Heya - as all of you are about to get to the island here in the next few days I wanted to pass along a little useful information.

1) Calling home
There are 3 cell phone companies on the island. Chippie is a common choice and is the cheapest classmate to classmate calling. Its reception is fine in the bottoms but poor elsewhere. Telcel/ecc has excellent reception but expensive calling costs. CellularOne is sold by Nation at school. Same excellent reception as telcel - kinda annoying when trying to call a chippie phone. All 3 of these receive calls for FREE.
This is important because the cheapest way to call home is http://www.cards4students.com/ which is like 18cents a minute or so. This site also allows recharging via internet. The island promotes ICS which has a callback card. Its higher per minute and you have to hitch a ride to windward to recharge. For family calling home to you.... http://www.ohello.com is 16cents a minute (at least from the states). Both will save you a lot of money.

2) As you are moving into the dorms and getting settled food seems to be the thing noone bothers to ask about in advance . The closest grocery store is 'my store'. It is a short 4 min walk from either of the two dorms. You'll find most anything you need to make a good meal - but not necessarily a particular brand you may want. Ben + Jerry's fans.. you are in luck.
Family Deli and the local Chinese place across the street from it are common places to eat. Tropics has a nice Movie and burger night on Fridays and Swinging doors has a Sunday dinner that cannot be missed! Scouts has kareoke on wed and good food as well. Those of you looking to have a date somewhere (*laughs*... and keeps *laughing*) the nicest restaurants are "My kitchen", Brigadoons, Willards, and the Gate House. Expect to spend a minimum of $25 a head there excluding wine costs. Most places you eat on the island will cost you no less than $10 a plate. Finally I can't miss Saba Treasures -- great pizza and probably the cheapest way to eat if you are sharing. Common hangout of students in windward.

3) The beach. Sometimes its there. Sometimes its not. We were lucky enough that it was there the entire semester. Take the time to get a group and go. Its a long walk - so if you take a taxi make sure you arrange a pickup time -- no cell phones work there. Bring drinks.

4) Safety / Security. The island is a very secure and safe place. That being said don't be naive and think that if you leave a pile of cash hidden in your suitcase in your dorm that it will be there after the room is cleaned by the maids. Common sense should prevail. If you leave your laptop sitting in your car for 4 hours its unlikely but possible that it could be stolen. You wouldn't do that at home - don't do it here.
A note to the girls. There are a lot of lonely island guys. Some of them can be aggressive -- 'feeling you out' to see how you react. (pun intended). If you are firm and direct in pointing out that this behavior is unacceptable - it stops. If you allow it not knowing what to do or wanting to make a scene... it will continue and worsten. Don't expect the guys from your class to jump in and 'rescue' you. If they get in a fight the get booted off the island. Again - just make it clear immediately you won't tolerate it.

5) Tensions - Some of the younger teen/young adult locals see you differently than you might expect. Work is hard to come by on the island - money is even tighter. Many are jealous of students who seem to be able to buy anything they want. (we guess they don't realize we are all soon to be 120k in debt!)
The people that work in the library and at school make very little money per hour as well. I was surprised to learn that most are working 2 or even 3 jobs. Getting up early at 6am and working till after 11pm just to be able to afford their rent and food. Be courteous to all of them. Act as a guest and you'll be fine. Just don't forget #4 above.

6) Cars / Gas -- ok here is the lowdown on buying cars. Any car offered to you is probably a piece of junk. Understand that fully. Its a long standing tradition to sucker a 1st semester student into buying a car from a student that is leaving the island. Not only do you pay too much but it immediately breaks and you spend a fortune trying to make it drivable. Before you buy any car ask upper semester students about the car. We all know the cars on the island and the histories. Test drive it for at least from the airport to wells bay and back. Toss in 4 extra people in the car while you do it -- as that's your typical load and a lot of cars balk at the extra weight. Things you need to check: Drivability - have the police check the car and certify its drivable. Nothing sucks more than having your car impounded on your first day because its considered undrivable by the police. Tires: tires must have tread. Most don't. The island roads are just too dangerous to accept this. A new set of tires will be a minimum of $65us per tire up to $100 each. Brakes. Brake pads need to be replaced every 3-6 months here. Pull a tire or have a shop check them. New pads can be as much as 200+. (ridiculous when you can buy them for 25 in the states). Battery - if you are hearing the story of 'the battery is a little low on water right now which is why...." "just add some water and you'll be fine" WHATEVER. Chances are both the cell is bad AND your altenator or altenator belt is shot.

