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!!!)

Mt. Qua Qua & Levera Beach

Today was Emancipation Day, so for the day off my friends Junior, Isaiah, and I went hiking at Mt. Qua Qua. It's not necessarily a mountain, but rather a steep ridge that rises above the Gran Etang Crater Lake up to a point where you have a gorgeous 360 degree view of Grenada, and can see both the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. We ate our picnic lunches on a huge boulder and I actually felt cold for a change, which was glorious. Afterward we drove up north, stopping along the way so I could check out an old abandoned airplane, then went to Levera Beach (where the sea and the ocean meet) and spent the rest of the afternoon in the waves. And we got ice cream on the drive back, so it was a great day!

Grensave Summer Camp

The whole month of July was consumed by Grensave's Summer Camp, in which local and Peace Corps volunteers helped as counselors to the 50 kids, ages 4-12,that would come every morning, bright n' early at 8am (the earliest I've had to wake up all year, since all my school-year projects are in the afternoons). I came 3 days a week and we did everything from snorkeling, swimming, salsa dancing, hiking, art, sign language, sports, learning about our bodies & teen pregnancy, pet farms, museums, river tubing, and going to the beach on our last day in the pouring rain. So much fun! And I got to know a few of my previous Grensave students even better while also meeting some new kids from my neighborhood...like my twin buddies Jervon & Josanne.

sailing & snorkeling...
hiking at Concord Falls...
me, Grensave's secretary Merril, & Samantha (a volunteer from Canada)...
me & some of the older girls...
my little ladies Josanne & Tori-Anne...
I once told my buddy Jervon that I could read minds, so every morning he would find me and ask me to do it again...
river tubing...
some of the staff & volunteers...