George Strait and Dolly Parton....Thank you!

Today i have been doing some self-directed learning about organizations in Grenada and it sparked in my mind that i have no money. i know, that's not unusual for me, but i need money to ride the bus. So i descended into town. Now let me explain "town" to my American folk. This entire island is 21 miles tall, by 12 miles wide. People refer to "town" as St.George, the capital. And everywhere else on the island is considered country, which is not country at all, its just more green and not as jam packed.

So i started my daily mile or so walk to the bus stop, jumped a bus and headed for town. It takes me about 15 minutes of windy roads and frequent stops to make it to the terminal. The etiquette on the bus is dynamic. Often when people get on the bus you are expected to greet the people with "morning" and then take your seat in an overcrowded bus. You don't usually talk to anyone next to you, unless of course you are related to them, which is very common here. But what i find exceptionally humorous is that it is completely accepted to sing aloud to the radio, or if its the morning talk show yell at the radio in disagreement with political conversations. When you reach ur destination you simply knock on the ceiling of the bus which alerts the driver you are ready to get off. If you get a fancy bus, they usually have these fun little buzzers which i resist pushing constantly.

I finally made it to the bank about an hour later. The bank we use here is centrally located in town, so its pretty helpful for us car less Peace Corps volunteers. Banks here are only open 9am-2pm, and the lines are outrageous. So i strategically planned to be there when it was down time...man was i wrong. There is no such thing as down time at Grenada banks, so i waited close to an hour to see someone. BUT...i survived and was on my way back to the bus terminal.

At the terminal you wait til the bus is completely full before you can leave. And by full i mean every area of space is filled. These buses would fit 12 people in the states, but us Grenadians are on a mission, so we fit close to 18. So on the way home i was squished in between an elderly woman and a younger foreigner. Bus drivers here are also DJ's, and their music is a wide range of genres, but today i was completely caught off guard. First we started off with George Strait music from the 90's. I giggled under my breath as i could see the confusion on people's faces. Then song number two....Dolly Parton. This is where the fun started, as the elderly woman next to me began singing her little heart out like she was in the front row of the concert. I looked in the rear view mirror to see a bus full of people hysterically laughing and knew it was ok to join in. But just as soon as i joined in on the chuckling the lady says "you young people need to learn to appreciate this white lady, she is the woman of America." bahahahahaha.

Yet another reason i know i am in the right place right now. Amen to that elderly lady. And thank goodness my greatest integration tool has been my knowledge of George Strait and Dolly Parton.