Grenadian Easter Fun

Happy Easter, Everyone! Hope you enjoyed some good food and festivities. One of the big advantages of living in a blatantly Christian country is that holy days are also days off -- we are wrapping up a four-day weekend here! Yes, even medical students with extra exams hanging over their heads can manage to take a little time off when there are four days with no lectures.


We decided to spend Easter Day celebrating as the Grenadians do, by flying kites at the Pearls Airport, close to the northern end of the island. Dan's bible study organized the outing, arranging for a couple of taxis to drive us and stay with us as we spent several hours of fun. In case you're wondering why they let a bunch of yahoos play on the tarmac, Pearls Airport was closed when the much larger airport near St. George's was built. Actually, the construction of the bigger runway (which is big enough to handle large military planes) was one of the arguments used for invading Grenada in 1983. This week, we have seen that use as the U.S. military took over the airport to aid in security for President Obama's visit to Trinidad (next island nation to our South) this weekend. The old Pearls Airport sees more use as pastureland, a drag race strip and great kite-flying location. It actually reminded me of all those post-apocalyptic movies out there about what happens to all our buildings when people are gone. One of the planes there hasn't moved since 1984!

Some of us took this opportunity to try out our crafty side. Here you can see Brent's plastic bag kite (sponsored by IGA), which his wife Celeste is helping him launch. With some minor modifications from our drivers, the kite was soon flying high, despite some pretty aggressive earthward tumbles. In the image to the left, you can pretend to be a parrot sitting on Brent's left shoulder as he flew the kite.

I had made a paper bag kite to fly using a paper bag, some dental floss and hole strengtheners. While I was feeding Penny, Celeste managed to get some respectable altitude on that bag and had some fun adding modifications with found items throughout the day. In this picture, she is at the very end of the runway (a pile of dirt barely blocking your view of the beach and Atlantic Ocean). The other end of the runway, which you can see in earlier photos, goes right up to the mountains.

This was Dan's first time flying a kite. You may notice he's got the carrier on, but no Penny. Take a second to look at our shadows in the pictures...shadows are short because we arrived at 3pm or so. HOT!!! Penny began to wilt quickly, so she and I went back to the taxi for a snack and some rest in the shade. We came out periodically, though, so she could get a turn holding the kite reel (aka a stick).

There were, of course, lots of Grenadians at the airport as well. Some chose to enjoy their national pasttime -- cricket -- on the beach just beyond the runway. Most chose to arrive later in the cool of evening. As the sun dipped behind the mountains, we found the sky filled with tiny specks glimmering in the shafts of light poking through the clouds. You really have to open the picture all the way to see the flotilla hovering above the runway. Most were hexagonal, but there were some creative kite-makers out there.

As the sun disappeared, we enjoyed burgers, chips, tasty soda and much-needed water. We had a brief bible study in the grass among the cow pads, then packed up the taxis by headlight light. We departed just as the Milky Way was becoming visible. We had the coolest taxi with sky lights all along its length, so we could observe the blanket of stars most of the way home.

On Monday, Dan and several other students got up early to enjoy some American Football. It may seem brutal to meet at 8am to play a little touch tackle, but trust me, it's worth the savings in sweat. By the time they called half at 9am, they were drenched in sweat and ready to call it a day. I had gone home at 8:30am because the sun had emerged and I hadn't put any sunscreen on me or Penny, plus I was sweating up a storm just sitting on a bench. Can't wait for rainy season when the humidity is supposed to increase further!