I was contemplating going into work this morning. Not because I didn't want to work and do my job, but because it is so close to Christmas and there isn't much to do. Really the only reason to go into work is to get fast internet (internet at home is on the fritz yet again), and so I can abuse the hell out of the air conditioning they have. I finally decide to get "dressed"--my business casual has gotten increasingly casual the closer we get to the 25th--and I stroll up to the office. As I'm leaving home I'm listening to my host uncle bitch about the neighbors' dogs and how they "sheeit" everywhere, he claims he is going to poison them. I wasn't surprised by this premeditated murder attempt, probably because those dogs are really ungrateful and decide to bark their heads off every morning at 4 for 30 minutes like they're in that one scene from Disney's 101 Dalmatians. The whole time my host uncle is ranting about the dogs, my kids (who own the dogs) are calling me from their roof to come play with them so my first interaction with people for the day (before coffee) comprised of:
"I hate dees dogs...Mr Tayla!... stupid shit...Mr Taylaaaaa!...hate em, gwan poison dem...Sirrrrr! I feed em an all dey do is shit... Taylorrr!... I'l beat dey ass..."
"Good morning everyone."
Well I get to work, much to my surprise there is no one here really, we're running on a skeleton staff. But I don't let it phase me, I came here this morning with one mission: download a new movie and do some blogging, and if my counterpart came in I was going to tell him my plan for next year (it's a good one). About two minutes after sitting down in the conference room, I start blasting some JT when all of a sudden the power goes out and there is a loud boom. It sounded like something fell on the building, perhaps one of the many giant antennas surrounding us. I walk outside and immediately blame our secretary, it's my unofficial job to make her laugh all day. The 3 of us working walk outside to see if anything has indeed fallen on the building because we all heard the noise, nothing had. We hang out by the fence which blocks a small little cliff/hill to the road when this guy who was hanging around earlier just calls it out "Yeh it was dose powa lines dey. Dey shouldn configya dem like dat." Freakin Eagle Eye Jones over here. I don't know how he spotted it, maybe he was outside when it happened, maybe he is a wizard. Either way, he was right, a strong wind caused terribly configured power lines to touch and spark. This hypothesis was further confirmed by my kids who were hanging out on their roof during the event, like right under it. They gave a rather compelling and hilarious reenactment of the explosion.
All this to say, I'm sitting in the dark as a write up this blog. I suppose this will be another one of those blogs where I just tell you what's been going on without some underlying metaphor.
Life is still good here, just reeeeeeally slow because of Christmas time. There isn't much for us to do as volunteers other then hang out, especially the volunteers that work primarily in the schools. The school term ended on the 15th, but really there wasn't much going on at the schools the week(s) leading up to the end. Kids were just going bonkers, teachers were care free, as Dick Vitale would say "it was pandemonium babay!" On the whole, the first term went pretty well. Our students still have a long way to come before they can graduate and go off to secondary school, but my counterpart and I are confident that we can get them there. I think it 's going to take a lot more one-on-one tutoring on my part, most of the kids just lack individual attention so they don't understand the lessons. But I don't want to think about that now, I'm on school break, so here is a link to the pictures from our party: (scroll to the bottom for the recent ones)
Pictures!
OI! THE POWER IS BACK ON.
I did have another pretty cool adventure with a couple of the other volunteers the other week. We decided that we were going to hike from the main town on the east side of the island to the main one on the west side. It's about an 11 mils hike through the interior of the island. Luckily there is a road that goes the whole way, but that doesn't mean it is a straight and flat road, no no. We proposed to meet at the bus terminal in town at 6:15am, but not everyone showed up until around 7, typical here. After everyone found some breakfast we hopped on a bus that would take us to Grenville. Funny thing about buses in the morning, especially buses that go to distant parts of the island, they take HOURS to fill up. So, after we had waited a good long while, the girls, Katie Moran and Errin, decided that they were going to hitch a ride all the way to Grenville. Statistically speaking, it is damn near impossible to hitch a ride as a guy here. You're more likely to hail a cab as a black man in NYC. Seriously, I've only ever hitched like two rides from strangers here. Knowing this, Rocky and I decided to wait and take the bus instead of hitching because we would only ruin things. Around 8ish the bus we were on starts to fill up, we've got about 9 people at this point, we're not full, but it is enough to leave the terminal. Yet, the driver continues to keep the bus in park, ass hole... All of a sudden this knight in a shiny white bus pulls up next to us, and says to me sitting in the window seat "Grenville?" Oh hell yea son, it's on! So, Rocky and I dash out of the bus we had been waiting on with two other people and onto this next bus that wasn't planning on sitting around. It was like some Mission Impossible nonsense, jumping through traffic, trying not to get caught, diving onto the new bus. Normally, this is a huge jerk move to pull on your bus driver. In fact, the driver of the bus we had been on was furious. It was his own damn fault though, he kept us waiting for two hours, he should have started driving towards Grenville.
