Wed. update

It’s the middle of our third week of teaching. This week we are in St. George at a school called Westley College, although I believe it is a secondary school. This week has so far proven to be a test because the students are not as experienced as those we have been exposed to in Gouyave and Grenville. It may have something to do with the urban atmosphere; St. George is the capital province of Grenada. I am lucky enough to be somewhat patient and have been working with the students, trying to give them as much as possible, but a lot of the students don’t seem to be very interested which is a bit disheartening. This is compounded by the school’s poor facilities. On the bright side it’s definitely going to be a huge chance for me to develop my character. This entire experience really allows you to develop yourself, one day at a time.

On another note I just found out that my move out date for my apartment is 2 days after I get back from Grenada. Sweet! Not!

Never a dull moment

There is never a dull moment in Grenada. At least our first three weeks here have not given us the chance to experience one. Things that I want to talk about in this entry are really just going to be mental exercises to see how much I can remember. Maybe I should start making these entries more frequently. Anyway, we spent a lot of time this week in Grenville, a quaint town on the northeastern coast of the island. This from SGU (which is located on the south eastern coast) is about a 45 minute drive: one way. Multiply this period times 10 and you have roughly how long I’ve spent this week sitting in a bus. Let me get my calculator out. Seven and a half hours. And that’s not including Saturday’s trip when we had to travel to Mt. Caramelto visit Karen in order to help with her research. That was another hour and a half in transit. Don’t I make this all sound so terrible? No, but seriously I’ve been having the time of my life.

This past week in Grenville has been an incredible learning experience for me. In retrospect, basically everything here in Grenada is a vast opportunity to learn. The Grenville Group was much more capable than we expected. They picked up the course material incredibly fast, at least in comparison to the majority of the students from Gouyave. I don’t mean to speak critically, but just an observation. The students from Gouyave seemed to be much more personable and fun. I miss them. The weeks just seem to be flying by faster as time goes on. I don’t know what that is supposed to mean but I wish it would slow down some times. I’ve been finding myself taking naps after work. I think it’s because of the long car ride, maybe it’s because we are working hard. I don’t know what to believe. Work here is a breeze and rewarding as well.

Coming up soon is our trip to Carricou. Before we do that we have to write another manual on network security and basic computer repairs. Something I’m not exactly looking forward to. But I guess it’s part of the job.

On Friday we were lucky enough to be driven around the island and basically party it up. We started from Grenville after work and headed north, stopping shortly after in a town called “Conference”. I think that’s what it’s called. Anyway, we stopped at this local bar/restaurant and had more than enough drinks to get me feeling very happy. I had a great time. And right behind the restaurant was the owner’s fruit garden which consisted of gobs of fruits I was so eager to try. Oh so fun. After we sobered ourselves up a bit we continued on our quest around the island, stopping at the Rivers distillery and bathway beach. After we passed the northern most peak, we were on the western coast heading south. Conveniently it was Friday and that means Fish Friday. Gouyave was just 10 miles away. I love fried fish!

Friday ended with me staying in a getting some well deserved rest. It was a long week.

Yesterday the group and I, excluding Anna, went to visit Karen at Mt. Caramel. There we had lunch and walked down to the Mt. Caramel Falls. It was gorgeous there. While we were there we got the chance to meet some of the locals from that area. A kindergarten teacher named Abigail and a student named Osborne. Both were around 20 years old, like us, and we seemed to hit it off fairly well. We hopefully will be heading back to Mt. Caramel falls soon, it was a blast. After the falls we had an interview with Karen to help her with her research. That went surprisingly well and afterward took the bus home.

Now it’s Sunday and I’m sitting here still wet with sea water pounding this entry out. Hope you learned something about my latest adventures. Until later!

Student Interactions and Fish Friday (YUM)

Time here in the Caribbean is an interesting thing. It moves slowly, but before you know it so much has gone by. It’s about 10 AM on a Saturday and I’m still feeling groggy, waking up, sipping some water to refresh my body and jog my memory. It has been a very long week. This week has proven to be the most challenging yet (although it doesn’t have much competition). Significant things that we had to do this week and the weekend prior included writing a comprehensive Java manual. This was no easy task to coordinate, research, write and edit. Fortunately for us we have a significant bit of experience divvying and delegating work to one another.

The past weekend consisted largely of working on the manual. Aside from that we spent that Saturday at Grand Anse beach, something I would like to be doing today (although today’s weather may not approve of this activity). That was a glorious day, in-between work, enjoying an unparalleled beauty on many different levels. At the end of that day my back was quite crisp, I neglected to apply sun screen. The following day we had completed a first draft of our manual and were prepared to teach with it. We would soon realize that we had not given the students enough material to work with. They were sharper than we expected.