Ok you get the idea on the cars. If you still are a sucker and just have to buy a car. I'll happily sell you my clunker for 4k! heh heh heh.

7) Help one another - The absolutely best advice I can give you on the island. If someone looks lost - help them. Share knowledge. As you learn something about the island share it to everyone else. Tap into the 2nd semester students. We all WANT to help you. You are going to be very close to the people in your class. Take the time to be closer to the people you don't think you like. MAKE friends with those people. Your classmates will be the people you rely on when you need help, are sad, down, homesick, or panic struck. They will be there for you. Be there for them. I know i'm waxing profane on this... but its so important. When you become physicians in a hospital setting you will be working with a team of people - in a stressed overworked undersleeped environment. These social skills are invaluable.

In our class I've seen some of our very BEST students - the ones that ace every freaking test - fail in their social skills. They don't make friends - they don't help each other.. and in the end they want to go home or wonder why they are so isolated. You cannot be a good doc without learning the humility to ask for help and profer your hand in return.

We love you all. Welcome to Saba. You are in for the greatest adventure of your life.

Salutations "traumaRN":

Wow, very very informative. I will be sure to heed the advice given. You actually addressed many of my concerns in your post alone. Wow, thanks for being helpful and sharing your information with the rest of us. Good luck to you and hopefully I'll get the opportunity to thank you in person. Ciao.

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"To achieve success, you must first define success."

hi traumaRN,

Thanks for the very useful info. I sent you a private message. Will you plz answer me back.

e.d.m

It is very good post. Thanks for putting these useful information together.

Very informative post......thank you for all the support traumaRN ....


Siddman

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Faith it seems, is not without a touch of irony

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Just want to add along with siddmann and howard that traumaRN is right on the money.
Also, when it comes to gettting your car repaired or getting brake pads, etc., be sure and ask around to students who have already been down that road, like howard, for help.

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PGY-1 Psychiatry

whoaaaoooo!

lots of good information! thanks trauma RN, I work in a trauma hospital as well, night shift some times and definately, trauma RN is right on the money when he says we will be working with people sleep deprived and in stressfuull situations where we have to keep our cool, I think leaving away from family for some time will prepare us all for situations like this. Thanks for the input in this threat every one. good luck and see you allin jan '06
Hey how about the camaras on the internet?
has any body tried those to chat and comunicate with the one we leave behaind?

Internet in the island is just a dial-up speed. All can say is that you only can do is email and surb the internet but not thing more than that.

traumaRN has some useful info here for newbies but being a newbie himself (ummm, being here one whole semester doesn't make you an expert on Saba or the med school) he is all wet concerning buying a car. There is absolutely *not* a tradition of selling bad cars to 1st semester students - in fact, quite the opposite. First of all, no 1st semester student ought to be buying a car because you will live near campus and can walk or hitch most places you will need to go (read: Anatomy Lab and Library, 24/7). Second, used cars on the island tend to be well maintained because a) until recently it was very difficult and expensive to import a car to Saba, and b) now that you can buy a new car and have it shipped here from St Maarten, the med school and local Saban community frown on it because there are already enough cars on the small island that you can buy.

Having said that, if you listen to Officer Baker in orientation - and you should listen very closely to him - you will learn that the island police urge you to bring any used car you are thinking about buying from another student or Saban to the police station and they will *happily* inspect it for you and tell you if it is roadworthy, meaning they won't impound it. You should also take the car to one of the island mechanics (Benneth, Franz, Chuckie) and pay them a small amount to look it over. They probably know the car well and will tell you anything that needs to be done immediately and in the near future. There is NO reason for you to buy a junker and neither graduating students nor anyone else is going to try to offload a junker on you.