Saying Goodbye, Sunrise over St. George's and Flying home!

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Hello everyone,
I am back in Canada now after a three week experience of a lifetime in Grenada. I will just recap the past couple of days to finish off this travel blog.

Friday at St. Ervans was a beautiful day of reflection and hanging out with friends. We had reports and a newsletter as well as thank you cards to put together for CANACOM in the morning. We then had a reflective walk around the property of the retreat centre thinking about different things and reading some scripture passages with our friends. We also shared and committed to our mission type projects for home. I am going to be looking at helping with music with youth and children at my church and continuing to look for ways to develop my music ministry through leading and songwriting. At school I am going to look at opportunities for the Christian Fellowship and other student organizations to continue to look at ways to serve and work with our local community and abroad on issues that matter to them in changing the world. It was a nice time that culminated in a guided meditation activity and then worship, and feet washing. For those of you who don't know, this is a Christian tradition that symbolizes preparedness to embark on a journey and in symbolizing a "cleansing" of sorts to commit to doing service in the world. I played some of the music and sang with the team with La'au and Joel. It was beautiful. Many of us had tears streaming down our faces as we realized the importance of these rituals and how special it was to share in these together.

In the afternoon, I went for a walk to the market with friends for a Coke-comes in a glass bottle and made from sugar cane-yummy! We laughed and chatted the way up the hill on the return- a great opportunity to hang out.

In the evening we had saltfish for dinner and bread (yet again), followed by a service which included some music, sharing, communion, prayers and reflection. Our favourite songs were sung and we all received certificates and gives of spices and jam from the local planning committee. We also lit candles and placed them on a map of the world to symbolize where we came from and how we will go home to shine a light and make a difference in our home communities.

We spent the rest of the night hanging out and jamming to Richard Marx songs and others. We were leaving St. Ervans for the airport at 3:30a.m. because some people had flights to catch at 6.

It was a sad goodbye with all my now close friends from around the world, but promises to write, stay in touch and travel to each other's countries in the near future. There is no doubt I will be back in the Caribbean soon and will look forward especially to trips to New Zealand, Wales, Guyana and hopefully Madagascar someday.

Saturday morning we got into St. George's and Knox HOuse around 545 after dropping off some friends at the airport. The had yet to appear so we climbed up to Fort George nearby to watch it rise together-Daf from Wales, Rachel from Hong Kong, and Lindsey and Mike from Canada. It was beautiful as it appeared from behind the mountain and shone a light over the harbour. Daf, Mike and I then went for a walk downtown as Lindsey and Rachel rested. We sat on the dock near the fish market and chatted about how important this workcamp in Grenada had been and how it had changed our perspectives on life and how getting to know the other participants has taught us so much. A fitting end to our journey.

We headed to the airport shortly after breakfast and waited for our plane to arrive from Trinidad to go to Barbados. It was late, of course. Island time! Which meant that the customs line in Barbados was so long and that we almost missed our plane. But, in typical island time and situation, we checked our luggage, went in and out of Barbadian immigration, checked through security, hugged Daf and Rachel goodbye and ran to the plane just in time. The flight was uneventful and we arrived home around 9:30p.m.

As I got home and have been doing some errands today I continue to be struck by how much privilege I have to be living in Canada with a stable home, job, family, access to public transportation, a stable bank account and clothes to wear. I have learned through this experience that all of those things matters little, so long as you have what you need. I have also learned that at times we need to slow down, offer a hand, or a dollar, or as I did, a pair of shoes to someone who needs them. I am very grateful and feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to go to work and learn and live in Grenada, thanks to the United Church of Canada and the Caribbean and North American Council for Mission and I know that my friends around the world are equally as grateful. We built a strong community in Grenada full of diversity, shared gifts and talents and based on love and respect for one another. In returning home from Grenada, I have new eyes and new ears by which I can see and hear the world. I have walked down new pathways, learned and reflected much, taken some risks and build strong relationships with people, and have grown in my faith and in my desire to be open to new challenges whenever they may come. In gratitude, I will never be the same.

Blessings and thanks to all of you for your support, prayers, encouragement, interest and love in following my blogs and in posting messages of support.

I will look forward to seeing you all and sharing more stories, that I didn't document here, as they are more personal-yet worth hearing and sharing photos also of this awesome adventure.

love you all, see you soon.

Katy

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