Wild & Wonderful World of Whitesides

Now today there was a not so exciting adventure in regards to Ruby. The day was pretty normal, Cannon was at school and Ruby had taken a nap. Once she woke up from said nap I took Hazyl into Ruby's room, where the A/C was still on (we only turn the A/C on for a couple of hours in the day because the cost of electricity is too high to use all the time. I'm talking at least $550 USD/month is a good average for us since we have four A/C units one in each bedroom. Crazy, huh?) ... we were playing and then I went into my room to go to the bathroom before it was time to get shoes on and pick Cannon up from school. While I was in the bathroom Hazyl casually walks in and tells me, "Mommy Ruby is in her room and I can't get her out." Initially I thought, "Oh Hazyl just can't get the door open." I told Hazyl I would come and open the door. Then I had a sickening feeling... A few minutes before as we had been playing I had watched Ruby playing with the lock on the door knob. Now one thing you have to understand is that all the bedroom doors in our place lock from INSIDE the bedroom and only unlock from the hallway with a key. This is normal for rental properties with more than one bedroom because usually it's multiple students who share a house and split the rent, so they want to lock up their individual belongings in their bedrooms. This might be fine and dandy for individual students, but for a Mom of little kids... NO BUENO! Just a couple of weeks ago Hazyl had accidentally locked herself in her bedroom, but she's old enough that I was able to describe to her what to do and she unlocked it within two minutes and we moved on with our day. After I got that sickening feeling I looked at Hazyl and said, "Is the door LOCKED?" Her reply, "Um..yeah." That's when I RAN! Ruby was knocking on the door calling, "Mommy! Mommy!" At first I was calm... I told Ruby that I was there and that Mommy would open the door. I tried a few spare keys that I had found lying around the house and non of them worked. I then decided that I was going to need to call our landlord and have him bring the key, which I had been meaning to ask for since Hazyl had locked herself in her bedroom. Looking at my watch I realized that I wasn't going to be able to pick Cannon up from school so I would have to call my neighbor to see if she could get him for me. (So grateful her boy's go to the same school as Cannon!) I call my neighbor she doesn't answer. I leave a message... I then start to worry about Cannon. He still is nervous about his new school and if I'm not there when he gets out, if he gets left at school, it might traumatize him. I decide to call my landlord, Ruby is starting to become anxious at this point and begins crying and yelling "Mommy! Mommy!" over and over again...breaking my heart that I can't help my baby. I call my landlord and explain to him the situation. He then states, "I don't have the key to the bedrooms." MY HEART DROPS... then starts POUNDING! What am I going to do now?! This is Grenada! I can't climb in through the window... there are BARS on the window, I can't knock down the door, Ruby is on the other side... and frankly if you've seen my arms you know this isn't a reality anyway. My landlord said he'd be right over with his handyman and would figure something out. So NOW I'm in full panic mode. Thankfully my neighbor calls me back and says she will pick up Cannon, so now I don't have to worry about him. By now Ruby is frantic...screaming and crying! I FINALLY decide I need to call Josh. I call him THREE...or maybe four times before he is able to answer. (Wifi on campus can be sketchy.) I explain to him what is happening, but there's really nothing he can do. I hang up with him and continue to try and calm Ruby down through the door. I am so desperate I even grab a credit card to try and break in, because if it can be done in movies I must be able to do it, right?! I was just so desperate to try and DO something, even if I knew deep down it wouldn't really work. Hazyl was actually really sweet the whole time. She brought out the kid's little toy tool set and told me I could use her tools to get Ruby out. As I'm trying to use the credit card to break in I hear my next door neighbor, Laina, come inside. She said Josh had called her to see if she could help in anyway. Shortly after my landlord showed up, it was concluded that the door needed to be kicked in. At this point Laina had already grabbed a chair, had taken the screen off the window, and was standing on on the chair talking to Ruby to try and calm her down. (Have I told you how much I LOVE my neighbor!) We decided that I should go out and stand on the chair so Ruby would walk away from the door so they could kick it in. As I called Ruby to the window she was so excited to see me and I was still trying to calm her down, but she was still crying because she was trying to get to me through the window. Talk about ripping my heart out! They knocked the door in and Laina was waiting inside and ran to Ruby so a familiar face was there. I then ran around and took her and just held her, trying to comfort her. Shortly after Cannon arrived home from school, and so did Josh. He had tried to catch the bus as fast as possible but even though we only live about 10 minutes from campus...the buses take longer. It was seriously the longest 30 minutes of my life. As a mother, NOTHING is worse than not being able to help your child.  

