It's a Boy!

We can hardly believe our time on the island this term is coming to an end!  It doesn’t seem possible that we could be heading back to the US already, but we have to get in that mindset as we prepare to pack up again.  We’ll actually be home Thursday, but not before we go turtle watching one more time!  Time flies when you’re having fun!

As usual, I’m long overdue for a regular update on our life.  In a past post I talked about how I was gearing up for the Grensave International Food & Drink Festival, which took place in early March.  Several SO volunteers put in some good time preparing both the overall event and the American booth that would be there.  On the day of the event Marieke and I arrived pretty early to unload her car full of supplies and to help wherever we could.  A few countries were already there setting up and we jumped around between the American booth and general event setup.  A good portion of our time we spent at the gates collecting entrance fees from cars as they drove in.  Both of our husbands arrived at different times so we took breaks to enjoy the festival and go eat with them.  It was so awesome to see how many different countries are represented on this little island and be able to taste their culture.  I couldn’t possibly name all the booths there, but I especially enjoyed Brazil’s brigadeiros (little chocolate truffles rolled in coconut), China’s spring rolls, Venezuela’s little meat sandwiches and the smells coming from South Korea’s booth, even though I didn’t get to try any of their food before it sold out.  The SOs asked for donations of baked goods to sell and we received some really amazing treats.  Everything sold and we were able to give Grensave a donation of EC$664.25.  There were performances in addition to the food, activities for kids and other goods and crafts for purchase.  It was really a neat thing to be a part of.  We were worn out by the day’s end.

Though I had my camera with me, I was too busy to take any photos so all of these are courtesy of Emily Vacek.

Our awesome table decorations by the talented Becca

Marieke and I in front of the boards and video we made for Grensave

The Americans selling baked goods

Since then, Marieke and I have been into the Grensave office on numerous occasions helping with other projects.  I’ve written an article on behalf of Grensave that is supposed to get published any week now.  I actually sent two versions to the director, so I’ll share whichever version gets printed in a later post.  Last time we went in we sorted donations for a large sale they were having.

Jade’s birthday was just a couple days after the festival.  It was their midterm week so we weren’t able to do much to celebrate on the actual day, but we did eat a nice dinner.  I got him an obscure gift, but something I knew he would absolutely love.  Wait for it…

Yes, a machete.  That face says it all, doesn’t it?

Jade’s on his way to becoming a doctor with the instruments mom and dad got him.  Here’s another happy face.

Came in the form of an email; he'll get them soon though

That will be Dr. J King in a few years!

My friend Becca and I threw a joint birthday party for Jade and her husband Dean on the weekend following midterms.  Becca is a brilliant designer and awesome chef, so their party was really cool!  We made all sorts of treats and a lot of our friends joined us to celebrate the halfway point of the term and the boys’ birthdays. 

The day after the party Jade and I went hashing.  It was Jade’s first hash and we brought along another couple who hadn’t gone before.  It ended up being a fairly intense hash, but it was a lot of fun.  Right on cue the rain began to pour as the first runners hit the trail.  And I mean it when I say it poured.  We had no choice but to make a run for it in order to not sink into the earth.  I could only partially see because the water just kept running into my eyes and flooding my contacts.  What could you do but laugh?  We all looked like drowned rats.  At one point we had to use a rope to climb up a big hill because it was too steep to climb without one.  The views were well worth it and photos could never capture the breathtaking views you get on a hash in Grenada.

Us with David and Holly BEFORE the rain

We ended up at the top of that hill at one point!

The hash party afterwards was a typical hash party and I got to watch Jade earn his certificate like I did mine.  The photos of him getting sprayed with beer didn’t come out well because it was dark, but you can see the aftermath here.

The national dish, oil down, is usually served at the hash parties.

And here is a good example of just how dirty we got!  That definitely isn’t a tan line.

A few weeks later was the photography auction benefiting Grensave.  It was held by the SOO and planned by my friend, Emily.  Many SOs donated their photos from the island and a couple others donated their skills in the form of photo session packages.  There were even a couple photos of mine that made it into the auction.  We also sold brownie and ice cream sundaes, which were a big hit.  The auction raised almost $2,000!  It was an event I’d really been looking forward to and one I’m really proud to have been a part of.

