My three sisters

Before I came to Grenada I was lucky enough to have an amazing sister in my life. My twin sister, Ceilidh, has been an ardent supporter of my trip here; and sometimes I think it is costing her almost
as much as it is costing us! She has organized a barrel of computers for NEWLO, used her house as a cross dock for shipping barrels and coordinated a barrel care package for us when we fist arrived.

But now I have a couple of other sisters in my life.



Sisters Margaret & MaryAnn

I have to admit until I came to Grenada I had never met a nun. In fact I knew very few Catholics. One of my mom's dear friends, Rosemary, is Catholic and very active in her church. My cousin married a Catholic when I was between 10-13- Cathy who is awesome (good choice Ben)! It was the first and the second to last time I was in a Catholic church! A good friend in high school, Melanie is Catholic and that was the sum total of my experience and understanding of Catholicism.

I was a bit nervous at the thought of reporting to a nun. Truly the only nuns I had ever seen were in The Sound of Music. If you are giggling, I bet for most of you the same holds true! Unless you are from Quebec or a really large city, nuns are not present in most communities. So I did not know what to expect.

When I met Sister Margaret for the first time it was my second day in the country and I was soooo hot. I hadn't realized I was meeting the partners so I was wearing a sleeveless top and capris- not at all appropriate attire for a meeting. I immediately felt judged by the representative of the other organization and was extremely self conscious.

Then in floated Sister Margaret. I say floated because she moves so fast that her grey habit seems to have her floating through a room. She gave me a warm welcome and a hug. She then whipped out her Samsung smart phone and checked something and I was thinking "wow!!". Not what I expected.

In fact, now I see her habit as silver, as she is constantly the silver lining in any situation.

Sister Margaret is small in stature but
big in presence. Sometime I forget she is shorter than I am because her personality just fills a room. Some people fill a room by being loud, she fills a room by being warm. I swear sometimes I feel like she is just exuding goodwill to everyone that just fills up all the empty space in the staff room.

Me, Sister Margaret and Roberta Ellis from Cuso

As an executive director she is juggling so many responsibilities, sometimes I feel tired for her when I think of all she has to do. She is hands down the best manager I have ever had. She is results based and so if you are getting results she gives you room. Similarly if you aren't doing what she expects she is going to address it. She is also incredibly astute, I would not ever want to try to put something past her, she would see through it quickly. Under her calm demeanour is an active mind and is one of the most "thought full" people I have met in Grenada.

She balances so well her professional presence and her personal presences. She has a great sense of humour and will laugh as hard as the next person at a funny story. She truly loves the trainees and sees them as her children. Like a good mother she is comforting but also instills personal responsibility and consequences to help them grow into responsible adults.

Now my last sister. Sister MaryAnn is originally (and proudly) from Saint Vincent's and the Grenadines. She did not come to the sisterhood early in her life, which makes her very "worldly". Where Sister Margaret has a big presence because she just radiates confidence, Sister MaryAnn radiates joy and merriment. When I am at NEWLO my day is just not complete unless I have found her to spend a few minutes. You just want to be near her to catch her energy.

Having said that Sister MaryAnn will also tell it exactly as it is. If you are being simplistic or narrow minded (something she really doesn't tolerate well) she'll call you out.

If ever I met someone who embodied "work hard, play hard" it is Sister. I have given up trying to catch a bus with her in the morning. She is always way earlier to work than I am, usually by a good half hour! But watch her play dominoes and she is slamming those tiles down! She also loves to dance. So much so she teaches dance classes for the parish children on Saturday mornings.

I already take the bus home with her when I am at NEWLO and in the coming months we are going to be taking a course together on Tuesday evenings. I am looking forward to getting to know her even better outside of work.

I now understand why nuns are called sisters. I really feel like I have gained sisters by having these two in my life.

I would be remiss not to mention one up and coming sister. My friend from Canada@150 Sara Rudolph has recently given her life over to the Loretto Sisters. Before coming to Grenada I would have thought she was nuts!! Who does that in this day and age? But as with everything, experience brings understanding. Now I feel so inspired by her journey. I know that she will have a life filled with purpose, serving others in a way she never could have as a public servant. I have been following her blog on her spiritual journey into the sisterhood, if you have a chance take a look.

