It has been a busy couple of weeks for me and I have been horrible about writing about it, but I'm getting the experience regardless, so I'd better document it before I forget anything! Two weeks ago was Grenadian Thanksgiving. It is an island-wide celebration about when the US came and helped them fight Cuba and take back their independence, so needless to say, it's not a very old holiday. However, the entire island shuts down for it, as it does for every holiday. We didn't have school that day (coincidentally also a Thursday) so we decided instead of having our Thanksgiving food in October, we would do a potluck with our favorite food from home. So I decided I'd make "Kousa," which is a Lebanese dish that involves coring out a zucchini and stuffing it with ground meat and rice. So I went to the grocery store and lo and behold, no zucchini! There wasn't ANY produce! It is definitely a stark contrast to our nicely filled shelves at home to see empty shelves all over the store here. So I decided that maybe I'd make potato skins, but again, no potatoes! Everything I could think of required produce that wasn't there! I went home and thought about it and finally decided. I made deviled eggs and pasta salad. At our potluck, we also had crock pot mac and cheese, chips and salsa, tamale pie, icebox cake, fruit, blueberry pie, among other snacks. A bunch of us got together and we ate and then hung out in the pool for the day. It was nice.
We have been wanting to go on the boat to fish Friday, but the boat has been broken since last term. Apparently they're "waiting for a part from the US," but at the rate they're moving, I'm thinking it's more of a Grenadian problem than anything else. So last week we decided to drive up to Guave, home of Kirani James, Olympic gold medalist, and don't forget it!! We'd never driven there, but Crystal knew kind of where it was, so she drove. Not only are there no street signs in Grenada, there also aren't many street lights, so it's hard to tell where you are. Now, if we were going somewhere at home and needed directions, we'd plug the address into our GPS or, if we're really being primitive, print out directions from MapQuest. However, in Grenada, none of those exist! So we had a map that we checked prior to driving up there. Talk about suffering! Not only did we have to figure out our route on a map and hope that we could make every turn, we had to figure out how to fold the map back up after we were done! What a piece of work that was. Thank goodness for GPS on our phones! ;)
We got to Guave without a hitch and parked in a gravel lot where we paid some random guy $5 to "watch" our car. Not that anyone would want to steal the poor thing. It rides like the Indiana Jones ride from Disneyland and rattles a whole lot more. We walked down an alley that most normal people wouldn't attempt at home and came out onto the street where fish Friday is held. We went to the bathroom, where we had to go through an abandoned building and through a courtyard with old mattresses and stuff that should've been in a dump, and found a relatively clean bathroom that actually had toilet paper AND paper towels! Unbelievable! We walked around and tried the different fish dishes and people watched. We tried to feed the super skinny dogs, but the locals chase them away because they aren't welcome there. Poor doggies.
We sat at a picnic bench and were listening to a drum band sing Bob Marley songs and there were a couple girls looking at us, but were too shy to approach. I smiled and they immediately came over. Their names were Tasha and Trish and they were 11 and 12 years old. They were extremely nice and very polite, always saying, "Yes miss, no miss." They thanked us for coming to Grenada and asked about our lives. We asked if we could take a picture with them and immediately a ton of kids came out of the woodwork to get in the picture. They thought it was awesome! They all wanted their picture taken and they all wanted to see it after. They asked if Crystal was my daughter (she is a little older than me) and asked if her husband was Chinese (he is about as white as they come). The girls told us they'd never left the island, but if they could they would go to New York City. Crystal and I talked to them for a little bit and found out that one of their birthdays had just passed and the other one was coming up soon. I asked if they got presents for their birthdays and they looked surprised and said they never have. Crystal and I felt so bad for them, we emptied our change purses and gave them all of our change to split. We had to only have given them about $5 EC ($2 US), but they were shocked that we had given so much money and tried to give some back for us to keep. We assured them it was fine and told them it was their birthday present. I asked one girl what she was going to buy and she said she wanted a pencil. I felt bad that I didn't have a pencil in my purse to give her! The other girl went and bought a fish cake and tried to share it with us because she felt bad. We told her it was her's. Mike bought them each a Coke and their eyes lit up. We know that this is a poor country and we see homeless people on the south side of the island where we live, but nothing like this. On the northern part it is so poor and these little girls were the nicest kids we've ever met. It broke our hearts to think about how they must live and made us so thankful for what we have. They asked us to meet their grandmother, who was sitting about twenty yards away. Crystal and I went with them and told her what a pleasure her granddaughters were. She grunted at us and then turned away. Immediately afterwards the girls came back to us and told us they had to go. It's really sad to think that these little girls aren't corrupted with the ways of the world and thought nothing of talking to us, but after talking to their grandmother who clearly didn't like American girls weren't allowed to talk to us. It's sad that eventually those girls will probably be like their grandma.
