Crazy Crazy Summer!

So this summer has been INTENSE! We have been back and forth to Utah and organizing all sorts of stuff for Candlelight Serenade (The benefit concert we put on for Child Rescue). It was sooo much work, but at the same time... just so excellent! We had amazing volunteers and help and really put on an awesome show! And we got so much awareness out there.

Child trafficking is such a difficult cause to talk about, but it is very real... right here in North America, so it was great to be able to voice that in a way that causes people to action and not to depression. We had some AMAZING bands! We had Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessionals, Nick Hexum of 311, Relient K, Neon Trees, Vedera, Sherwood, Making April, Priscilla Ahn, Steel Train, Fictionist and Allred, who even wrote a song for the cause that many of the artists came on stage to sing.

Candlelight was such a fun night and definitely the highlight of my summer. I just loved it! Everytime I think about it, it makes me get a little teary-eyed because so many people came together... saw our vision... joined our cause... and helped us on our journey to once again abolish slavery.

Check this out for pictures of Candlelight. or Check out our FB Page. -more pics will be up once I finish setting up our Flickr account.

For ways on how you can volunteer or help out with Child Rescue, check out childrescue.org or contact me.

And the Saga Continues (Part 3)

Sorry this is being dragged out so long but life is crazy and kids have needs! So back to the story....

So we get into the major city and capital (Kingstown, also where my dad and his family grew up) and it reminds me very much of New York! There are street vendors everywhere -a very large marketplace- and half of them are selling bootlegged movies and music! Disney's Princess and the Frog was being pushed quite heavily when they saw Liv lol. It was like I'd said in the first post, such a different world. I loved that you had to interact with people in every setting. Walking down the street there's street vendors, and I love that they're not pushy. St.Vincent isn't uber touristy yet so 90% of the people who go through the markets are locals. So through the markets, you interact with people, at the grocery stores, there's at least 3 or 4 people at the checkouts working the cash, bagging, helping you to your car... I loved it! In Canada I usually favor self-checkouts and ATMS (usually drive-through) but it was so nice to feel so connected to so many people... it reminds you that people are people and I just really enjoyed it! So back to the markets, there was fruit of all kinds, there's a fish market by the harbour (I stayed away) and then you can buy clothes and stuff (all really highly priced and clearly from the states). I think the majority of people there do their shopping in a mixture, purchasing from people on the streets and in the grocery stores.

Market

So we decided to visit family first and then get our groceries before heading back to the guest house. We met up with my mom's cousin at the bank (love that they had ATMS that accepted our cards! We just withdrew and got out some Eastern Caribbean money or EC$ which looked a fair bit like Canadian $... maybe it's 'cause they're a part of the British Commonwealth as well so the Queen was on their moola too.). So my mom's cousin, Calvin was one of the only people I remembered 'cause he had just moved back to the Caribbean from New York and I remember visiting him in the States. So I think he had a busy day that do so we talked for a little bit and then we were off to my Grandpa's.

EC$

So my Grandpa is my Dad's father (my mom's dad died shortly after I was born) and my parents are divorced, but my mom is soo sweet. She gets along really well with my dad's family and she's the one who called and made arrangements to meet up with all of his relatives. Anywho, so it was wonderful to see my Grandpa, he has Glaucoma as does the majority of my dad's side and can hardly see, so it was soo nice to have him be with my children and meet them. He hasn't seen me since I was just a year or two older than Liv, He has pictures from my Dad, but I brought a large photo album with pictures of my family from the birth of Liv till now... don't think I put wedding ones in... but maybe.. can't remember. Anywho, we brought some gifts for him and my aunt Rosie lives with him and takes care of him, but she was working that day so we had a nice visit just with him. The kids just loved him! They sat on his lap and gave him tons of hugs and kisses... it was soo sweet! He happens to be their only great grandfather that's alive now and it was just so wonderful to see them together.... my family!

