food. Surprisingly, the choice for that variety of food is severely limited in Cayman and we ended up at Seňor Frogs just off Heroes Square by the Harbor. We ate out on the balcony and listened to a tremendous storm that must have been moving across the north end of the Island. My fajitas were OK and her enchiladas were not bad but for real Mexican food we will obviously have to go to Mexico or just back to Texas. We could hear booming thunder but no rain. We headed out hoping that the storm stayed to the north. There was almost no wind and the tree's were eerily calm.

After lunch we headed over to Books by the Bay and our 1:30 appointment to pick up the seventh book. When we got to the store it had lost power but they were open to distribute the pre-paid Harry Potter books so we picked up our copy and headed home. A quick stop at Willie's fruit stand to pick up some sweet sop, mango and a baggie of plums that look like over sized grapes, and then back to the college to read the first several chapters. The power outage was also affecting the college and we read out loud the first chapter in a somewhat steaming apartment. The power kicked back on about a half hour after we got home and while I surfed the net Katie read some chapters to herself. Then it was my turn while she played Big Kahuna Reef her new computer game obsession. We are each reading a few chapters then giving the book to the other so neither of us gets too far ahead.

At 4:30 it was time to head to the movie. The theatre is up on West Bay Road north of the Harbor district. We got to the theatre around 5 to get tickets for the 6:20 showing. Then we headed over to a diving shop on Seven Mile Beach to pick up a backpack for our bicycling trips. We also found a pair of prescription goggles for me and are going back early next week to get them and some snorkeling gear. We needed the backpack as the messenger bags we have been using while riding unevenly distribute weight and only put weight on one shoulder. From there it was over to a stand called Al La Kebob, a Greek place next to the movie theatre and gyros for the two of us. The gyros were really good and hit the spot before the film.

The movie theatre is an old style auditorium with a curtain that opens as the film begins. The auditorium is huge and must have seated at least 300 people. The place was packed with a truly multi cultural, multi racial audience. Really shows the impact of this series of books across cultural lines. They only show movies on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at the theatre which is the only one on the Island. Harry Potter is only there this weekend so this was our one shot. The pre-movie was like a trip to the 70's with very old strips on being quiet, going to the concession stand and picking up trash with the lights and disco music setting the mood. The Theatre has two auditoriums and every movie has an intermission. It was nice knowing that I had a built in bathroom break and hour or so into the movie.

We both enjoyed the movie but saw a lot of changes and differences from the book, Katie more than I as she read it again this spring while I haven't re-read the books yet. Driving at night and remembering to stay to the left take some getting used to and the drive back through town and then out to the District of Savannah was a new driving challenge.

After getting back to Savannah we made a quick shopping run to Fosters and then back up Hirst road to Newlands and the college apartment. As I type this Katie is reading away. Tomorrow we are going up to West Bay for a brunch at the restaurant where I went in April that had such a great spread and beautiful view. Life is great when you have a vehicle to get to the far away places. Monday we are looking at a condo to rent in Grand Harbor which is about 5 miles from the college. Its 1600 square feet and is owned by a professor who is moving to the Middle East and wants to keep it as an investment property. If it looks good we could move in in September. We are also looking into a vehicle and plan to buy one with our July paychecks probably from one of the rental car companies fleets.

This past week was literally five straight days of 14 hour work days. We didn't plan it that way but from Monday on it just happened where we had things to do each morning and were at work by nine and working until 11 that night. I made two presentations from a Power Point that Katie and I put together and Katie put together a brochure that went to a career development day for a big bank employer here on the Island. We plan to slow down this week but with the fall registration push will still be busy. Katie's parents arrive Thursday and we have taken a half day off and wont be going in until 5:00 p.m. so we can show them around Grand Cayman.

Cayman Airways has changed our flight in December from Houston to Miami which does us no good since our connection to Dallas is from Houston on another airline. Monday after looking at the condo and before looking for a car we plan to stop in at their offices and explain that to them and see if we can either get our flight back or get a credit. We want to get over to Cayman Brac one of the smaller islands and might use our flight credit for a weekend getaway if we lose our flight home.

