A Poll

Poll for our visitors

Kristy and I have been wondering what our regular visitors to our blog feel about the types of blog entries we have been leaving. So we are taking a very informal poll of the general feeling out there in cyberspace. Would you, as cyber voyeurs, like to read more detailed accounts of our goings-on, less detailed and more and more concise postings or just put up more pictures?

Just email us or comment on the blog, we can take criticism very well and would like to produce a blog that everyone enjoys. So let us have it.

Jason

Immigration

Immigration Office

So, here’s the story. Before we left Canada, we were under the impression that we could enter Grenada without a visa and only a return ticket that showed that we were leaving within 3 months. I double-checked with the Grenadian High Commission in Ottawa to make sure that I had the facts straight. Of course, we all know that the bureaucratic machine could not possibly work that well. Upon our entry into Grenada we received entry status for 30 days, not quite the 3 months that we had anticipated. Today we rectified the situation with a visit down to the Immigration and Passport Office in St. George’s. After a lot of standing around we got to meet with the officer in charge of visa extensions. We explained our situation and showed him a letter from GRENCODA that stated formally that we are volunteers and that they have need of us for six months. I don’t think that he had any facial muscles because his expression was incredibly flat all the time. Like someone that had accidentally rubbed novocaine onto his face. Anyways, after some more standing around and waiting while the bureaucratic machinery slowly engaged we were told that our visas had been extended until the end of April. I know that many people have much more interesting stories to tell about their experiences with immigration offices around the world but this was my first experience with them and so I decided to share it with all of you.

Also, while we were in St. George’s we checked out the library. With the fact that we are still underutilized at GRENCODA and we can’t play Settlers of Catan all evening, every evening, our household reads a lot of books. There are no bookstores worth mentioning in Gouyave. We looked at one of the supposedly better book stores in St. George’s and it had very little selection and the books were overpriced. There is a library in Gouyave but apparently they can’t lend out books since they don’t have the appropriate software on their computers. I don’t know when they will fix the situation but I won’t hold my breath. The library in St. George’s is quite willing to lend books to foreigners, on the condition that they pay $10EC and get two Grenadian references. We got the appropriate forms today and look forward to getting access to St. George’s Public Library. We looked around it today while we waited for a librarian to show up and give us the forms, it is good-sized and I think that we will find enough to keep us entertained until we leave.

That’s it for now.

Much respect,

Jason

Thanksgiving in Grenada

Thanksgiving in Grenada

October 25^th, officially recognised as Thanksgiving on the island nation of Grenada. It is a holiday that does not receive popular support from the masses. Almost everyone I have talked to feels that this holiday is wholly artifice and placed upon by a government that is adopting an American tradition. Grenadians, although thankful for a day off of work, feel that the day has no significance for them. Some that I have talked to would prefer to have a Remembrance Day or Memorial Day for the victims of hurricanes instead of the imported Thanksgiving. You have to remember that while there is definitely a cycle of agricultural events for Grenadian farmers, it does not coincide with the autumn experienced by farmers in the northern latitudes. As a result some businesses are still open, some people purposefully find work to do as a personal sign of protest and some make a lot of food and watch movies all afternoon.

We fit into the last category, or at least, we ate a lot of food that someone else made. Our landlords that live in the apartment below us invited us down for our first taste of Grenada’s national dish, Oil Down. While I do not know the history of oil down, I do now know the basic foundation for the dish. Take a large pot, usually the biggest you can find and get some water boiling. Then make some dumplings and while they are cooking, do all the prep work for the vegetables and meat. The vegetables include but are not limited to, breadfruit, callaloo, Irish potatoes, plantains and carrots. Meat can include almost anything from pork snout and ox tail to goat and turkey to fish and chicken. If it fits into the pot, it might end up in someone’s version of oil down. Of course all of these wonderful items must be simmered in a mixture of coconut milk (fresh or processed), saffron and spice for a long time. The end result is very delicious but very filling. Clarice, our landlord, handed me a plate that was overflowing and piled high, I sense that she thinks I need to eat more. I can usually pack it away when it comes to good meals during the holidays but I struggled with that dish for nearly an hour and a half. It is a very filling dish, but so delicious I just couldn’t leave food on my plate. I am told that every person’s version of oil down is different and so I look forward to my next taste so that I will be able to increase my data set for accurate comparison and analysis. (Actually, I just want to eat some more oil down.)

