The Crazy Caribbean Relative

Everyone has that crazy relative in their family. Be it your uncle, aunt, cousin, mom, dad, etc. there's always that ONE person who is just a bit quirkier than the rest of your crazy clan. I've had an epiphany about Grenada. (I sure hope you're ready for this. Are you sitting down???)

Grenada is the crazy relative of the Caribbean.

True statement right there. (And if you don't believe me, you should just come visit me and see.) 

Do let me explain my epiphany. Around here when things go a bit wacky, most people refer to them as "TIG moments." TIG = This Is Grenada. I have fondly adapted my own saying, of course not neglecting the previous one already in place. Mine is "Thank YOU Grenada." This saying started some time ago for this "crazy Caribbean relative." I can't give you an exact moment. Perhaps it was when the mice found their way into my home on a constant basis (that is still not cleared up.....). Or maybe it was the first time I realized how many people tie their livestock up on the side of the road. Even better!! Perhaps when said livestock gets loose and roams around the busy streets!! Who knows exactly when "Thank YOU Grenada" came into play but I can assure you that there have been PLENTY of moments for that to be said. (Side note, I'm fairly certain I could have a total separate blog just for TIG/TYG moments. Oh wait....then nobody would EVER come visit me!!!)

Just recently I've had my latest TYG moment. On Tuesdays and Thursdays there is a yoga class that I *try* to attend at my local gym. It is an 8AM class which sometimes makes it hard for me to get to. (No, I am not a morning person and yes that does add to not going on a regular basis but one of the reasons is if I have someone to watch E for me for that hour. The biggest reason could possibly always fall on if my car is cooperating.) Matt was graciously staying home to watch E so I didn't have to get her ready to go some place else which gave me an extra 15 minutes to sleep. At 7:09 Tuesday morning my alarm goes off as planned. I of course hit the snooze button and get up about 7:30. Throw on my clothes, get my water and yoga mat, grab the keys and I'm out the door. I notice that it has rained the night before (Hallelujah!!!!) and I'm a bit nervous. I start my car and of course, my nervousness is for good reason. My car won't start. I figure it's going to take a few minutes to coax the car into starting. Eventually it does and I'm off to turn around at the end of our street. As I'm coming back by our house, I hear a rather familiar noise.......a *thump thump thump* noise........a noise I've heard TOO many times in the past six weeks (we've had 4 flats in the past six weeks).........a noise that makes me stop and look at the tire...........

OF COURSE!!!!

The tire is low......

Now, I could have gone straight to the gas station to get some air in it and then head to class. The problem with that is that I have sat in the car for 10 minutes trying to get it to start that now I only have exactly 5 minutes to get to the gym before I will be "THAT" person stumbling over the already "clearing their minds" students. I'm a bit frustrated and just park the car instead. I'm rather glad that I did because Matt takes the car to get air in it and as soon as he gets home, the tire is completely flat. Awesome. 

The guy that hit us (his names is Musa) has taken our car to a mechanic that has "supposedly" been fixing the car. There are several things that need fixing outside of the damage. Since the accident, I have been very worried about trusting him to take care of the things needing to be fixed and, well, for obvious reasons. Musa comes to help us with the tire and finds this. 

I'm completely baffled because I have no idea how that could happen!! It was pretty crazy. TYG. I figured that would be all the TYG moments I'd have for the day but boy was I wrong....

That evening I got together with my friends Jessica and Nicole. Jess picked me up and we go over to Nicoles for a little while. Around 9PM we were headed home. As we were driving down the road, I notice a car that has stopped in the middle of the street and turned its lights off. I kind of chuckle and a say, "Ha, that car just........" I stop because I realized that "that car" was MY car!!!!!!!!! Sure enough, we get right past it and Jess stops. Of course its my car!!! E's seat in the back, crunched trunk, the whole nine yards!!! The mechanic has taken MY car out for a joy ride at 9PM!!!!!! Again, baffled. Now, I can understand taking the car *during business hours* to check on things while driving. This test drive would of course take place *around the place of business.* The mechanics shop is in Woburn which is about 20 minutes away from where we currently were. Not cool dude, not cool. So, Jess backs up just a little bit and asks the guy what he's doing. The conversation went a little like this. 

Jess - Hey, what are you doing?

Guy - *no response*

Jess - Hello, what are you doing?

Guy - *dear in head lights look*

Jess and Me - Excuse me, what are you doing?!?!!

Guy - Oh um..hi. I'm the mechanic. 

*Jess looks at me. I'm trying to figure out what is going on.*

Jess - Ok, well why are you driving her car?? That's her *pointing at me* car!!

Guy - Oh, yes yes. Hi!! I'm the mechanic. Hi!! *Waving at me as if he knows me. I've never met this guy....*

*By this point, I'm a bit nervous because I have no idea what's going on. I have E in my lap, its 9PM, a strange guy is driving MY car, and he's not giving me a reason to really trust him.* 

Jess - Ok, well that's great but maybe you need to take the car back to where you are working on it. 

