Reflections on Grenada – June 2009

Hello, welcome to the June blog! The Rainy season has now firmly established itself in Grenada. Apart from the teeming rain showers of some two to ten minutes (a few are longer!) the temperature here for the first time is “escalating” as much as seven or eight degrees daily! You may well chuckle but that’s the difference between cool and wet with little or no humidity and warm and wet with one hundred percent humidity. I guess you have to experience it! Needless to say, from now until the 30th of November is the hurricane season too. We hear stories of Ivan in 2004 and Emily in 2005 and listen attentively as well as with some apprehension to them. Hurricane Ivan (the Terrible) was the strongest hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season; it is the sixth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record and reached Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, the strongest possible category. The wind speeds were greater than 249 km/hr and, at its peak, Ivan was the size of the state of Texas in the U.S.A. It killed 39 people on Grenada and did some two billion dollars (Can) worth of damage. Schools were closed for upwards of two months and power, sewer and water services took up to six months to be restored in some places. Some people were without food for two to three weeks. Without the efforts of outside Governmental agencies, N.G.O.s, Churches and people from around the world many more lives would have been extinguished. Hurricane Emily, in contrast, was a pussycat. Emily was a Category 2 hurricane with winds from 154-177 km/hr. It mostly affected the northern parishes of St. Patrick’s and St. Andrew’s. One fatality was recorded. Emily was one of the earliest hurricanes ever when it hit on Thursday the 14th of July, 2005. Unfortunately, it damaged the newly planted trees from the disaster in 2004 that bear the fruit and spice that are such vital ingredients of the Grenadian economy.

This has been a short month for us as we spent a vacation with our birth families in the U.K. Compare and contrast the two Islands? No thanks! It was a time of rest though and a time of renewing old and new (an almost two year old great-niece) family relationships. We both enjoyed the complete lack of humidity! We intend, God willing, to visit with our family and friends in Canada in October over Thanksgiving. Now that will be an interesting time to compare and contrast the both of us in the settings we call home.

The Graduating Class of 2009 took its farewell from MacDonald College this last week. The stars of the event were obviously the Class but the efforts of the entire school staff made it a truly memorable event in the life of each member of the Class. The Graduation process took three hours from the Processional/Invocation to the Benediction/Recessional. We sang the National Anthem and the School Song, heard some welcoming remarks from the two young teachers who were M.C.s and listened to the Principle Mr. James I. Alexander as he talked about the events which the Class had gone through together. Academic and Sports awards were made to members of the Class as well as others in the school. Words of wisdom about the new challenges they were about to face were offered by Mr. Agar Alexander, a retired Deputy Minister of Education. The diplomas were presented by the Hon. Joseph Gilbert, Minister of Works and Mrs. A. James, member of the Board of Education. The Class chose to sing as their Class Song “Tears are not enough”. The words hung out there as a challenge, “If we can pull together, we could change the world forever, heaven knows that tears are not enough.” Gifts were presented to some of the well-loved teachers and the Valedictory Address given by Shannel Swan. It was a lovely process, just the right mix of solemn, sad, joy and laughter. Some fifty girls graduated together with some twenty boys. A great percentage of them will find success off the Island rather than on it. Will some relative help them get a “Green Card” for the United States and an education at a University there? When I asked how many planned on staying in Grenada the hands that were raised could be counted on the fingers of one of mine. I thought of how Canada had given our family the opportunity to be well educated and the freedom of choice we experience in so many of life’s fields and I prayed a little harder for the Graduates after pronouncing the Benediction.

Paul, writing to the Philippians says that “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice” (4:9). Paul was writing to the Philippians about a particularly vigorous type of Christian living. The letter is also full of the word joy. The Graduation we witnessed begs an enormous amount of questions about the future of the Class, as it does about the future of other young people across the world at this time of economic turmoil. What does the Class have to guide it on its life’s journey? What is there to guide us on our own journey? How about the thought that Jesus would not have been able to offer his unique perspective on God’s relationship with the world nor would he have been able to fulfill his life’s purpose without his ability to develop into an individual or what someone once taught me to think of as a separate self. Jesus developed a sense of individuality yet maintained a sense of community and connectedness with his roots. This meant that he experienced the joy of bringing a new perspective to life, faith and the truths he taught about them while remaining within his history and tradition. Combine Jesus’ teaching and life example and Paul’s solid advice to his fellow Christians and joy, great joy can be found. None of us are the only act in town. The world is working together, more than ever, for the common good. Joy is found in being who we are, a child of God, not conforming to some image of who we ought to be in the eyes of others. Frederick Buechner says that vocation “is the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.” We are all on earth to be the gifts God created. Feel the joy of it.

Pray, please, for our freedom from anxiety over the forces of nature and for a trouble free move into the manse as it finally nears completion. Pray also for our continuing adjustments to the culture of our new Island home.