In less than one month my real sister comes to visit me (HOORAY)  and I am really hoping we will have time to meet my adopted sisters. Because it turns out you can never have too many sisters.

I'm legal!

For the past 6 months I have been working without a work permit. Today I finally received it. Let me explain how it took 6 months to get the proper authorization to be in Grenada and how we came very close to being persona non grata!

We got the work permit!!

When we arrived in Grenada, the boys needed to start school the next day. So day one was a whirlwind adventure of getting school supplies, uniforms and adjusting to the heat. In fact the whole first week was a blur as we set up banking, phones, internet, shopped for a SUV and figured out where everything we needed was.

My second week I started at both PAM and NEWLO. Learning new names and realizing that in Canada when you are introduced to someone you listen to the first name and in Grenada you need to listen for the last name.  Week two is also when Brent got sick with Chickungunya, only we didn't realize it at the time.

By the third week I had contracted Chickungunya and unlike Brent who bounced back really quickly, I ended up with it twice! It thus settled over me and is only now releasing it's grip. Everything except my work was on the back burner as I would be sore and tired after every day.

In late October Brent noted that we really should be getting the work permit documents together. I had to agree and went to where I thought the documents were. You needed an original security clearance from your country to obtain your work permit. I must have checked that I had this document 20 times before leaving to come here. When I went to find it, it was gone.

Needless to say we tore the house apart looking for it. No luck. It seemed we would need to get another done up, which I thought should be fairly simple. Only it wasn't. We got our security checks done as soon as we knew we were coming in May, we were now more than 6 months since they had been issued and the OPP could not reprint them.

Trying to deal with a police service when you are in another country is not fun. In Canada when someone passes you along to the next person, and then they pass you along to the next you usually have something you are working on while they wait to find the person who is needed. However calling an international number on a cell, I was in constant fear that before I spoke to the person we would get disconnected. In the end it was all for not because turns out "Oh he's not in the office today, surprised the secretary didn't tell you." This was my fourth person who I had spoken to!

It didn't get much better when the OPP wanted a military police officer to submit our paperwork to them. In the end we found a copy on file with Cuso and decided to give it a try. The worst that could happen is they say it has to be original and we find a way to make it work.

Turns out when we submitted it the person receiving our application didn't seem too concerned about it not being original and told us it would take 2-3 weeks. So right about Christmas time. Great! All this drama for nothing. My favourite saying is worry is interest paid on trouble before it is due. I had been worrying for no good reason I would have my work permit by the new year... Well NEWLO would have it and then they would give me a copy.

I patiently waited until the first week of January before I made my first inquiry. Yes it was in progress, no there didn't seem to be a problem.

By the first week in February I was starting to get concerned. The cause of my concern was that the entire families visitors visas expired Feb 28th, after which time we were all in the country illegally.

When we extended the visitors visas the first time the Immigration Officer was none too happy with my lack of a work permit and now I was in danger of returning without one again. It didn't help my level of anxiety that my sister has gotten me hooked on watching "Border Services" on Youtube; so now I know this could be a huge problem if the government decided it wanted to enforce its immigration rules.

Brent filling in the boys visitor visa paperwork

I settled on a new plan. This time I went back to the Work Permit Office in person, so they could put a face to the file. My inquires were met with blank stares. When I asked with whom the file was with the woman looked like she didn't understand the question. I tried again. Do you have a system that shows you at what stage the file is at? That too was not dignified with an answer. In fact the sum total of her response to me was "it is being worked on". Since I didn't want to upset the apple cart I left feeling really frustrated and helpless.

This week I talked to Sister and Mrs. Douglas because it was becoming desperate!  We only had this week to get the paperwork. Mrs. Douglas made a call to the Ministry. You'll not be surprised to learn the status was "in progress" not done as of yet but they understood the urgency with the visas expiring they would have it ready this week. Mrs. Douglas called back on Wednesday and Thursday, still no permit.

Mrs. Douglas thought Sister Margaret should accompany me to the Ministry of Labour  and hope to get the permit and if it still was "in progress" she could speak to Immigration on my behalf.