Grandpa & the Kids

After we visited with my Grandpa, we went back to the market, got the food we needed and then took another van-cab back to Layou (the town where the guest house was and where my mom and Grandma grew up).

So, the guest house wasn't anything extraordinarily beautiful, but it was perfect! It's kinda set up like a motel, each room has 2 double beds, a bathroom with a shower, toilet and sink, a wardrobe to hang clothes in and a TV (only one channel). Our room also had a mini-fridge which was awesome for us 'cause Nixon pounded through a LOT of milk! Our room also adjoined to another room which we had the kids in. So there was about 10 or 12 rooms and then on the main floor, there was a big kitchen with a little rec-room typed thing attached. So we had a fridge and stove and cooked a bunch of our meals, it was really nice not to have to eat out 3 x a day for 2 weeks!

The Guest House


Liv eating in the rec area, my mom cooking in the kitchen, Nixon sitting on the step

One of my favourite things about St.Vincent was how much fruit there was and how green it was! At the base of the guesthouse there was a fairly large open green space with a couple of mango trees, and some orange trees and some lime trees and a fruit called sugar apple, Papaya and Coconut... among some pretty flowers and plants! It was soo neat to see so much that you can use and live off of. When I got home, it seemed like such a waste that we have all these ornamental trees that pretty much don't do anything. Anywho, I just loved how simple it was... we wanted limeade... so we picked some limes and made some juice... we wanted a mango, we went and picked one! I was beginning to think I could live here happily ever after lol... I really didn't miss home at all... just my friends and family!

Some of the Fruits & Flowers that were at the guesthouse

Part Two...

So we get to St.Vincent and it's night time, hot and we're exhausted! It is soo humid and oh the warmth was just wonderful... it was kinda funny, in the airport, there were guys wearing jeans, shirts and thick hoodies... I was slightly confused... Anyways we get there and all we want to do is GO TO SLEEP! Luckily, my uncle who owns the guest house we're staying at had made arrangements for someone to pick us up at the airport. So we get into this big van and drive. I was pretty excited despite the overwhelming exhaustion that was coming on, but I looked out the window and thought it was so amazing to have stepped into such a different world... the people on the streets, the music, the scenery... it was dark, but I could tell how different life there was, sooo different, yet so simple and so beautiful and so inviting.

We finally pulled up to the place, and walked up some stairs, found our room, and went to bed!
The next morning, I showered, got dressed, helped the kids get ready and then Nick came in from outside asking if I'd looked out yet. I hadn't and he insisted that I should. The night before it was soo dark we could hardly tell where we were let alone see any kind of scenery, so I decided to look...

Isn't it beautiful?

I was soo excited... we were in paradise, I was gonna meet my family I hadn't seen in forever and I was just soo excited! So the first day, we made a few phone calls to relatives and then decided to go into town to get some money, food and visit a few people. So.... we decided to hail a cab...

Now cabs in the Caribbean are not your typical taxi... they are people... anyone who'd like to... who buy a 15ish passenger van complete with NO seatbelts, they paint it so you know it's theirs, and then shove as many people as humanly possible into it (like 20 min), charge you all a few bucks and drive as fast and crazy as they possibly can until you tell them where to let you off and do that all day long. So, to enter into such an adventure, you stand on the side of the road and wave at the said death trap, if they aren't full to the max (and sometimes even if they are) they pull over, usually a few feet ahead of you because they're going so fast that they drive past you, and you climb in, sometimes over people and take your seat... or portion thereof. Did I mention that fearing for your life due to the speed and clear negligence for any safety laws was only a small fear as you look out the windows and see the crazily windy roads (purposely built as such to reduce the speed of motor vehicles) and the fact that you're positive you're gonna end up in a head-in collision with some oncoming traffic because you keep forgetting they drive on the left here, but it doesn't really matter because the roads are so narrow that there's no humanly way possible that 2 vehicles can make it going in opposite directions... yet they do... and somehow, miraculously... you survive!