It's Over

Sigh, summer is over :(

I had a great summer and some really cool experiences, Meet great people and I actually feel more mature. It started out absolutely awesome, and ended in some extreme fatigue but i'm not complaining i would do it all over again. 

I went to my first ever classy dinner and it was great. Cin Cin by the Sea was fabulous. The food was great and the air was just so exciting. The staff was great and just writing about it has me hungry. I mean wow. When I grow up I have to go to dinner at amazing restaurants and professional chefs often. To put it in a youthful way... that food was off the hook. Thank you so much auntie!! 

Summer for me started on a pampering note also. I got my vain side out!! Nails, hair, I looked like a human being again!! A spirutal note also with the pray and fast at Farley Hill. Wonderful atmosphere, picturesque view, with a few glimpses of rally Barbados. Fun. It was just great fun with great people.

After that I joined my HC people, Elli and Ase on a hike. It was exhausting but totally worth it. Hiking makes you feel so proud at the end when you realize what you accomplished. I also did it for a bit of exercise. Tummy was overflowing. Thank you to the Barbados National Trust and I think more people should be on those hikes. Get to see Barbados. I think I went on a couple more after that and wish to go on more still.

I was more than determined to spend my summer being productive. Very productive. I was very excited when I started my internship program at Micro Macro. I feel better when I am productive and people benefit to because I think I am a great worker. This summer was eye opening in many ways. I worked in three completely different areas and now i feel more confident that I know what job i would like or feel comfortable in. I must say Micro Macro was the most helpful. I know that I love working on teams, I love using my creativity and I love writing, talking and socializing. I know now that i want to work with computers and also to be very involved in technology, especially in systems. Thank you to Jenai Mapp- Watson and Takara Browne for an excellent internship program and i hope it gets bigger and better in years to come. Thank you to the POS people to. They are really the best company and employees i have come across. They make you feel so welcome. I met some new people and the whole experience on a whole was well rounded and great. I had time to read, work and play.

During this time i went caving and i already wrote a blog on that. Check it out!

CEF! Child Evangelist Fellowship. Now this taught me how to handle children and speak in front of audiences. Basically leadership skills and it also taught me the story of David and Goliath to a tee :). Puppetering was a cool experience and I am so anxious to teach another class the fun bible lessons. Seeing the children so happy and interested in the stories and lessons was touching really. But! Government camps need alot of work. I visited alot of places in Barbados I never would have before.

It was fun and the Party/Picnic was just awesome and SOOO worth a day off work! Thanks to Jamarri for introducing me to it and for the people at CEF for making it pleasant and fun.

During this time I was elected Secretary of Project Discovery and I was so proud. Yes this summer was a Grow Up Dina experience. The balance between work and fun is yet to be accomplished but i'm getting there.

Summer was dwindling down by now but I still wanted to make a bit of money and my wish was answered! God is so on my side and i hope i continue to feel that way through the bad times too. That taught me that basically being an adult kinda sucks. Waking up going to work coming home, eat sleep and then to do it all over again the next day. It made me so tired and fat. 

Sure I didn't have the party, beach. be lazy experience most teens want or have but I thoroughly enjoyed my summer and don't regret a thing. 

Now to face school

Until later

Dina.! 

Project Discovery Back-to-School Hike

5 hours and ALOT of displacement... the St.Joseph to St.John and back sort of displacement. We started off the hike at the Bathsheba Community Center at minutes to 4, energetic, clean with little to no aches, pain, scratches or injuries. 18 young people,adults and an adolescent. After introductions we started our trek up the hills of Bathsheba and this was what we thought was a hard walk... little did we know of what was coming then. The air was humid, the sky was overcast, and sweat was "spouting" from every hikers pores. So this meant that lots of water was gone before it actually was supposed to be, but luckily it was an evening hike so the longer we walked the cooler and darker it got. After that warm up couple of hills that gave people a rude awakening of just how hard this hike was going to be we continued motivated and determined. We continued up the road and came to a hiking trail in which we were warned to conserve energy, one step at a time, that sort of advice and motivation in that it will be rewarding when we get to the top. I was suspicious, usually people only try to motivate you when something especially hard is coming.So up the trail into the woods we went.

The forested Area

Smile!

