We'll Be Famous in England!

It was an exciting weekend for Jade and I!  Thursday I found out (for sure) I'm going to be an aunt again.  I have one niece and nephew through my brother and now my sister in expecting her first, due in June!  Congratulations, again!

Friday morning Jade and I woke up to an odd squeaky, squealing noise outside our bedroom window.  I listened for a moment, not able to place the sound, before I mentioned it to Jade.  Once he was out of that half-asleep stage he said, “Vodka’s having puppies!” 

Our landlord’s have two dogs: an old, all black, pothound male with a graying muzzle named Panther and a beautiful and strong tan pit bull named Vodka.   Dogs like her are rare around here because as I said, the native dogs are all one incestuous breed.  She is Kurlon’s pride and joy and she’s treated more like a pet than most dogs are in Grenada.  She was bred with another pit bull somewhere on the island so they could sell the puppies.

We thought she was due next month sometime, but Jade said the sound was unmistakable.  He threw on some street clothes and ran upstairs to tell our landlords.  A few minutes later they all went outside and sure enough, Vodka had one black puppy in her cage with her.  We watched and talked to her for a few minutes before going back inside.  She’d had about three more by the time Jade and I left for the grocery store an hour later, six or seven by the time we got home from the grocery store, and eleven by the end of the day.  They are all tan like mom, black like dad, or a kind of grey mixture and Kurlon said they’re mostly males.  Jade told me first time moms sometimes eat their puppies if they don’t know what’s going on or if they think one won’t live.  Each time we checked on her I was scared I’d accidentally see her eat one and be traumatized, but she seems to be a good mom.  She’s really a sweet dog.  By Saturday we were down to nine puppies (but their bodies were there; she didn’t snack on them) and I didn’t check on Vodka Sunday because it rained and everything is really muddy.  I’m also not venturing out because I’ve been eaten alive by mosquitoes and sand flies, which believe it or not are itchier than mosquitoes.

So yay puppies.  Puppies are fun!  I can’t wait for them to be older and cute and playful!  I have to tell you a funny story.  So Teshawn is the youngest kid in the family (our landlord family).  I’m pretty sure he’s eight.  He is a sweet and really funny boy and he likes Jade a lot- go figure.  Kids always like Jade because he has interesting things to say.  He was really shy when we first met him, but now he will chat our ears off given the opportunity.  He was in the backyard with Kurlon, Jade and I Friday afternoon swooning over the puppies.  He had to leave for school Friday morning as soon as we’d found out Vodka was in labor so I asked if he told his school friends about his new puppies.  He looks to his brother and says, “Well, I don’t know if I can tell people about da puppies.”  (He says “well” a lot and the “da” is my attempt at his Grenadian accent.)  Kurlon says he can and Teshawn looks at me and says, “I told my friends about da puppies” with a smile on his face.  He’s so funny. 

Friday night the SO group rented a catamaran-style boat to take us to Fish Friday in Gouyave (pronounced like Guava without the last A).  We went to the store and bought AA batteries specifically to get some good pictures of the evening’s events.  Unfortunately the batteries didn’t even give my little camera enough juice to take a single picture.  I don’t know if it was the batteries or if it is my camera, but alas, no pictures still.  Anyway, Gouyave is on the same side of the island as St. George’s, but further north.  It’s a fishing village and the third largest town on the island I believe.  Fish Friday is something done every Friday night where the locals set up vendor booths to sell prepared seafood, homemade sweets and handmade crafts.  There was music set up (Celine Dion Christmas music played mostly) and a lot of people wandering around.  It was our first time to go and I hear that boat is the preferred way to get to Fish Friday.  See, the roads in Grenada aren’t great and they’re generally extremely curvy.  Combine that with fast driving and the time it would take to drive to Gouyave and even the most iron stomach would be at least a tad uneasy by the time we arrived.  The boat trip lasted about an hour to an hour and a half (wasn’t really checking the time).  We met on Grand Anse Beach and left at sunset so nearly the entire ride was in the dark.  The stars were the main sight though.  While I would have loved to see that much coastline in the daylight, the stars were just breathtaking.  Jade named numerous constellations and planets and pointed out the Milky Way.   We even saw a satellite and Jade spotted a shooting star.  The night could not have been more clear.  They played good music on the boat and had a bar to get drinks.  When we pulled up to a shore in Gouyave the boat staff escorted us through an alleyway and led us to the streets blocked off for Fish Friday.  Jade and I looked at a couple booths before getting in line to get some grub.  We wanted to try different things so we shared everything.  We got a fried fish fillet in fried bread (Jade’s favorite), noodles with a skewer of meat and veggies (not entirely sure what kind of meat it was), a skewer of shrimp and veggies, a homemade doughnut ball and a coke.  I wanted to get some homemade pumpkin ice cream, but we kind of hit our “fun” budget for the month.  It’s okay though, I’m sure we’ll be back at least a few more times in the next two years!  Maybe that’s where we’ll try lambie, also known as conch.

Photo courtesy of my friend, Andrea.  Thanks!

On Sunday Jade and I went with our friends Marieke, Ryan, Emily and Jonathan to take Christmas pictures on the beach.  The two other couples went first because their husbands had to get back to campus for an info session.  We had a lot of fun trying different backdrops and writing things in the sand.  Ryan and Jonathan left and then Jade and I began taking pictures with Marieke and Emily as our photographers.  At one point I went to the girls to look at the pictures they’d taken so far and I didn’t notice that a man had approached Jade and was talking to him.  As I went back to Jade with a puzzled look on my face, he and the man started explaining what they were talking about.  Turns out, the man works for the Sunday Mirror, a British tabloid (one of the largest in London at that), and he and another woman are on a paid holiday to write a travel piece on Grenada.  He asked if he could take a few pictures of Jade and I, and of course we agreed.  She took down our information and said she’d send us any pictures they used and make sure we get a copy of the article.  It should be out next month.  Needless to say we’re really looking forward to hearing from them around Christmas time!