This Weekend In Grenada

After living here for over two months now I can truly say that this island is something else. I am beginning to learn that NOTHING will ever go according to plan and you just have to be okay with it. There is no schedule to follow no matter how hard you try and you just have to be flexible. But at the same time these are qualities that will prepare us for our lives as physicians. No patient will EVER be the textbook case, no day will go completely according to plan and flexibility is key! Life lessons of Grenada.

This weekend was really an experience. After midterms my closest friend and I decided to make a reservation to go to dinner. We picked our favorite restaurant on the island and dressed up and were ready to go. We enjoyed a night of good food and good friends and spent some time mingling with our bigger group later on.

On Saturday we planned on sleeping in and heading to the beach for a day in the sun. We haven’t taken a day off from studying since we got here so going to the beach was going to be such a treat and Saturday was going to be that day. After a torrential downpour in the morning we hopped on the bus and hoped the sun would come out. We stationed ourselves on the beach and made the best of the overcast weather until the sky went from this….

To this….

About 50 yards away on the other side of the beach it was pouring and the rain was going sideways. And within 2 minutes the storm made it our way. We had to run for cover underneath an overhang for about 30 minutes until the torrential downpour cleared up enough for us to even make it outside without being soaked. Our beach day was over.

So I went grocery shopping and headed back to campus and came home to find my dorm completely dark. The power had been out for over two hours at that point. There is no such thing as a back up generator either so you have to wait it out. As you all know when there is no power there is also no Wifi so there is no way to study, no way to contact friends and family (most of my friends on campus do not have Grenadian phones either so you really can’t contact anyone).

Thankfully the power came back soon after and I was able to put my groceries away but wifi never came back… all day long, all night long, and into Sunday. I had planned on spending my one day off firstly in the sun and secondly catching up with friends and family from home who I haven’t been able to because of such a busy schedule. But like I said, nothing will go according to plan and you just have to make it work. Certainly island life is teaching me that you have to roll with the punches, you have to be quick on your feet (figuratively and literally when you get caught in the middle of a monsoon) and you have to be prepared and not phased by anything and everything.