Tick-Tock

Can't believe it, I just have a few days left and there is still so much I haven't done on this tiny island! I am definitely not ready to leave yet. Yesterday I said my first definite goodbye to two dear friends and it felt horrible! Both bid me farewell with a confident "You will be back soon!", but who really knows?! So far I told everyone to have an open ear and eye for any job vacancies but the unemployment rate here is above 30% at the moment. Still I don't want to give up hope that I will make it back here next year. Sooner rather than later, otherwise the German way of life catches up on me and I wont be brave enough to take the leap...
Why do I want to be here? Guess when I try to explain it, it won't become clear but I will try.
I met fantastic people who welcomed me into their life without hesitation. Pretty much everyone on the street is friendly and helpful and always in for some small talk or at least a smile (that reminded me a lot of New Zealand!). You get used to the "Hi Baby"-talk and even those guys drop their act when you don't react to the flirting (OK, sometimes there were quite open offers too but a friendly decline is all you need). Even the vendors or souvenir sellers are the most friendly people. When you say no you get a "Have a nice day" in return and quite often I ended up chatting with the guys before they went their way. Everyone knows everyone which can be a bitch sometimes but so far it has been an advantage most of the time. My friends range from a street-kitchen chef to a high level diplomat with pretty much everything in between and one of them definitely knows the person you are looking for. People are relaxed and are hardly stressed out by anything. Guess you can't be miserable in this kind of climate and with those views. Sure, punctuality would be nice but I guess that ship has sailed. With all that friendliness around you would think the people have to be pure gold in the service industry but something seems to happen as soon as wages are involved... It's quite horrible actually... I was already thinking of setting up a hospitality and service training school! People mumble and don't even try to speak up even after you asked them three times already to please repeat what they just said. Fast moving is out of the question (especially for women) and sometimes your plate or glass is taken from you, even you are not done with it... And it can take ages till you finally get your order and then it might not be complete... From that point of view, it should be easy for me to get a job in the service sector ;) The main reason and now probably most of you think I had too much sun is my martial arts class. I just simply love it and them! My Sensei is just great and the guys in the class are amazing. They took me in right away and it was never an issue that I was the only girl and the first new student for a very long time. Everyone of them was happy to teach me. Guess the fact that I asked stupid questions and my total lack of limb-coordination raised the fun level a lot, so that helped ;) I am totally hooked and the effect it has on me is what I heard meditation is supposed to do. Tonight is my last class and the thought of bidding them all farewell scares the shit out of me. Sure, there are good classes in Germany too, but I believe a group like that and a charismatic teacher like Gregory are hard to find. Plus the fact that it's not just Karate or Kung Fu but a mix of pretty much everything that comes in handy in a possible fight. I suspect there is another reason, but I can't wrap my finger around it, don't know if I make sense right now...
So I am not sure if you can understand my wish for staying here longer or if you think 'Yeah, she has that everytime she is abroad and still comes back'. Maybe I have, but maybe I should stay at some point...

I better start from the beginning: I live in a flat that is attached to the house of a very nice couple from “my” church community. We pretty much adopted each other and Alison (Mom) sometimes even introduces me as her daughter from Germany. It's a little bit like being a teenager again, since there are no secrets as of when I am getting out of bed or back home at night and whenever the door is open, I step in for some small talk or one of them steps out to say hi. On Saturdays her maid comes to do some cooking among other things and quite often I get my vegetarian pot too. Last weekend I was down with a cold (no joke) and she bought me some tablets, vicks (Wick) vaporub, kept checking in on me and brought me food. Really sweet! They showed me around the Island quite a bit already and before I had the scooter, Alison was my ride.. Handel (Dad) worked for the last 2 years on Carriacou, so we went to his place for a long weekend. Since Carriacou is even smaller than Grenada, every one on the island knows him and we stopped at almost every car or person on the street to say hello. Just on the same weekend the Grenadian Radio Legend George Grant was broadcasting with a live audience from Carriacou and of course he knows Handel and Alison too... So before we went to see him perfom live on Sunday morning, he came to our place on Saturday night for a BBQ, which he mentioned positively the next day ;) Knowing him caused me some funny trouble with my guys from work. One day he called Sean to ask for my number, because he wanted to meet all of us for lunch, but Sean thought I made contact with the local media without consulting him beforehand, so he was quite concerned about me being out of control...

Nevermind, so Alisons daughter came over for a visit, because she won't make it over Christmas, so they had Christmas early and I was invited to Christmas dinner too ;) It is still strange to listen to Christmas songs when you are just coming back from the beach and still wearing flip-flops... Yesterday in Church we even sang Silent night, Holy night!!!

 

My Landlord's family is quite big and they own some land on the island and complete Sugarloaf Island, which is a small cute Island just off Levara beach in the north. So last weekend we went there for a day, just for a change of scenery. Hanging out on the beach is different over here. Its not sitting on the beach with occasional dives into the water, it's rather the other way around. Everyone is standing or floating in the water, with shades on, drink in hand and relaxing like that. You just get out to get another drink or to towel off and go ;) And when you do sit on the beach, it is definitely under a tree in the shade. Even now, that it's cooling off a little. The wind has picked up and finally there are a few waves on the beach, which makes the whole floating thing a lot more fun!