The next week a group of SOs went to Annandale Falls and JessamineEden Botanical Gardens.  The falls and gardens are near the rain forest in the middle of the island.  There are so many different types of trees and flowers that grow here.  It’s really neat to just be able to walk through and photograph them.  While I’d been to the waterfall before, I’d never been to the gardens.  They were well kept and expansive.  The owners even have an apiary and sell different stages of raw honey.  While we were there a nice man explained the different types of honey and gave us a taste test of each.  We also tried honeybee pollen, which was kind of neat.  It was a really gorgeous place that I’d recommend everyone here go to at least once.

Over the long Easter weekend a small group of us went to Carriacou, another Grenadian island.  It was an incredible trip that deserves its own blog post, complete with pictures.  More on that later!

Since being more involved this term, it has flown by even faster than the last.  I’ve been spending a lot of time wrapping up everything for my treasurer position and getting ready to pass all financial information along to the next treasurer.  I’ll be serving on the board again next term, but this time as the fundraising coordinator.  I’m really looking forward to it!

We’re finally able to say my parents and Jade’s little sister are planning to come visit us in February!  We’re so excited about it we can hardly wait!  I’ve already been thinking about all the things we’re going to take them to do.  It’s one thing to tell your loved ones about your awesome experiences, but another thing to actually share it with them.

Jade and I unexpectedly became parents to a kitten recently.  He was found by some friends in the bush behind their apartment complex.  They kept him while trying to find a home for him, but had to move him faster than expected when Emily started having allergies because of him.  We took him in and there was no going back.  Benny is our new baby and yes, even Jade loves him (Jade called him ‘son’ the other day).  I’m really excited to have Benny and take him back to Arkansas with us this summer!

Benny snoozing against Jade's hand

He also likes to cuddle with the mop

Benny is very playful, but he's so fast that we can't take good pictures of him awake!

See everyone soon!

Sand Angels

One of the most anticipated events since arriving in Grenada has been a trip to watch critically endangered leatherback sea turtles nest on the northern beaches.  Well, I finally did it and it did not disappoint.  If you haven’t seen a leatherback turtle in real life, you cannot imagine how large they are!  Leatherbacks are the largest sea turtles there are.  Rather than a bony shell, they have a thick skin covering on their back that allows them to be flexible.  They can dive deeper than other marine animals and swim faster than any turtle.  The only adult leatherback’s real predator is the human, which says a lot since it is endangered.

Leatherbacks average six to seven feet in length and can weigh anywhere between 550 to 1,500lbs!  They have large, muscular front flippers and big heads that remind me of a dinosaur.  The largest front flippers recorded were 8.9ft in length!  Can you imagine how big the whole turtle was?  Something interesting to think about is that only females come onshore after they’ve entered the water as hatchlings; males do not leave the water.  It stands to reason that most known measurements would be from females then.  If males are generally larger than females, then the largest of the leatherbacks may not have ever been measured!

The northern beaches of Grenada are ideal for them to lay their eggs because the sand is warm (good for producing females) and not too fine.  Very fine sand makes the turtle’s already taxing job that much harder as she propels her 1,000lb body up the beach to dig a deep hole.  The northern beaches, as opposed to Grand Anse Beach, are also less touristy.  Leatherbacks will return to the general area where they hatched many years ago.

The leatherbacks can travel 10,000 miles in a given year!  They often go from the Caribbean to the Arctic Circle, down the west coast of Africa chasing jelly fish, and back to the Caribbean to lay their eggs.  They can be impregnated by multiple males at a time, so they may need to lay eggs three or so times in a season.  One female may lay 100 eggs, return to the sea, and come back on shore a couple nights later to lay another 100 eggs.  She can easily lay 300 or more in a season.  Sadly, 90% of the hatchlings won’t make it into adulthood.  They have many, many predators, including humans who poach them for food.

The Significant Others Organization arranged for a group of SOs to be able to go to Lavera Beach one night.  With a St. Patrick’s Eco-Conservation Tourism Organisation (SPECTO) guide, about twenty three people boarded an SGU school bus at 6:30 and headed to the complete opposite side of the island.  It took about 2-2.5 hours to get there.  First we stopped at the visitor’s center to hear a little presentation on the turtles and then we continued on to the beach. 

