June 17, 2007, Father's Day Update

Hello, everyone! Allow me to first wish all of the fathers I have
included on my list a Happy Fathers' Day. You have all inspired and
shaped me in many ways that have helped me get to medical school. I
appreciate all of your efforts, and I hope I am doing right by you.

The past couple of weeks have been fairly interesting at Ross.
Monday, June 11, we had our first mini exam. The mini exam here
covers all of the subjects that we have had to date, there isn't a
separate exam for each class. Then, there was also the practical for
Gross Anatomy lab on June 8.

I got my scores back, and I'm pleased with all of my scores but
Histology. I'm going to go speak with my histology professors and see
what my problems were. I'm not very worried, because the vast
majority of year 1 histology is yet to come, so I will have no
problems making up my score. But, I do find it embarrassing because I
thought I had a much better handle on the histology information than
my score showed. I guess it's time for my first Morbidity and
Mortality session in med school.

I think in my past few updates, I glossed over that Becky has come
here to stay for the remainder of my time. That is our current plan,
at least. Also, our two dogs have come here, and have finished their
second week in Dominica. They seem to be adjusting well. Although, I
think their biggest two adjustments are to a new dog food brand, and
the humidity. We keep them inside almost all of the time. This is
partially because that way Becky can watch them, and we've also heard
cautionary tales of dog thievery happening here. The locals do marvel
at Gabby, our miniature Dachshund. I don't think they have every seen
a Dachshund, and most local dogs are true mutts.

With all of the studying, and diving directly back into the books
right after the mini, one of my classmates organized a small group to
clime Morne Diablotin, Dominica's highest peak. There was a guide,
and a group of 7 students and spouses on the trip. We started out at
6:30 a.m. with a quick 25 minute trip to the trailhead. I had
memories of Barr Trail, that I ran Pike's Peak marathon on in 2005.
The advertised there and back time was similar within an hour or two.

The trip started out with the guide apologizing for the weather. He
said that on clear days, the whole of the island could be seen from
the peak. Unfortunately, today wasn't going to be a clear day. This
proved very true. We didn't break out from under cloud cover until we
were well out of the park, on our way back to Portsmouth at the end of
the trip. The trip to the trailhead was fairly uneventful, with
greetings and introductions all around.

But, then we started on the trail. There is a lot of difference
between a Dominican trail and an American trail. The first half was
very steep, with wooden steps built into the mountain to help us stay
on the trail. We climbed and climbed and climbed. We heard many
calls of the local parrots, frogs, bugs, and other things. We didn't
see much other than trees, especially the ones the Carib Indians built
canoes out of--but those were only at lower elevations. The first
half of the trail was leaf covered, and fairly clean, but challenging.
We took a few rest breaks and stayed together as a group fairly well.

We stopped about halfway up for a rest and breakfast break. After
this, there weren't any more steps. It was rock, mud, and climbing
with your arms as much as your legs. Many areas, the trail wasn't
even on the floor of the forest (we were in the Northern Forest
Reserve), but we were several feet off of the ground climbing through
passages among tree limbs and roots. I got a picture of it at one
section, and it is very indicative of the whole second half of the
trip. Very challenging. But, we were too busy and occupied climbing
(and trying to keep our cameras dry) to take very many pictures.

On our way to the summit, we broke through the foliage in a few areas
high up the mountain. I estimate the sustained winds above 4000 ft
were 40 miles per hour plus, and the temperature was easily in the
60's, possibly a little lower. I thought it felt wonderful. Most of
the other people on the trip were chilled, but I was quite
comfortable. However, once we would plunge back into the foliage, it
was so thick that we were completely sheltered from the wind. The
temperature was the same, but being sheltered from the wind was quite
important as even if you weren't uncomfortable with the windchill, a
40 mph wind will push you around quite well, and there were several
gusts.

After we broke through several times, we reached the summit, and
really couldn't tell. We had been climbing through clouds for well
over half of the trip, and this area wasn't any different other than
we were in a larger clearing. Once or twice during our picture and
food break, the sun broke through the clouds for 30 seconds, or so.
Nothing sustained, and the wind blew and blew and blew.

The summit is 4747 or 4749 feet depending on your source, but it's
quite a trip to get there, even if it isn't high by Colorado peak
standards. We turned around and made it back down with a 6 hour 45
minute total time. We washed up in a stream, and then went back to
the apartment, let the dogs out, and collapsed.

Today, Becky and I have that full-body soreness that I really wasn't
expecting when I started the trip, but if I would have realized that
we would have been climbing, instead of hiking, I would have known
this would happen. All in all, it was a great trip. I'm glad we went
on it. Pictures are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jjsolomon/MorneDiablotinClimb

I'm still beat from the climb, so that's about all I can think of at
this point. The jungle here is amazing. If you get a chance to come
to Dominica, I highly suggest it.

-j