So, I would say that we are slowly starting to acclimatise to Grenada. I can handle change, I even look forward to new and unexpected things, but sometimes I long for those things that I took for granted. For example, I am acclimatizing to the climate more quickly than I thought I would and some nights I even think about wearing my hoodie. Yesterday, early in the morning, half an hour after sunrise, I went for my first run in Grenada. Yes, I was drenched in sweat by the time I made it back to the house, yes, the hills are going to be more difficult than I originally thought but I felt good. I also like saying that I got up in the morning and went for a run along the coast of the Caribbean Sea. I don’t imagine too many people get to say that back in Manitoba. Some things, I suspect, won’t become familiar for a long time. Things like having to make my milk ready before I can use it for my cereal in the morning. I don’t like the taste of the long-life milk on the shelves and so we have been using condensed milk. There is something very different about spooning out a few tablespoons of thick, white syrup and diluting it with water in order to make it acceptable for cereal. I also miss real coffee but instant will have to do for the next six months. I suppose I could list others things that I miss but I, we actually, decided long before we came to Grenada that we were going to embrace local food and culture. It would be easy to go to the supermarkets in St. George’s and buy expensive imported food but then what would have been the purpose in coming to Grenada?

Tomorrow, we head into St. George’s to visit the Immigration office to get our visas extended. We have been assured that all will go well and smoothly. We will take the opportunity to do a little shopping around for items that we can’t find in Gouyave (like good flip-flops for me, mine fell apart the second day here) and do a little exploring. We are going through the books we brought from home much more quickly than I expected and soon we will be looking for more reading material. Gouyave has a new library that was dedicated in June but as of yet, it is not lending out books because they have not received the library software. After talking to the people working there, I am not holding my breath that it will be open before we leave in April. Rumour has it that we might be able to get a library card for the library in St. George’s.

Not much happened at work this week but we did get to go to the northernmost town on the island, Sauteurs. It is a nice town with relatively friendly people. We pounded the pavement for a few hours in the hot midday sun, handing out flyers for a Climate Change forum next Monday. When we first got to the town, we walked out onto the fishing jetty and took in the view. Looking north, we could see the nearby islands of Sugarloaf, Sandy and Green. In the distance, we could also see Carriacou, one of the three islands that make up the nation of Grenada. There is a ferry that runs to Carriacou every day and we plan to explore the island someday soon. I would post some pictures but I forgot to bring along the camera. At this point, I can still say, there is next time.

One last note before I sign off. On Monday we found the best restaurant in Gouyave. Finally a place that serves good roti for a reasonable price ($7EC or $2.90 Cdn) and that is not the limit of their menu. They have wonderful jerk chicken, curried fish stew, macaroni pie and cheese bread. We eat out very infrequently in order to save money but it good to know that there is a place to go with really good food.

That’s it for now, I know, nothing really exciting except getting to see some more of the island and meet more people. I guess the honeymoon stage is wearing off and we are starting to get down to living in Grenada for five more months.

Jason

Pictures

Jason sitting on our porch

Our House in Gouyave

Typical Street in Gouyave

Road (Highway) near Gouyave

Food, glorious food

I imagine that this will be the first of a two part post, since it is only Tuesday as I am writing this and we usually make it to the internet café on the weekends. For once I beat Jason to it and will be the lucky author of a post.

At times it is difficult not to compare my experience here to the experience I had in Paraguay 6 years ago. It is easy to believe that experiences in one foreign, hot country will be reflected in another. In this vein there are aspects of life here that remind me of life in South America, such as the weather, language difficulties, and flora & fauna being different than that of Canada. The similarities end there. In the last (especially 2) days, we have been finding how Grenadians get a wide variety of foods outside of the market days. (In Paraguay we were cooked for, or bought other items at the grocery store or on the street corner). Today we have purchased 20 mangos, a 2 lb red snapper (which the man had freshly caught and graciously offered to fillet it for us too…good thing since we don’t have an adequate knife for the task), 5 green coconuts (apparently a rich source of iron), a popo (papaya) and some spice leaves (extremely fragrant leaves from the cinnamon tree). All this was purchased for a total of $23 EC, or about $9-10 Canadian and all from our front porch! The man we bought the mangos, coconuts, spice, and popo from was going crayfish hunting after he stopped by and promised that he would bring one by so we could see it (apparently they are as long as a person’s forearm!) He also agreed to take us ‘fishing’ for them sometime, and perhaps even hunting for ??? I forget the name! He said that he has 9 trained hunting dogs. Sounds like an experience.

