9/3/08

I had to go to the hospital in town to get an X-ray, to start the process of diagnosing if I actually have sciatica or not.  These are the steps that you have to climb to get up to the front gate:

I’m positive that there HAS to be another entrance for ambulances and other autos.  But I don’t have a car, so I just go where the bus takes me.

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9/3/08

Laundry

I used to hate doing laundry.  In fact, I hardly ever did it before we moved here, because that was something that Breck would do, while my chore was to go to the supermarket.  But now, I am in charge of the majority of the household tasks, since Breck barely has time to think about things other than school these days.

Laundry here is almost a full-time job some weeks.  Because of the weather, we’re usually sweaty to some degree, which means there’s not much that you can wear more than once.  Nothing passes the sniff test.  And since we’ve both started exercising regularly again, that’s yet another bunch of clothes that gets added to the pile.  I swear that I do at least two loads of laundry every 3 days, and I am still met with a mountain of clothes every time I go to the hamper.

In a weird way, though, I enjoy doing laundry much more than I did at home.  Of course, it’s still a chore, and I have to tromp up and down the hill from the washing machine to the laundry line numerous times a day.  That’s not even mentioning the days where the sky looks threatening and I may (or may not) have to run and rescue the clothes that are drying outside at a moment’s notice.

But here, I’m in no rush to beat closing time at the laundromat, or forced to shove our clothes in and out of expensive, malfunctioning machines.  This is the first time that I’ve had my own washing machine at home since I left my parents’ house for college, which makes a big difference.  And standing behind our house, looking at the sea while I hang the bedding out to dry is not so bad at all.  It’s taught me to slow down and focus on the task at hand, and is not such a bad way to spend a morning, really.

Until a great gust of wind comes and makes the sheets attack me, that is.

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7/3/08

The Radio

I have always enjoyed listening to the radio.  When most people find that out about me, they laugh, or give me an incredulous look and shake their heads.  What is there to love about radio programming?  Sure, much of it is mediocre, and goes by a pre-designed format, and the same songs are played over and over again.  But I like listening to the voices of different radio announcers, and studying their accents and their nuances, and the styles that they use to get their thoughts across to the listener.

I especially love talk radio because (other than the bottom-of-the barrel morning DJ programs) you can really learn a lot about what people in a certain region of the world are thinking about by tuning into some of the local radio programs.  It’s for this reason that I’ve been getting addicted to Grenada radio.

We get 8 FM stations and two official AM stations (I’ve tuned into AM and heard more than 2 stations, but my husband reminded me that AM signals can travel extremely far, so they could be from any of the neighboring islands, or even South America).  Most anywhere you go during work hours, people are listening to the radio.  During the day, there is much music programming, but there are also times when news, social, and/or political programs are being broadcast.  The majority of people who live here seem pretty well informed about current events here and abroad (which is, unfortunately, a lot more than I can say for myself and many other Americans).

My favorite program right now is Sundays with George Grant which broadcasts for 3 hours on Sunday mornings, and fills you in on the newsworthy events of the past week.  It also features special, in depth interviews as well.  I first heard the broadcast 2 weeks ago, and the host interviewed the CEO of Capital Bank, a Grenadian financial institution that went into receivership several months ago, because of potential fraud.  The CEO sat in the studio and answered questions (sort of) and got call-in questions from the general public for almost an hour.  It was fantastic!  The Mr. Grant’s questions were actually good (not softballs), and people from all over the island called in to the show, many of them because their bank accounts have been frozen due to the investigation.  They were NOT happy.

If you have some extra time, I highly recommend listening to a recording of that episode here.  It’s worth it.

It’s wonderful to hear and see people being engaged, rather than feeling apathetic about so many things in their country that they feel they can’t have an impact on.  But no matter where you go in the world, half of the people still don’t know that you have to TURN YOUR RADIO DOWN when you call in to the station.

Sheesh.

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