The old airport in Grenada

On Sunday we went to Grenville, which is on the Atlantic side of the island. To get to Grenville we have to drive over Grand Etang Mountain. Grand Etang is French for "Large pond", because this is where the largest lake in Grenada is.

Once we got to Grenville we took a dirt road that ran beside the ocean. The ocean was scary because the waves were really high. When we got to the airport we drove 90 km an hour up  the runway and it felt really fast.

The airport was abandoned in 1984 after the invasion of Grenada by the Americans. Beside the runway you can see 2 abandoned Cuba planes from the revolution. It had been Cuba who had built the runway.

Right now it is being used as a drag strip. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Learning to Love Reading

When I was in grade 3 at Brighton Public School I did not love to read. I did not like the selection of books, and it was noisy when it was time to read. So my mom and dad decided to put me in Goodwin Learning Centre for grade 4.

Mrs Goodwin was my language teacher, we had to do writing, reading and spelling. We had author of the week where all the kids in my grade read the same author like Mo Willems, Roger Hargreaves, Tomie dePaola, and Jan Brett to name a few. Half way through the school year we read Jan Brett and Tomie dePaola and we read all the books by those authors. We would have to write five facts about the story, a sentence and list the illustrator and author.

At Goodwin they had a whole room that was a library and every class had lots books too. The books were organized by author or subject. This made it easier to find the books I liked. We also had a book collection counting system. You have 22 lines on a sheet of paper but you only use 11 of them; you had to write the author, the name of the book and the date you read it. After 11 books you would have to pick one of the books you read, draw a picture, do a summary of the book, rate it and decide whether you would recommend it. I really liked that part. By the end of the school year I had read over 300 books!

Now in Grenada I am reading the Harry Potter series. I am on the Goblet of Fire that has 734 pages. It is nice to have the Mt. Zion Library because without it I would be bored.



Mt. Zion Library

The next series I want to read is Percy Jackson or the J.R.R Tolkien books. Mt Zion had the Percy Jackson books donated by Hands Across the Sea. My school had books donated by this charity too, I can't wait for them to open up a library and see the books! I want to help paint or do something to help create the new library space, so my teachers can mark our work. And so I can get reading sooner.

I am grateful to all the teachers at Goodwin for making me a way better reader.

On On

Yesterday we went to Westerhall Rum Factory and we did 850th Harrier Hash in Grenada.

The first cut off path was the "Chicken V" path. You might think a chicken path is for people who chicken out. Really it is for the people who are sick with Chickungunya - like my mom. We didn't take that path because mom stayed home.

We kept walking past the cut-off path for about 10 minutes until the path got really bunched up. It took about ten more minutes just to get onto the hill and then another 15-20 minutes to go up the hill. Then we walked for about 10 minutes you walk to a forest which leads to a valley. When you go down to the valley there is a circle in the path and you pick whether you want to go the short way or the long way. We took the long walk.

Luckily when we got to the long route cut-out a runner told us about a small path we had to go to. When we got down the path, we found a couple of cut-outs that had "X"s which means you can't go on it. We kept going until we found other hashers who told us to keep going

forward. We did some running and some walking. It wasn't as muddy as the last one, but it did rain, but only for a few minutes.

When we got back there were about 150 already done. This hash about 300 people were doing the hash. We stayed about 20-30 minutes at the end because mom had dinner waiting.

Octoberfest Hash Style

* Mom's notes: Since 1985 a group of runners puts on a harrier run (and now a walk) where you follow a trail of shredded paper through the countryside of Grenada. This week was Octoberfest so we met up in the village of Munich for run #849. Probably two hundred people attend these weekly runs. They always end at a drinking location, with music and dancing!


At the start we were late so we had to catch up . It only took about three minutes to catch up to
the rest of the Hashers. After we caught up it was slow for ten minutes  because we had to cross  a  stream . That is when I started to get mucky . It had rained hard earlier and the trail was a muddy mess.

There were a lot of ups and downs in the trail . When we got across it was very  muddy I did not fall down just yet , but little did I know that I was going to fall later on . My brother  and I were sliding down a muddy section and he by accident he hit me because he was faster than me- that is when I fell. I got my pants all muddy.

 

 

 

Much later we had lost the group because we were slower well not Aiden or me, but Mom and Dad.

After we got out of the forest and I saw a wrecked car in a bush. Soon we were in the town where we started after.

 

 

 

When we got there we bought a 850 hash shirt- next weekend is the 850th hash harrier run in Grenada.  I loved it I want to go every week.

 

 



the trip to Fort George

Yesterday we went to fort George in Saint George it was a steep hill up to fort George. We parked lower than the fort, at the side of the road. We had to climb up a road that lead the police headquarters. What we didn't know was there was an easier back way to go up!

It has amazing views of St. George's. The British, French and Grenada's flags were all flying. I think it is because the British first had the fort, then the French then the British took it back, so it is representing some of the owners of the fort.