Limbo and Water-break

Right now I am fairly upset at myself because i didnt take a picture of the man's house in the woods!! It was a great work of art with what i thought looked alot like the sides of a Transport Board Bus and came to realise actually was. But no fear our legs were burning,shirts drenched and hearts pumping and we were soon to the top. To see the beauty and reward that awaits on top of Hackleton's Cliff. Some people had an especially hard time doing this steep and slippery uphill climb but they were motivated on and applauded when the reached the top. The scene at the top was breathtaking and extremely picturesque. We got to see where we came from which was a LONG way down and instilled a sense of pride us hikers who made it. It was cement over the vaults of people who were buried a long time ago.

 As you can see the view was amazing and at the edge of the picture on my right is where we originally came from. We definitely deserved to be proud.
Go Project Discovery! Some people like me where thinking wow we made end of the hike just a walk home now and some food.

 But this was not to be as we continued our trek with false hopes and no warnings feeling proud.





Our journey continued through some cane fields and the most hilarious things occurred. Swarms insects were attracted to Lydia's hair and actually nested in her head. She had to run from them but to no avail until the solution was presented. She had to open her hair and allow insect repellent to be sprayed in it. I laughed and laughed until my stomach and ribs hurt. Lydia was not enjoying it. Good humor returned after the swarms were gone and her hair was clear.
The sunset was gorgeous. The pictures where lovely. Look at some below.

      S U N S E T &
    C A N E F I E L D S

Now all of this beauty was at about 6 in the evening, please remember this hike did not end until 9 in the night. So while we were thinking we are soon done then little did we know not nearly. We kept walking and night fell and realized we were VERY far from the end and in the parish of St.John. Being told at 7 that we had one more hour. And then at 8 that we had 30 mins then at 8:30 being told it was truly just 30 mins. The East Coast trail hike was a true experience. Slip off, slides, water, cliffs, prickly trees, crabs (hehe), ditches. This hike taught us teamwork, cooperation and as i would say it was more like something out of Survivor or Boot Camp than is youth group hike. We had to wait lend support, send the messages and wait, true team spirit came out of that hell hike. When Mr.King said we are taking the coast I imagined something like a normal road not a trail that leads to Bathsheba. It was anything but and in the dark flash lights were really needed so people had to lend a hand. Some people needed help climbing a slippery clay cliff. Lend a Helping Hand could have been the motto for that experience. Then the most shocking part of the hike. The climb. No trail, no road, no help, we had to climb a mountain of grass up to the road, on hand,knees and pull. But after we conquered that obstacle we were soon home!! Just over a huge hill. I made the connection because at the beginning I went to the edge of this hill and actually thought it was a cliff but it turned out to be a little boat village. Little did i know that that "cliff" was what i would have to climb up to make my way home. We arrived at 9. But WE MADE IT!!!! WHOOPP!!! YAYY!!!!
And after that experience I am more than willing to do another one again, sorry to those who missed it, it was awesome and I also speak on behalf of most the group for the willingness to do it again.
Thank You Project Discovery
Dina.! :)

Caving Tour

Caves

My beautiful island of Barbados is mostly composed of limestone. This rock is permeable and creates this deep vast underground caves with plenty of underground water. So yesterday I went on a caving tour in one of the unrefined raw caves found in my island. We have this one beautiful cave with crystal clear water, no insects, beautiful stalagmites and stalactites and of course a cable car system. Huge tourist attraction and really breathtaking. That is Harrison's Cave. What I did an expedition of was Cole's Cave. It was .... wow. 

In order to access this cave we had to climb down a slope and hold on to the rope. That in itself was adrenalin rushing. Then we had to crawl because it was too treacherous not to. Then finally we reached the entrance of the cave. The vast amount of millepes everywhere was creepy. As we entered the cave it was tall and there was a fork so we went on the most interesting route. The first sound you hear on entrance is well crickets. You couldn't place your hand on the wall because they were crickets in every crack. Huge crickets. Then as we walked further in we began to crawl because of some low walls then climb up some rocks. Then the water started.... at first it was just ankle depth water then as we got further in it got higher. We saw waters marks as we passed above our heads. Sometimes we were told you had to swim. The water was held in these rock formations, circular pools. They got deeper and deeper as we went further in. To my great surprise bats aren't all that bad I didn't mind them. The formations in the cave are gorgeous and help you to appreciate the real beauty of nature. Stalactites and Stalagmites. These clusters that look like great chandeliers. Rock pools of the smoothest white rock. It was truly amazing. Then as you go further the pools got deeper. In Barbados it hadn't been particularly rainy so we were lucky the water levels where quite low but the highest was about 5 feet deep on the shallow end.Lucky I got out. We trekked further into the cave and the caverns became well.. huge. About 100 or 200 feet in the air I estimated. Made me feel tiny and insignificant. Humbling really thinking about the horrors that could occur. Where houses built on top of these massive caves? we soon stopped about the biggest cavern and turned back around. Back through the water and caverns and pools. 