We are both excited about seeing the place Monday and the possibility of getting to move off campus has both of us happy. Its great not having to pay rent or utilities but constantly being here is getting to be a drag on the rest of our lives and its hard to leave work when you never leave work because you live there. The other nice thing will be getting a car. This Island will get really small once we have that. Will let you know how all that shakes out.

One Day to Harry Potter

Long week with 4 straight fourteen hour work days but only one day to Harry Potter. The book arrives on Island at 1:30 p.m. Saturday and we are seeing the movie later that afternoon. Will update on the week later.

Grand Old House Restaurant

By Scott:

This evening Kathleen and I went out on a date night to the Grand Old House an elegant restaurant on South Sound road just as it turned to the north below George Town. The restaurant overlooked a rocky shore with a deck facing the west on which we ate. We arrived as the sun was just beginning to set and during the long meal got to go from light to darkness. The restaurant is actually owned by the current Austrian consul (honorary consul as he pointed out to us, which means he has some diplomatic immunity but still has to pay his traffic fines). The restaurant is located in the main house of the old Petra Plantation (hence the name Grand Old House).

I had actually gone to this restaurant on Tuesday for lunch with our insurance instructor who is a big wig with the insurance association. After eating lunch there I knew I had to bring Katie for dinner. We borrowed the van and headed out after a long Saturday at work which included a board meeting and then a couple of hours of paperwork catch up. We got there right as the restaurant opened for dinner and got a table at the edge of the deck overlooking the rocks. The water was crashing over the rocks and under the deck throughout the meal. The restaurant must have the deck just right because we never once got sprayed even though just a few feet to the right of the deck huge spray was coming well past where the deck started. There was an outdoor piano and the combination of piano playing and waves on the rocks was really soothing and added to the incredible ambiance of the meal.

I had a conch chowder for my soup and Katie had a cold soup of mango and mandarin orange that tasted more like a dessert. We had an appetizer called the Ceviche Duo consisting of lobster and mahi mahi in two different fruit sauces. Katie had a Curry seafood combination for her entree while I had a New York steak, my first steak in a month and a half. Katie got a great shot of the sunset from our table posted at right. As it got dark the lights on the deck drew a school of big fish that were at least three feet long and who must have amazing strength because the waves were crashing into the rocks with such power yet the fish stayed just a few feet from our table and didn't seem concerned about the waves or the rocks. As we enjoyed cheesecake and coffee to finish the meal, we both agreed we would have to come back and when we could bring family when they come down.

Katie and I are trying to do something special at least once a month and this night out at a romantic dinner spot is our July version of the resort weekend from back in June.

Free Range Roosters

By Scott:

If there is one thing that constantly reminds me I am on an Island in the Caribbean it is the ever present free range roosters. East of George Town and away from the heavy traffic, they are everywhere usually trailed by a couple of hens and sometimes chicks. Every time we go biking we pass several on the road and unlike all the other animal species from whom you often see corpses in the road, you never see roosters or hens so they must have an ingrained sense to know not to be on the road. Several of them hang out in the area by the abandoned third building on our campus and they wake us each morning with their calls to the sun.

Katie and I did a short bike out to Bodden Town yesterday before work and an even shorter ride up to North Sound today. A few things are happening to really get a feel for change on the campus. We got a working vending machine last Friday and I have been making change for students out of petty cash and the response has been really positive, something about actually having working vending machines meant a lot to the students. It also means our canteen is starting to actually be a canteen rather than an empty room We are also redoing the campus wide meeting tomorrow night to get some student committee's going and talk about the changes. Each academic advising session I have I talk to the students and universally they want ICCI to succeed and just need the motivation of seeing things getting done to get involved themselves. While we are still at the very beginning of changes and there are some days we feel totally overwhelmed by the work on those occasions where we get the positive student response to the changes so far it really spurs us to keep working harder for more. Its why we are here and gives us that sense of purpose we need.

