8 September 2008 - Monday

Had a little excitement here this evening! We heard a bit of noise outside this evening and finally Scott went to investigate. Then he came back inside, telling me to grab my camera & come out! There was a mongoose on the electric wires out in front of our property and the neighbor boys were trying to knock it off. These animals are not native to Grenada, but they were brought here years ago to manage the snake population. Now I'm told there are no snakes on the island, so I'm not sure what they're eating now! When this one was finally knocked off the wires, one of the boys grabbed it by the tail and we could get a better look at it. (Looks like a possum!) I think they were planning to eat it... so I left as soon as I got my photos! By the way, the tree behind him in the photo is a bay leaf tree! (Yea, the one used for seasoning!)

So here's another story for you: I've included a photo of the local Ace Hardware store. Many of you have asked what the shopping is like here. Well, it depends. This is a new location for this store, and it's probably the one most like our hardware stores back home. We've been buying all our paint here, so we've really gotten to know the paint manager! We're in here at least once a week!

There is another store in the city that sells hardware & household supplies... Hubbard's. Well, we needed a small piece of plexiglass cut for our back door. So we went to a shop in the city that we've had cut glass for us in the past. But they don't cut plexiglass. When we asked where we could get it, they sent us to Hubbard's. (And we were just there prior to this stop!) So we drove back through the windy city streets to get to Hubbard's... meandering along on all the one-way streets leading us back there. We went inside looking for the glass counter. Finally someone asked to help us and led Scott out into the parking "garage" to a space with a locked door in the corner. The worker unlocked the door to where they stored and cut the glass. He pulled out a 4'x8' piece and Scott told him "No... don't you have something smaller than that? I only need a piece less than 8 inches by 15 inches." So they found a smaller piece, but they wouldn't cut it before it was paid for. So now Scott goes back inside (& the worker locks the door), then he leads Scott over to the cash register to pay for the plexiglass. Once he pays for it, he has to go to the Information Desk... where she records it in a big book! Now this has taken at least 15 minutes for him to pay for this glass. Then he takes his receipt back out to the parking garage so the guy can cut it. The worker unlocks the door (again), and proceeds to pull out the 4'x8' sheet. Scott again tells him not to cut it from that large piece... first of all, that piece is too thick. So the guy pulls out ANOTHER 4'x8' piece. Scott says, "No... just cut it from this small piece here. We already picked this one out earlier." The worker tells him he can't cut it from that piece because it's not what his receipt says he paid for. He says we need to go back inside and get the receipt "exchanged". By this time, Scott doesn't care if he paid too much for it... he just doesn't want to go through the obstacle course of getting the paperwork changed! But the guy won't cut it without the proper receipt. So back inside we go... first to the cash register. Then we take the receipt to the Information Desk so this girl can write it correctly in her "book"! (There's a computer right in front of her, but she doesn't seem to use it.) The worker that's going to cut the glass was trying to get us through, so he asked her the dimensions for the piece (which were 7-1/4" x 14-3/4"... can you see how this could get messed up?). He didn't write it down, but he disappeared while we were still waiting for her to finish the receipt. I had a feeling that he went to cut it so it would be done by the time we got back to him... but that worried me! Anyway, finally we finished getting the proper papers and went to find the guy... who was back inside that locked room. He came out & handed us our piece of plexiglass... which was NOT cut to the correct size! So he had to cut it again for us anyway. For one little piece of glass, we spent nearly an hour to get it... and had to go through about 4 different people for this one item! This is the kind of customer service that seems to be typical here on the islands.

Our next stop was to Ace Hardware for more paint. The first thing I noticed near the paint counter was a display of glass & plexiglass... which could be cut to size! The people at Ace are much easier to deal with... more like home.

Well, after 2 days of rainy/cloudy weather, I'm looking forward to getting a good jump on more house painting tomorrow. By the way, I think I've found a new vocation... as a house painter!