  

This is the damage on the door. In true Grenada fashion they were able to glue the pieces back together and then duct tape it to old the pieces as the glue dried. When you live on an island where almost everything is imported, which means it's ridiculously expensive, you learn to be pretty resourceful. 

This expression breaks my heart. It was a hard day for both of us. 

 I love Hazyl's expression in these pictures, she was getting hot and you can tell.

 We are SO glad that we fit the kids scooters in the luggage. The kids love riding them in the driveway and around the house. Ruby is now getting to where she can ride one too! Not even two yet and she's catching on! 

Cooling off with water from the hose. I had to pretend that the water wasn't probably coming from somewhere that would gross me out! We had to take showers after, but they weren't hot anymore.

 I had to share this picture of Hazyl's back. She is getting SO brown! 

We went to one of the KFC's and the sign inside cracked me up! I'm sure that they meant sleeveless, but it's sure doesn't come off that way. Haha! I have sure learned what it's like to be in the minority. We were the only white people in there and you just get to expect the stares. But everyone is super nice, all we have to do is smile and they smile back. :) 

Continuing in my complaining of my bad day... because the night was less that pleasant, we woke up late and were running late getting Cannon to school. I went in my PJ's (a plus about living in the Caribbean... EVERYONE'S hair is either frizzy or put up because of the heat and humidity. Oh and remember make up? Yeah it just sweats off here, so most girls don't even wear it. Except to church and that special date night. So when I show up with no make up I don't really feel like a slob! It's really quite nice!) and then I get home and get in the shower when the shower head falls off! Which, let's be honest, the duct tape holding it on wasn't exactly a permanent fix. Later on the landlord comes to look at the A/C unit with the A/C repair guys and they claim all it needed was a "cleaning." Then proceed to pack up, as they are loading up it makes the loud noise and then stops working. So they come back in an re-evaluate and determine a new unit is required. So TOMORROW a new unit will be installed. Which means that tonight the kids all get to be in the same room to sleep. (We'll see how well that goes.)

Then to top it all off my landlord said he would NOT give us permission to film House Hunters International here!! :_( We had applied to be on the show and they said all we needed was the final step of getting the landlords approval to film his property and he won't sign the release! I am SO bummed! I was SO looking forward to being on the show! But he is 84 years old and pretty set in his ways. But I plan on bringing it up again when the time is right...I won't quite give up yet!

Oh yeah, and I also shattered my iphone screen when I dropped it on the tile floor. Not sure if it can even be fixed here. I'm sure there is a place SOMEWHERE that will fix it... for a pretty penny. (Grr!)

So this is my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. My mom says some days are like that... even in Grenada. 

The girls had to be in a picture with him! He is such a WONDERFUL big brother, and is soo patient with his sisters...99% of the time. 

This is his school. It's more inland and up in the mountains, than where we live and the kids love to see all the goats along the road on the way. There are always just random goats on a rope. Sometimes the rope is tied to something and a lot of times it's not tied to anything. Just random goats eating the grass. Every once in a while there will be a random cow too. That's a SUPER exciting day for the kids. You can't see it in the picture but his school is located right by the Rum Factory. Along the road by the factory it stinks SO bad! So now Hazyl and Ruby always say "Ew! Stinky!" Then Hazyl pipes up "I smell the Rum Factory!" Haha... Then one day she asked me what Rum was. I told her that it's a gross drink that can make good/nice people very mean and make wrong choices. She then replied "Mom, that boy at the park that called me stupid... he drank rum, did you know that? Yeah...he did." I was laughing so hard! I had to explain to her that just because someone does/says something mean DOESN'T mean they drank rum! Haha!