Down on our side of the island. we encounter bad drivers every day. But the absolute worst driver awards go to the "Learner" drivers. It is unbelievable how many learner drivers we see every day, whose cars are identifiable but the big red "L" on the back of the car. For the small population of Grenada and the little amount of kids we see, you'd think you would never see anyone learning to drive. But we see a ton, and a lot of them seem to be adults! Not only are these drivers slows, but they do 57 point turns in the middle of the street without warning. It must be some sort of curriculum that they follow, but without fail, when following a learner, they are going to slam on the brakes and start turning around. The worst part is, they will pull so that their front tires hit the opposite curb and they are completely perpendicular with the street. This clogs traffic going both ways and then they sit there for a long time, trying to figure out which way to turn the wheel to get themselves out of their ridiculous situation. They definitely are very frustrating. Another frustrating thing is the taxis/"Reggae buses." It is illegal here to get a bus anywhere besides a bus stop, but because there really aren't many cops and they don't enforce any rules, none of that is followed. So there are bus stops along the sides of the road that are little turn offs which, if used properly, would make it so that buses could load and unload without blocking the road. The buses are constantly driving by and there are always people waiting. So instaed of pulling all the way forward to the far end of the stop, the geniuses slam on their brakes before even getting to the bus stop and allow people to get in, blocking traffic completely. Then, since they are crazy drivers around here, other buses fly around you and swerve in front of that bus to pick up more people. So just as you're about to go around, the first bus pulls out and blocks you in again which it waits for more buses to load. If it sounds confusing, it's simply because I do not possess the words to possibly explain the lack of organization. The best bet is just not to be in a hurry to go anywhere and wait for all the people to figure out what the heck is going on.
I have one electrical outlet in my room and I have a table lamp plugged into it. On the other side of the room is a light fixture mounted on the wall with the dimmest light I've ever seen. It's also that horrible super white light that suggests I live in a hospital. I finally got aggrivated enough that I took off the cover and unscrewed the bulb to see what it was so that I could get a better one. It was a 9 watt! Talk about a dim bulb! Why even bother? So I went to the hardware store and got a 60W and thought about how amazing my room was going to look in light as bright as day. I got home, unscrewed my dim bulb, took the new one out of the box, and? It was for some sort of weird fixture that didn't have a screw. It was smooth all around with two little pegs sticking out on either side! I didn't even know there were different fixture options. So I put back the 9W and the next time I went to the grocery store, I got a new light bulb, again a 60W, made sure it had a screw bottom and was so excited to try it when I got home. Again, I unscrewed the old one, screwed in the new one, switched it on and NOTHING! It didn't turn on. I wiggled it and tried screwing it in tighter and making it looser. Nothing would work. It looks like I'm sentenced to another month of eye strain due to my dim light bulb.
My roommate's air conditioner broke late one night and the office was closed. So she kept her ceiling fan on and opened her window for the night and planned on telling them in the morning. At 3AM there was a pounding at our door. This wasn't a nice knock; it was as if our roof was on fire. It was the security guard telling her she had to close her window because she was wasting energy and that she should just use her A/C. She explained to him what was happening and he said that was fine, but the next night she wasn't allowed to have it open. Apparently that wasn't something that could wait until morning. A few nights later after 11PM, we got another pounding at the door. I answered it and it was the security guard delivering our Internet bill. I asked him if it was necessary to come to our apartment so late and he just shrugged and walked away. Apparently he has no concept that people sleep. I opened our Internet bill and we have a late fee (granted it's 0.37 cents) because we didn't pay on time. Keep in mind, our bill was delivered in November 5th, and our bill was due October 1st. The record keeping companies down here must be really efficient. TIG.
Well, I only have 38 days until I get to go home, which means I have a lot of exams ahead of me, so it's time to study again. I'll be sure to blog about whatever crazy thing happens down here on de island. Until next time!
