Merry Christmas from Grenada's Peace Corps!

Volleyball Competition

This week was the volleyball competition for the adult teams and marked a milestone for volleyball in Grenada. Like I mentioned before, the sport has been dormant for about 12 years and so this is the first year they've picked it back up. I'm really excited to be a part of the progress and especially to get to be a player as well as a coach. And so far my team, the St. George's Women, are undefeated! There's one more week of games next week that I will unfortunately miss because I'm going home for Christmas Vacation, but I know they will be great. The opening games attracted a lot of attention from fans and I'm hoping someday it will be up there in the ranks with football and cricket. Wishful thinking, I know, but a girl can dream, right?

World AIDS Day

December 1 was World AIDS Day and one of the projects a few of us volunteers helped facilitate was a week of sessions on HIV/AIDS, Discrimination, & Values in different secondary schools. Brady did an excellent job leading the activities and it was a huge encouragement to have some of the students ask us more in-depth questions afterward. Even if just one person got tested for HIV because of what they learned, it was worth it.

Shereen gets her diploma

One of my girls from the Limes After School Program graduated from secondary school tonight! I was honored to be invited and it was neat to share that milestone with her (and reminisce on my high school days). Although I really wish someone had told me the graduation ceremonies here are over 4 hours long!!! Not that it would have kept me from attending, but at least I would have been better prepared with a sack lunch and crossword puzzle.

Presentation Boys College

I've been coaching volleyball at PBC for the past couple months and this week was the Secondary School Tournament. We didn't win any matches, but the boys showed great form out there, especially considering this was the first time most of them have ever played volleyball. They represented their school's first volleyball team and I was very proud of them!

Volleyball + Sand + Friends = A Guaranteed Good Times

The volleyball crew (for lack of a better title for all my random friends that I've been playing with for the past year) spent a beautiful afternoon on Grand Anse playing beach volleyball, swimming, and having a great time together...and not taking ourselves so seriously. :) I love these people and don't know how I would have coped without them. It's been just over a year since that first night I happened to run into a girl with a volleyball and discover that not only do people play on the courts 5 minutes from my house, but that volleyball was making a comeback to Grenada! I feel so blessed to have found such wonderful people who I can share one of my passions with.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year, we volunteers cooked our own feast at Brady's house (the proud owner of 2 forks and one spoon) and thanks to Lauren, we had every traditional dish on the menu. And it was DELICIOUS! It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a turkey coma!

Apparently, I can play netball

Tonight I went to my friend Lisa's netball game to support her and she (without my consent) signed me up for a Shoot-Out Competition before the game. For the record, this is some strange British sport that I have never played before and have only seen played once. And I've never touched a netball before. And I have to do this in front of about 100 people. And I'm pretty sure I'm the only white person in the stadium. But thank you to high school basketball because I won! They even interviewed me on TV. My favorite part though? I won a SCALE for my grand prize! Not a free dinner, not a million dollars...a scale. :)

Happy Birthday Lisa!

My friend Lisa turned 28 today! We celebrated with cake (my banana and chocolate specialty!) and drinks after volleyball training, and it doubled as a great excuse to get all the volleyballers together at the same time...and end the night laughing, rather than arguing over the score. :)

Obama-rama

I'm sure you are all aware of how involved the rest of the world was in the United States Elections this year. Well, that doesn't exclude Grenada by any means. In fact, some Grenadians were far more excited about our elections (aka Obama) than theirs this past July! It cracked me up when I saw Obama bumper stickers, Obama hats, elderly women wearing oversized Obama t-shirts, and even a bus named Obama...it felt just like I was back at home. Well, today at the Limes (my after-school class) the kids were all talking about how excited they were that Obama won...surprise surprise. I thought this would be an interesting opportunity to discuss politics with young minds (all under the age of 12, mind you) and the conversation went something like this:

Me: "You realize that Obama isn't your president, right?"
Them: "Yes, but he will be someday when I come to America."
Me: (without the slightest bit of sarcasm) "Oh, I didn't realize you were getting your visa and moving to the States in the next 4 years."
Them: "Yep!"
Me: "Alright. Well, what do you like about Obama? Can you tell me 3 policies of his that you support?"
Girl #1: (spoken with a sassy flair) "He's a natural, strong black man."
Girl #2: "He talks good."
Girl #3: "He's cute."

So there you have it. From the mouths of babes. :)

Happy Halloween!