Ok, favorite picture...ever! This little girl missed her brother while he was at school ALL day today! She looks up to him SO much and I am SO glad that he is such a WONDERFUL example for her. Nothing warms my heart more than seeing my children love EACH OTHER! I love that they look out for each other where ever we are. 

After a while of the kids banging playing on the drums we discovered why there were really there. Some locals were there to do some traditional drum playing while in costumes. As soon as I saw them come walking up to the drums with their faces painted I KNEW the girls would be terrified. I was right. Their love of the drums quickly faded. Hazyl enjoyed them from a distance, but Ruby was too frightened after that to enjoy herself. 

All in all it was a success. Yet another new experience to add to the list.

"How lucky I am, to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." - Winnie the Pooh

Day 1: (Wednesday)

Since they got in so late we wanted to take it easy the next day. So we just relaxed all morning and the kids played with their surprises from Grandma and Grandpa. After we all got ready for the day Intook them to Josh's campus, then to an Italian bakery, Sweetly's, which has an AMAZING view from the roof. You can look out and see all of BBC beach on your left, then all of Grand Anse beach on your right. The weather was WONDERFUL too! Overcast all day, with some rain on and off. I told them they were good luck when I came to the weather! (They MUST visit more to bring the cooler weather with them!)



After Sweetly's I had to run some information up to Cannon's school so they were able to see Cannon's school, Grace Lutheran. It's up Grand Anse Valley Road and about a 10-15 minute drive into the mountains.

**Side note, the first time we drove up to Cannon's school was on a local holiday. Before then everybody had been telling me how we live in such a nice area. I thought, sure it's nice, but didn't think much of it.... Until we drove up by Cannon's school. You drive through the local neighborhoods and then I realized JUST how nice my neighborhood is! Here I was thinking I was having to make adjustments to my lifestyle and I didn't even know that I live in the "posh" area! The locals homes are mostly just little shacks in the mountains. In Utah it's completely opposite, the higher up the mountains you go the nicer/richer the homes are. Not here, the higher you go the poorer the homes are. You can only get to most of them by walking, no roads or driveways at all. A lot don't have running water or electricity. So it was a big slap in the face to me of, yet again, just how spoiled I am! That first time because of the holiday the streets were filled with people and there were drunk and high people everywhere. (At one point there was a guy in a box, in the middle of the road...high as a kite.) I was SO nervous to let Cannon go to school in that area, but then after realizing it was just because of the holiday it was like that, and it's not always like that, I was ok. Since then every time I've gone up there it has been completely different. No drunks or druggies!**

So far I LOVE Cannon's school! They learn about the life of Jesus every day and it's small. There are only one class for each grade and in Cannon's first grade class there are 19 kids. The school is only four years old, so it is really nice and has an awesome playground.

Day 2: (Thursday)

We wanted to do something tourist-y and explore the island a little bit. We were going to drive to the other side of the island and visit Belmont. (It's a old plantation that is still in use and everybody says it's a lot of fun.) However, my island friend, Lori, was going to come with her kids and she ended up not being able to go. I had not ventured that far away before and didn't want to try to go that far on my first "adventure." So we settled with going to the little Pettying Zoo and then up to Mt. Carmel waterfall. I was sure glad to have Jay and Peggy with me. The Petting Zoo was supposedly only about a half an hour away. But we accidentally strayed from the main road a couple of times and had to turn around. (It can be confusing with no street signs or anything.) We also had to ask for directions from the locals... and with US not really being able to understand their English, and THEM not being able to understand our English... it made it a little more challenging. Haha! (Especially when you are pronouncing "Mt Carmel" --mount caRmel-- and the locals pronounce it "mon camel.") Luckily for the Petting Zoo there was a sign where to turn off the main road. I am SO glad I asked some of the other SO's ("SO" is a "significant other." It's a term that is used all over campus for wives/husbands/girlfriends/boyfriends of the student attending SGU. There is a GREAT community of SO's!) from the Branch how to get there. Otherwise I would have thought the road was taking us nowhere...fast! One of the SO's told us that the road turns to a gravel road and seems kind of sketchy but "you're headed in the right direction." I love that whenever SO's help each other out details like this are included. The locals don't include such details because it's normal to them. But coming from the States, it's the little details that help you to know you're on the right path. Let me tell you SHE WAS RIGHT! Imagine you're on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland... that's what the road was like to get to the Petting Zoo. Not. Even. Joking. The only difference was that I wasn't going fast. I was going SUPER slow, hoping my car wouldn't break down in the middle of nowhere. But low and behold, it lead us right to the Petting Zoo, which is located actually in a restaurant. Only in Grenada would there be a Petting Zoo where you also eat! At first glance all I saw was a cage of ferrets and birds and I thought, "Oh my gosh we traveled all this way to see the SMALLEST petting zoo." But then after we all walked in we discovered there was more to it. Still nothing huge, but fun animals for the kids to see and touch. Here are some of the animals we got to see..

