Laundry, Screen Doors, & A Funeral

We've reached another milestone! Scott got the washer & dryer hooked up and I did my first load of machine wash last week! ... no more hand washing my clothes!

It was a lot of work for him, but he's done a great job of it. He had to run new wiring for it... from the large transformers in the basement, which meant drilling through the concrete walls. Since they are outside (in the carport), he also built a cabinet to protect them somewhat. I'm planning to stencil some green lizards on it... but first I have to make the stencil. It looks great & I'm SOOOO happy about it!

He also just finished building a set of double screen doors for the front veranda. There's a wonderful breeze that comes in those doors, but we don't usually have them open because of the bugs. We just hung the doors this past weekend and it's really nice to be able to enjoy the great breeze... as a matter of fact it's a bit too windy today to have them open! Now we can work on refinishing the glass doors.

I've been doing a few smaller jobs inside... like sanding & painting the door frames. (I know... it's not much compared to what Scott's been getting done!) I've also been doing a few small sewing repair jobs. And I've used some of this free time to work on some of my Grenada photographs.

We attended the funeral for our neighbor last week. His wife asked if we could give a few friends a lift to the church... so we were happy to help. We wondered if funerals here are different than in the states? The service was held at a church on Grand Anse Beach and started at 2:00 (but "tributes" would begin at 1:00). We arrived with 2 women from the neighborhood around 12:45. A few people got up & spoke about him and his life, then a local priest began the catholic service. We sang hymns, and they took a collection for the repair of hurricane damaged churches. There were a number of "influential" people there, and we learned so much about the deceased. He was quite a "gentle"-man, and we wish we would have gotten to know him better. Then around 4:00 we drove back here to St. Paul's for the burial. (The cemetery is just over the hill behind us.) At the cemetery, we noticed the hand-dug grave was somewhat shallow... there are no concrete vaults used. When the hearse arrived, the pallbearers removed the casket, and with a few heavy straps, lowered it directly into the grave. While everyone sang about a half-dozen hymns, the gravediggers then filled in the grave & very carefully mounded the dirt on top. All the flowers were then placed atop the mound, and then people slowly left... many going back to the family's home for a meal. A few days later I visited with his wife and took along a home-made shoo-fly pie. (Grenadians don't know what that is!) She's a very nice woman with whom I hope to become better friends. R.I.P... Dr. Alan St. Bernard

We finally have been harvesting tomatoes from our vines... but already, it's over! We really only got one crop from each of the 3 plants that survived this far. And then the tomatoes were pretty small. Not at all like back home! I still have plenty of seeds left to plant, but I'm wondering if it's worth the effort. I planted the seeds for these back at the end of October! (But I think it was February till they were big enough to put in the ground.) Maybe we'll try again one more time to see of the time of year makes a difference?

Well, I'm sorry it took so long for an update, but I was waiting to get photos of the projects! We went to another hash this past Saturday and I have another exciting to story to tell from that! ... stay tuned!

Living Room Walls are Done!

As promised, I just wanted to post a few photos of the living room that I've been painting. I know... the colors are a bit bold, but I couldn't stand all that white! Also I mentioned before... the fabric swatch is for furniture cushions that I haven't made yet.

So now I plan to take a little break from painting. Maybe I can find some time to get to the beach again! (We haven't been there since our trip to Hog Island.)

Oh... and Scott's working on getting my washer & dryer installed. (Although we're still not sure if they'll work here!) He has to run some special wiring for them, and because our water pressure is so low most of the time, we might have to get a water pump. Hopefully, he'll have it in operation by mid-week!

On a sad note... one of our neighbors passed away unexpectedly this week. He would often walk past our house on his way to and from the office at Bay Gardens where he would visit with his cousin. He left a wife and 2 children at home. You might find it interesting to know that the obituaries down here are published on the local television channel, rather than in a newspaper. They usually play it twice a day... at 6 am and 9 pm. / Grenada Obituaries / We don't have any details about the funeral yet because his obit has yet to show up.