There were a ton of cannons at the top of the fort. Some were pointed over where the cruise ships come in and others were pointed towards Grand Anse. The cannons had the Queen's crown printed onto it. I thought it might also have the year it was made because they all had numbers on them. The shoved rock into them so they couldn't be fired.



Wall where they were lined up and shot

Something that was fired at Fort George in 1983 was guns at the Prime Minister and 7 of his workers. They were killed and the bodies were supposedly burned, but no one knows as they have never recovered the bodies. It happened a week from today October 19th 1983. It was sad that they were killed.

I did not enjoy the tunnels in the fort because I hurt my ankle. It was scary going down because it was pitch black, but when I was down there it was neat to see where they were fighting from. It was nice because the temperature was very cool.

Right now they are arguing about when Thanksgiving should be. It is the day the Americans invaded Grenada. Some people think it should be the day Maurice Bishop was killed with seven of his workers because they died heroes for what he believed.

New Foods, new flavours

1. Breadfruit, is yummy when it is cut up and made like French fries. I know because my mommy made some for us. We also tried it mashed, I didn't like it. It didn't taste very good.  I am still going to try it some other ways.

2. Roti is slow roasted chicken with potatoes (bread fruit) and lots of spices in a flat bread. Rolled up like a fajita. I had it the first day we arrived and I really liked it.

Roti

3. Jamaican patties. It is pastry stuffed with ground beef or chicken. It has either hot or mild spices. It is so good. I bought it at school. I ate it before I got to the classroom. It was $5 ECD.

4.Genups are small fruit that are sold at the side of the road. They are about $1 for a bunch. I don't love them but Aiden does.

5. Chinese plum's are another small fruit I tried and don't like either.

6. Rock Figs are a tiny banana.

7. Avocado, which I didn't like  but will try again.

8. Curries noodle dish. My mom makes this it is my favourite dish here.

Chinese plums



Genups



The fruit

The pit (not much fruit on it huh?)
 

My dad is trying to cook new things for us with local foods.

10 Things different about my house

1. Doesn't have a pool.
2. Doesn't really have a front or back yard.

Mom in our kitchen

3. We live on one story of three story house.

4. We have a deck that wraps around the house.

5. It has three bars across the street.

6. It has three bedrooms, and every bedroom has a fan.

7. The kitchen is not as fancy as at home. We don't have a dishwasher, a toaster, and the oven doesn't work. You have to light a match to turn on the stove.

8. There are goats and dogs everywhere- I love that part.

9. There is no tv.

10. The walls are all the same colour and there are no decorations!

Even though it is not as nice as our house in Brighton, it has a nice view of the harbour.

View from our house

Sea Snake!!

Last weekend we went snorkeling at BBC beach. We saw a sea snake. Dad says they can be poisonous, even if it doesn't look like you are bothering it you should stay away.

I didn't love the beach. It had seaweed in many parts of the water, and there were a ton of Jack fish.

A white sea urchin is fine to pick up from the ocean floor, but black ones will hurt you. My daddy found a sea urchin and put it on Mommy's hand. She thought it tickled and giggled a lot!

BBC Beach

Trip on the Carib Cat

Old library in Carnage  St. George

Our friend Meena who lives two houses down invited us to come with her on a boat tour. Meena is the hostess of the catamaran tour. We went yesterday at 2:00 p.m.

We met at our house and drove down to Carnage outside of the public library. The library was destroyed in hurricane Ivan 10 years ago and still hasn't been rebuilt. About 20 people were taking the tour.

We sailed for about an hour, then we stopped at Flamingo Bay. We had to jump off the boat. I was scared, you couldn't see the bottom. Aiden and dad went first, then I jumped in. I swan with mom. We saw pretty blue fish and browny silvery fish. We also saw pretty giant leaf like plants underwater. We stayed there for 45 minutes. Meena helped people who had never snorkeled or had gone swimming before!

Meena at the sculpture park

Then we went for a fifteen minute ride over to the sculpture park. There were about 13 sites where sculptures were. The reef was also wiped out by hurricane Ivan so the park was put there to help rebuild the reef. The first sculpture was kind of scary because it was dark in the water and some of the people sculptures fell over. Some of the sculptures were to remember slaves who were killed by their "owners" crossing to Grenada. Another sculpture "Christ of the Harbour" was put in memory of passengers of an Italian cruise ship that caught fire leaving St. George.

We also saw millions of Jack fish.

It was pretty on the ride back since the sun was setting. Meena gave us cookies, chips and Coke, she's awesome. She is like Nelly, a friend of my mom's back home!

Me on the Carib Cat tour

Our cat under wind with the Grenadian flag

Me underwater

Diving to take a closer look

Mermaid

Man praying

the slaves chained together

Christ of the Sea

Jack Fish

Me and my family

Meena has an awesome smile