Sunday May 30,2010 Off

The picture is of Grand Anse Bay taken from a high point in St. George's.

Today was an off day. It was a beautiful day and a day I felt I could get caught up with things a bit. My day started with a swim in the sea. I typically go in the morning and am home by lunch time. Today I swam the farthest yet....I swam out to the 3rd buoy! It was a pretty amazing feeling and it is pretty intense (for me) to be out that far. My fears arise when I get past where the water is clear. Being a Jaws fan...it's hard to keep sharks out of my mind!!! Also, there is a bit of anxiety as I think "what if something goes wrong and I get a cramp, or suddenly realize I can't make it back in," there is no way anyone can help in time. It's about 250 yards out with small waves. That probably doesn't sound far, but when I first arrived here, I looked out there and thought "NO WAY!!"

When I returned home, I began preparing Mutton soup. I must say it was horrible! I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I used too much salt for one thing. And mutton is a very oily meet...maybe I should have boiled it in a separate pot and then transferred it to my broth....in any event, I was not happy with it!

After lunch, I cleaned and did laundry and began working on my Volleyball Report. I finished recapping my Itinerary for the IOC report, which was a significant accomplishment and something I wanted to get done. I'm a 'checklist' person and always feel good when I get things done according to schedule. Lists also makes me feel in control and less stressed as it gives me a plan for the day.

After finishing the report, I got to relax in the evening.

Monday begins my last week in Grenada. We will have national team trainings all week and possibly some secondary school visits. I may also have some visit-ending goodbye visits so I must prepare for full days every day.

I miss Joan and Lexi, Liza and Cole and am anxious to return home. It has been an adventurous, exciting, challenging, lonely 6 weeks without them and new adventures await.

Today I must get a portion of my report done, and also make a trip to the store for some minor groceries. Today we have men's national team practice and I'm not sure what else....Nanan is holding me in suspense!!

I met a very unique individual the other day with my favorite name ever.....Mango Dog!

Repect and Love.

Sat May 29, 2010 Junior National practice and Beach

On the right is a picture of the most beautiful tree in Grenada. The Flambouyant tree. This tree produces the national flower. It is in full bloom now and is seasonal, which surprises me because I assumed things bloomed year-round here because of the weather.

On Saturday, we had junior national boys and girls practice. The teams are selected now for the most part and both teams are impressive. Each have good athleticism and the girls have good size. The boys are very athletic and i would consider the team of average size at best. However, they make up for that with very good ball-handling skills and powerful, controlled hitting. Practice was from 9am to 12pm. Of course it began raining at 9am and we were forced to find shelter until about 9:30. We swept the court when it stopped and began practice at around 10am. Today, we focused on position specialization, switching, play calling, and team play. It is difficult because we had both the boys and girls team together and only one net. But practice went well and the boys are really starting to understand the switching concept.

They have a big practice match against the Men's National team on wednesday that we hope will be televised live. I think it should be a great match, however, I expect the Men's team to win. They are a bit more advanced and have been practicing longer. But there is a lot of talent on this junior team and actually four of the young men will make the senior national team (three may start!!).

After practice, Nanan and I took a drive to St. David to eat. The day before he bought a string of live crabs (6 on a string) and took them to a friends house to cook. She made Calilou soup with crab, breadfruit, yams, and dumplings. It was incredible!!! The crab tastes almost like lobster and the soup was delicious.

After that, he brought me home and of course I prepared to go to the beach. It was about 4:15pm when I arrived at the beach and it was crowded. I like my morning trips better because of the privacy. But, it was cool and very beautiful. The sea seems even more calm in the evening and I watched the sun set. The water seemed much cooler as well. I walked home and spent the evening relaxing.

Sunday, I plan to go for a morning swim in the sea, return to my house and clean a bit (sand and these little worms/bugs everywhere), and then I will cook. I've been marinating lamb and plan to either make a mutton soup or mutton and rice. I'm actually looking forward to preparing it.

Then I need to work on my Volleyball report. Time is passing quickly and my report must be be of the highest quality.

