Sun, sea and serious networking!

Well I arrived safely in Grenada on Sunday. The warmth of the Caribbean weather was a welcome experience after an early morning start (Which began with an alarm clock at 4am!). I was fortunate to meet up with two delegates attending the Caribbean Studies Association conference (Pic 1) which would herald the start of my Fellowship.

We happened to sit next to each other on the plane and with an 8 hour flight ahead I used my usual approach of talking to complete strangers to break the ice. This ploy has worked well for me in all areas of the world and an international flight from Gatwick to Grenada was no exception. By the time we landed in Grenada, they were fully versed on the Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship, prostate cancer and Caribbean men's health risks...............I am not even sure if they really wanted to know all that but I took my ambassadorial role seriously! Dawn, one of the women I met was even busier than I, completing her PhD and studying for her Bar exam at the same time ( and I thought I was busy). The most fortunate thing abut meeting Dawn, apart from her infectious sense of fun, duty and hard work was that she was Grenadian!! This was good for me as someone who did not know the island. So I traded information about my Fellowship for tips on traveling, shopping and local history of the Island. Information which would hopefully speed my acculturation to the "Spice Island'- A good tip for other WCT fellows and anyone else crossing the Globe alone, Talk talk talk!!!!

On touching down in Grenada and following Dawn's advice I arrived safely at the conference, meeting up with colleagues from 6 different islands on the Caribbean communities (Caricom) also with a colleague I knew from Manchester University (another Dawn!!). The only thing left to do was to check out the local beach (Pic 2 and 3) and watch the sun go down on a day of traveling (Pic 4) . At 11pm local time I was struggling to stay awake and wondered why I was flagging so 'early'  - that was until I realised that the 5 hour time difference meant it was 4am as far as my body clock was concerned....................I'd been up 24hours and travelled across several time zones...........Tomorrow was a full day of activity. Time for bed I think.