Meet Judy the mono monkey. This is the only type of monkey on the island. She was a feisty monkey so we were not allowed to touch her or even get too close to her cage. At one point Grandma Peggy was walking too close and Judy reached out and grabbed her hair, trying to take her sunglasses!! It was kind of scary! But Ruby LOVED Judy! Ever since we went the Petting Zoo EVERY monkey is "Judy." We have some toy stuffed monkey's and they are all now "Judy!"

After we finished we decided to head up to a waterfall, Mt Carmel. Now we didn't exactly know where it was. My directions were "drive on the main road and there will be people waving you toward the hike to the waterfall, you pay a small fee to hike the trail and it takes you to the waterfall." So we were driving looking for said "people waving" when we got to a city, Grenville. I had Jay check the map and we had gone way past it. (We were in Grenville people! For all those familiar with the island.) So we turned around and asked for directions a couple of times. The funny thing about that is that we would ask "where is mount CaRmel?" They had NO idea what we were saying, then they would say "oh mont camel!" (I have learned they don't really pronounce their "r's" here.)  The best part about it is that we FINALLY found the sign and went up the road. We kept going and didn't find a turn off or anything. So, once again, we stopped and asked where "Mont Camel" was. We asked some people waiting at a bus stop and two people pointed us in completely OPPOSITE directions! Haha! But we did finally find it when we stopped and asked ANOTHER local. He said he would actually show us the trail and how to get to the waterfall. By this time we were SO ready to finally be there that we agreed. The hike was perfect for the kids, not too long at all. Although we should have worn our swimsuits! There is part of the lower falls that is a natural rock water slide that would be SO fun to go down! Cannon was super bummed that he couldn't go down it. I told him we would go back one day with Daddy one day and he could slide down. The water really did feel SO nice! Next time there will be more swimming for sure! I also learned that Hazyl MUST wear tennis shoes while hiking. She does NOT like getting dirt/sand in her sandals and the repercussions of said event happening is not a pleasant experience.

-The beaches. I wish I could describe just how AMAZING they are!! My kids have started their expectations of beaches pretty high. I'm afraid if we take them anywhere else they will be sorely disappointed. The sand is so soft. I love to squish my feet into it and feel it in between each individual toe. The natural shade! I've never seen beaches that have trees right up to the sand! Trees that are huge and have branches and leaves that quite literally work like an umbrella to create the best shade! The warm water, it doesn't even feel the tiniest bit cold...seriously... Not cold at all! The small sea shells right in the turf for my kids to explore in. The little fishes that swim around you as you cool off... Can you tell I love the beaches?! 

- The beauty. It's the rainy season right now so everything is green! The topography is much more diverse than I thought it would be. I know I'm on an island but I sometimes forget. You can't see very far, unless your high up, because there are mountains/hills everywhere. As you drive you are constantly going up, and then going down. You look out everywhere and there is a blanket of green. Even though there are houses everywhere there are more trees and plants. I love sitting on the front veranda and just looking out into the rainforest. I have honestly never enjoyed cleaning dishes as much as I do here. I love to look out at the Palm tree that is directly behind the window over the sink as I  feel the sea breeze hit me. 

