The LDS Church in Grenada

I grabbed this from a friend's blog, bu this is a picture of the church here.  And a picture of the view from the nursery.  Not too bad, eh?  Basically, everything happens in the upstairs part of the building, I haven't been downstairs, and not sure if it's even used down there.  Doesn't look like it.  The set up is a Branch, not a Ward, but I guess there's about 18 LDS families/singles going to school at SGU and this is twice as many as have been here before.  Lucky us, we come when there's lots of friends!!  Everyone is in the same boat, so it's fun to relate to so many people.  We start with Primary, then do Sunday School and have Sacrament Meeting last.  Mostly because there's people who come from far away on a bus (or on their own) and sometimes they're a little late getting there.  This way, everyone can be in Sacrament Meeting for sure if they miss anything.  I have to admit, it makes it hard with kids, but we've been twice so far and it will really be manageable.  The only room in the building with A/C is the chapel (probably smaller than the size of half a cultural hall).  The men meet in there, while the women have Relief Society in the kitchen--probably because there's more men.  There are windows, but they're hardly windows.  They've always been open and the bars on the windows are the only thing protecting you from the rain storm that's happening right outside.  :)  It's pretty hot, but there's a really nice ocean breeze that helps a lot.  Since there's not much of a Primary Board, the parents take turns teaching in nursery.  I'm still trying to understand how Primary works here.  Cayden likes it enough, but Addie won't have anything to do with it and is happy as a lark in nursery.  I guess we'll just have to keep trying, but she may be the "extended student" in nursery for a bit.  There are no pianos or keyboards anywhere except the chapel (and it's a keyboard in there), so all the music is a capella.  But the people sing their hearts out and sometimes it seems louder than a whole ward singing!  Even the primary kids sing so loud and confidently, it's pretty amazing to feel their testimonies through music.  They're no Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but they sing with that much heart, it's really been a touching experience for me.

The local people in the Branch are all very nice and usually have a pretty incredible story.  The Relief Society President (at least I think that's her calling) is originally from Africa.  She was telling us about her experience of sacrifice as she was preparing to serve a mission.  She gave up her work that she wouldn't be able to get back and support to go.  Another lady (originally from another country) also told us she gave up her entire opportunity of a teaching career because she went on a mission and didn't take the final test to become an official teacher, and now never will be able to teach.  She went to Oakland, CA on her mission and said she was spit on, had water and urine thrown on her, and yelled at because a black woman was trying to talk to them and teach them something.  She said now she just tutors her children who are all getting good grades and doing well in school, and that is all she really wanted.  I'm interested to see what other stories I learn from the people here.  They only make up about half the branch, if that, but the Spirit is really strong there.  In Relief Society, we recited the R.S. Theme and I was getting choked up and had to stop because the Spirit was so strong.  Just knowing that I'm a part of these incredible women in sisterhood was overwhelming.  We literally come from around the world, yet we were all there for the same reason, and it's like that everywhere else in the world.  We were all the same right then in the Lord's eyes and I really felt how special the women of the world are to Him.  No matter what your story is, you are a daughter of God.  You have the same worth as someone who has every worldly thing and the someone who has nothing.  It made me so happy to be a woman and mother, and especially those roles in His church.  I was reminded of the goodness of people, charity that happens everywhere you look, and the hope we can have even in a world that is screaming despair.  I know this Branch is going to help me build my testimony, as well as my family's.  I have seen the blessings first hand of us following our prayerful decision to come to Grenada.  As Elder Holland said, we truly have been able to see the beauty of life unfold before us as we've trusted our Heavenly Father and didn't cave to the temptation of not doing this.  We are truly blessed.

Swimming

I seriously need to keep my camera with me more often because I'm finding out there's a lot of cool things to take pictures of!  We went to the University Club pool yesterday (it's a resort type thing owned by SGU and they let the Significant Others group (or SO's) come use their pool for free on Monday's and Thursdays) and it's right on the beach.  The view is incredible, you can go right down to the beach, hand out on hammocks, rent kayaks, and I'm sure other cool stuff.  Here's, once again, someone else's picture of the pool.

There's another small pool just to the left of this one that's only like 1 1/2 feet deep or something.  It's really cool!  Well yesterday, on that big tree right next to the middle of the pool we saw a big, bright green iguana!  Probably not too surprising, but fun to actually see!  We like "sand-free" days as my friend calls them.  There's a lot of chances for lots of sand, so doing an easy child clean up is kind of nice!

Have you met our bus driver?

...His name is Ernie.  He's also the bus driver that drives Harry Potter around.  He may look a little different, and have the accent like the shrunken head next to Ernie, but this is what riding the Reggae Buses down here is like!


I have to still take more pictures of what's going on around the island here, I just haven't been out much lately, but here's someone else's picture.
 