Today Sister, Brent and I headed into the Ministry of Labour and we were all met by blank stares this time. "You just need to extend your visa." I explained they would not extend my visa because I am not a visitor I am working. Well you need to go to Immigration and take it up with them. Brent chimed in at this point that I would need to pay for an extension which I would not have  to do if Labour had the work permit ready. Blank stare. So we all turned around and went back down the stairs, less than 3 minutes after we had come up them. Sister and I signed out and headed across the street to Immigration.

I must admit we were giggling about this, it just seemed so crazy. Three weeks had turned into three months and no one could tell us anything! As we were crossing the street Brent called us back to the building. Someone had come down to find us, they did have the visa. A lovely young woman in a bright yellow blouse apologized and ushered us back up to the third floor.

We went back to the Work Permit Office where all of us were again met with blank stares, nope we needed to go next door they couldn't help us. Now next door is the actual Ministry of Labour so that made sense. Instead we walked into the Ministry of Sports, Youth and Religion. They had the visa, they had received it from the Ministry of Education. Sister and I gave each other a look- the Ministry of Education?? So we sat and waited while people made calls and looked through drawers.

Finally I heard the secretaries trying to get a hold of Mr. Andle.... And my heart sank, Mr. Andle is the manager of Myriam and Linda. Myriam still did not have her visa either- they were searching for Myriam's visa. I told sister my concerns and as a good nun would, she told me "have faith". So I sat as hopefully and faithfully as I could with my heart sinking rapidly.

It turns out they did indeed have my work permit. (Never doubt a nun) For some reason it says I am with the Ministry of Youth not NEWLO, but hey at this point who wants to split hairs?? It is close enough.

So I now have my passport stamped until Feb 2016. Don't worry I am coming home June 30th, just in time to celebrate my home and native land on her birthday!

I am so happy to be able to continue the work I am doing here and have a renewed sense of hope and purpose as well as a renewed passport!

Cost of Living In St. George's

Have you been wondering what things cost in Grenada? Well it does depend where you live and where you shop. We shop everywhere in St. George's- local bakeries to CK's the island version of "Costco" only on a Home Hardware store scale. Canuks will understand this perfectly!

All prices in Eastern Caribbean Dollars

Food- Local market or street vendor
2 cucumbers  $3.00
1 avocado $2
7 corn $5
6 papayas $5
Genups $1-2 for a bunch
Green beans (bag) $2-3
Watermelon $3.00/ slice or about $2-3 per pound
6 buns $3.00
1 loaf of bread $3.00
1 sugar cookie $2.00

Food Grocery store
fruits
4 bananas ripe $3.20
3 red plums (total vanity/hunger purchase) $7.98
Watermelon (on sale at MNIB) $1.00/pound
lettuce $9.80

milks/dairy
1 litre of milk between $5-6.50
ice cream 1 litre $16.50
yogurt cup $3.51
small brick of cheddar cheese $10.45

processed
Giant bag of Cheerios $18
Flour tortillas $10.70
whole wheat bread $4.35
small frozen bag whole kernel corn $3.80
lunch meat ham/turkey combo pack $17.65
brown rice 2 lbs $3.24

meat
fry pork chops $15.83

Household
small garbage pail- $12.00
small cheese grater $8.95
Broom (from under $10 Store) $10.00
Soap $1

Internet/Phone
$75  for slower bandwidth but unlimited amount (can use Skype no problem)

Electricity
$240 this is actually $100 less than when we had an old fridge. But still quite expensive when you consider there is no water heater, no furnace, no air conditioner, no dishwasher, no clothes dryer...

Transportation
Buses are the main mode of transportation, I think we took a cab once and it was because we had a lot of groceries and 4 people.

Bus within the St. George's are usually about $2.50. So to go from my house to the bus station. To go out of the city the prices are higher. To get from St. George's to my work is $4.00. To go to Sauteurs at the very north $8.00. School aged children are half price.


Clothes
Skirts & Pants. You really need to shop around. The stores by the market, up market hill, and down past Bryden and Minors have good deals but you need to look around. I was looking for a skirt for work. A skirt suit at one store was $115, but I was able to find a skirt for $35. I found a pair of black pants (I never thought I would wear pants here) for about $55.

