Hashing!!

What is a Hash you ask?  Basically it is a weekly run/walk put together by a group of people here in Grenada that takes you through jungle, mud, brush, water or whatever their little hearts desire.  The runners and walkers follow the "trail" by tracking shreds of paper.  You can read more about this madness here.

Each week is on a different part of the island and you can take a bus from SGU to the meeting point.  If you are new or your shoes are new they will make you drink a beer out of them before even starting the hash.  Phil and I may or may not have hidden... This ended up being a wise decision because it had rained all morning so the hash was extremely muddy and it was difficult just keeping our shoes from staying in the mud with each step.  It was so fun but SO muddy!  This hash they went pretty easy on us from what I have heard.  At the end of the hash there is food and cheap local beer.  At this particular first hash of ours there was a live band and dancing as well.  All of the newbies get sprayed by tons of beer.  We didn't get to hide from that one so you can imagine how we smelled the whole way home.

The hash started at the golf club and wound around through the beautiful area surrounding the golf course. 

Then came the extremely muddy part.  I didn't take any pictures because I just knew the second I took out my camera I would fall.  We hiked uphill quite a bit and from the top you could see all of Port Louis and the Carenage.  They called this Hash Kiranival because Carnival was the same weekend and much of it takes place in these areas.

 

Many of Phil's Newcastle friends did this hash with us.  We ate and drank and enjoyed the music while watching the gorgeous sunset!

  

  

Then everyone danced and had a great time and the band was really good! An amazing end to our first Hash!

  

 

Oh and what do they call hashers?  Drinkers with a running problem... :)

John Roberts Foundation

Skipping ahead to something a bit more recent!  Last week some friends and I volunteered with the John Roberts Foundation which was founded to provide youth in England and the Caribbean with sports programs.  Last week the foundation focused on youth in Grenada with special needs.  My friends had so much fun with one of the schools during the week so I decided to tag along on Friday for the big event where all three special needs schools would come together for a sports day in Grenville.  A group of people from England had flown in to oversee all of the week's events.  Hearing that accent gives me some bittersweet feelings!  I really miss England sometimes!

We made a few stops before heading north including a beverage distribution center and the Carib Brewery.  Between these stops we obtained bottles of soda for the kids (tons of glass bottles), a crate of Carib, and free Carib plastic cups...SCORE!

On the drive to Grenville.  This is the Atlantic side of the island.

After about an hour drive we made it to Grenville.  Our bus driver somehow knew everyone on the roads and stopped every few minutes to have short conversations.  It was exciting for me to see another city on the island.  We then pulled into a parking lot alongside a huge field.  As we got off the bus we saw the kids who were already there.  Talk about feeling welcome.  We got so many hugs just when we walked up!  I instantly knew these kids were wonderful.

Slowly more and more kids unloaded from buses and gathered under the Digicel tent.  The main guy from England running the show divided everyone up to play Football (the soccer kind), Cricket, and "other".  I was in the "other" area which turned out to be a blast.  In our section of the field we did all sorts of exercises to get the kids involved who were not playing in the games.  It was so much fun!! After several games we made our way back to the tent for a break and drinks.  The kids who played football LOVED it.  They were so good!

The highlight of the day was the track and field races.  Different age groups from each of the schools were called out to run in races.  We cheered everyone on and they all did so awesome!  A boy I had been passing the soccer ball around with earlier (I paled in comparison to him) dominated his race and I think he looked so much like Kirani James!!  This is him running his race.

Something amazing I noticed was how nice all of the kids were to each other.  They all wanted to help each other out and cared for one another.  So incredibly inspiring.

This group is patiently waiting for their turn to run.


One (of many) of the most touching parts of the day was when a little boy (on the left) was running in a race and another little boy ran in and took his hand from the teacher and encouraged him to keep running and they finished the race together. 

And then we had the wheelchair and volunteer races!  (notice the little girl helping to push one of the wheelchairs)

Then we said goodbye to everyone and received many more hugs.  It was such an incredible experience with wonderful kids and volunteers!  I wish we could do this every week!!

The Infamous Crate Day

 Just to give a little background to this whole ordeal...

When we went back to the states for the holidays, I tried to do the right thing and applied for a visa to go back to the UK to live there the rest of the year.  Sadly I was denied so Phil was on his own for Term 2 in our large freezing apartment.  He was also on his own to send me back many of my belongings including an iMac and to pack up the entire apartment.  Yes, I felt terrible!  But he did an amazing job considering he was studying what seemed like 24/7.  At the end of Term 2, the students in the Newcastle program load all of their stuff in a "crate" that will be shipped to Grenada over the summer.

When we got to Grenada, all of the students from England were very anxious to get their things from the crate.  Finally, after much debate with customs regarding taxes, we had a day that the crate would be arriving on campus.  I had heard horror stories about boxes being everywhere such as here so we made sure to be there right when it arrived! 

This was the truck carrying the crate.  It was huge!  We couldn't believe it maneuvered it's way to the very back of the campus. 

Everyone was so ready to get their stuff and get out of there!  It was so hot and humid.

Unloading the crate.  Great teamwork so it went fast!

And then a random plane went by that was taking off.  I didn't realize the campus was so close to the runway!!  We also had a random cow behind that fence mooing at us the whole time.  TIG (this is Grenada - I will be using this term a lot probably).

We shared a taxi with the Daves and completely filled the van.

Yayyyy!  Unpacking the boxes!  It was like Christmas for me especially since I hadn't seen our things in over 6 months.   Phil was excited too but probably more excited to be done moving boxes.

"Before" pictures...

"After" pictures.  We did this all in one day because we were so excited.  It looks so much better!!

Back to school!

Hello again!  I am officially behind on the blog posting.  I have been so busy enjoying island life and working while Phil has been enjoying Term 4 (ok, he's not enjoying it at all). Since I last posted, Phil finished Term 3, my mom has come to visit, and lots of old and new friends have arrived on the island!  I will get to all of that in later posts. Right now I would like to give you a tour of the campus that brought us here.

So!  When we first got to the island we went and checked out the SGU campus and oh boy is it glorious!!

The view from the higher part of campus. So pretty!

First day of school for my Felipe (and Dave)!

 Studying here looks pretty rough, right?

Bus roundabout where we spend quite a bit of time waiting for buses...

Mont Tout School Bus.  Oh so many stories revolve around these crazy buses but at least they are big and air conditioned!

This is the cliff at the end of the campus peninsula...no cliff jumping for me, thanks!

Can you believe this water?? So beautiful!

The end.  Just kidding!  Next post to come soon.