Weekend

By Katie

Saturday morning we were supposed to get up at 6:30 to do another long ride out East but, predictably, we slept in, me much later than Scott. Around 9:00 we got up and made a big breakfast of turkey bacon, eggs, and pancakes. The pancake batter was too runny so it was actually more like thick crepes than pancakes as each pancake was about 12 inches in diameter.

We are getting really good use out of our three pans/pots, our dutch oven (not cast iron), skillet, and saucepan. The dutch oven doubles as a bowl a lot of the time as well.

Since it was too late in the morning, we couldn't go for the long ride so we opted to go to Pedro St. James, just about two miles from the college.

Pedro St. James is the birthplace of democracy in the Cayman Islands and the place where they read the proclamation freeing the slaves. We had to tiptoe around wedding preparations for a wedding taking place later on in the day (it was 7/7/07). We entered into their "theater" which was more like a stage set with three different stages with replications of the grounds. You sat in theater sets that were under tin roofs with gutters running down the sides. When you first entered, you could hear a storm inside the theater. They set it up so that the storm came closer and before the show started, "thunder and lighting" arrived, water started to pour from the gutters, and you were actually misted multiple times to feel like you were getting the spray from the rain dropping on the tin roof. The movie began by saying that the Cayman Islands have always been defined by the storms, which makes the first experience in the theater make sense. When the show started it moved between three different screens and the various stage sets that would light up when corresponding to a part of the story. It was really, really good. Both of us were definitely pleasantly surprised, a much better quality presentation than you usually see at historical sites.

The house was built by William Eden in the late 1700s when he came over from England and married a Bodden, one of the first families on the island. He built a big house at Pedro point modelled after a Jamaican plantation house. The house has 1-2 foot thick stone walls that go all the way from the bottom floor to the third floor of the house. Those walls are still standing and have lasted through multiple hurricanes, fires, storms, etc through the centuries.

The house was used as a courthouse, a jail, a meeting place, the location for the reading of public proclamations, a residence for the Edens and their descendants, a picnic ground in the early 1900s when it was abandoned, a tourist attraction(with false claims of it being a pirate castle) in the 1960s, and now a historical site (bought by the Cayman government in 1996).

In the early 1800s, the Caymanians realized that the Jamaicans, who were supposed to be governing them, were ignoring them and the British, who they were supposed to be a part of, hardly knew they existed so they decided they needed to create a government on the island. The Boddens, Edens, and Watlers got together and created a government. (The Boddens and the Watlers were the first families on the island and the Edens started with William Eden. All three of those families can still be found everywhere on the island.)

After the multimedia presentation, we toured the house. The stone is well preserved. All the wood had been destroyed in a 1877 fire so all of that is new but everything stone is original. We were limited when walking the grounds because of the wedding but we got some great cliff views down a small hiking trail, see pictures.

Today, Sunday, we decided to do a ride west instead of east and get a feel for what it is like riding towards George Town. We got started later than we wanted to, even though we woke up earlier, because we had a massive war with the ants and had to spray the house before we left.

We did about an 18 mile round trip ride today along the main road into George Town. Instead of turning up towards the airport, we rode along South Sound Road, a beautiful ride! There was definitely a lot more traffic going a lot faster than when we ride east. The road had more hills making the ride out and back just about the same difficulty, unlike when we ride East and it is climbing when we go out and downhill when we come back.

We discovered it will take us about a half hour to get to the book store two weeks from now to get Harry Potter and then about fifteen minutes to get back to the beach where we are going to read it out loud! We are excited! We are also making plans to see the movie next weekend, if we can.

Scott talked to his sister Jo and got to see his nephew Nicolas on the web cam tonight. We might have an interesting condo opportunity for rent that we will let you guys know more about as we find out more details.

Riding

By Katie

I've realized while riding around the island just how much you miss about your surroundings when you only experience it in a car.