Blouses are "hard" to find because I am lazy. I don't want to iron. You can find tops for between $45-$65 but you will need an iron.

Shoes
Are an adventure. If you are a woman you can get a thong sandal for $25 and there are plenty of little shops to find anything you are looking for. There is also now a Payless Shoes at the Grand Anse Mall. Shoes for children, boys in particular, are more difficult. be prepared to spend an afternoon hunting them down if you can't find them at Payless.

Movies
There is only one movie theatre in Grenada and it is in St. George's. The price is really reasonable, even if you don't go on two for one night. Adults $25 and children $20. They play first run movies (Fifty Shades of Grey is currently playing) and the theatre is air conditioned. It is small, but like most of us were used to growing up- not these giant Cineplexs.

The High Cost of Poor Health

I regularly feel like those in Grenada are living on the edge. Not in a dangerous way (well except for the motorcyclists), but in that their lives are always delicately balanced between being able to make ends meet and financial difficultly. The concept of disposable income is non-existent.

One thing I think everyone in the world has in common is that good parents put their children first. This is no different in Grenada. Parents work two and three jobs to put their children into better schools to give them a better chance at ending the balancing game they are playing.

However one major health issue can tip that balance so that parents get in a hole that seems very difficult to climb out of. This is what has happened to my colleague Ms. Collins.

Ms. Collins is very typical of working Grenadians. She works full-time at NEWLO teaching the adolescent development program (ADP) and then works after school teaching Early Childhood Education. Like most Grenadians she will take a bus to and from work a trip of at least 40 minutes each way.


Ms. Collin in the purple skirt right in front of me!

Her son Leshon is also a typical three year old. He attends a Roman Catholic Pre-school in Woburn and is learning his ABCs.

What is not typical is that, about a month ago, he started to be not well-- and wasn't getting better. In fact it was on one of those days when his mom brought him to school and I got to meet the little guy. Shy around new people, he has a smile that lights up a room when he peeks out from behind his mom's skirt.

When Leshon's health started failing doctors were unsure why. Unlike Canada where we have specialized hospitals like Sick Children's in Toronto or CHEO in Ottawa there are no specialized facilities for children in Grenada. After a week in hospital in Grenada, it was determined he had to leave Grenada and fly to Trinidad for tests that could not be done here on children. Like any mother trying to save her child she took him as soon as the hospital could make arrangements.

Happily the story has a positive ending. Leshon has been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, which is now being managed via some pretty serious drugs to get him back to being a healthy little boy. Once he is healthy his mom and dad will need to learn about how to keep the condition in remission but it will be something he manages for his whole life.

Here is the bad news. None of Leshon's health care treatment in Trinidad are covered. The costs would be about $6,000 Canadian. For those of us in Canada we would just put a few hundred dollars down each month and after a year or two we would have the bill paid off.

This is because in Canada we have minimum wages that allow most working people to live above the poverty line. In Grenada the minimum wage is a monthly figure and as an example a worker in a seniors home has their minimum wage set at $700 XCD or $325 Canadian dollars. That is working full-time for a month! A one bedroom apartment in St. George would be $550 XCD so you can see the problem with this wage structure. You will also realize just picking up a "part-time" job to pay the bills is impossible. (In case like me you find these things interesting here is a link to the minimum wages for Grenadians)

Ms. Collins already works two jobs to cover her regular expenses. Taking on a third job is impractical and would result in rarely seeing her son. Yet she needs to pay for her sons expenses, but right now that is a pretty difficult task.

So here is where you come in. For those of you who have enjoyed reading this blog here is your opportunity to do the same thing I am trying to do. Improve the lives of people in a developing country. The difference is you know the name of the person you are helping and you would know that you had made a contribution to seeing this boy reach his potential.

I have set up a fundraiser in GoFundMe. It doesn't matter what country you live in, if you have a credit card you can make a donation. It also doesn't matter how small that donation is. I am hoping to present the family with funds raised when my sister comes down at Easter.

Easter in Grenada is a very sacred time, a time of renewal and a time of play for children. Traditionally at Easter children fly kites all over the island, I am hoping that for Easter Leshon will be well enough to fly a kite with his friends and his mom's financial worries will be lifted off her like those kites are lifted up to the blue skies above.

