Summer time!!!!

It is officially summer in Grenada now. The schools are on holiday and it's hot, still. This means I am not at my typical work sites everyday. BUT! I am staying plenty busy.

On June 29, Grenada celebrated fisherman's Birthday. It's a big event in Gouyave because Gouyave is a fishing town. I walked to the beach that morning with a class from my school. We saw the "blessing of the ships" where a priest said some things I couldn't hear and then put holy water on the boats. It was neat to see even if I couldn't hear a thing. I noticed that some people were wearing these really cool shirts that said, "Gouyave is the place to be. Fisherman's Birthday 2010" and I wanted one so bad! After about 30 min of investigating I found a kid who took me to a guy named Kevin that told me to go to a bar that told me they didn't have any so I asked another kid that took me back to Kevin and I ended getting one for free from Kevin! I tried to pay! I even offered to buy him beer, but he didn't want anything. Oh well, awesome shirt! Later that night the calm scene that was filed with holy water and blessed boats turned into extremely crowded streets, loud music, and lots of fun being had. This was more like it! I have never seen so many people in Gouyave before. The entire beach was full of people and then we made our way to the main street and that was even more crowded (left). All in all, it was a very fun night.


With the end of the school year came lots of graduation ceremonies and other end of the year events. I attended two primary school grade 6 graduations and that was pretty much enough of that for a while. They were both kinda really long and I made the mistake of sitting right in front of a speaker at one of them. I ended up finding old tissue in my bag and stuffing it in my ear because I thought I was going to have hearing damage. Glad that's over! I also helped out with an end of the year exhibition for the special ed school I am at. We practiced, "10 Little Monkey's Jumping On the Bed" for a few weeks. The kids were the monkeys and then one would sit down as they each fell off the "bed". All in all, it went really well. Hahah, it was fun but a little nerve racking because EVERYONE (parents, teachers, kids, co-workers, bosses) was watching! Ah! It was fun though.

Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZegEcx8UXw

This past week I ran a week long music camp (on recorder) at one of my schools. I had 12 students attend and they did great! They all had been attending my recorder classes this past term. We learned about 5 songs and they got to perform in front of the class the last day. There was this one little girl who seemed like she was not paying attention or wouldn't have her instrument or would fall out of her chair, you get the idea. Well, I wasn't sure how much she was really getting out of the class because of these things. When it was her turn to play for the class she played better than all of the kids that went before her. Shoot, fooled me, man! It was a lot of fun and they kids did really well!

I had my first birthday in Grenada a few weeks ago! It was absolutely awesome. We spent it at the beach, swimming, drinking and cooking and it will go down in the books as a really hard birthday to beat. Unforgettable. To da left: A picture of my "Birthday cake", it's cheese sticks with candles in them. My friends know me! And to de right, I am totally sound asleep in this tree. I laid down for a sec but I guess getting old is exhausting.


My time here so far has been wonderful! Ups and downs of course, but the downs haven't been too low and the ups are way high! I am very happy with the work I am doing right now and how many names I am remembering! What what! Slowly but surely, I am starting to "fit in" a little more. Now I just need to buy some bright orange skinny jeans!