Two weeks less a day

Today will be almost two weeks since we moved to Grenada so I wanted to reflect on what I am learning.

First off all islands in the Caribbean are not the same. I had been to Cuba and the Dominican Republic which have very similar geography. Grenada is nothing like those islands. The steep rising mountains, and sharp jutted ocean cliffs could not be farther from Cuba's flat coasts and interior. It has been a hard adjustment as my deepest fear has always been driving off a cliff into a body of water, and here that is an ever present danger. Certainly not a fear I expected to face, I don't think I will ever overcome it, but I will get more used to living with fear.

The bar/restaurant/propane/construction store across the street

Next don't judge a book by its cover. I'm going to guess conservatively that in our 1.5 km street there are ten "bars", which in Canada is a dangerous kind of place. Here though, there is a booming micro-economy. Every street has bars, bakeries and mini convenience stores, they are in peoples homes and because of that there is a sense of community investment. Everyone sustains each others business.

Sometimes little is best. We are so used to buying sliced whole wheat bread that we have been buying it at the grocery store. However we have two bakeries in our neighbourhood; one, even I could hit with a baseball if I threw it properly and one three doors down from the boys school. We've decided we would rather give our neighbours our money than IGA or Foodlands. Yes it is white bread, but I am soaking beans and will make a big pot of seasoned beans and rice and we can get fibre and nutrients that way.

Education is not free- not in Canada, not anywhere. So everyday I see the most beautiful children in their school uniforms heading off to school; and everyday Brent sees children in shorts and T-shirts on stoops or in the streets. It costs a lot of money to send any child to school. Here there are school uniforms which will easily run a parent $100-$200ECD. Then there are supplies pencil, pens, paint for art, notebooks... just like Canada. Only you can't get a note book for $0.33 at Walmart, they are about $2.50 ECD each. To put this in perspective minimum wage for a domestic worker in Grenada is $400 ECD a month!! School is just too expensive if you have more than one child, just to put them into a regular school would be more than a months wages.

Families are large here. While trying to find things in common with my PAM students, I discovered that all of them had a minimum of five siblings. One young lady had 11 brothers and three sisters! Most were more balanced than that but still very large families. If you think contraception is expensive in Canada, it is astronomical in Grenada. It is either not available at all or so cost prohibitive that birth control is not an option for most women.

Last thing is I now have a love/hate relationships with the roosters here. I love how beautiful they are and seeing them strutting around the yard, but really some of them have a messed up internal clock. One little dude thinks 4:00 is wake up time... if only I could figure out which one...