Monday Retrospect

I know that it has been a long time since I have written in this journal. I’ve been careless with time and have been trying my best to enjoy as much as possible while I’m here on this island. That means spending a lot of time just relaxing and soaking up sun, which is basically all I’ve been doing. So for the supervisors reading this, I’ve been slacking. For those others, I’ve really been having a blast.

I guess I should explain what I’ve been doing, at least vaguely, maybe descriptively about some things. Last Sunday through this past Friday we (the group) were in Carriacou. An island that makes Grenada appear huge. The town we lived in briefly, Hillsborough, was a quaint main street town that stretched for about a mile. The main street lay parallel to Hillsborough bay, where we spent most of our free time sun bathing and sea bathing. Sea bathing. Locals here refer to swimming in the ocean as sea bathing; something that we all find funny. Anyway, the resort we stayed at, John’s Unique Resort, was definitely unique. Unique in almost every aspect: water regularity, odor, bed sizes, lighting, air conditioning, you name it. Everything about John’s Unique made it an adventure. Adventures such as: why don’t we have any running water and my personal favorite, what is that smell?

We were in Carriacou to teach Java to another student group and teach basic computer repairs to a teacher group. I was part of the computer repairs group, the group with the teachers. Man, Carriacou was a tough crowd. The students on the first day gave the other group enough trouble that they almost wanted to give up. Anna seemed to have had some trouble with student teacher cooperation. Meanwhile Tim and I were put under the spotlight and had to present a very vague presentation of computer repairs. Confused and stressed out, Tim and I did a pretty rough job around all the edges. A lot of the material we were teaching a lot of the students already knew, and we tried to compensate this by making our explanations a little more deep. However, this served us both positively and negatively. A portion of the group that was not there on Monday came in on Tuesday. This group of teachers turned out to be much less advanced than those that were present on Monday. So we had to compensate this by more or less holding everyone back at the consequence of everyone.

Up until Wednesday we were being supervised by Mr. Thomas, assistant of Mr. Cato. Mr. Thomas was given the responsibility of finding our meals and making sure that our accommodations were suitable, a relatively simple role. However it was met with some difficulty. Accommodations were apparently not sufficient for Mr. Thomas as he made it very clear he desired a self contained hotel. Also the food caterers were apparently not good enough for the teacher group; they did a bit of complaining. It seemed they complained about everything imaginable. On Wednesday he was replaced by Mr. Cato which came with a bit of relief and distress. Mr. Thomas is a really funny guy, but he can be a bit awkward at times. On the other hand Mr. Cato is much more personable but sits in a very authoritative position and can be a bit intimidating at times. When in the company of Mr. Cato it’s best to be at your best behavior.

When Mr. Cato finally got to Carriacou on Wednesday Tim and I had to explain to him how the teacher group had been responding to our training sessions and we essentially handed the ball over to him. By then we had expended all of our teaching resources and were desperate for his help. Kind of disappointing to depend on his assistance but it was definitely necessary. Tim and I are not exactly computer maintenance experts, and Tim is much more than I am. So in the end we both felt a little discouraged and disappointed with ourselves but it will definitely serve us as a learning tool in the future.

Carriacou work-wise was a pretty rough situation. However, after work we had a lot of fun. We met some really great people on Carriacou. And because of this I hope to return there one day, even if it’s long after this summer ends. Carriacou was definitely an escapade from an escapade and put a lot of things in perspective for myself. The work was tougher than expected but hard work builds character and gives experience that I really want to have. I have to get going, my ride will be here soon. Until later.