A few weeks back I got the honor of reading some passages from the bible in church. I was humbled that I was asked and by the reaction of everyone. This community really welcomed me. Nice feeling!

I finally did some diving! I met the owners of a dive shop at a hash and since we got along really well, I decided to go diving wth them. After a refresher course in the pool (my last dive was more than 7 years ago) we went out the next day to Dragon Bay and Flamingo Bay. My buddy was Rob from England, a really fun guy who kept me calm. My biggest problem is usually to balance the air in my jacket, but this time it went perfectly and I even had a lot of air left after we finished each dive. The reefs were amazing and full of fish and even a few lobsters. Sadly we just missed a Manta ray and I still haven't seen a turtle, but I keep my hopes up for the next time. An introduced pest here is the Lion fish, an actual beautiful fish, but since it was introduced, its usual predators are not used to it here and it just multiplies like bunnies in Australia and it is a danger to the native fish population. So every dive center has the license to kill them and on each dive, there is a spear present for just that purpose. We just saw a few but this week they are planning to go on an actual hunt with BBQ afterwards. Not sure if I am really up for that...

On a small island like Grenada pretty much every one knows everyone, same goes for the Germans on the island, it seems. I met the German consulate and she asked me if I would want to sit her house while she is on vacation, which I did a few weeks back. So I had a change of scenery for a week and a half in a more local area. I even had a housemate at the same time, since Rich changed his travel plans again. Was nice having a whole house to live in, but I was happy to have company. The house had a nice wooden deck in the back where I could practice some of my martial arts forms, it was perfect! (Did I mention that I joined a martial arts clas here? It is fanatstic and the guys teach me a lot, I am totally hooked!)
We even had a maid coming every morning and when I asked her about cooking, she transferred me to the help in the garden for the dish I wanted to prepare. So he wrote me a shopping list, I went to the market and one day we were cutting and peeling and cracking and grinding Veges and coconuts and seasoning to prepare a big pot of vegetarian Oil-down. Its the national dish and usually prepared with saltfish and pig snoutsand stuff, so it's hard for me to find it suitable for me on the street. It was great and delicious!

After a few weeks without hashing I finally went on a hash again last Saturday and it was a really nice one! Through nutmeg, banana and cocoa plantations, with orange and starfruit trees on the side, really nice! The stories about smelling the spices all over are total nonsense, but even without the smell the plantations are a nice experience. And as far as I have seen it no monocultures. Its always a mix. Yesterday we made it to another set of waterfalls. The first one was right at the end of the street and to the second one we had to hike a little bit further. The trail included another plantation, some farm land, very lush bush and several river crossings and it was so worth it! The fall is beautiful and the whole scenery around it just breathtaking. We felt like in a scene of Jurassic Park and the mosquitos had a similar size too... Afterwards we went to meet our ride over to Hog Island, a small island just off the coast. It's a well-known liming spot on weekends, especially for the sailors anchoring in the bay close by. I would say, that was a pretty good use of a weekend ;)

Oh and cruise ship season finally kicked in and there is a big pot anchoring in St. George's every day now and more tourists running around town. Hope they spend a lot of money on the island ;)

My time is running out, I just have about 3 weeks left and the thought about it terrifies me! I love it here! The people are so nice, relaxed, open and friendly, the whole scenery is just amazing and there is still so much I haven't done yet! I am still hoping, we can work a plan out to send me back here next year and apart from that I keep my eyes open for a job over here. Apart from that I need to think of some thank-you- and parting-gifts for my family, my work and my class. Any ideas?

Well, time...

OK, I just give it up, I am too lazy, I will not promise again to write regularly... My time here is almost up and I don't want to leave. What a surprise!
What happened since I wrote last... Hmm, had an early Christmas dinner with my family because my sister is here for a visit, went diving in some great reefs, still waiting to come across a turtle, though, went to Belmont Estate to get some of worlds greatest chocolate, went to Carriacou, went to Sugarloaf Island, sitted the German consulate's house, went completely underdressed to a fancy conference and met even more importnat people, made my first oil-down from scratch, went to an indian student show, finally went to another waterfall and wore for the first time in ages a skirt! Since I am already talking clothes: I honestly consider buying some longsleeves since I find it a bit chilly in the evenings (we are still talking over 20 degrees)...

Pics!

I forgot those funny fellas! They are everywhere and almost every other day I have to deport one from my flat

Fishermen on Sugarloaf Island

The beach at Sugarloaf Island

View from Sugarloaf towards the main Island

Dried fish in the making

Cocoa!!!

Some Creatures

Did I mention that I found a scorpion in my bathroom?

My buddy O.G.

Hummingbirds are all over the place

As are these guys

O.G. again. I haven't managed to touch him yet, but he doesn't seem to mind me being close

This one is actually lime-green and about the size of a big garden spider (Kreuzspinne). I used my telephoto lens and my headlamp to get this shot. She just comes out after dark

Scrawny street puppy

Some Palm Tree Pictures

Hashing time!

And finally more pictures

Kenny and his cutlass

Well, some beach...

Sugarloaf Island and Bathway beach

The Waterfall (2 of the 7 sisters/ St. Margarets) after heavy rainfall

On the way to Mt. Qua Qua

Grand Etang Lake (Crater lake)