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Published: August 3rd 2008
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Sorry its been so long since i put up a blog. The internet here was being sketch AGAIN, and I just now got it to work again after being almost all week without it.
Excavation went well this week...we were only rained out on Monday. I was at grand bay all week and I even got to work on a human burial with Scott B (the bioarchaeologist from Eckard who is here with us). The burial was really interesting...there are TWO skulls and one body! Scott thinks it could be evidence for ancestor worship in the caribbean (no, not a two headed person!).
Since my last entry, I FINALLY managed to get my hair braided. The women in the shop looked at me like I was mildly insane, but its cool. This just isn't a touristy place where the local people are trying to cater to outsiders. I was talking to John Swogger (the illustrator for the project who has worked here for 2 yrs) and he says that if the people tried to cater to tourists they could make a killing. This group alone probably brings in INSANE amounts of money to the island not to mention all
of the rich yahters who come here for the regatta who are just DYING to spend their money here. The problem is that there is nothing to buy! You guys are going to wonder why I won't be bringing any Carriacou t-shirts or that kind of thing back with me...its because they don't exist! There are no tourist shops here at all. Part of me likes it that way because it feels like its more authentic. But it also bothers me that their "authentic" state here in Carriacou is to not be nice to outsiders. Its kind of weird actually. About half the people on the island yell at us in the street that we havent said "hello" to them or will yell something like "hey white girl". A lot of people just pretty much ignore us completely. Like the woman downstairs at the store. She KNOWS the directors of the program and probably knows who all of us this year are, but she NEVER smiles, makes eye contact or says a word. But I guess some of the people on the program arent really polite either. Most of the girls complain a lot about local guys harassing them so
they completely ignore all locals. Its a really interesting cultural clash...but anyways, I digress...
Yesterday I did something freakin sweet. I swam from an island in the bay to the beach in Hillsborough as part of a charity swim event. I did it with another guy from the group (plus like 12 locals) and we raised about $60 bucks or so for youth programs on the island. The fun part was that the island was about a MILE away! I was pretty impressed with myself that I was able to do the whole thing since I haven't swam since high school and even when I did, I was mildly terrible. Even though a mile swim sounds pretty grueling, it was actually pretty fun...reminds me why I used to swim in the first place. Its cool to look out over the balcony and see the island and know that I swam that whole distance. But I guess I cant feel TOO proud of myself...there were like 4 kids under 10 from the local swim team who swam the whole way too...and beat me!!
The Carriacou Regatta is happening this weekend. Unfortunately, most of the big events are happening in
Tyrell Bay on the other side of the island, but there are still cool things going on here too. They had an awesome steel drum band playing yesterday, and theres a donkey race on Monday!
We went to the boat dock yesterday right after I was finished with the swim to see the British students off. I'm really going to miss them, they are all really fun girls. We had an awesome party for them on Friday night. At the very least, now I have someone to stay with if I ever want to go to London! Seeing them leave reminds me that I've only got a short time left as well...I can't believe its my last week already! We only have 3 more days of excavation, then backfilling, then we leave Carriacou on Friday afternoon. Sad times.
That's all for now...
--ALR
P.S. I had to take my braids out yesterday too...they got really messed up from the swim and they were getting pretty gross from a week's wear. There are some funny pictures of the taking out process for your enjoyment.
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