Spring in the Caribbean

Its hot! And everyone just keeps saying it just gets hotter. I may melt before summer gets here.

Anyways, life has been busy here in the Turks and Caicos.  We are a little short staffed these days. One of our EMTs was sent over to Grand Turk to work on that island so we are down to three.  That and another EMT taking a well overdue vacation meant that I've been working 72hr work weeks. Yea.  And things are about to get a little crazier for me, my boss is going home to Canada for a month with his family and is leaving me as acting supervisor.  I won't be covering all of his responisiblities but it will still be a great experience! Wish me luck!

Call wise, I haven't been overly busy- for some reason the other crews seem to get all the calls.  But I have had some interesting calls in the last month.  One of the big things going on is a terrible gastrointroritis that as appeared on the island in some of the high end hotels.  Its actually led to three of the bigger hotels on the islands having shut down for a couple weeks. We had several calls on the ambulance from the outbreak, but dozens of milder cases too.

I also had a call for a cardiac arrest at one of the hotels. That was an interesting experience, its going to be a great way to loose weight.  I had to hurry up and down three flights of stairs and do CPR in blistering heat.  Almost felt a little light headed driving to the hospital! Which is why I keep water on me all the time!

Then last week we had a fire standby that lasted close to three hours as the whole top floor of the structure burnt down.  Might have been a little more interesting if it wasn't at two in the morning. It was interesting to watch, its just a volunteer service here on Provo, and there are no water lines for hydrants. So when it looked like they were getting some control, the trucks had to leave to refill the tanks.

On the personal side, I have been getting to know some people on the island.  I spent some time with a Canadian nursing student who is on the island for the summer and working with the hospital to gain some experience.  Also a british woman who lives on the same property as me has been introducing me to some of her friends.  Unfortunately life on the island is a bit fluid with new people coming in and people always leaving.  I have actually been to three going away parties already!

I have spent some time at the beach and pool side, looking forward to getting some more time off. I can't wait till I get to go scuba diving again!