Riding in a steel cage propelled by an engine with the music blaring and the air conditioning on, you miss so much about the island. You miss feeling the slight rises and falls in the land. You miss feeling the changes in temperature as you get closer to the water and the cool sea breeze starts to overwhelm the heat radiating from the road. You miss hearing the scurrying of animals in the bushes along the road as they panic when you get to close to them. You miss hearing the calls of birds and the fluttering of wings as a Cayman parrot flies higher into a tree. You miss seeing the detail of the flowers on the trees. The bright variations of green, blue, orange, red, and yellow in the trees, flowers, and water escape your observation. You miss even realizing that there is fruit in the many trees that line the roads. You miss hearing the waves as they crash, either on a distant reef or on the beach just a few feet to your side. You miss a physical understanding of the distance you have traveled. You miss the personal satisfaction of knowing that the distance you have traveled, you had to work for!

Living without television, cell phones or a car and more random stuff

By Scott:

Trying to give a little flavor of life here on the Island for Katie and I. I guess the biggest change is the lifestyle. We don't have a TV and at present have no plans to get one. In the fall when my football habit kicks in I will probably head to one of the sports bars in George Town to catch the Longhorn games that may be on but for now we simply don't have television. We watch DVDs on our lap top and can follow the news on the Internet so paying the ridiculous price for television and particularly cable down here just isn't an expense we want to pay. From our weekend at the resort we know that cable includes all the US basic channels from Miami and most of the regular cable channels. Eventually we will get a TV but for now we don't seem to miss it.

Similarly we haven't gotten cell phones yet as they are pretty expensive and frankly who would we call. The only reason to have one is for emergencies and again eventually we will but for now that is also an expense we are foregoing. The hardest thing is not having a car. We got our first paychecks at the end of June and sent some money back to be deposited into our US account to cover a portion of the huge credit card bill we had with our move and last half month in the U.S. We have been basically living on the remaining cash since then trying not to use the credit card. We cant deposit it into a bank here because to get an account you need several documents one of which comes from our bank in the U.S. We have ordered the letter and it is on its way by way of my brother in Georgia. The first checks would have been used up completely on a used car so we decided we could make it another month without a vehicle and wait for our July paychecks to get the car. Once we get the car we add the expense of insurance too so we are calculating exactly what we need. Here in Cayman you don't get an auto loan you pay entirely up front. That's the bad part, the good part is you can get a good used car for around 5000 CI (about 6250 US), you just have to make sure it isn't an Ivan car. we are probably going to buy from one of the rental agencies fleets so that wont be a problem.

Not having a car has pretty much meant that our exploration of the Island is east of Savannah. George Town is still a place largely unfamiliar to us though I have to go in every so often for meetings and borrow the van when I have to do so. On the two occasions that we rented a car we drove in to the big supermarket, Kirks, just north of the harbor district and also to the home improvement stores so we know how to get there. We also went up to West Bay just to drive around but it will take time to get familiar with it all. George Town really isnt that big so once we get a car it will be easy to get to know it though with all the traffic we want to avoid it as much as possible. The funny thing is we still haven't done the biggest tourist things like walk seven mile beach or go to the harbor area where all the shops for the tourists are or go out to Sting Ray City to snorkel. Eventually we will but for now we just accept that our little sphere extends only as far as we can bike.

We have made some new friends. Whenever we go to Fosters we look for Ms. Ethel one of the cashiers. She was our cashier the first time we shopped at Fosters on June 1 and had looked weird at us because of all the things we were buying. We were obviously not buying vacation groceries and we told her we were moving in at the college. Everytime we see her she always asks how we are doing and what new things we have seen or foods we have tried. Countryside Village where the Fosters Supermarket is located is fast becoming a popular place. Its a bit like an America out door mall with Fosters as the magnet then a computer store, a dry cleaners, a hair salon, hardware store, bank, Haagen Dazs ice cream, Subway and even a realtor in some of the other shops. If you don't notice that everyone is driving around on the left you would think you were in any town USA. There is even a Wendy's going up across the street next to the Texaco station. That has Kira our business manager very excited and Katie very disappointed.

