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