Two Pina Coladas- I want one for each hand

 

A few years ago I discovered the joy of floating in my pool with either a Margarita or a Pina Colada. It was a great month, until I realized I had gained about 10 pounds just through alcohol consumption! But when we think of summer or tropical islands we often think of a cold beer, a frothy drink or a rum punch. This romanticized view seems to be how warm weather should be enjoyed. However as our Cuso training warned us, alcohol consumption can be very problematic.

Grenada is a country with 110, 000 people. They also have the dubious honour of the fifth highest per capita consumption of alcohol on the planet. In fact Grenadians drink on average 12.5 litres of alcohol per person per year. Canada is 10.2 and the USA 9.2. However Canada and the USA have aging populations and Grenada has a much younger population, 24.5% of the population is under 14 compared to Canada which has 15% of its population under 14. This means that almost a ¼ of the Grenadian population that was allotted 12.5 litres of alcohol isn’t of drinking age.

The local rum distilleries cannot keep up with local demand. In fact they don’t even bother with exporting, at 130% proof alcohol, you can’t put it on a plane away.

In the past month we have seen the impact that alcohol can have on us and those in our community. When we were in our car accident there was alcohol in the vehicle that hit us. We also  have friends who are having to change their future plans based on their use of alcohol as a coping mechanism.

I suspect that for some volunteers and visitors alcohol consumption sneaks up on you. Everyone is drinking, all the time, so why not join in?  But alcohol soon becomes the social activity instead of it being an accompaniment to an activity. Even the Hash that we like to participate in has a logo of “Drinkers with a Running Problem”.   Everything becomes second to the alcohol.

Of late there have been a few  people who I became concerned about and found this helpful questionnaire about alcohol consumption.

Do you have a drinking problem?

You may have a drinking problem if you...

• Feel guilty or ashamed about your drinking.
• Lie to others or hide your drinking habits.
• Have friends or family members who are worried about your drinking.
• Need to drink in order to relax or feel better.
• “Black out” or forget what you did while you were drinking.
• Regularly drink more than you intended to.

I watched them check every one of those boxes. Unfortunately  these people don't realizes the impact they have on other people not just themselves.

Having a father who was mentally ill, these blinders to other people was the hardest part of my fathers illness. Everything was about him and the pain others were feeling either didn't matter, was exaggerated, or could not compare to his own. These issues are complex and difficult to untangle but to me a big part of growing up and being a whole person is moving from me.... "my pain", "my hurt", "my grievances" to you... "how are you?", "how can I help you?".  And you will always grow old but that is never a guarantee that you will grow up. To illustrate that point...

There is this white guy here who wears his grey curly locks in a pony tail at the nape of his neck. He is always wearing flip-flops  and shorts,  you can tell at one time he would have been really handsome. He  is also always drunk, no matter when I see him 7:00 a.m., noon, 4:30 p.m. it is always the same. I often wonder what his story is, how did he get here, where does he stay, who has he left behind? Jimmy Buffet, Kenney Chesney and others like them have romanticized living in/visiting  the Caribbean and drinking away your past. However when you live here you see the reality - what people are really doing is drinking away their future.

China and Grenada on New Year's Eve

On Monday the Chinese Ambassador hosted a cultural exchange ahead of the traditional Chinese Spring Festival which starts with the Chinese New Year. An acrobatic and magic show was brought in free for all to enjoy at the Grenadian Trade Center in Grand Anse.

Some of you may be surprised that there is an Ambassador of China here, given that Grenada is not exactly a hot spot for Chinese tourists. However it is not at all surprising when you begin to understand the friendship the two countries share.

China has for the past ten years been developing a relationship with Grenada and a very generous one at that. They have re-built the Grenadian National Cricket Stadium- free. They are now building a National Soccer Stadium, right next door- free. They have also built 300 low income homes which they have handed over to the Grenadian government- free. And more homes are on the way.

This last gift is one that I find perplexing. China has not always had the best track record with respect to helping it's own poor with housing. It seems rather the opposite where many poor are evicted from their homes to make way for other developments. So it is somewhat surprising to see a country building homes for foreigners in another country where their own people are in need at home.

