Green, Yellow (gold), and Red – colors of the flag of Grenada

Munich beautification for independence day

Nutmeg seed displayed on the flag

The flag of Grenada has the same colors as the flag of Ghana – but for this flag the red is for courage, yellow for wisdom, and green for vegetation. In Ghana the colors were red for those who died for independence, gold for mineral wealth (Ghana was called the gold coast) and green for the agricultural wealth.

Independence and Sports week


 Wednesday was independence day for Grenada - 44 years. The church had a party on Tuesday and I was able to help with some of the set up and concessions as I arrived 30 minutes after the scheduled start time. I didn’t do much on Wednesday, although some of the kids and teachers went to go to the national stadium for a celebration.

I also didn’t do much in school in the literacy department because this was sports week. The kids and teachers were getting ready for the track competitions. There were practices and preparation. I didn’t realize how much work was involved. The week culminated on Friday.

The best athletes from the school will compete in the “parish” (county) level. I’m in St. Andrew’s parish. From there the best will go to represent the parishes at the national level.

The competition is also important because it is where the “houses” get a lot of points. As I think I mentioned before there are three houses in the school – red, green, and yellow.

I’m assigned to the yellow house. So on Thursday I was busy with my showing off my artistic skills. Fortunately, my artistic daughter didn’t inherit my skills – because mine are nothing to show off. (Shameless plug for Sleepy Panda Pieces or find them on Facebook and Etsy).

Anyway – I got assigned to paint the swords to be used in the parade march.

Peace Corps volunteers need at least basic painting skills

Roman short swords as good as possible

Friday was surprisingly sunny – we’ve been having rain almost every day and it did rain early Friday morning, but the day was good for the event.

Sports day started late or on time depending on your definition of “island time”. Island time generally seems to be a little more on time than “African time”, so the program did start less than an hour after the scheduled time.

The main events were individual and team racing starting with the 800 meter individual race. I did not get pictures of the races because I was helping with concessions – this being also a bit of a fund raiser for the school.


Trophies and medals


Ready to begin

I did get out from the concession stand to take pictures of the marching in the second half of the event. All in all I think the kids did great.




Swords turned out OK, all the kids did great.

Love always,
John

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