International Human Rights Day

This Saturday past was International Human Rights Day around the world. Every year, people from all over the world gather and organize events to commemorate Human Rights in their respective countries. As it stands, the Declaration of Human Rights is the most translated document in history, having been translated into over 382 different languages and dialects.

Everyone has the right to basic human rights as outlined in the Declaration, and each country has the responsibility of ensuring its people they are given these rights. On Saturday, over 100 people marched for their human rights in Grenada. I'm sure a few of you remember last years Human Rights Day, which I helped introduced and implement the first human rights ribbon in Grenada. This year, we added the human rights march through town and the internationally known Clothesline Project (http://www.clotheslineproject.org/).

The day was overwhelmingly successful with the help of many in attendance and the assistance of community partners. This event concluded the 16 Days of Activism to Protest Violence Against Women (Nov. 25-Dec. 10) and was indeed a chance for us to go out with a bang before Christmas break. If you remember last year, it took some time for the human ribbon idea to take hold and be understood by those in attendance.

Last year's human ribbon

This year's human ribbon

Improvement indeed if I may say so myself. During the planning stages and initial days leading up to the event we weren't sure we had engaged the public enough, but the day of the march we showed up to a decent amount of people and a huge improvement from last year. Engaging stakeholders and planning EARLY (which is hard to do on island time) set the event up for success and we all should be proud of the work we accomplished. Hopefully next year the event will be ever larger! Until then, check out some more pictures....

School Fair Time

The first week of December in Grenada is packed tight with school fairs. Its an opportunity for the children and families to have a kid-friendly environment that is fun and safe for all. But its also the largest fundraiser of the year for the schools around the island. Fundraiser for what you may ask? Sadly...the basics. Pens, pencils, notebooks, markers, etc for the teachers and students. The kids LOVE school fair with the various game booths, plenty food and blaring loud music. They wear their best outfits and bring all their coins they can round up around the house. This year I think the school fair was a big success and we raised a good amount of money to support the children through the rest of the year.

 This tent was set up as the "Pick a leaf" prize table. The kids paid 3 dollars to pick a leaf off the tree. The leaf had a number on it and that number determined which set of prizes they got to chose from. The kids LOVED picked the leaves and then getting to chose exactly the prize they wanted.

Mr. Kentish, a new student in our school this year. He is a handful but this smile is so precious. He was enjoying his third cup of soda. Bless his parents hearts. haha.

No Grenadian event is complete without loads and loads of fried chicken. I helped take the money for this table and by my 8th hour of saying 7 dollars for chicken and chips, I was OVER chicken. :)

The beauty salon table, where you could get your nails and makeup done for just 3 dollars. It was a popular one amongst the aspiring beauty queens.

Face painting was awesome this year because they got rid of me! haha. They recruited some art students from the local community college and they did excellent. Don't mind Ms. Kaylah, she wasn't interested in her picture being taken.

This is my counterpart, Ms. Mitchell, who doubled as the fried chicken and chips master for the fair.

Tymickie (tuh-my-kee), who had about 4 ice cream cones and enjoyed every single one. :)

Shardina and her beautiful face painting.

Thanksgiving Peace Corps Style

I know this post is a little late, but I found it necessary to share with everyone our pictures from the volunteer Thanksgiving. We celebrated a day late, as we don't receive American holidays off and our schedules were booked full. But Friday turned out to be perfect timing. We also got the opportunity to participate in goal #3 of the Peace Corps, in sharing American culture with our host country. Our local friends and counterparts were invited to the event and I have to say this is one of my favorite holidays to share with the Grenadian locals. Check out the pictures....

Early Childhood Intervention Program

A couple months ago we started a new term of the Early Childhood Intervention Program (ECIP), which a few Peace Corps Volunteers serve at monthly. The program was started by some concerned significant others of  St. George's University faculty, one of which was a previous serving Peace Corps Volunteer. They identified a need for a support program for Grenadian children with special needs who haven't yet reached school age. Children with a wide variety of special needs, from down syndrome to autism and all in between.

From 9-11:30am on the third Saturday of the month, we gather at a daycare in Grand Anse and conduct a one-on-one play therapy session with these children. What is so incredible is not only the small steps of progress we see in the children, but the smiles we see on the faces of their parents, who get just a couple hours to themselves while their children are tended to in a healthy environment. For some parents, this is the only break they receive for the month, and we all know working with special needs is a full time job times some.

