3 days on shore!

It is unheard of...it was fantastic...I just completed 3 days on shore. As we sailed toward Antigua we heard about the prospective lack of patients and work to do on the boat and we worried about how bored we would be, luckily some options for work on the shore started to pop up and I grasped at any of them I could. I started by getting on the list to go to the NGO gift giving ceremony that goes on in every country. I showed up that morning and I was asked to teach CPR instead (great with me, it put me to work all day). The class was in the new hospital here in Antigua and it was really nice, they have some great facilities and thier skill base is coming along. The next day I was already scheduled to teach ACLS at the university and lucky for me the university is about 200 yards from a really nice beach so I took the chance to walk down the beach and once i was far enough away I jumped in the water!!! I try to keep that part of the story quiet since I am sure that there is a rule against swimming. Yesterday, I clung on to one of the people conducting surveys at the clinic sites and I questioned clinic visitors as they were leaving to see how they percieved the US military and how effective the mission was. Overall a great 3 days and now I am back on the ship for a evening shift in the ICU...we actually have patients.
Tomorrow starts nurses week and we are doing some activites with the Antiguan nurses association. Happy nurses week to all the wonderful nurses out there, I am off to my deck chair to enjoy my morning off!!!