Week 2: February 2nd-February 8th

I’ve officially had my first weekend in Grenada. We arrived Saturday morning, we had the first flight out of St.lucia which left at 6:30It was a very early morning to say the least. When we arrived in Grenada the current volunteers were waiting for us at the airport. It was a really good way to be introduced to the country. They gave us a quick tour through town, and when we arrived at the peace corps office we got some time to talk and ask questions before our host families picked us up. It was a huge stress reliever when they all knew my host family and work sites and had only good things to say about both. At 11:30 My host mother, Yavette Joseph, Picked me up. As soon as she walked in everyone gave her a big hug. She runs a small shop where she serves breakfast and lunch which is how all the volunteers know her. I said goodbye to all the volunteers and wished them luck, we all wouldn’t be seeing each other again until Monday. The Josephs live in St. George walking distance from the Peace Corps training office. They live at the top of a driveway that is set at a 90 degree angle, but it has the most incredible view of the harbor (seen in picture above). The house is beautiful and surprisingly very big. It has two floors, the top floor having three bedrooms and the bottom floor consisting of two apartments, one of which their son, Mighty Man, lives in. Yavette gives me a quick tour and then says that if I’m up for it that she would like to take me in to town to do some shopping. As soon as we get into town Yavette starts saying hello to people, she knows everyone. As we are walking through the Market I notice that if I am not obviously standing next to Yavette that I get mistaken as a tourist and get bombarded with people trying to sell me stuff. Yavette shows me all the different kinds of fruit and vegetables that she will get for me to try: there’s bread-fruit, love apples, yellow apples, okra, mangos, 5 fingers (or star fruit), coconut, pumpkin, guava, dashin, and yams. Half of the things I had never heard of and the other half I wouldn’t have recognized, for instance the avocados are as big as the coconuts and are a completely different color. When we were done shopping Yavette asked me if I was up for going to Grenville to get fish. I didn’t know what going to Grenville meant so I said sure. Turns out Grenville is a 45 minute bus ride away. When we get to Grenville we look for a shop to buy a bucket, I have no idea why. Even though I’m sure Yavette explained to me why we needed a bucket her accent is so think I only understand a quarter of the things she says. When we find a bucket we make our way to the fish market. Outside the market there are a group of boys standing around with machetes, Yavette goes over and talks to one of them who then follows her over to the market. At the market she looks at all the fish and then selects the one she wants and then pays the fisherman. The fisherman hands the fish to the boy following us around, who then takes the bucket and tells us to wait. This boy cleans and cuts up the fish which he then puts into our bucket. Once he is done he brings it back over to us and Yavette pays him. Seeing that I’ve been away since 3 am I’m basically sleep walking, so we make our way back to St. Georges and I call it a day. We wake up early the next morning to go to church. Walking into church that morning I could have sworn I was walking into an amateur Christian rock band concert. There were four women singing on stage accompanied by a man on the drums, an electric guitar, an electric piano, and then several tambourines scattered through the crowd. To the right was a huge screen which had the lyrics to each song so everyone could follow along. It was mildly ridiculous. Tuesday was Independence day. Independence Day is huge! The day before Independence Day is colors day, so everyone wears yellow green and red. And by everyone I mean EVERYONE! There is a huge cultural performance that goes on at the big stadium which started at 1:30. Before we headed down there Mighty Man drove me and Leanne to the beach. The water is a mixture of bright blues and greens and there was barely anyone out on the beach which was perfect. We came back to change and make our way to the stadium. Overall it was long and boring but then out of nowhere they had parachuter’s dropped from above and flew down into the center of the stadium! One of the parachuter’s didn’t make it and fell into the crowd. It reminded me of something you’d see on America’s funniest home videos. After that we went and met Mr.Jo and Mighty Man at a party up at Fort George. It was a huge cook out! People were dancing and grinding up on each other, there was a huge pot of Boildown, which is the national dish. When we went over to get some food someone offered me Pigs foot, which I had to pass on. I can’t help but think about how quickly life can change. A month ago I would have been walking to temple on Friday, and now I’m driving to church on Sunday. A month ago I wouldn’t have been able to find pork anywhere and now I’m being offered pigs foot.