This is a nicer looking one, but this is the general idea.  They don't have A/C (that I've noticed anyway) but the windows slide open, so it's not so stifling inside.  And since the roads here are designed more like a bowl of spaghetti, you'd better hold on, because you'll be sliding all over the place.  So much for the slow speed limit, too!  The kids love it! haha!
You also drive on the left side of the road here, too.  So everything is really backwards to me and I've had to really adjust to make it feel even somewhat natural!  They don't really have stoplights, but they do have lots of round abouts.  The one right by our house is made up of a stack of big painted tires that say, "keep left."  Lots of traffic, and there's not much going "around" a circle, but everyone knows the rule, I guess!  There are larger University buses, but you kind of catch what you can around here.  Certainly not Community Transit, but it gets the job done!

Oh my, we Finally Made It!

After months of waiting (in the best company, thanks Mom and Dad!) we've arrived in Grenada.  It didn't come without it's challenges and surprises consisting of D coming home early so he could restart the Foundations program, financial aid problems, drs and dentist appts, preparing and organizing our lives to move, and figuring out schooling for the kids.  The actual traveling here was a whole different challenge, but we made it.  How many details of this all is even interesting to read, I won't guess, but I've gotta put it down for my own sake!

Our financial aid for this term is not based off of federal loans because it's not technically one of the official terms of medical school, so we had to go through our own thing, but it was SGU that was having a hard time getting us the correct cost of attendance number that we needed to submit to get our money for the semester.  We are still waiting for the money to come in, but thanks to parents help we've been able to hold off until it does get here!  And because the amount we're able to get is much lower than we expected, we've been trying to budget very carefully to pay for everything this term.  We weren't able to sell our van back home yet which is an unexpected expense now each month, but at least it's not a mortgage payment!  For Family Home Evening last Monday, we talked about obeying your parents and eating what you're given.  We talked about having to be frugal and not wasting what we have because we can't get things as easily in Grenada as we can back home.  We made a dinner menu that everyone would eat so we won't waste food either. haha, it sounds so sad looking back, but it's really not too bad.  They've done much better and we've been happier the last couple of days.

Funny thing about money is that we've been really blessed with being able to at least get by.  Help from our parents, budgeting, and living carefully has really taught us to appreciate the things we really do have and what's important.  On Fast Sunday in August we fasted for us to be able to sell our car and to be able to make it financially through this term.  Heavenly Father really heard our prayers because even though it was a major pain in the...behind, we were bumped from our second plane on the way down to Grenada.  But to compensate us, they gave us just enough money to be able to make it through the term without having to sacrifice things like paying for the kids' schooling, or our food budget.  And then once we got here we had to move from our first apartment because it was WAY to hot to even sit in (no a/c in any of the living areas like kitchen, living room, dining room).  We found another place that was $200 cheaper a month and the temperature was much better and easier/cheaper to manage.  Already we've been able to save money we weren't expecting because of the blessings we've gotten.  That really increased my testimony of fasting.  The Lord really with help us with our righteous desires if we ask him in prayer and fasting.  I know we had other family members who were doing the same thing and we are so thankful for their faith, love and support.  I know things will come up that are going to cost us more (like food! yikes, those prices are scary!), but I know we'll be okay when we follow the Lord's will and have faith in Him.