Revelations:

I actually feel healthier than I have in years. My weight is down and I feel very comfortable. Actually I feel 15 years younger. I've decided to write about the "Grenadian Diet" Not that's it's actually a "diet" per se...but more of a lifestyle. But it works and is partly how everyone here maintains their youthful look. Here is what I have learned:

• They eat two big meals a day and one light snack/meal. They eat a big breakfast and big lunch. For dinner (their light meal), they have porridge, cereal, fruits, or something light.
• They eat fruit all day and even use it as a source of water. The fruit is always fresh and right from the tree.
• No junk food...since I have been here, I've had only a few pieces of chocolate and that is it! No junk food period! I really haven't missed it at all. (except ice cream....I love ice cream!)
• Soup, Soup, Soup! I have eaten more soup since I've been here than in my entire life. The soup always has vegetables and meat (pork, chicken, fish).
  
• No red meats (I will not be able to sustain this because I LOVE red meat!)
• Fish - I eat fish at least five times a week for one meal (yesterday I had a fish sandwich for breakfast)
  
• Cook - There are not many fast food restaurants so most people cook for themselves every day. I find this very healthy, enjoyable, and it helps you eat right.
• I don't have a lot of food in the house - mainly because I don't have frig space and food doesn't stay fresh long in the heat if left out, so I simply don't have much food around to snack on. I found this tough at first, but now don't even think about it.
• Get a tan - a tan hides many flaws and tightens the skin or something. It makes a big difference
• Show some skin - going to the beach and wearing a swimming suit makes you aware of how you look. Once you start looking good, you want more!
• water - I only drink water and juice...only 1 soda in 6 weeks. (and maybe a carib or two :) I'm not a big soda drinker anyway, so this was easy, but it makes a big difference. That includes NO diet soda!
• Be outside and active - I find being active and working outside keeps you busy and I am not as hungry. The more I lay around and relax, the more I lay around and eat.
• Heat - It is very hot here and that influences my appetite I think...sometimes it's just too hot to eat much
• Go Liming - Not really....I threw this in there for fun :)
  
• Eat pig tail and snouts - Ha Ha!!....because I really don't like either, it kept me from eating a lot on many occasions. So put some in your soup, and grab a smaller bowl!
• Don't eat late - I'm not sure if this theory is accurate, but because I typically don't get home until after 8:30pm every evening, I have not been eating dinners. I'm guessing this has helped quite a bit. Or, it is helping simply because I am really only eating two big meals.
• Go for walks daily - my walk to the beach is approximately 3 miles round trip....not much but a lot of hills. I actually enjoy this peaceful time now.
  
• Some of this may sound like you could only do it if you lived here, but I have learned "lifestyle" is the most important part to being healthy. Anyone can adopt a healthy life style. It is a choice. I need to simply stop making excuses about "why it is hard" and "how it cannot work" and begin to look positively at things and Make things happen. Life is short, it's time to stop wasting my days, and time to start enjoying.
  

That is it for today. Grab some fruit, make some soup, go for a walk, and have a wonderful Grenadian day!

Respect and Love.

Friday May 28, 2010 GVA meeting and on the Lime

Today, we had the morning off and I had another opportunity to walk to the beach. The beach was beautiful and the water calm. It is the clearest water I have ever seen. So clear, that when standing in water up to my neck, I can look down and see the tan line from my sandals on my feet.

Nanan came over at 2pm to meet and discuss the Adidas order. We narrowed down the roster, determined sizes and styles, and today placed the order!! Now we wait and hope there are no issues and that delivery arrives on time.

At 4:30p, we arrived at the Ministry for a Grenadian Volleyball Association (GVA) meeting. No one else was there yet so we watched West Indies vs. South Africa cricket. West Indies lost and in many opinions, did not compete well. Most Grenadians seem frustrated with their West Indies cricket team and feel they are underperforming. I've concluded people are more likely to follow and talk about you if you are very good, or very bad. And if you're very bad, they won't be talking or following for long.

The meeting finally got started at about 5:20 when everyone arrived. There was a good turnout and the discussion focused on what the Association needed to do to help volleyball survive and thrive on the Island. The meeting concluded at 7:30pm.

Afterwards, Nanan and I went liming. We ended up at his brother's grill, eating barbeque and drinking a carib or two. We also walked up to a nearby 'dance' bar. His brother located his grill, and it is simply a grill on wheels with five gallon buckets of chicken to cook, at the bottom of the hill to get late night 'disco' traffic. The dance hall was smaller than I thought and they do not turn the lights on inside. There is only a light over the bar...the dance floor is dark. To me it was not a very enticing environment, but it allows privacy on the dance floor I'm told. Okay then.

I'm writing a bit slower this morning so please forgive. We have junior national team training from 9-12pm today...I pray for shade and a breeze!