It feels really good to feel like we are getting access to produce acquired through social networks. You are in good shape if you know the people who can get you what you want! It makes me feel like we are becoming more of a part of the community, though we are still being overcharged on some things. We are aware of the overcharge, but trust that the prices will come down as we establish relationships and are better able to find ways to mention the ‘white tax’ in a way that is friendly and not confrontational.

That’s it for now.

Kristy

Part II

This week just seemed to fly by. We had a holiday on Thursday (Oct. 19^th to remember the execution of Maurice Bishop) and so the week was broken up and now the weekend is here. Not much planned for this weekend, just breezin’ it with a little cleaning up around the house and the usual trip down to the internet café.

Friday was very slow at work and so I had time to get to know some of our co-workers a bit better. GRENCODA’s accountant is quite a fountain of local knowledge from a bit of herbal lore passed down from his grandparents to his opinions on government affairs to his fishing boat that he owns with his cousin. (Yes, I am working on trying to get him to take me out for some deep sea fishing.) I am really enjoying getting to know many different Grenadians and how their individual stories work into the thread of the Grenadian experience. I previously thought that with a smaller nation like Grenada, I might be able to discover a larger cross-section of lives and lifestyles but that is narrow-minded and erroneous. Grenada is as rich and diverse as any other nation and it will take some time to discover people’s stories. Something that really helps to draw out people’s stories are two major events of which most people have experienced at least one; the revolution in 1979 and US invasion four years later and hurricane Ivan. Most people are quite willing to share their personal stories regarding these events. I did some research on these specific events before arriving in Grenada but to hear the personal stories is powerful and everyone’s tale is different. So I try to remember the broad details of their stories and compile them into a journal when I get home every evening. That’s what has been keeping me busy this week, I am sure I will have something different to report next week.

Later,

Jason

A Day at the Beach

I will try to keep this post short but I tend to ramble, so here goes. Today we headed out to the beach and not just any beach but THE beach on the island, Grand Anse Beach. It is a beautiful stretch of white sand about three miles long. The weather was great and the water refreshing. We had excellent chicken roti at a place on the beach. We asked for a menu and the first one they brought us was in US prices. We explained that we were living in Gouyave and had only EC money. The waitress brought us the EC menu and the prices, after exchange, were about a third less than those on the US menu. Almost makes us feel local to avoid paying the cruise ship prices. Though we still had to put up with the big ugly Norwegian cruise ship docked in St. George’s Bay.

An interesting bit about Grenada to note is the bus system. I have done little travelling abroad, but in the bit that I have done I have noticed how people get around. I know that my favourite way to get around Winnipeg, any season, is on a bicycle. I know that Vancouver and Toronto are better explored on the public transit systems. Brazil has crazy, fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants taxi drivers who pay little or no attention to traffic lights or intersections. Grenada has its buses. Well, not buses but vans really, the roadways being way too narrow and twisting for a metro bus to try. These buses are colourful 15-passenger vans, pumping out reggae, dancehall and hip-hop music as they wind themselves up, down and around the roads around Grenada. While they are 15 passenger vans, they aren’t considered full until 19 people (including driver and doorman) are crammed (or rammed as the locals say) into these little sweatboxes. I should probably explain the reason that each and every bus has a doorman. These guys are an integral part of bus operation. Each bus has a sliding door on the left side (remember that it is British-style right-hand driving) which the doorman operates. More importantly the doormen coordinate who should sit where, in order to make sure as many people as possible fit inside the bus. The doormen also collect the fares, which are usually collected during the ride or after you get out at your destination. These buses and Grenadian roads are not made for those who get motion-sick easily, nor are they made for those who have a six foot-plus frame. Despite these small discomforts I had a great time flying down the roads along the coast with sheer cliffs down on one side and straight up on the other. Of course, like every thing in life, you have to experience it for yourself to truly understand. Consider that a standing invitation.