Good Friday trip to town

Except for making delivery of a ballet bar that Scott made for our neighbor, I hadn't been out of the house all week! Our cell phones here are the pre-paid type & the company was running a special which I thought was for today only. You get double the value of your dollar if you top-up on this day only. When I got the text message about the special, I thought it was odd that they'd do it on Good Friday, but I'm new here... what do I know? (Of course, I didn't save the message on my phone!)

So we ventured out this morning with that as our main mission for the day... secondary was filling the gas cans for lawn work. I decided to take my camera with me because I wanted to photograph someone selling the homemade kites that are all over the place during the Easter season.

It's not unusual to see things along the way that make us smile at the thought that you'd NEVER see that in the US! Well, it didn't take long for one of those moments to appear on this particular drive to town. There was a full-sized van (what the locals call a "bus") in front of us, in our lane, going in reverse down the road ahead of us! There we were... driving down the road (at regular speed) following this van that was facing us! And remember... none of the roads around here are straight! He was doing a nice job of it too... until he came to another bend in the road with a stopped vehicle on our side. A small pickup truck coming around the corner (from the other direction) had to stop suddenly so as not to hit the van. With everyone stopped, the van continued his backwards journey until he reached another road where he finally turned off... in forward motion!

So now we're getting closer to town, and I'm beginning to notice that all the stores we're passing are closed. Not surprising, as this IS a holiday, but I'm suspicious now that I may have the wrong day for the cell phone special. (Most of the gas stations were open though.) And I'm also thinking this is not a good day to try photographing a kite "salesman"... the streets were nearly empty! When we reached the phone company, they too were closed... but by this time I was not surprised. Now we might as well kill some time. We saw quite a few people walking along the street carrying the kite they either made themselves or purchased. Although it's not the shot I was looking for, maybe I can get something of someone flying their kite.

We found a few families with their children & kites at Quarantine Point, but I was still hoping to find someone with stacks of kites for sale. So we headed back into St. George's to see what we could find. That answer is (amazingly)... NOTHING! The town was so empty, it almost looked like a ghost town! There were no ships in port, no street vendors, no market vendors, no shops open, and no buses at the bus terminal! Actually, this is another reason why I wanted to move to Grenada... everything is close on a holiday (which forces you to kick back & RELAX)!

Now we might as well just get the gas cans filled and head home. So back through town we go, taking the back road home... so Scott can stop at the Texaco station he usually goes to for gas. When we get there, guess what? It's closed! (We must have passed 5 other stations that were open on this trip, but we're now almost home so we'll forget the gas today.)

Basically, our journey to town today just ended up as a little sight-seeing tour. So as we got nearer to home, we decided to venture down a new road that they've been working on (since our arrival here last July). With this "little" detour, we actually ended up back in town... where we stopped at an open Texaco station for the gas.

In Grenada, there are only 2 brands of gas... Texaco and Shell. And it doesn't matter where you go because the price is regulated by the government... it's the same price everywhere. You also cannot pump your own... they have attendants that do it for you. While I sat in the car, Scott got the gas cans out of the back & had them filled. While this was happening, I watched (actually heard it first!) a motorcycle pull in. (This particular station was very much like our convenience stores back in the US.) A guy came out of the store carrying 2 open beer bottles & gave one to his friend on the motorcycle. In about 2 minutes, they were finished drinking the beer, so the guy got back on his bike & drove off! Apparently, no one else seemed to think this was odd. (Once again, I'm shaking my head & smiling.)

So we finally made it back home, having achieved nothing but getting the gas... and collecting a few more stories to tell our friends. I turned on the computer to begin writing this blog, but after about 10 minutes... the power went off. Probably a kite in the electric wires nearby! Guess I'll get out the pen & paper.

... just another great day in Paradise!

(NOTE: After a few hours, the power was back on & I was able to copy the notes I had written.)