We got out first mail from the States (Thanks Mom) which made us very excited. We are expecting a package and are excited to see if it will come out to our little Savannah post office where we get our general delivery mail or if we will have to go into the main office. Even though we live in Newlands, it isn't big enough to have a post office so we have to go down to Savannah. Our post office is the size of a small shack with post office boxes all around it on the outside. It actually looks like a small movable trailer though it is obviously attached to some foundation. We are staying general delivery because a box costs 80 CI a month and you have to rent for a year (which is over a thousand US just to get a mail box). Since we will be moving in January we didn't want to get a box in Savannah anyway particularly if we are going to live in Bodden Town Breakers or even East End and also we can save money by just stopping in when the post office is open and asking if we have any mail.

We are headed out today to visit Pedro St James Castle the birthplace of democracy in the Cayman Islands. Later we will head for a beach. The weekends are our only real time away from work so between biking, swimming and exploring we fill them up pretty quick. Will let you know what we find this weekend. For all our family who are traveling including my brother Kevin and his family, Katie's sister Stephanie, and anyone else out and about on summer vacation, be safe and have good trips, we will talk to you soon.

New Drivers Licenses and other random stuff

By Scott:

Now that both our passports are stamped with work permits the time had come to get drivers licenses. So this morning, Katie and I went down to the Cayman Department of Licensing to put in the paperwork and turn in our Texas licenses. We borrowed the van and headed to George Town. The office was in a building above a Wendy's. We spent about an hour getting everything done and then had to go to a second office a few blocks away to get our licenses since the machine that creates them at the first office was down. Interestingly, they did not take our Texas licenses but returned them. We asked if they needed them and they said no. We are checking back with TXDOT to find out what we need to do, the last thing we want is to get called for jury duty based on our Texas licenses not show up and then when we do eventually return have an outstanding warrant for failure to appear, so we are checking whether we need to send them back, put them on some abated status like my law license or what?

We made a brief stop in the Wendy's for my first fast food in months (Katie was not happy but did steal some of my fries and a bite of my hamburger). After a run over to the University College to pick up a textbook order that had inadvertently been shipped to the wrong college we headed back to Newlands. On the way back to the college we stopped off at a bookstore and put in a pre-order for the final Harry Potter book. On the morning of the 21'st we plan to bike to the store pick up the book and then head to a beach to do some reading.

Today might be a holiday back in the States but it was just another work day here on the Island. I had a meeting late in the day with the Cayman Islands Society of Professional Accountants looking for new faculty, grants and partnership possibilities. That also meant another experience with 5 O'clock George Town traffic though I now know to take South Sound road out, its a longer route but less traffic. We thought the pace of work might slow with registration over but if anything it has gotten even crazier. We are now dealing with a wide variety of issues from academic audits, institutional reports and our accreditation status to budgets and even textbook orders. It is overwhelming at times and everything seems like it is in emergency status. The days seem to fly by.

Katie is fully recovered from last Sunday's episode. On Tuesday we biked down to the Savannah post office to check for a package from my Mom and also to get some groceries at Fosters which is about a block and a half from the post office and everything went fine. We will probably do an early morning ride tomorrow to check again on the package and get more groceries and if that goes well will do something a little longer this weekend. Of course we will be taking into account all the lessons we learned last weekend. We bike down at least twice a week for groceries because we cant carry much and also because with no refrigerator except the small faculty one in the admin building we cant store much so there is no point in a big shopping trip for food. It is good exercise and also gives us an excuse to leave the college during the week. We are still holding off on getting a car and so long as the rainy season continues to be mild we are sticking with bikes as the preferred mode of transportation (sorry Texas you seem to be getting all our rain).

Katie is trying to keep up with birthday cards so if you were a June birthday and haven't yet gotten a card keep an eye out the mail here is pretty slow, it is on the way.