Driving back to Gouyave felt almost like coming home, if only for its greater familiarity at this point in time. People in Gouyave say that the people from Gouyave look out for one another, even if they are outside of Gouyave. We are definitely not people of Gouyave but we have been accepted to some degree. Evidence for this could be found today at the beach. A beach peddler came up to us (we didn’t recognise him) and asked us how we were doing. After a quick round of introductions, he said that he knew us from Gouyave. He wanted to know how we were doing and was just kind of checking up on us. Turns out he is the captain for the GRENCODA sponsored football (soccer) team, the SKYWALKERS. (That is a truly excellent name and I have to find out where I can get a uniform.) Next time they play in town, we are going to the local park and taking in the game. Football is very big in Grenada, as is cricket and basketball. For school-age children, swimming, and cross-country running round out some of the others sports found on the island.

That’s it for now, maybe next time I find an internet café with the capability of uploading some of the pictures we have been taking.

Jason

Since I went to sleep early yesterday to try to recover from the bus trip, I missed out on the blogging. In addition to the guy we met on the beach that was from Gouyave we have been increasinly making contact with local people in our neighbourhood from the neighbour down the street that stopped by this morning, to the street vendor at the market to the woman who we asked about bus fare. She told us that it should cost no more than 4 dollars a piece and adamently stated that we SHOULD NOT pay more than that! She also conspiratorily took us aside to issue a motherly warning not to leave our bags unattended on the beach. It makes me smile.

It also makes me smile to think of how we are getting to know at least the children of our neighborhood as we met two more today who seemed to have a good time playing on our porch. Plus I got a few hugs...it was nice.

Kristy

Hot, Hot, Heat

Our adventure on Spice Island continues. This week I have participated in gathering support for forum on Climate Change by driving around a parish north of Gouyave with a public address system tied to the roof of GRENCODA’s open-back (truck), attended a meeting between GRENCODA and IAICA’s (Inter-American Institute for Cooperation and Agriculture) Grenadian representative, helped to transport 11 weanlings to five farmers for a hog-rearing program and did a little data entry for GRENCODA’s Student Assistance Program. Even with all that I, and I think that Kristy would agree with me, we are finding ourselves with not much involvement with GRENCODA’s development work. I know that this was our first week and we will become more involved with and gain responsibilities from GRENCODA as our time here continue but we felt a little useless this week. Especially knowing that our schoolmates back home are writing papers, preparing for exams and getting stuff done. But as we step back and look at the big picture, we are aware that things will change.

One item of ongoing concern is the language barrier. Yes, English is the official language spoken in Grenada but it is a VERY different dialect. After a week, our ears are beginning to cut through the accents but the colloquialisms, grammar and guttural utterances used to communicate continue to baffle us. I find that talking to Grenadians one on one is not too difficult but trying to understand their conversations is nearly impossible. Most Grenadians are quite kind and willing to repeat until we understand.

Another item to note is the ongoing battle between myself and the sandflies. These little demons go after any exposed skin, night or day. They don’t seem to bother our housemate, Andrew, very much. Kristy is being attacked by them to an annoying degree but my legs have looked like I had a case of the measles this last week. We have been fortifying our position with bug spray and I recently purchased an ounce of pure citronella oil on the recommendation of the locals. The biggest issue is the lack of screens in the bedroom where Kristy and I sleep. There are some screens throughout the rest of the house but none of them fit into the bedroom windows. In order to cool the room off enough to get some sleep we have been opening the windows during the evening and closing them before bedtime, then turning on the light and killing all the sandflies we can find. This strategy seems to work pretty well but still but I still end up with ugly red welts. The Grenadians joke that eventually the sandflies will get tired of my taste and move on. We talked with our landlord last night and promised to put in some screens soon. (Yes, mom I know I should have brought a mosquito net.)