- The locals. At first I thought they didn't like me and my kids. I felt like everyone was staring at my small, energictic kids wondering what the heck we were doing here. But then I learned something. To greet them with a smile and its IMMEDIATELY returned. It's the first time in my life I've been the minority. Once I realized that they were just staring because we are an anomaly I've realized they weren't annoyed at all and that they all LOVE my kids. As soon we greet them, smiles are returned and then comments about how cute they all are soon follow. I've had complete strangers stop and visit with me and my kids, at the grocery store, in my neighborhood, shopping, just about anywhere. Hyphen hunker,mmhm ok j.  (Sorry, Ruby got to my computer..) They are so friendly and willing to help. Even while driving and backing up in a parking lot I've had people help guide me, on multiple occasions, since parking is usually very tight. They might be hard for me to understand some most of the time, but I'm getting better at it. Imagine a Caribbean/British accent and that's the best way for me to explain it. Poor Cannon can't understand most of it. He is slowly getting better and once school starts I think he will catch on faster. 

-The wildlife. It's so fun to be around new creatures that my kids LOVE to explore! On two occasions we have had crabs in our YARD! One was on our front porch steps, another was in the lawn. They were good sized crabs too! The kids think it's so exciting! (Especially since Daddy likes to try and catch them.) They love seeing the lizards running outside and up the walls inside our house. We love having the lizards in our house, they eat the bugs! (See below about bugs.) There are frogs outside and at night one even hopped across the road as I was driving. We don't see the frogs in the day, but at night there is a medley of sound coming from the crickets, frogs and bugs. It starts right about 6:30pm and continues until about 5:30am. It is SO loud and sounds like whistles. (To me it sounds just like the whistle that is used in The Sound of Music. You know, the one Captain Vontrap uses for his kids? Imagine that sound ALL NIGHT LONG!) But it honestly doesn't bother me at all! I'm surprised at how fast I've gotten used to it. It just doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard before. 



- The fresh fruit. Let's start with the bananas... they. Are. Amazing. So sweet! I don't know if it's the humidity, but they stay fresh longer too! Hazyl can eat three bananas a day, one with each meal. Cannon is the only one that DOESN'T like them. Then the fresh pineapples... they have forever ruined me of every other pineapple I've ever tasted. The mangos are amazing as well! Not everyone is a fan of mangos but I really like them! Cannon loves them too, but nobody else in the family does. Because of said fresh fruit there are an array of smoothies available in most places. My favorite to date... the chocolate banana peanut smoothie in the Esplanade mall (or Cruise Ship Mall).. along with their banana smoothie... Mmmm... just thinking about it makes me want one. 



Some examples of things I could do without:

- The BUGS. First on my list! There are ALL sorts of bugs when living in the rain forest. I'm talking cockroaches, ants (of every kind), beetles, centipedes, millipedes, sand fleas, mybowls (I'm sure I'm spelling that wrong but that's how the locals pronounce it. Imagine a huge flying ant, that stings like a bee. Hazyl has already been stung twice... poor little thing.), and mosquitoes to name a FEW.  I've just given up on trying to not have ANY mosquito bites. I have found repellent that works for the kids (Odomos is awesome and smells good!), Josh doesn't get any bites for some reason, but I have tried everything. Cheyenne was awesome enough to send me some repellent bracelets. It definitely helps but NOTHING I have tried stops the bites completely. I've just gotten used to having around 10-20 bites at all times. Thank goodness for Tea Tree Oil, it soothes the itching right away and gets rid of the bites sooner. I have scars all over my lower legs that I hope will eventually fade. Everyone says that right now is the worst time of the year for the bugs, so for my sake, I hope so! 

**Funny story about bugs. We went to visit Josh on campus one day during his break. We were outside and I saw something fly a few yards ahead of us. I told the kids to run and look at the bird-- it was about the size of a hummingbird. Upon closer examination we discovered oh no...it was NOT a bird! Just the biggest MOTH I have ever seen in my life!! Josh, of course, picked it up, then if flew and landed on his back. --As he laughs the whole time.-- Then it flies off of his back and proceeds to fly UP my knee length skirt!!! I basically freaked out and started screaming and running. The kids thought it was HILARIOUS! But I'm afraid I couldn't help myself!**