*I'm a bit scared as to how this could play out. Two girls yelling at this guy who's driving MY car. I just don't know what to do.*

Me - That's my car dude. I don't know what you're doing. Let's just go Jess. I don't know what to do......

As we drive away, I'm trying to wrap my brain around WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!?!!!!! I'm sure you're wondering why we didn't just get the car back from him then. We were two girls and a baby on a dark street trying to not argue, but certainly arguing, with this local Grenadian. I was scared and didn't think getting in the guys face was probably my smartest move. If I did not have E with me, I would have certainly jumped out of the car and demanded for my keys since *obviously* he's fixed the car. We get home and Matt immediately calls Musa to tell him the situation. I guess Musa calls the mechanic because we got our car back yesterday. Who knows if it's actually fixed tho!!! I'm sure praying that it is. We will DEFINITELY NOT be taking our car back to that guy!!! Grenada is the crazy relative of the Caribbean. I totally believe that. Thank YOU Grenada!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I would like to add some great news. As I'm posting this, we have *EXACTLY* 30 DAYS till we come home!!!!! The excitement is almost too much to handle!!!!! :)

A hui kaua......

This week in Grenada

It is never a dull moment here in the West Indies. "Thank YOU Grenada" has become my saying for things that have happened since we've moved here. Before we arrived, I started following several different blogs and became "Facebook official friends" with several people already living the Grenadian lifestyle, hoping to gain some sense of how life was going to be like. I think wherever you live, there will always be struggling times and easy-breezy moments. Lately, I feel I have had the later of these two. 

We have been here since we arrived last July. Not going home for two major holidays was extremely tough for me. Thankfully, our families were able to come down to visit over the Christmas holiday. My "God will not give you more than you can bear" cup has certainly been pushed to the limit this past month. I am PAST ready to be home and have been counting down the days (we are currently at 42 days). Wishing for the time to go by just a bit faster is probably making some days a bit more stressful for me. I'm sure when one thinks of living on a little tropical island, it sounds like paradise. Sun, sand, and ocean. What more could a person ask for?? I know, I know, don't complain Jo. Let me just give you a little glimpse of my past week.

As many of you may know, shortly after we bought a car, I was in a wreck. A guy came flying down the street and hit me from behind, crushing the back bumper and trunk. He took full responsibility for the wreck and said he would pay to get the damages fixed. Here we are nearly two months later and our trunk is still crushed. We have had other issues with the car though. (Side note, when buying a Grenadian car, you are in for quite the ride. Since most of the cars students purchase here are just recycled from one student to another, you could be looking at pouring double the amount that you paid for the car into fixing different problems with it. I believe we have found ourselves in that situation.) Although it is a good car, outside of the physical damage, we have had to take it into the shop almost every week, if not every other week, since we bought it. The radiator fan that is in the car is actually not the correct size for the vehicle. There is an electrical issue that continues to happen due to the fan not working properly. The needles in the dashboard are not working (literally, they all are stuck at zero when we drive). In order to start the car, it must be in neutral. And the blinkers don't work. We just got the car back last weekend and not even five days later, the same thing happened again. Not to mention, we have had two flat tires within a month. To say we've had "car trouble" would be an understatement. It can be rather frustrating. There are times when I get in the car and pray, asking the Lord to get us where we need to go and back before something else goes wrong with it. 

Grenada is currently in a very bad water drought. Back home when there is a drought, there may be a limit or only certain times when you can water your yard. Here, a water drought means they cut off your water for certain times during the day. We, thankfully, have not felt these affects. We have two large water tanks for our house but that's not to say we will continuously have water (42 days, 42 days, 42 days, 42 days....). Several of my friends have had to deal with water outages over the past several weeks. A drought also brings with it very dry air and land. We are desperately praying for rain!! (Was it Elisha or Elijah that prayed for several days for rain to come to the land?? Either way, I feel like him.) 

The next two things that have happened this week have been with Matt and Nutmeg. After Matt's game on Wednesday night, he had a fever of 101.5. That fever has continued to fluctuate since then. It has stayed between 99.2 and 103. Thankfully his body doesn't feel bad. He isn't nauseous or light headed. However, he doesn't have much of an appetite, seems a bit dehydrated, and has just felt weak. I'm doing my best to take care of him but I just don't know what to do exactly. We were going to take him to the doctor today but when he woke up, his fever was down to 98.2. He said he didn't want to go and he said he was hungry. I probably should have pushed him to go because his fever spiked again this evening to 102 (we think it might be dengue...) He's staying hydrated and resting as much as he can. He does have several tests this week so he's been laying in bed studying as much as he can handle. Praying for complete healing over him. On Thursday, Nutmeg got spayed and has therefore had to take it easy. Obviously telling a dog to "take it easy" is impossible. We've had to place her in the storage room which has a door to a small porch outside. She is mostly an outside puppy and has enjoyed being able to sit out there. We are obviously not letting her go run around in the yard. Everything with that would be totally fine.........if she was not infested with ticks. The anesthesia has made them start crawling off her. Now, they are all over the storage room and we have been picking them up every time we walk in there. We are frantically trying to figure out a way to get them under control.  