Hitting the Wall

By Scott:

Today for the second day in a row we tried to do a long bike ride the first time we have done back to back days of long rides over 20 miles since we got our bikes. Yesterday evening after we finished the board meeting and campus wide meeting (more on those some other time) we biked out east and got all the way to Frank Sound Road. We stopped at Fosters on the way back and were pretty proud of our little 24 mile jaunt when we pulled up to the college. We both take 64 oz water bottles and apples for energy. That has worked out great until today. We started today's ride late because we had a big breakfast of pancakes, eggs and fruit and we had slept in. By the time we got started it was already 10:45, hot and getting hotter.

The leaving time was mistake number one. We also decided just to take water not our apples since we planned to stop for lunch and we didn't want the extra weight, that was mistake number two. We biked out as far as we went yesterday and then turned north on Frank Sound road. When we passed Southcoast bar and grill in Breakers about a mile before Frank Sound Road, we decided to bike up Frank Sound and then come back before eating lunch (mistake number three). Frank Sound is a winding road that runs a little over 4 miles up to the north end of the island. We had stopped twice to drink water and as we pulled into Old Man Bay at the north end of the island Katie was getting tired and a little over heated. We stopped for about 15 minutes then started heading back to Breakers. We had to stop three times in that five mile return stretch to Breakers as Katie was getting lightheaded, nauseous and shaky. By that time she had finished her water and drank the rest of mine. I was verbally encouraging her the last mile to hang on as we were almost to the restaurant where we could get more water and get food because it was more an energy issue than water issue.

As we pulled into the restaurant it seemed like we had pushed the envelope but not broken it. We sat down drank some water and for about ten minutes as we waited on the food Katie was OK. That is until suddenly her body just gave out. She couldn't eat, couldn't keep her eyes open and kept saying she felt like throwing up. We know now that she had overheated and even replenishing our water and eating food wasn't going to be enough. She had to stop, cool down and sleep. After 45 minutes at the restaurant with Katie unable to eat because she was nauseous and wanting just to lay down and go to sleep we called Elsa and Keith who came out in the van and picked us up. We put the bikes on the top of the van and drove the 10 or so miles back to the college. Katie took a cold shower which brought her body temperature down and about a two hour nap. This evening her appetite is back and she is feeling a lot better. We know we were lucky! First that it only happened to one of us and not both and second that Elsa has given us her numbers for emergencies like this. Katie is in better shape than I am but that actually helped me according to her Internet research tonight, people in better shape build up a sweat faster draining their body of fluids and minerals and that led to her overheating sooner than I would have.

We learned several lessons. First we cant plan to be out for more than an hour tops between noon and around 4, its just too hot and humid. Second even if we are stopping to eat we need to take energy food. We were good on the water but Katie's Internet research indicated water isn't enough, our bodies need energy replacement too or we get overheated. Finally we cant push ourselves which is a hard lesson. We both want to get up to biking 50-60 miles a day (which is basically around the east end of the island and back from Newlands) and we just need to realize that will take time. Also the heat of July is not the time to do day long bike rides. Today would have been 32 miles (only 8 more than yesterday) and the boink point really came at 18 miles even though we biked the 5 miles back to Breakers after. We were fine at 24 miles yesterday but we had apples at 12 miles and it was in the evening so the temperature was not as high. Today was only 23 miles but the other factors intervened. So for the next two months until it cools down morning and evening rides but nothing during the 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. range.

Tomorrow will be a rest day, its a holiday for Constitution day so no school. If we bike at all it will be to a nearby beach to swim. Katie did talk to her parents tonight on the webcam which is really neat so as people get that capability let us know and we can do a video call. We feel lucky that the worst that happened is Elsa and Keith having to come get us and not Katie passing out on the road. Somebody upstairs definitely was keeping an eye on us and Elsa's forethought in getting me to put her numbers in my wallet and then coming out immediately when she and Keith got our call so that Katie could get back and get into the shower to cool down was incredibly important. We are really grateful to her and Keith who has been helping us with most everything bike and apartment related since we got down here.