Afterwards, we are eating crab soup and hopefully swimming at the beach or I will watch Nanan play cricket.

Respect and Love.

Thursday May 27, 2010 Meeting, Beach, Women's national team

The picture is of Suzanne (Nanan's girlfriend), Nanan, and Adam holding a breadfruit from a tree growing in Adam's yard. In Grenada, when you're hungry, you go into your yard and pick something to eat. :)

Today we had a meeting at 9am with Mrs. Victor-Bruno to discuss my visit and to review my report and recommendation for volleyball in Grenada. What report???? I thought I was to submit this during my last week before departure. She is leaving on Ministry business for a week and will not return before I leave. Nanan informed me at about 3pm Wednesday that Mrs. Bruno wanted a rough draft of my "report and recommendations" for this meeting. What?????? Bless you Nanan.

No problem. Unfortunately we had practice from 3pm-8pm that day so that would not leave much time to prepare. Nanan let me work on the report during the early practice session and that helped a lot. I have two notebooks full of notes, now it is time to begin organizing. I have decided to write a strategic plan for volleyball in Grenada. I will separate into four parts:

• Secondary Schools
• National Teams
• Club Volleyball
• Grenada Volleyball Association
  

I will analyze each part, cite my findings, and then try and construct a workable plan for the continued development of volleyball. My challenge will be to keep it realistic. It must include actions that are reasonable and with long term benefit. This report will be submitted to the Ministry of Sports, the Grenadian Olympic Committee, and the International Olympic committee. Mrs. Bruno is already talking of a return trip next year to follow up...I must do a good job to make sure this happens. Nanan and I have been working very hard and I feel tremendous progress is being made. Both national teams are doing well and I am very proud of them and how far we have come in a short time. I wish I could be with them at their tournament. My focus for the development of volleyball in Grenada will be on the Club structure.

So the meeting went very well. Mrs. Bruno is an exceptional lady and a Get-it-Done type personality. I like and respect that. In the afternoon, Nanan gave me some time at the beach....thank you Father! (that is his phrase) It was great. I went for my normal swim and find I am becoming much stronger and my stamina has increased greatly. The rain brings out rain flies though and they are irritating! Pssstrgnt. Dang...still don't have the stroop.

I had conversation with Adidas and efforts are slowly progressing. In the evening, we had practice with the women's national team and are selecting the team. It is really an exciting night.

Practice started with our 3 person switching ball control drill. We gave them a goal of 20 consecutive rallys. We made it on our first try!!!! I am amazed, impressed, and proud of these wonderful ladies! We then mixed up teams and for the most part, scrimmaged the entire evening. It was good volleyball and crowds continue to grow and watch. My team lost twice to Nanan, but I feel he cheated on the score and I had to ask for a neutral scorekeeper!!! :) We are two-of-a-kind! We won the third set to redeem ourselves.

The roster is set and we have a very good team. Nanan said he feels the team is much more prepared and is already competing at a higher level than last year. Our strengths are becoming ball control and defense. We have very good outside hitters (Maggini and Metric), good middles (Jenny and Rechelle...who is becoming a stud!), a good young right side in Latisha or Alty or Tara, and good setting with Betty Ann and Nieve. We are not a powerful hitting team, but we are smart and have good 'gamers.' And as a coach, I would take a team like that into battle any day.

Observations:

• My teeth seem whiter and I finally figured out why....my lips are sunburnt and make them look whiter!

• The salty sea water makes me more buoyant. That is why I float better. And here I thought I was becoming a better swimmer!!!!

• I drank water from the 'pipe' at the Carenage Wednesday and spent from 3am-4am in the bathroom that night!!!!

• I must eat a pig tail and snout before i leave...did I really say that!?!?!?

• I've named my rooster friend Colonel Sanders!

• I'm marinating Mutton in the fridge to cook later today. I can't wait to bring my new cooking skills home!!!

• The rum is strong here!!!!

• I prefer Carib to gatorade.....And a note to my landlord....some of those empty Carib bottles lined on the shelf were there before i got here!!!!!!

It's Friday....tonight we Lime!!!

Respect and Love.

Wednesday May 26, 2010 Meeting and Men's National team

Sorry for the delay posting. My internet was down yesterday. Six weeks ago, this would have bothered me greatly and I would have been upset, rattled, and making calls and knocking on doors to get it fixed. After being in Grenada this long, I am much more relaxed, realize some things you can control and some you can't, and let it be. I'm not saying I've changed while here...but I hope. Also my kitchen light has been out for 4 days and my propane just went out in my stove...no cooking today. Pssssngt. I just tried to stroop. Ever tried to spell a sound????