This was my 2nd Halloween in Grenada and yet another testament to how resourceful Peace Corps Volunteers can be. I was a stereotypical Grenadian woman...complete with headscarf, string vest, baby powder (which the women put all over their chest, apparently to keep cool), pregnant belly, and baby in tow...and Lauren was my Rasta (at least one of my baby's daddies). **Sidenote: This was not intended to be offensive to any Grenadians. In fact, our local friends thought it was really funny.

A Day in Paradise

There are some days I can't complain about living on an island...

I eat, sleep, and sweat volleyball.

I now have volleyball 5 times a week, sometimes 6 (playing and coaching). I never thought volleyball would be this big of a part in my life after high school. But I don't know if I believe in coincidences.

Last summer a group from the States came down to Grenada to teach a volleyball camp to anyone interested and then left behind volleyballs, nets, and a growing interest in the sport. Now the Grenada Volleyball Association, that has been dormant for over 10 years, is bringing back volleyball and looking for coaches for all the secondary schools. (Enter Rachel) I'm now coaching all boys at PBC (Presentation Boys College)! It's such an exciting opportunity to teach a sport I love, and meanwhile, hopefully equipping young boys with a pastime that will keep them out of trouble. I was a little nervous at first for how they would react to a female coach, seeing how most of the Grenadian males speak to me on the street, but so far I've been pleasantly surprised by the respect they've shown me (at least to my face). My friends laugh and say the opposite, that there should be a bigger turnout now, so maybe being a female in Grenada is finally going to come in handy. For example, this week we had an uneven number of players so I offered to bump with one of them, and almost all their hands shot up in the air!

We've also been holding volleyball clinics around the island, teaching the fundamentals to anyone who wants to learn. It's fun spreading the love.

Learning to read good

This past month I've been tutoring a 19-year old boy who can't read. Johnney said he dropped out of school after Grade 8, sadly because his father refused to give him bus money anymore. Not only was I horrified that a parent could withhold education from a child like that, but I was shocked that he had even made it to that level without knowing how to read. How do so many teachers not notice? Or what kind of techniques does a student adopt to slip under the radar that long? Illiteracy is a scary thing that is becoming more and more common, or maybe I'm just becoming more aware of it. And it's not just in Grenada.

Well the good news is that Johnney can read. He's very limited, but he knows the alphabet and I'm teaching him phonics so he'll know the sounds for all the letters and can decipher new words himself. Many kids I've worked with use "sight recognition" to pick out words they already know, which is a great memorization skill, but also hinders them when they mistake any similar word for one that begins with the same letters. The great part about teaching adults though is that they already have a wider vocabulary than children, so you don't have to always explain the meaning of words. So with Johnney, once I teach him the rules of a sound, he can name examples of words that apply. He's a great student, patient and hard-working, and every session we have together is an encouragement to me to keep going. I've never taught adult literacy so this is a learning experience for me too. And I'm thankful to him for trusting me, as his teacher and confidante.

Got milk?

I knew there would be sacrifices I'd have to make when I came to Grenada. I was willing to adjust to cold showers and hand-washing my clothes, mosquitoes and cockroaches everywhere I turn, anything that you could throw at me. But milk in a box? Which for some reason doesn't need to be refrigerated? What?!

That is why I dedicate this entry to Real Value Supermarket for providing me with REAL MILK! Maybe they've had it all along (I don't even want to know), but I just now found it and it's changed my life!

My first funeral

Death is something foreign to me. I've never had anyone close to me die, except one of my adopted grandfathers, but even then I was young and don't remember feeling that affected (and I caught the flu the night before so I wasn't able to attend the funeral). So I've never gotten to experience that kind of mourning and therefore have always been a bit afraid of funerals and death. But I know it's something I'll have to deal with sooner or later.

Three of my volleyball friends lost their father this week, so some of us players went to the funeral to support the brothers. I felt a little awkward at first, feeling out of place not only because it was my first time, but because my first time was going to be in another country. So many thoughts went through my head: "Am I dressed appropriately? I'm the only white person here. Can I talk to my friends during the wake? Where should I stand at the cemetery? Why are people walking over other graves? I don't know the words to this song. How can those gravediggers act so casual? Why am I crying...I never even knew this man." So many emotions flooded over me, putting myself in the shoes of someone burying a loved one.