Since today was a very slow day at GRENCODA headquarters Kristy, Andrew and I went for a walk done to the nearest stretch of sand and finally took our first steps into the Caribbean Sea. It was barely cooler than the surrounding air. Imagine a gigantic aquamarine bathtub stretching as far as the eye can see; that is our swimming pool.

After I get this update to the blog posted we are heading back for a good swim. Then we head back to the house for a few hours and wait for Fish Friday to begin. Last Friday we went too early (6:00pm) and there were very few people around. Tonight we will head out at 9:00 and hopefully there will be more action.

Well, that’s it for now. Later,

Jason

Two Days In...

Well, for those of you who haven’t heard, we made it to Grenada safely. After a short 45 minute drive from the airport by Cleetus, the amazing taxi driver, we were dropped off at our new home. I tried to enter Grenada without any preconceived notions about where we would be living or what we would be doing, I just wanted to do the best with what we were given. And I have found Gouyave (pronounced Guave, like the fruit, for those family members that kept hearing us saying gou-yah-ve) to be a very laid back kinda town. Our house is very nice, of concrete construction like many around, with all the major amenities. (Though our clothes washer is not hooked up yet.)

The people we have meet in Gouyave are, for the majority, very friendly and helpful. The official language is English but most of the people around here converse in a very rapid-fire form of Patoi and English. The accents are thick and we are finding it harder to understand than we thought. Though we ask people to repeat what they are saying often, most keep on smiling and try to speak more slowly for these slow foreigners.

Our landlords are very nice and accommodating. And we have already met one of the neighbours, John. He seems to spend much of the day sitting on his front porch railing, talking to friends as they walk by. Today he brought by a fruit we had not seen before, a sour-sup (sp?). He said you can squeeze it into juice but we don’t have a juicer so we juiced it by hand, much to the amusement of our housemate, Andrew. The flavour is very hard to describe, it’s thick and milky with an almost papaya aftertaste. The juice tasted better with a sour orange bought at the farmer’s market squeezed into it. We were also gifted with some sugarcane from a man named Chester that we had met yesterday on the street as we were exploring the town. Everyone knows our landlord, Torro (Dillon but everyone seems to have a nickname) and so Chester (aka Cat-man, I told you, many nicknames) knew where to find us. Chester invited us to a cricket match on Sunday in Grenville on the other side of the island but we are going to ask around to see if Chester is on the level, so to speak, before we hop into a bus with him.

Our cooking is an ongoing experiment with many ingredients hard-to-find or strange to us. For example, today we had plantains for lunch (also bought from the farmers’ market) that we fried up in some margarine and sprinkled a little cinnamon and sugar over them. Oh yeah, that reminds me of the FIRST margarine that we bought. Yesterday at the supermarket (small but pretty well stocked with dry goods) we bought some margarine that is made with hydrogenated fish oil. Yep, fish oil. Its this weird-looking orange margarine that smells like fish. So we don’t spread it on bread but it works well for sautéing onions and garlic.

As I write this post it is raining for the ?th time today. We don’t know how many but it is probably more than six. None of the rains are long but they come quick and hard and disappear just as quickly. It is hot, as expected, but it cools off nicely in the evenings and we have fans for comfortable sleeping at night. So the heat doesn’t keep us up but the neighbourhood dogs like to provide a bit of a sideshow at night.

It is impossible to describe all the things we are seeing and feeling without you being here to experience for yourself. So we will end this post for now and leave you yearning for more.



Jason, with lots of help from Kristy

And we're off!

I was going to post a picture of all our bags sitting by the front door, but somewhere in the depths of our bags lies the cable to plug the camera into the computer! So, imagine if you will two bulging suitcases, 2 large backpacks and 2 small backpacks as carry-on. That is about what you would have seen. Nothing too exciting in and of itself, but when viewed with the potential of what is to come, they all of a sudden seem to be fairly jumping with excitement! Or maybe that is just me. Anyway we will be off to the airport in a few hours. We will be spending the night in Toronto and then will be off to Grenada bright and early tomorrow morning. We will try to post something as soon as we can when we get there to let you all know we arrived safe and sound, but we cannot guarantee how quickly that will be! So, chau for now and the next post will be from the island of spice!

Kristy