- The heat. Don't get me wrong, I love summer weather, but there is a heat here like NOTHING I have felt before. The temperature remains pretty consistent every day. Gets down to about 79 degrees F at night, then up to about 86 degrees F in the day. Doesn't sound too bad, right? WRONG! Add 79%- 99% humidity and even right now (at 9:30pm) it's 84% humidity, 82 degrees F but feels like 97 degrees F. The only way to escape the heat is to be in the water at the beach or pool (my preferred method), or to be in air conditioning. Doesn't sound too bad, but when the only place you get A/C is in the car (if you're lucky enough to have a car with A/C) or in the bedrooms. It's pretty common to only have A/C units in each bedroom. So in the heat of the day our kitchen/family room area is basically unbearable. Then the price of electricity is WAY higher here than in the States. So a lot of students only use their A/C at night when they sleep to save money. The average bill for our current place is supposedly about $1,000 EC per month. (This equals to about $375 USD per month.) We won't receive our first power bill until the end of this month for the previous month usage, so we are still waiting to see what we will be able to work within our budget. (I'm thinking lots of beach/pool days!)

Those are the only two things I could really do without. There are things that I miss, but it's not that big of a deal to go without. (Such as a dishwasher or dryer.) Things sometimes take longer here but it really isn't bad, as long as you know to expect it.

Here are some things that are just different. Not good, or bad, just different from anything that I have used/seen before. Kind of hard to explain. Let me just show you:

The butter. Instead of coming in cubes that are about 1/2 cup per cube it comes in one huge cube like this:



Buns here are never pre-sliced, like said hamburger bun below

so we just slice them ourselves.

Once bread and butter are open they must remain the fridge or the butter will melt just sitting on the counter top, and the bread will go moldy within two days. Also after opening anything it must be sealed to keep all humidity out or it goes stale. Cheese balls (which the kids love and we were so excited that they sell here) will go stale after sitting open on the counter for about a half an hour. So chip bags must remain closed.

 Below you will see my BRAND NEW island cell phone. Remember these type of phones?! I didn't even know they were still made! It works great though. Just not a "smart" phone. Although it did take me about two days to remember how to use it! hehe Cell phone plans are much cheaper on the island compared to the states. We do a pre-pay plan and all the students say it lasts a long time.



These are some of our new favorite snacks we get at the grocery store. One regular size box of Ritz crackers are about $16 EC (or $6 USD) so since that first grocery store trip I tried the cheaper, different snacks. The Crix are like a bland Ritz cracker, no butter or salt. But they are oh SO yummy with the white cheddar cheese I get at the store. (The cheddar cheese here is SO good! I'm kind of a cheese snob too. I would usually only buy Tillamook in the states -- what can I say I'm an Oregon girl at heart-- but the cheese here comes from New Zealand and it really is yummy! It's too sharp for Josh to eat plain, but me and Ruby love it plain!) Then the chocolate cream cookies are kind of like Elmer Fudge cookies, but the chocolate is WAY better! --Oh another side note, instead of  "Milk Chocolate" candy, here it's labeled "Dairy Chocolate"--
I'm sure there are a million other small little differences but I'll have to think of them because things are starting to seem more "normal" to me now.

 I love Hazy's expression in these pictures. She has some of the best expressions.

The scooters were a must when packing our luggage, and I'm SO glad we brought them! Cannon is even nice enough to share his with Ruby.

Fun with the hose in the back of the house. (Notice my clothes line in the background. YES! I use it! At least when it's not raining.) We will just pretend that this water is cleaner that it really is. We made sure the kids didn't drink it!! (Eww!) I guess you got to beat the heat someway.

I just had to take this picture of my Hazy's back. She is getting SO brown!

We finally made it to get some "fast food" the other day. Keep in mind it's all relative. There really is never ANY fast food in Grenada. Even KFC takes a good 25 minutes. As a Mom I have to plan accordingly whenever we are out to get food. ALWAYS order at least a half an hour BEFORE you want to actually eat. I had to take a picture of the sign inside KFC and what is not tolerated. Geez Grenada... pretty harsh to not let armless people in! ;) Pretty sure it's what we would call sleeveless...

Another random picture. Hazyl did my eye make-up for me! She is SUCH a girly girl! She is ALL about dresses, shoes and make-up!