Funerals can really wake you up...even the funeral of a stranger. It reminded me to not take life for granted. To be more vocal with the people I care about. To treasure each moment I have with friends and family.

In the end, I realized that funerals aren't all that scary. I know it's not going to be that easy when I lose someone close to me, but I feel slightly better prepared for it now. My favorite part was afterward, how the family and some close friends went back to the house to eat, drink, and play draft (their version of the game Checkers). It was encouraging to see that mourning didn't have to crying and wailing, but spending your time in community. Some people refer to funerals as a Celebration of Life and I like that. Because we'll all die someday, but we should be happy for every minute we get to spend with the people we love and how they've touched us.

How you know you've made it...

Having lived in Grenada for a year, we as Peace Corps volunteers have learned that it's no big thing to be on TV here, since Grenada is a pretty small island and there's bound to be media coverage at most of the community events we attend. Well I'm not gonna lie, I still think it's pretty great when my neighbors or friends tell me they saw me on TV the night before.

But on a larger scale...

One of my close Grenadian friends named Lisa just spent the summer in New York with her extended family (ironically there are more Grenadians in New York than here on the island). Since they missed out on Carnival this year, they found a Grenada Carnival 2008 DVD somewhere on the streets and bought it to feel connected to the action. Well she just called me and it turns out...me and my friends are on it...dancing in the streets front and center! She said she started screaming and pointing at the TV screen, yelling "I know those white people! That's my friend Rachel!"

It's another hot one in St. Lucia

This month officially marks a year since I've been in Grenada...can you believe it? Halfway through our service, all the Eastern Caribbean Peace Corps volunteers fly back to St. Lucia for a Mid-Service Training where we reconnect with the other islands and have refresher training courses. Hearing about the projects of other volunteers really put my work into perspective and encouraged me that I'm on the right track, and also gave me new ideas to implement this next year. Something that worries me though...I remember the previous group of volunteers telling us how hard their first year was, but then how quickly the second year goes. Well, my first year was great and flew by, so what does that mean for my second?

And of course it was so much fun to hang out with old friends! Most of us stayed longer in St. Lucia to have a vacation and see our old homestay families, so Team Grenada took over Lilly's house in Anse la Raye for the next week...always a guaranteed good time! My highlight was climbing Petit Piton. Last year we hiked the slightly bigger Gros Piton, but Petit Piton is literally 2500 feet straight up, takes twice as long (4 hours), and you have to climb ropes at the top! Afterward Lilly and I kept looking back in disbelief, saying "I'm so proud of us."

Oh yeah...and I went to the doctor and I've had tonsillitis for the past 4 days.

volunteers reunited...
some of my favorite girls (representing St. Lucia, Grenada, & St. Vincent)...
Adam, Lilly, me, & Amy at Fish Friday...
at the summit of Petit Piton (with Gros Piton in the distance)...
it's safe to say we've never sweat more in our entire lives...
Petit Piton...
how I get around...
Lauren & me playing chess...
having a Piton at the Piton...
my St. Lucian homestay sisters Tremahni & Mikayla (who are so big now!)...

Carnival!

Carnival has taken over Grenada these past few weeks, but the past 48 hours were by far the most exciting...and sleep-deprived. Let me paint the picture:

Monday
4am-11am: Walk into St. George's for JOUVERT (get covered by everyone in paint or fuel oil, whine up on each other, and dance through town behind huge trucks blaring Soca music)





12pm: Walk back to my house, shower in the rain, and scrub the paint & oil off our skin
1pm: Squeeze in some Olympics
4pm: Take a nap
7pm-12am: Walk into St. George's for MONDAY NIGHT MASS (parade through town behind your band's music truck wearing costume, wave glow stick, blow whistle, and look pretty much amazing in sombreros)


Tuesday
1am: Body starts shutting down and I get a high fever
3am-9am: Take a bus to the opposite end of the island for their JOUVERT (get covered in pink paint and walk/dance for miles behind a really slow music truck to Sauteurs)


9am: Arrive in Sauteurs exhausted (still with a fever and now swollen tonsils)
10am: Get a ride back to St. George's to shower and sleep
2pm: Wake up and walk into town to catch a glimpse of the FANCY MASS PARADE (all the Carnivale bands and queens in their extravagant costumes)





4pm: Go back to sleep
8pm: Wake up to eat and pop some more Tylenol
10pm: Sleep (thank GOD!!!)