Grenada Work Boat Sailing Regatta

After picking up the new volunteers from the airport and safely delivering them to their homestays, a few of us went down to Grand Anse Beach for the annual Work Boat Sailing Regatta, held each year around this time. We have some friends from our sister island of Petite Martinique who were competing in the competition, so it was a great time to cheer on some friends and enjoy the views. Local boats compete in different categories for a chance at big prize money while their onlookers cheer from the beach. It was a cool experience to actually know people competing in the competition and lets just say we got really into betting on who was going to win. I made a whole FIVE CENTS! winner!

New Volunteers!

This Saturday past we welcomed SEVEN new Peace Corps Volunteers to the island of Grenada who will serve for the next two years. This is my second group of volunteers to welcome since my service began in 2010. I always love seeing new faces and getting to know where these new Peace Corps creatures are from. Please help me in welcoming the 84 group of Peace Corps Eastern Caribbean Volunteers...

 

 

 

 

EC 84, scared and all. :)

The oldies, EC 81

Group picture, EC 81 and EC 83

Sick and Tired

Hello blog family,

Santa brought me an iPhone for Christmas, so I figured I would try blogging from this thing. Technology has left me in the dust since leaving the States two years ago, so bare with me.

Since I last blogged I have been down for the count. About four days after returning from my close of service conference in St. Lucia I came down with a serious stomach ache. As most Peace Corps Volunteers can attest to, we are very used to stomach issues in foreign countries, so my concern wasn't raised to much. Sparing details, I wasn't far from the bathroom for two full days. I decided it was time to see a doctor. When describing the symptoms to the doctor at the hospital, he sounded concerned and quickly hooked me up to an IV and pushed fluids through me. After two bags of fluid, a blood teat and three nasty stool samples it was determined I had a bacterial stomach infection. In the Grenada context, this is probably from the water or not washing my vegetables properly. Both could be true for me.

I spent the day at the hospital and was finally discharged with plenty antibiotics and feeling a little bit better. I spent the remaining four days in bed and can happily say I am back to normal and feeling good. I wouldn't wish those stomach pains on anyone and hope I don't ever deal with that again.

Happy Sunday all.

Close of Service Conference

COS, as we refer to it in Peace Corps land. The moment when reality strikes and you have to face the big question of "What's next?" My group of volunteers, EC 81, spent last week in St. Lucia for our Close of Service conference, which focuses on reflection of service, preparation for the transition and weighing options after Peace Corps. It was alot of information in just three days, but it definitely got all of us thinking about our plans for the future after Peace Corps. Before we arrived in St. Lucia we had enough experiences for an entire trip though.

There is a monopoly in the Eastern Caribbean, and there is no get out of jail free card for this one. Liat, our Caribbean airline (notice that is singular) is the only current running airline for the region. Most people in the EC know of Liat by using describing words like: late, excuses, late, late, cancelled, late. We fly on this little thing:

It seats about 50 people, but we aren't allowed to sit in the first or last row for who knows what reason, so maybe about 42 people max capacity. Twin prop planes are LOUD, and they shake. Its fun. Want to join sometime? At least the view of our island is amazing!

Our flight path given on our the itinerary stated Grenada to Barbados, Barbados to St. Lucia. Sounds simple right? NOPEEEEEE, not with Liat, the friendly Caribbean airline. We were 2 hours late out of Grenada waiting on THE plane (only one) from Trinidad. Once finally in the air, the pilot announces there are some passengers wanting on this flight from St. Vincent, so we are going to make a little pit stop. Hmmmm. Imagine if a Southwest Air or Delta flight from NY to LA just randomly said they wanted to stop in Montana for a pit stop, maybe a cheeseburger.

So we picked up TWO, yes two, people in St. Vincent and were on our way to Barbados, now 3 hours late. We reach Barbados, only to get off the plane, through security and right back on the same plane. Hmmmm. Finally, we arrive in St. Lucia, 3 and half hours behind schedule and starving. They didn't even offer water! smh!

Anyyyyyyways....We made it safely to St. Lucia and couldn't complain about THIS view, courtesy of tax payers. Don't worry, we get a reduced rate. ;)

Along with this lovely pool view, we received some mouth watering food. This meal would cost us locally about 35-40 EC dollars and it was FREEEEEEEEE. Free things and Peace Corps Volunteers are one in the same. :)

What's on this plate you ask? Rice and lentil peas, steamed christophene, macaroni pie, fried fish, pepper sauce, potato salad and green salad. YUM! My mouth is watering.

While at the conference one of my favorite activies was giving our EC 81 Grenada group the opportunity to write down our accomplishments as a group. It was an eye opening opportunity to see just what progress and impact we have made the last two years of our service. Alot of times our set backs and failures can make us believe we aren't accomplishing much more than friendships and good memories. But this exercise proved to be a "wow" moment for all of us.

That is alot of progress by just eight volunteers. Then we had to throw in some personal accomplishments, which we took with a grain of humor....

I'm excited about these last three months of my service. Yes, they will be very sad, but I'm optimistic that what I have learned from these people and this country will only project me further into success down the road. I am forever grateful of this experience and cannot say anything but good things about my journey through Peace Corps. These months will give me a chance to sit back and appreciate these small moments that I have grown to love.

Here is to Grenada, and the next step...

Christmas in Missouri

I have no valuable excuse as to why my blog is way behind besides telling you I was having a freakin' BLAST in America. Yes, America. That big hunk of a country that melts my heart and leaves me feeling rejuvenated after living on a tiny island for two years. Yes, that one. But when I say America, I really mean the HEART of America, sweet beautiful little Missouri. The hills, the trees, the blistering cold weather, the overly Republican neighbors and community meetings at Walmart. I missed it all, and from December 19th-January 11th, I was able to appreciate everything American, like these things...

My doggies, Jack and Jenna. They are the best cuddle buddies.

Buffalo Wild Wings, because I can't survive without it. And Coors Light.

Family dinners around the table. I made this mean lasagna.

Christmas lights at Silver Dollar City.

Spending time with my beautiful niece Allison, who taught me how to play Dance Revolution.

Straight friends in drag. It doesn't get much better than that...

Seeing the tornado destruction and this beautiful memorial for the first time was heartbreaking.

Spending New Years Eve together with the people I love dearly.



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.