John's Next Step

Last Sunday I was planning my last two weeks of break until I realized that we have a teacher’s prep week. I don’t know what I was thinking. But I did have a nice relaxing week and it will be good to get back to work. Those who have been following my posts may remember that hurricane Ivan destroyed the old primary school in Munich. Shell of the old school destroyed by hurricane Ivon Not much left A converted community center has served as the school since the hurricane. Current school.  The wooden addition is for the upper grades and the library The government has been building a new school up the hill from the one destroyed by Ivan. The original plan was for the school to be ready in June of this year. It is a big project Progressing in April Other side of school, also early April However, there has been some delays for this and that. They have been working on the school throughout the break and men were working when I checked yesterday. ...

Last week was sort of busy. There was a pilgrimage in honor of the Lady of Lourdes last Sunday afternoon. This is a monthly procession from May to October and I thought it was just a rather small thing.  However, Catholics from the whole island are involved along with the bishop, priests, and religious. It was a nice walk that started at one of the early churches on the island, went along the coast, and then up Battle Hill to the church dedicated to the Lady of Lourdes. The walk was about an hour and then there was a service in the church afterwards. Second church in the area, abandoned before Ivon  Statue to be carried by the priest, two men, and a lady of my parish OK, let's get started I needed to stay near to from with the children from our parish - I didn't see the end of the procession At the parish at the top of the hill And the service afterwards.  Not everyone in the church did the procession OK, now where is the bus to g...

Grenada is known as the spice island because it produces the most spices per square mile of any country. The primary spices are cinnamon and nutmeg. Nutmeg is important to the island and the economy and is featured in the country’s flag. Nutmeg seed on the left I bought 6 whole nutmeg in the market, for about $2.50 US, shortly after I arrived. They came in a plastic bag. The nut has a very thin shell. However, as I don’t use nutmeg very fast - most of them ended up with a white fuzzy mold that went through the shell, wasted. I probably should not have left them in the bag in the humid weather. Nutmeg tree Fruiting about a month ago - some beginning to split There is a nutmeg tree along the way to school and this is the season for the nut to drop. Over the last couple of weeks as I walked past I saw some on the ground. I waited some time to see if they would be collected and then decided I didn’t want them to go to waste. I’m using a net bag to hopefully dr...

As I might have mentioned, this is the rainy season. We had a fair amount of steady rain on Monday and Tuesday last week to fully saturate the soil. On Wednesday it rained hard most of the day causing flooding in the valleys and coastal areas. The national stadium area was flooded enough to move an event to the following week. I’m near the top of a mountain so I don’t have to worry much about flooding. Some of the storm drains and streams in the area overflowed and washed over the road, but nothing serious. The route I traveled to St. George’s to attend a Peace Corps meeting on Friday didn’t have any major problems. On the trip back along the south eastern road I noticed about six slides covering at least half of the road – mainly slide dirt and rocks along with trees that had toppled onto the roadway – two days after the heavy rain. Facebook also reminded me that there were slides along my road in Dominica one year ago, although those were cleaned up in less than a day. Gre...