Other than financial aid, our prep coming here was a bit stressful.  D had to have some serious dental work done before we left that cost us a pretty penny, and I had to have drs appointments since I'm pregnant and wanted things to be in place.  We all had our teeth cleaned, but we missed out on our vision benefits because we never made it in!  Blah.  So, last minute crown and fillings for D, blood work for me, shopping for the kids, we were able to leave with a whopping 18 bags + a stroller + a pack-n-play (that got lost and we still have to locate) + a carseat for Hudson, we made it to the airport at about 4:45am (after going on a detour b/c the freeway was closed do to an "incident").  Turns out there was an Embargo in Grenada and we couldn't check more than 2 bags per person on the plane so we had to leave 2 bags (well, these were boxes) full of stuff.  We had about 30 seconds to go through them and try to grab things out we needed, but the lady at the counter "helping" us really wasn't and we left a lot of stuff we really needed to bring.  My mom went back later and gave her the "what for" for not helping us get through the check-in by skipping over us and helping the people behind us b/c she said we had too much stuff.   :)  Nice job, Mom!  After scrambling through Charleston's tiny security and down the 20 foot terminal we made it to the gate and found out the plane was delayed like 30 minutes.  Thanks lady at the counter for letting us know...NOT!  We said goodbye to my family and waited with our things.  We still had a bunch of stuff to get onto the plane, but made it without too much trouble.  There was a layover in Miami and we had to wait in the airport for SEVEN HOURS with the kids and stranger-staring-I-can't-believe-they-can-maneuver-with-all-that-stuff amount of luggage to carry onto the next plane.  Since D and I only got about 45 minutes of sleep the night before, we both were exhausted so we took turns napping.  One of D's friends from last term was at the airport, too, waiting and found us, so we did have another set of hands to help us out.  We ate lunch, played on escalators (safely, I am a good parent), walked around a bit, tried out a couple different bathrooms, found a little "cove" to block in Hudson and play a little bit, and watched some movies on D's laptop.  Finally it was time to start boarding in Miami, but they weren't giving us seat assignments and told us we'd have to wait to see what was available. We bought our tickets months ago, so we were thinking we should have seats already, but apparently we didn't.  So, at the last minute D's over talking to the people by the gate, very upset, telling them they'd better comp us really well for this (then apologizing later) we got the official word that we were bumped.  We got money for each ticket, food vouchers, and 2 rooms at the Marriott!  At least we had some money, we'd get a good night sleep and have full tummies for our travels the next day.  The next day we got up, ate a yummy breakfast at the hotel, and then went to the airport.  Since we were bumped we now had to pass through San Juan, Puerto Rico.  We arrived in San Juan after a decent plane ride in the middle of the day, to find out 2 of our carry-on bags that they had to "valet" to the under part of the plane were sent to baggage claim for some reason instead of coming back up to us as we got off the plane.  The workers there said it had to go to baggage claim, the pilots said that's not right, and we had about 5 people looking for our 2 bags.  D eventually did have to go all the way out to baggage claim, get our bags and bring them back through.  The people at security gave him a hard time because he had 2 bags and there was just one of him.  They were asking him who was his other traveler and why he had the 2 bags.  In the meantime, I had ALL the rest of the stuff (minus what we checked of course) and Addie has to go potty.  Of course.  We bought a child backpack carrier for Hudson the day before, so I put him on, put all the carry on bags and carseat on the stroller and made my kids tow their heavy backpacks into the bathroom.  We had a 2 hour layover in San Juan, so when D met back up with us, we went get dinner and sat down at our gate.  Every food place was closing and it was only about 6 or 7pm, kind of annoying.  We got some chicken at Church's and sandwiches and pizza at Subway (we still had a food voucher we needed to use from being bumped).  So as we were sitting at our gate we were trying to verify our seats on the next plane because of our last experience with getting a seat.  The airline people didn't even show up to the gate until it was about 5 minutes before we were supposed to board.  We found out that we sure did have seats, but Hudson wouldn't be allowed to fly as our lap child because he didn't have any confirmation number as a lap child.  We'd been flying with him for the last 2 days and NOW they want some confirmation.  They told us we had to pay the cost of taxes of a regular ticket in order for him to fly internationally as a lap child.  This was news to us, so we fought them the whole time people were boarding.  We ended up holding up the plane 15 minutes because they were trying to figure out what to do.  By the end, the supervisor lady said, "are you going to buy the ticket or not, we need to close this flight!?"  (She was very very irritated with us, but we were just as angry!)  Since we couldn't stand the idea of staying there another night and this time with NO compensation, we paid the taxes and got on the 2 prop jet plane.  I was just about in tears, D had to get all of our stuff on the plane--where you had to go outside and go up the stairs to get on the plane--and get all the kids on while I'm paying for the ticket and bringing the rest of our stuff to the plane.  We were so frustrated and tired that we just sat there and looked at each other like, "did we really make it on here???"  The kids slept the entire way  to Grenada from there and we were able to get off--very carefully, mind you, they didn't want the plane tipping backwards, so everyone had to unload one person at a time! lol--and get our bags and then collect our other bags that were at "baggage claim."  The airport here is VERY small, so our bags were just sitting out in the general area.  hahaha.  We made it through customs and immigration fairly easily, found our ride outside and got a taxi to carry the rest of our bags.  We made it to our first apartment around 11pm and realized the pack-n-play was gone.  blah.

We went to bed and got up the next day, feeling a little better about things, but our house was so hot it was miserable to be in there.  So we went out on the bus.  The reggae buses here are totally crazy to ride on, but it was funny to experience.  We went to D's school, Addie's school--the GAP--to sign her up, and the grocery store and hardware store.  We took a taxi home after that.  And then went to visit some friends down the road.  We then decided to move because the friends' apartment was so much better all around and the kids would have friends to play with.  One of the families fed us dinner and we went back to our first apartment, put the kids to bed and packed up.  We moved out the next morning after having to pay $350 for the use of the first apartment and moved into the place we are now.  We're upstairs, in a small 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment.  All 3 kids sleep in the same bed, and so far its WORKING!  We've got lots of help from the other families here, 5 of the 8 apartments are all LDS families!  We're really in a good place, and happy for what we have now.

It's been an interesting time here so far and we're excited to keep going with this.  D started school on Monday and is getting into his studying routine.  The kids and I are getting into our routine as well.  I'm still unpacking and cleaning, but things are starting to feel a bit more normal around here (even without a dryer, dishwasher, consistent hot water, a car to get around, or half the kitchen supplies/appliances we're used to).  here's to a great new term, and we're praying for D to make it through with confidence and good grades!