So while I loved the cultural exchange and plan to celebrate the year of the goat/sheep in a place where I get to see them every day (sometimes even in my yard!), I do wonder why China is such a generous friend to Grenada. I also wonder why China has an Ambassador in almost every Caribbean country where Canada has only one for the entire region. Now China has literally billions more people but I doubt many of them end up in this region.

I guess my curiosity will have to be satisfied at some later point in time, but I will be watching with interest what Grenada plans to give China in return.

Lights, Camera, Action

Yesterday Owen was having a terrible, no good rotten day. Brent had gone down to the school to deal with the situation and I was left with a sad Owen who didn't think anything could turn his day around.

Getting direction from Chrislyn

Enter Sam stage right. Sam is our Cuso in country support representative and active member of the arts community. He sent me an email telling me a friend was looking for a foreign family to be in a tv commercial. Would our family be willing to help out? It was for Grenada tourism, which is definitely something we support, so we said sure why not! Owen was so excited he was beaming.

Never let anyone tell you things are slow in the Caribbean, some things yes, but not everything. So after receiving the email around three p.m. we found ourselves making arrangements to shoot the next day!

I was greatly relieved to find out it was not going to be walking down a beach or playing in the surf- because I am definitely not ever going to wear a bathing suit on TV! Mercifully the commercial is to promote homestays to Grenadians- programs like Home Away and Flip Key. They wanted to sell not just the financial benefits-- but also the social aspect.

Cameraman hiding in the bushes

Our scenes were the kids playing basketball with our "host" family; an amazing view of the sunset, dominoes, making dinner, and then having dinner. It took about three hours to get a "wrap".  I think all the kids started to get a little tired of doing things over and over, but it will give them a sense of how long it would take to shoot a movie when a 30 second commercial takes 3 hours!

The basketball was hard because most of the time the kids wouldn't get a basket. Also you were supposed to be all smiles and Owen has a take no prisoners way of playing. So his expressions ranged from "You're going down" to "I'm taking you down!"

Of course Patti and I didn't make dinner, Chrislyn had it all prearranged and it was yummy! It was hard to have it presented over and over and not eat it! Finally around 7:00 p.m. we did get to eat, but of course that was filmed too.

We had lots of fun and made some new friends, even snagged a couple of board games from the owner of the house that was used- super nice guy. The Grenada Tourism Authority gave our family a sweet thank you bag with water bottle, pens, spices (of course) and little totes that you could use for groceries! It was a great experience and as Owen noted, now the mean kids will have to see him at home not just at school!!

We continue to feel so grateful to be able to contribute to this beautiful island in unexpected ways.

Both boys worked the lights for indoor shots

Patti and I doing a kitchen shot

Work boat sailing competition

Sunday was the Work Boat Sailing Competition at Grand Anse Beach and the event I have been most excited to go to. That is because the work boats are so colourful and I knew the pictures I would take would be awesome. And they were!

It seemed to compete you had to make your main mast on the beach. There were lots of saws and bamboo. There were different classes- not that I could tell the difference. The start was cool- all boats line up parallel to the beach, when the horn sounds they turn toward the course and everyone jumps in!

To win you not only have to land your boat on the beach but race up the shore and down a shot of rum!

My kids found some little ones to build a sand castle with and Nana and Brent just hung out on one of the most beautiful beaches in Grenada. Everyone had a great time.

Aiden who hung out with me watching and got a bit red- oops

Only blue filter

Every thing here starts with "D'",!

Making the mast

Nana, Brent and Owen and I think Aiden tucked in there

Owen with his Micheal Weston sun glasses

Sometimes you just have to nap

Lining up at the start

And they are off

Some had a hard time getting crew in

Another mass start

My boat is the one the the guy outside it- they came last!

Coming in fast!!

Getting ready to go

That boat is the winner of another race coming in to land between 2 boats going out!!

Foot race!

We have a winner

Bottom's up

Wet won but then both boats got swamped by a rouge wave

The other boat recoups but not Wet

It goes right over

And everything int he boat is now in the drink

getting it back up