For the two or so hours we work with these children, we focus on the basic skills needed for children to function successfully, things like fine motor skills, language skills, and gross motor skills. Each child is paired with a volunteer who knows the abilities of the child and the milestones we are trying to reach. Its amazing how much effort, discipline and patience it takes for not only the children to stay focused, but also the volunteers. Small successes is what keeps up coming back every month, and these children truly are incredible.

Katie and Steph working on simple directives with Jumorie and Jayden

Steph working on balance with Jayden

Katie and Jumorie working on balance. See him making eye contact? That's a form of communication for nonverbal children.

Kaleb, who stole my heart. This poor child is young for the program, but its necessary he is there because we are told he sits in a crib all day long at his current day care.

Lendell working on simple directive during snack time.

Leslie-Ann is a sweetheart. I told her to smile, this is what I got...

Christine and Alexei working on fine motor skills during painting.

Errin's music room is one of the childrens favorite.

Grenada's First Freeze Flash Mob

I apologize for the influx of blog postings today, but I found some time and realized I had a lot to update my followers on, so here it goes!

First, the organization I work for, Grenada National Organization of Women, as well as many other island NGO's came together back in September and organized the World AIDS Day Committee. This is the second year for the committee and we learned valuable lessons from the dysfunction of last year, helping to make this years committee much more proactive and committed.

The WAD committee organized a series of events for the 16 Days of Activism to protest violence against women (Nov.25-Dec.10), as well as events on World AIDS Day (Dec.1st). We have been extremely busy organizing over 7 events for the month and I think we are doing a great job executing so far. Our first event was last week, the first ever Freeze Flash Mob to hit Grenada and man was it a hit!

Check out the video for yourself:




We organized local affiliates and community members to meet at the Esplanade mall on a Friday afternoon at 5pm. Outside the mall is a hot spot for secondary students and college aged kids to mingle and relax on a Friday afternoon, so the crowd was definitely present, and them BAM! people started freezing, and stood there for 7 minutes total. Each person represented a myth related to HIV, whether it was you cant get HIV from mosquitoes, to using protection and even a first aid demonstration. Overall it went phenomenal and I was extremely pleased.

We have two more flash mobs planned for the month, both of which will be dancing flash mobs and I'm excited to see people pull these off as well. Good things happening in Grenada folks!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to my dear Americans. Sadly, I'm in the office preparing for a two day workshop that begins next week, but I'm thinking of all of you today. I wish I could be home with my family, sharing a meal and remembering  past holidays.

The Peace Corps will be celebrating our Thanksgiving tomorrow, as its more convenient with all of our crazy busy schedules. I'm of course in charge of the green bean casserole, because I LOVEEEEEEEE green bean casserole. I shall make one for myself and one for the others. haha.

Have a great day people!

My Dear Friend...

Janet,

It's been three years since I have seen that shit-eating grin of yours and I miss it everyday. It was Halloween night, in Deana's moms yard where we had our last times together. Drinking, camping and enduring the rain. Remember my duck suit? You made jokes about it all night. I know you were jealous you didn't have your own.

Your spirit still lives on through your friends to this day. You told us to live our lives to the fullest, and remembering what you taught us is something I work for everyday. Ali and I can't ever get together and not talk about our crazy nights in Pittsburg. Riding the little child's car around Kareem's house. You walking into the house wearing a mini skirt, we wont ever let you live that down by the way. And how could I forget intramural basketball, where our team was determined to win. And we almost did, until you got mad at some big post player and punched her cold out. You proved your point, and we never returned to intramural basketball.

Pal, what I miss most about our friendship is the unspoken lessons you taught me. When you were deployed, you always made it a point to send me smart ass emails and honest updates on what was happening. I enjoyed and appreciated those emails, so now in my service I make sure to email my good friends and keep them updated. Your house on campus in Pitt, whose doors were always open to anyone and everyone showed me that diversity breeds understanding. Many of nights I can remember having parties at your house, taking shots on the counter and then getting into deep conversations about the world.

I know you are in a better place, one you much preferred than this world. I just want you to know we haven't forgotten about you and will always carry on that Janet "honesty" you shared with us all. I miss you every day pal and am so happy you now have the "Freedom to Roam".

Your Friend,

Mack