Luckily we were prepped ahead of time with all we needed to know.  No DEET bug spray and no flash photography were important to the health of the turtles.  We could only use flashlights with red light, so my guess is turtles cannot see that spectrum of color.  There were quite a few red flashlights in the group so we were all able to see very well.  I had the forethought to borrow a friend’s tripod so I could stable my camera and get the best pictures possible without flash.  Go figure that I discovered on the bus that my battery had gone bad!  I’d charged it all day in preparation for the night’s event and got one photo before it revolted.  I have the worst luck with cameras.

Back to the good stuff… we all stepped onto the sand to find a place to wait.  Many people brought blankets or towels, which was a great idea.  We quietly conversed while SPECTO volunteers and Ocean Spirits workers combed the beach looking for the first turtle to arrive.  The night was calm and mostly clear.  Without any city lights the stars were absolutely incredible.  Just off the beach is a neat, pyramid shaped island, Sugar Loaf, that made an awesome silhouette in the dark. 

We didn’t honestly have to wait that long before one person radioed to another and we were on the move down the beach like a silent army.  We were being led by our guide and each time she paused I anxiously peered around her for the giant turtle.  The group could only approach once the turtle reached a certain stage in the process.  Finally, the guide led us to the spot and instructed us to gather in a U shape around the sides and back of the turtle, but not to obstruct her head, which was facing the ocean.  From the moment I saw her I just kept muttering under my breath things like “wow” and “oh my gosh”.  You cannot fathom how big and powerful they are compared to humans! 

I wasn’t checking the time, but I don’t think she was on land more than thirty minutes.  She came on shore, found her preferred spot and started digging.  As she neared the end of her digging, she signaled with some part of her body that the eggs were ready to come out and she entered a trance.  That was when we gathered.  Two Ocean Spirits workers laid on their stomachs catching each egg as it came out.  With gloved hand they gently placed it in the sandy hole and kept count.  She laid around 94 eggs with about 9 false eggs on top, for a total of 103 eggs.  From what I could see, the eggs are round, as opposed to chicken eggs, and a bit larger than a golf ball.  The unfertilized false eggs at the top of the nest are for added protection in case the nest is looted.  They are noticeably smaller and would not fool a human who was looking for eggs. 

As the turtle laid her eggs, she rid her body of excess salt by excreting it through her eyes.  Thick mucus ran down her face like tears.  One by one we were allowed to gently touch her back before she came out of her trance.  I can’t find an accurate surface to compare the feeling to.  I anticipated skin like an alligator with the texture of an iguana.  It wasn’t.  It was super smooth when you wiped away the sand. 

As she began covering her nest back up, the workers took measurements of her body and noted that she was already tagged and in their system.  They helped fill the hole with sand to make her job a little easier.  She used her body to pack the sand into the nest.  The red flashlights went off and we watched her attempt to cover her tracks by making sand angels.  Her muscular flippers could send sand flying clear down the beach if she wanted to.  Imagine how strong those flippers must be to scoot their bodies up the squishy sand.  Just amazing.

She slowly made her way back to the roaring waves of the ocean.  The waves breaking on the shore were large and would easily topple a grown man with its force.  As she made her way in and the waves crashed over her back, she didn’t budge an inch; a true testament to her weight and size.  A few more waves washed over her and she was gone.  It was such a powerful and moving experience.

The volunteers and workers raked over the nesting site and her track back to the ocean.  While she may camouflage her tracks from animal predators, only another human can camouflage her tracks from a fellow human predator.  The group made its way back to the bus and came across two more leatherbacks: one just finishing the nesting process and another just coming on shore.  Workers were already there doing their job while volunteers were still combing the rest of the beach.  There is no telling how many came to nest that night, but workers and volunteers would be there until sun up.  This happens every night from April to August. 

If you ever get the chance to observe something like that in the wild, without being intrusive, I highly recommend it.  If that doesn’t make you appreciate the beauty and diversity of our planet, I don’t know what will.

Lavera Beach by Becca Thongkham

A long exposure photo of Sugar Loaf Island by Emily Vacek

Courtesy of Emily Vacek

Counting eggs by Becca Thongkham

Courtesy of Becca Thongkham

Me touching the turtle by Emily Vacek

Taking measurements by Becca Thongkham

Courtesy of Emily Vacek