Random Thoughts

Sundays are the best. We usually try to go for a walk or a drive. Yesterday we just went for a short drive to explore Calliste, a nearby village. (Or parish? Town? I still don't actually know.) We found a cute little playground outside of a "government school." It seemed like a school for elementary-aged kids, even though the school system here doesn't go by "elementary school" or "middle school" or "high school." Instead students graduate through a series of "levels," and I think they're done by age 16. Anyway, not the point. The playground was so cute and surrounded by tiny goats and dogs. It was also right by the landing strip for Grenada's international airport, so that was fun.

Our cleaning lady must think I am a wreck. I am never put together when she comes over. I usually shower on Saturday in preparation for Sunday. Ideally I would shower again on Monday morning, but Monday mornings are always rushed. I wake up with Jared, rush to make him a decent breakfast while he gets his stuff together, and then inevitably he misses his bus, so I rush to throw something on and then rush to drive him to school. By the time I get back there's only half an hour until our cleaning lady comes. I throw my hair into a messy ponytail and then spend that time rushing to pre-clean the whole house in preparation for Yvonne to come and deep clean (sounds dumb to clean in preparation for someone to come over and clean, but it's necessary). Yvonne is such a sweetie though, and having someone come over and deep clean our apartment weekly is the best. It's definitely spoiled us (and made me self conscious about how much hair I shed and where my fingernail clippings end up), and might become a regular part of our lives in a decade or so when we have money (right now the service is included in our rent).

We had the missionaries over for dinner last week. This picture was taken after we had mostly cleared the table, but I promise I fed them real good. We just got two new sets of missionaries on the island, so now there are 8 elders, 4 sisters, and 2 couple missionaries. They are all seriously so happy and funny, but the elder from Samoa and the elder from Fiji are both hilarious in a dry-humor sort of way. Is everyone from the islands in that part of the world funny? The Samoan elder said that he spent his first several days in the MTC pretending that he didn't speak any English (even though apparently all the young people in Samoa are fluent). Then when he went in to take the English test he aced it, and everyone was confused about why he could all of a sudden speak better English than Samoan, and off he came to Grenada after just one short week in the Provo MTC. And the Fijian elder--he was crackin' jokes all night and nearly had me convinced that he had spent his whole life in China. Troublemakers . . .

Last night we went for a walk to a nearby dock to enjoy the blood moon. i brought my tripod to try to take some cool pictures, but then somehow I left the part that actually connects the camera to the tripod at home. Oops! I think these are still kind of cool. A bunch of students from Jared's school who we don't know came and joined us, and I got to talk to one of them about photography. I'm such a novice, so I love picking up tips from people who know more than I do.

I'll do another post tomorrow--today was a test day for Jared so once he got home we got to spend the rest of the day adventuring. So good.