Goodbye Omar

This trip to St. Thomas is proving to be more adventurous than I had anticipated.  I have now also been through my first hurricane.  Thankfully Hurricane Omar veered off to the east instead of taking its projected path straight to St Thomas.  

As I mentioned, I was working at the hospital last night and it was a unique experience.  The hospital was a great place to be.  Mainly because there was free food.  All night!  I'm up for anything free, especially food.  I mean, we all know what a big eater I am!  It seems the hospital was acting as a command center of sorts so the cafeteria was providing food to its staff as well as local police, fire, marshals, etc.  I enjoy the image of the hospital as acting as a community center in this way.

One of the things I love about being here is my hospital moms.  The locals are regarded as rude, and certainly they can be, but I think much of that is misinterpretation.  Most of my interactions with locals occur at the hospital and I have been blessed to be so warmly received by the ladies that I work with.  This is a tight community and the women strike me as motherly.  That doesn't mean that they make you cookies and ask about your day.  It means that they take care of you as best they can, correct you when they think you are wrong, and advise you on how to keep out of trouble - without any sugar-coating.  So I guess the local practice of calling women "mommy" is quite fitting.  Anyway, on the night of the hurricane, one of the CNA's, Ms Collins, took me under her wing.  She declared that she would take care of me during my first hurricane and she was true to her word, making sure, among other things, that I had plenty of food and drink overnight.  So everyone at home can rest assured that I was in good hands.

I also want to give a shout-out to Todd, who called Wednesday to check on me and offer for me to come wait out the storm at their house in Red Hook.  It's comforting to have such great friends here in St Thomas.

Thank you all back home for checking on me.  It means so much to know that I am thought of even though I am far away.  Your calls, emails, and texts are much appreciated and help me to not feel quite so alone.

I will be in touch again soon, but just wanted to get a message posted to let everyone know I am okay.  Gotta run for now, there's a bushwhacker at Duffy's with my name on it!