Address

Letters 

Lara Berland

Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine

P.O. Box 334

Basseterre, St. Kitts

West Indies

Packages 

Lara Berland

Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine

Island Main Road

West Farm, St. Kitts

West Indies

plant

Anyone know what this plant is? It was hanging in the restaurant where we had lunch today. Nin, the only local attending Ross University this September happens to be assigned to my orientation group. Each orientation group consists of 6-12 people and is organized by where we live. Since his family lives so close, his mom offered to take us into town for vegetable shopping with her this morning!

It was quite the VIP experience, she took us down the isles and explained all the different fruit and how to eat them and how to know when they are ready. Then we stopped in to this resaurant for a fresh guava juice. Then we went to her studio downtown (she's a painter) where she has had two colonies of bees set up shop in her roof. One of them is quite friendly and Nin was able to cut out a part of the roof and cover it with plexiglas so you can watch the bees making honey.

Brittany (roommate), Will (her fiance), and Rosie (Nin's mom) watching the peaceful bees

In the other room however, Rosie has an angry colony. She thinks they must have some kind of disease, because they also have a high mortality rate. Every morning she has to sweep dead bees off her gallery floor. These bees refuse to be contained, and so have become a little bit of a problem for customers. Nin was there this morning removing the honeycomb to harvest honey, but also to try and reduce the number of bees by taking the young larva too.

Nin trying to calm the bees with smoke. It didn't work very well...

 Tonight we invited our orientation group to our house for coconut cocktails from the trees in our yard. Nin came over and brought us a little of the honeycomb. It was delicious, even though it did have a little hint of smoke to it :)

monkeys

Ok! Everyone seems really desperate to hear all about the monkeys, so it seems the logical choice to make my first real post about them. Here on the island the local (human) population is about 45,000. This number doesn't include any of the tourists, students attending Ross, or students at any of the other three medical schools on our island. Estimated monkey population? Well, no one can say for sure, but its probably about double the human population. They are everywhere! They are about medium-sized, maybe about 45 pounds, and have prehensile tails (can use them to climb). If any of you heard about the Rhesus Macaque monkeys i used to work with, those had cheek pouches and short stubby tails. (I haven't decided yet which i like better, but both species are pretty darn cute).

Cute they may be, but they are also extremely destructive. They have nearly wiped out the entire population of birds and small mammals that used to live in the rain forests on the other side of the island, and local farmers keep dogs (they call them coconut retrievers) to chase them off the crops. We have a mango tree in our backyard, but apparently the monkeys steal most of the fruit during the growing season. They have basically taken over the whole island. Brittany even saw a couple of them drinking out of the pool at the hotel (butts sticking up into the air). I'll try to get a copy of the picture for you guys.

The humans seem to have their revenge, however. It is common practice for locals to trap wild monkey and sell them to the research station on the other end of the island. Any babies that they find they sell as pets. We saw a woman on the beach yesterday with one of these infants (he was really really small). It was clinging to her chest and whimpering. It was really a sad sight to see.

We went to Reggae beach today on the other side of the island, and among other animals, they also had a pet monkey. This one was a juvenile and they had built him a huge cage where he can run around and play in. Oh yes, and they also gave him a goat to play with. The two of them were romping around the cage, chasing each other and pinning each other to the ground. It was a pretty funny sight but seemed to be a perfect match. This particular monkey seems to have an affection for sunglasses as well. Brittany (my roommate) bent down to give him a belly rub, and he jumped up, reached through the cage, and pulled the glasses off the top of her head! He had quite a fun time trying them on, tasting them, and then using them as plow pushing it through the sand ahead of him. The keeper eventually had to come over and trick him into giving them back to us.

We vowed to bring some enrichment items for him next time we visit that beach.

The view on the way to Reggae Beach. On the left (with the white caps) is the Atlantic. On the right (much calmer) is the Caribbean.

I have arrived!

I made it to St Kitts with all my baggage!! It was actually a really
easy flight(s)-ended up being 4 in all because i didn't realize we
were stopping over in Dominica as well! Its been a great adventure,
but i am glad now after 16 hours en-route to be finally home.

The house is much bigger (and nicer) than i expected, and indeed many
students and professors live all around me. Tomorrow my orientation
leader is going to pick up me and some other students to go grocery
shopping and then back to the airport to pick up extra packages (ie my
bike and a classmate's dog). It seems starting Monday we have every
moment planned out for us, but i'm looking forward to getting a tour
of the island and meeting some more people from my group.

I can't find the landline phone Megan told me about, so i can't send
you all that phone number. I did however receive my cell phone
today-the phone number is 765-8960, don't forget to dial 011 to get
out of the country and then 869 for St Kitts area code.

Already i know of some things i want mailed to me, so stay tuned
Natalie! Thanks again for giving me a ride this morning at 5am!

I love and miss you all! I'll send more updates once i get a little
more settled in.

=
Lara