The week began with our ride being 45 minutes late. Being late for your first day of work is highly frowned upon and made us quite nervous. Fortunately for us our transportation was being supplied by the Ministry, leaving the responsibility in other hands than our own. We didn’t get to Gouyave (our first teaching site) until roughly 11:30, two hours late. Despite our extreme tardiness, we managed to cover material we expected to last both Monday and Tuesday. To compensate for the students abilities and prior programming experience we had to develop new material which we did by Wednesday.

Interactions with the students are hard to report. A lot of the time I did not understand what they were saying, at least initially. But as you hold more and more discussions with them they begin to either speak in a less confounded version of English, or your ear develops the ability to listen better; perhaps it is a bit of both. But either way my interpretation of our relations is not limited to verbal communication. Hungry from spending the entire day teach java followed by wiring all the computers in the lab to the internet (which all together took about 11 hours) we went to Fish Friday. The whole experience was a journey of the senses. The smells, the sites, sounds, views were all fantastic. I tried so many different types of fish I am getting hungry thinking about it. And I was delighted to see a percussion ensemble consisting largely of steel pan drums! At this point it really struck me that I was truly in the Caribbean.

Overall this past week has presented me with a new perspective. I’m really starting to feel at home on the island and am getting in the swing of things. Our driver was late for a cumulative total of roughly 5 hours. And he still has his job. Good people here on Grenada. Until later!

First Impressions (Written on Thursday, June 7, 2007)

Today is the day of Corpus Christi, a public holiday and day off for the Grenadian people (ourselves included). I figured this would be an excellent opportunity for me to pause and reflect upon the happenings that have occurred thus far this week. And since this has been our first week on the island of Grenada there is much to reflect upon. Also since this is my first entry I would like to briefly discuss how the general scheme of my journal entries can be construed. It is my objective in these journals to depict how I interpret the Grenadian people and my interactions with them. This should prove to be very interesting for myself and for those who are so lucky to read what I am pounding into my keyboard. However, I do not intend to mindlessly document every single thing that I do. Those will be saved for memory which one day I will recite perhaps in front of a bottle of beer. But those tales that I do include in this manuscript of my time here, I will do my best to describe them as candidly as possible. I hope that these journals will truly represent my stay here on this island and will hopefully show development as time progresses.

Hesitation has generally been my primary emotive status. However as I am becoming more accustomed to the culture and my geographic surroundings this apprehension is subsiding. This is our fourth day here on Grenada and already I am feeling at home. I do miss a lot of things from home. But, being young and naive I am quickly getting very well adjusted to my setting. To be frank I absolutely love it here and am excited about beginning work next Monday.

Sunday night we arrived to a ferociously humid landing strip. Walking down from the plane I was shocked by the overwhelming humidity. Not surprisingly I have become acclimated to the weather here and see it now as a blessing, much unlike my initial reaction to it. We walked from the plane to customs and spent the next 45 minutes filling out paperwork and making our way to the front of the line to be interviewed by the airport’s officers. At this time we ran into a few difficulties but had our first exposure to the permissive and lenient way that the Grenadian culture is. We did not have any documentation to prove that we were in fact working for the Ministry of Education. However, the nonjudgmental attitude of the customs officers gave way and they let us continue so long as we provided this documentation within the near future. I would be a bit surprised if such behavior were permitted in U.S. customs.

In American had we been interns of the Department of Education I would imagine everything having been established and organized prior to our arrival. Our trip would have been organized to the most fine of details. However in the case of interning in Grenada we were lucky to escape such micro management. Since our arrival it has been a constant adventure. I do not mean to imply that Mr. Leo Cato has been unhelpful. I do think quite the opposite. It’s just that here on Grenada things tend to fall into place naturally, unlike the hectic stressful way that we know at home in the states. People here just seem to know and do. They seem to be more at peace with how things really are. Yesterday as I was having lunch with the group and Mr. Cato’s entourage I noticed a decorative hanging of the serenity prayer on the restaurants wall. This restaurant was a small probably family owned store but this struck me as very meaningful. The serenity prayer’s first line is, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.” I think this mindset may be parallel to a lot of Grenadian philosophy.

We have met with Mr. Cato several times now and they have always been rather pleasant. He and his assistant Mr. Thomas were here our second day. It is through Mr. Cato that I see how professional work happens here. Through this I have learned that operations occur at a very different speed here than I am used to. This is the Grenadian way. Yesterday on Grand Anse beach me and a couple others of our group quickly visited a little bar along the beach. I had a beer and had a very interesting discussion, if not a lecture from, the bar owner. His name was Dorset; one T, unlike Tony Dorsett the Dallas Cowboys running back. He had a lot to say about his feelings for the island. At first he almost seemed to disapprove of our business here on the island; he was quite against westernization. However, this was okay with me (maybe not the others I was with). Although in the end he understood our intentions for this internship. He demonstrated to me a great communion that he has with this island and its people, a strong for of wisdom perhaps. He really cares about this community, and this is something that we don’t see in America. I don’t feel guilty for not being as compassionate a person as Dorset, but maybe a bit envious. I hope to chat with him in the future again. This is all I feel like typing for now. Until later.