The lifestyle suits me. It is calm, simple (not like simple-minded, but rather... not many complications), there is not as much focus on money or tangible goods, and I really enjoy the closeness/friendships of the people. It is a much different culture than what I am used to and the relationships between men and women are different, but variety is a spice. Living in Grenada as a man is like hanging out with your buddies all day long. Some of the men I've met are married, but many are not. Both are equally accepted.

It is the rainy season in Grenada. When I first arrived, the dry season was just ending and the Island was experiencing one of the worst droughts in recent memory. It was very brown and water was scarce. The dry season is definitely over! It has rained every day this week and nearly every day the week before. When it rains, it does not rain for long, maybe 15 minutes to an hour for a long shower. Sometimes it rains hard, and other times light. It seems to rain every night while I'm sleeping. Wednesday, we had a long hard rain from about 8am-11am. It was actually nice because it forced me to stay in that morning and there was a nice breeze. By 5pm, the hard court was dry. We had men's national team practice tonight and it went well. We continued our work on switching (position specialization), our audible system of play calling, and team defense. We also focused on individual defensive position footwork. We slowly incorporated this into team defensive play and then ran modified scrimmages toward the end of practice. The men continue to improve and are becoming very good. How good???? We don't know. We need a scrimmage. Next week we plan to have the Senior National team play the Junior national team. I am very excited for this. The Junior national team has nearly as much talent, but not the experience or the team play yet. It will be a great match and we are hopeful the local television station will come and televise it. This could make for great exposure.

Respect and Love.

Tuesday May 25, 2010 Women's national team

The pictures are a flashback to Monday of the food booth the volleyball team ran at the beach. The bottom picture is of the guys selling food and drink. The guy in red is Andy Best. He's a great guy, a middle/right side hitter on the team, and always brings me a mango at practice. I really appreciate that. He's also a tax collector by day. The top picture is a behind the scenes look at how they prepare the food. They're making soup and hamming it up for the camera. Keith is the rasta man on the left, Peter (outside hitter/ds) is on the left stirring the soup, Junior (setter/middle/outside) is breaking sticks to put in the fire, and Patrick is 'supervising' from behind the wall. It was chicken soup and was delicious!

I spent Tuesday at home working on the adidas equipment, relaxing my sore muscles from playing the day before, and getting ready for women's national team practice in the evening. The adidas order is progressing well and I am pleased so far. My goal is to have everything ordered before I leave. It appears unlikely anything will arrive before I leave but that is okay. I will detail the order once we get it finalized.

Practice tonight was difficult. It rained most of the day and began raining hard again at 4:30 and rained until about 5:30pm. Our practice was scheduled from 5pm-7:30pm. We stayed at the court under shelters during the rain but did not want to cancel practice because so many of the athletes traveled far to come. Some had to pay bus fare to come. So we waited. Finally it stopped. We got out brooms and swept the court of all standing water. It was still very slippery so we did 'slow' transition footwork reps to create muscle memory. We then walked through base defense and team defense positions. Finally at about 6:50pm we got out the balls and served a minute to get loose and then scrimmaged, working on serve receive plays and switching and team defense. The starting six are getting VERY GOOD!!! Ball handling is much improved and our setting is also greatly improved (BettyAnn is doing a remarkable job and becoming a leader on the team...she is very positive and relates well with everyone). Rechelle and Jenny are terrific middles and Rechelle may be the best athlete and volleyball player on the team. Metric and Maggini are our outside hitters and both have excellent ball control and are our 'loud talkers.' Latisha is young, but developing quickly as a right side hitter. We do not have a libero at this time.... and really don't need one. We need a scrimmage game to see exactly where we are and what weaknesses we have.

It rained hard last night again...so hard it woke me up. That is very unusual as I am a sound sleeper and that is the first time I have seen it rain this hard here. The dry season is definitely over and everything is turning green again. What was once a brown, dry landscape looking to the west from my porch, is now becoming green and beautiful.

I made soup yesterday and it was delicious!!! I cooked chicken soup (with the bone).

I'm getting used to the heat. I'm able to keep the air conditioner off longer and am down to only two showers a day!

Still no "stroop"....

Happy Birthday Joan!

Respect and Love.