After all that frustrating stuff, here's a little humor for you. On top of the water drought, we are currently in a butter drought. Yes, you read that correctly. Butter drought. The store has not had butter for over a month now. There is margarine but I personally do not like margarine. A friend of mine made the comment that she should make her own butter (she did just the other day and it turned out fantastic!! Perhaps I'll start that also haha). Moments like that make you feel like you are living with Laura Ingles family (and if you don't know who I'm talking about, we may not be able to be friends anymore.....). The first time we go to Wal-Mart, Target, or any other store when we go home, I have a feeling I will be like Madame Blueberry from Veggie Tales entering "Stuff Mart" for the first time. I'll probably walk up and down the aisles in shock of how much stuff there is and how many different choices of pickles there are!! I'll also start grabbing double of everything thinking that the store will be out of that certain product within a few hours!!

Coming home will definitely be a culture shock but that shock can't come soon enough!! I miss my family and friends and basically can't wait to feel some sense of "normalcy", whatever that might look/feel like. I know this is a long post but thanks for reading. I've had a tough week (yes, we have those in "paradise") and writing seems to help a little. Next post I'll try to get some pictures up. I know these things can be long without a little picture entertainment. :) 

A hui kaua.....

I'M BAAAAACK!!!!! (Hopefully...)

Hello one and al!! It has certainly been a few months since my last post. I know that is such a cliche sentence but alas, I've been a bit caught up with life here in the Caribbean. I won't give you a long story of the past six months (unless of course that's what you're looking for ha) but I will give you some details of where we are right now.

First off, thanks to my friend Kim Brewer my blog has a bit of a "face lift"!! :) I'm pretty excited about it. This whole blog thing can be rather daunting when you don't know or understand how to keep it fresh and updated. Thanks to Kim, I now understand ways to change and add things on here. Let's hope I can keep it updated. :)

Second, we leave for Wilmington in 49 DAYS!!!! I am SO ready to be home!! It's beautiful here, of course, but we have not been home since we got here the end of July. That's a REALLY long time (in case you were confused)!! Anyways, we fly out of Grenada bright and early at 8:30AM on May 25 (Elora will be six months old that day. :)) I know I know, 8:30 is not that early. The time that we will have to be up and out of the house IS early!! But, it will TOTALLY be worth it. ;) We fly from here to Miami, where we have a layover for about five hours I think. That's not too bad seeing as we have to go through customs once we get there. And going through customs with a baby and dog might take some time. :) We fly into Raleigh, NC, at 8:30 that evening (I believe....)!!!!!! Oh how sweet it's going to be!!!!!! I have been counting down the days (as you can see from the first sentence) and I'm ready to be home!!! :)

Third, as many of you know, Matt has been talking about transferring to NC State for the next three years. There are always pros and cons to every situation and we have weighed them both. I am at the point that I am ok with wherever the Lord places us. I know and have a peace He will plant us where we can grow. Thankfully, at the end of this month, State will be able to tell Matt if there's a spot for him to apply for. If there's not, then there is no point in applying and we will return here. In case that happens, we have been house hunting. Because we were so unsure, we had to let our landlords know that we might not be back and we found tenants to take our spot in this house. Living with constant uncertainty of what the future may hold is very stressful. However, when we live under the peace the Holy Spirit brings us, the future isn't so daunting. Since moving here, I'm learning what that peace looks like and means to me personally.

In other happy news, Elora is growing right along!! :) Of course. We have struggled with finding a pediatrician we like. I am very thankful we found one downtown. Her name is Dr. Nelson and I about cried the first time I met her. Her attention to Elora was fantastic and she talked TO me, not AT me. I felt comfortable asking questions and interacting with her. She didn't make me feel like we were waisting her time. If we come back, I'll be happy to return to her. :)
E has started having her own little personality. She smiles and giggles at us and gets excited when she hears us talking to her. Matt picks on her a lot because she's been losing her hair. Poor girl. It's ok, it will grow back. :) My friends have become her "aunties" around here. It makes me happy to have so many people that I trust to watch E. Because not many people are as crazy as I am (who has babies out of the country?!?!), they are all getting their baby fix from us so they don't have to have their own right now. ;) Makes me chuckle actually.

SO!! That's an update in a nut shell!! :) We can't wait to be home. Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare to leave and maybe come back.

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." Romans 12:12

A hui kaua....