I found it amusing somehow when we saw signs of people living in the caves and exploring them, sleeping bags, water, shoes, lots of shoes, some cooking utensils. Later a friend made the suggestion that that would be a good place for an escapee to hide. No one going there anytime soon. But it also showed humans where also always looking for a thrill.

In the cave great camaraderie was shown. I guess it is the thrill and knowing just how dangerous the rocks could be. It was one hell of an exercise session though which i will grudgingly say i thoroughly enjoyed. My arms where sore and my legs seems to be plotting against me when we came out. But with all those obstacles we survived! And I would do it again.

Thanks to the tour guide and fellow cavers lol

Dina.

Friday 8th June

Hairdresser!
So it was the day when my summer officially began. The day before I had my last CSEC exam, geography and was uber grateful and tired but I need to pretty up, my hair was a mess so off to the salon I went. At the salon I did my hair and my nails. My hair looked so awesome! I couldn't stop touching it and to my big surprise i cut a bang... i really don't like cutting my hair some i'm surprised i found the courage. My naturally wrinkly hair ( can't call it curly and can't call it straight ) was retexturised then straightened by pressing! It was soft and silky and soooo sexy. Thanks to my hair dresser Sharon. My nails were a gift from my aunt. They were painted in a fluorescent almost blue with sliver black and white highlights on the toes and the same blue on the hands. Have to upload a pic,

Saturday 9th June


Church at Farley Hill
Now after coming home from the salon I found it awfully dull that i had nothing to do for the weekend. Boy was I mistaken. I came home and messaged my cousins boyfriend. A good friend of mine, he invited me to church. Something he always does and somewhere I always forget to go but this wasn't ordinary church. It was being held at Farley Hill National Park and all the churches on the island where supposed to congregate there that day. This huge park in a very picturesque part of my island. Stunning view of the east coast. It was a nice day. I hung with friends, my cousin, argued with her bf, got a shock when i saw one of my close friends there. I was thinking about whether he was there or not and wished he was and there he was! We wanted to go sit on the rocks by the view but my cousin was being lazy so we went alone which lead to all our friends jumping to conclusions. Oh dear. All in all i really enjoyed that day.

Dinner at Cin Cin
Now this was a surprise. Cin Cin is a four star restaurant in my island. Very very chic and classy. I wanted to go to this restaurant for a while since my aunt brought up that idea. I had no clue she was planning to go that night. When i got home my mother couldn't make it so voila! A seat available all for Dina.I rushed, got ready in 30 minutes but still managed to pull off a sexy look, a green silk covered in a black sheer material with leather boots. Yup i was the bomb. The food was exquisite. For a starter i had this pasta in some amazing sauce. For my main course i had a currant sweet sauce with breaded chicken breast with a leech bread and some creamy nut sauce and fries it was amazing. The desserts where the best. I ordered a sorbet but tasted the other available desserts. There was this bread and butter pudding sweet and delicious! Then i tried this dessert that was cream and milk and something and was sweet with caramel and chocolate sauce... (mouth waters). That dinner was unforgettable and i wish to go there again. With its sea side view and amazing atmosphere who wouldn't?

Sunday 10 June

Barbados National Trust Hike : Bulkleys Sugar Factory
After a nice quiet Sunday home being a teenager, messaging and such I decided I wanted to go on a hike. I love hiking after my first hiking experience in the beautiful island of St.Vincent up the LA Soufriere volcano. I was exhausting but worth every step. The nature, the feel, the rain, the sun, the view, everything was perfect. I loved that energetic feeling i get after a hike. Feeling so fit and motivated, selectively forgetting that you shall have immense pain the next day. I also decided to get fit for any future Duke of Edinburgh hikes i might have. I invited Ellison and Asia to join me. It was a nice yet gruelling hike, through cane fields and slight mud, some cane fields with the smell of maure.We crossed psycho lambs who charged at us to dead cows and mud.In the middle we reached our destination. It was by a water tank at a peak on my relatively flat island. The view was amazing.My feet were exhausted by the end I needed boosts from Ellison in order to make it. Asia and I were soo unfit. When we were almost to the end there was this gorgeous sunset. I enjoyed it none the less and felt a little bit fitter at the end although very very thirsty. For this reason i had the most delicious golden apple juice at the end. Great hike!