Rocky and I pull up to the car park in Grenville around 9am. After taking a quick leak in the ocean, we find Errin and Katie who definitely won the race to Grenville by hitching. In my defense, they have boobs. Might as well have been using steroids. The girls had a surprise for us. They decided to buy us Santa hats for us all to wear on our hike. You ever tried wearing a Santa hat under the Caribbean sun on an 11 mile hike through the mountains? Yea, it's a wee bit hot. Obviously, I turned it into a game, the last person to take their Santa hat off won. Game on. We set out towards the interior of the island, getting PLENTY of looks as we walked through Grenville. People would stop working to look at us, we even passed one house that wanted to take a picture of us ha! Even though we looked waaay out of place, we did receive a lot of "Merry Christmas!... Ho ho ho!... Santa!". It was all in good fun. There is a traditional approach to hiking in Grenada, actually it may just be a way of life, but you stop at every bar along the way and grab a drink. We obliged. Unfortunately, there was only one bar we passed on the start of our hike. Because we were cutting through the middle of the island, on a road hardly used, where no one lives, our plan to hike under the influence was foiled. Funny thing about hiking under the Caribbean sun in a hot as balls Santa hat is that you only need one beer to get you buzzed. In hindsight, it was a good thing there was only one bar in the beginning. On the flip side, we knew for a fact there would be bars, pool tables and cold beer when we finished the hike in 8 hours. Motivation.
Fast forward an hour or two and we are well on our way through the mountains and beautiful landscape this island has to offer us every day. We're even more out of place here. Every now and then a local might drive by and ask if we are lost or need a ride. Side note: whenever you want to hitch a ride it is damn near impossible, but whenever you don't want to hitch everyone stops for you anyways. A couple tourist buses pass by on this road, filled with whities in tacky outfits and sun hats. I can only imagine their response when they see four other white people wandering about in the middle of nowhere wearing Santa hats, "Woooow! Did you see that Nancy?! White people! Here, in this ancient civilization! I wonder why on earth they would be walking here?? Ohhhh honey, they are wearing Christmas hats! Let's take pictures!"
It was getting to be lunch time so we stopped at the next river we found. Now, I like exploring rivers and such. Nay, I like exploring in general. Why else would I idolize Bear Grylls and spent countless hours watching Man vs Wild? I probably like exploring in the water more because my dad used to kick ass and take names in the swimming pool. That is until one tragic panty hose accident that shattered his ankles and rendered him a gimp for the rest of his life... Love you, pops. Right, so the four of us are splashing around in this river, wearing nothing but our underwear (as is customary while swimming in Grenada) and Santa hats, skipping stones, eating pringles, being pale, and these cars keep driving by. Locals this time, and they are just bewildered. Why are there white people in the middle of nowhere, swimming in this tiny river, with no clothes on?? One car even stopped to watch us for a minute or so. I'm sure we were quite a site to see. After a nice break, we decided not to waste our momentum and keep truckin. Another hour or so later and we are just about at the top of the mountain range the separates the two parishes we are traversing. The top of the hill is in sight and all of a sudden the Mr. Bernie's Ice Cream truck comes flying over it. Mana from heaven. These trucks are hard to track down in the towns and here is one out in the bush. The four us wasted no time purchasing and simultaneously devouring our ice cream. There are few things you want in the middle of an all day hike, ice cream is most definitely one of them. Trust me.
A couple hours later--I think, it's hard to keep track of time here--we venture into civilization and village with a bar. Yahtzee! *What a forgotten game, by the way. Yahtzee. That game used to be a blast, now it's just a catch phrase. And the game broke down racial walls as well. Sure, the white people played the actual game made by Milton Bradley, but I like to think that every time you see people in the hood shooting dice and throwing money down they are really just playing Yahtzee.* So we are in the community of Clozier when we happen upon this nice family owned bar/shop/hang out. Through nothing but charm and good looks we convince them to open up for us so we can take a rest and share stories with them. Most of them were sitting around drinking vodka while the others harvested nutmeg, so it wasn't like we were asking much. We probably added a good 45 minutes to our hike just hanging out in the shop, playing pool and proving to the people there that we were indeed locals. It was such a nice break from the heat, plus it isn't everyday you get to play as much pool as you want without waiting your turn for hours. We traded contact info with the owner there, Jeffrey, whom I don't think believed me when I told him that is my dad's name, but he said they would take us on the hike to Fedon's Camp whenever we wanted. Fedon is a history lesson for another day.
Next village, next bar. We're only 25 minutes or so from Errin's place and Gouyave, so this is basically our finish line. We enjoy a couple drinks, conversation with the locals, and the Spanish channel on their tv which is showing Terminator 3. At this point I realize my watch has been broken for a couple hours and I'm late to get back to town, so we head out. A couple more drinks with the rest of the volunteers in town and this guy is spent, but the hike isn't over yet. After Casey and I piss in an abandoned building (again, customary here), and everyone says goodbye to the volunteers leaving for home in the morning, I hike the final mile-ish to my home on the hill. Victory. In the morning, some of us go to the boys home in Victoria to give them a little Christmas Party. Anytime we go to the home it usually ends up in me getting jumped by all the boys. A 12 mile hike + sunburn the day before made it super hard to force smiles and laughs for the kids, but everyone had a blast. I spent the rest of the weekend sick from something I ate or drank, typical, but it didn't matter because that weekend was definitely one of my favorites here so far!
Here are some pictures that Katie Moran took while on our hike, I borrowed them from the internet so they might not be as clear.
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| Santas in the river. |
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| Ice cream! |
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| Kids rock |
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| I wanted to know why pandas ate bamboo, so sue me. |
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| Yowza! |
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| Some of the other volunteers, still wearing my hat! |
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| At the boys home. I told one of the boys to put icing on his face, chaos ensued. |
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| Merry Christmas from the Father Mallighan's boys! |
ps. I had to finish this post another day because the electric wires touched and the power blew out yet again!
Hope those stories were enough to entertain you!
Brice
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