Safe in Grenada

We arrived safely here in Grenada yesterday - decided to forego the $35EC taxi (roughly 2.7 EC per 1USD) and walk the 3 miles from the airport to our guesthouse here in the north side of Grand Anse and a short walk from the famous Grand Anse Beach (2 miles of shoreline!). We thought it'd be about a mile but after asking about a dozen people where our guesthouse was and being sent in different directions, I'd say we walked 5! We haven't made it to the beach yet, although we can see a bit of it out our front door. BUT we have made it to 2 meetings already!

This is the first ever Deaf Awareness Month here in Grenada. Last night we attended a plenary on integrated deaf education and met the principal of the deaf school and a few deaf adults. It was a good time of connecting and we were invited to attend today's all day workshop specifically designed for deaf people here in Grenada. The topic was ethics in the workplace and we were shocked when almost 30 deaf people showed up this morning for the occasion, mainly from the two urban centers: St. George's (the capital) and Grenville (on the east coast, about 20 miles away).

A "classic" moment in our travels happened again last night - About 5 minutes after arriving and meeting the director of the meeting and deaf attendees, I (Liz) was asked to interpret the entire meeting! This has happened in other countries too - but I usually couldn't help much with my limited Spanish. After commenting that I didn't know what kind of sign language they use here in Grenada and that I only know American Sign Language, they nodded and agreed that I could watch the other interpreter who had arrived (but said she was tired) for a few minutes before trying myself with any Grenadian signs I learned during that time. So in the first 15 or so minutes of the meeting, I avidly watched the interpreter and only saw a couple of signs that I wasn't familiar with (she primarily signed in Signed English with some heavy doses of SEE, for those who are interested)! But interestingly, during my conversations with the deaf people beforehand, I never saw them sign any SEE. I offered to interpret for a time expecting to switch out again but the interpreter up and left about 10 minutes later and I ended up interpreting the rest of the meeting!

Although I was glad to help, it made me laugh a bit - here I am, a foreigner coming to INVESTIGATE the sign language situation and I get thrown into interpreting by the people there, hoping that they understand :). It's always a bit awkward to know what's best to do in these situations, but I figure that's it's one way I can give back to the community who are helping us and another way to find out what sign language they know (esp. when they don't seem to be understanding the interpreter anyway - how much worse can I be? :) )!
I got pretty positive feedback that they understood my ASL alright (which I used because I really don't use much SEE at all, and didn't see them use much signed English when I was communicating with them before the meeting).

Never know what'll be expected of you when you show up for a meeting. Good thing I didn't wear polka-dots or plaid. :)