TAMCC Day!

We arrived at the college this morning with a bagful of emotions – excitement, nervousness, curiosity, and uncertainty!  We were greeted at room #10 by our faculty hosts – Lorine and Andrea.  We also met a wonderful lady named Louisa…she has a very motherly presence and is well respected with the faculty.  We were welcomed by the Dean, Associate Dean and 2 other faculty.  Five students from a variety of programs (arts, pharmacy and business) were part of the TAMCC group. 

We started the morning with introductions and an ice breaker.  This started the conversations and got our students mixing well with everyone.  Janet and I taught some lessons that will help the project this week.  We both felt good with the results and interest from the participants.  The NSCC students did a full presentation to the group after lunch and the TAMCC students had lots of questions about NS. 

But the highlight for me was listening to Dr. Nicole Phillip-Dowe.  She did a fabulous presentation about the history of Grenada.  The country has plenty of history to learn and the TAMCC students even admitted that they didn’t know much of their own history.  The reason is that they are still heavily influenced by British curriculum in school.  I learned more about the US invasion/intervention that occurred in the early 1980’s.  Your perspective of this historical event depends on whether you call it an intervention or invasion.

Dr. Phillip-Dowe is lovely, warm, and captivating to listen to. She is very accomplished in her career.  She currently works at the University of West Indies (a recent appointment).  We are hoping she will join us again for some social time.  I found an article about her on line from 2011 – a great snapshot of her professional career:

http://spiceislander.com/?p=4534

At our debrief tonight with the NSCC students, it was proven that the day was very fulfilling.  The preparation and assignments these students completed leading up to the trip finally made sense to them (and me!).  Nova Scotia has a rich and diverse culture and NSCC students were able to share this with our Grenadian colleagues.  They also were able to find similarities between our province and the Isle of Spice.  Learning was very evident today.

Here are a few shots of the TAMCC campus. 

Let’s talk food!  I ate so many wonderful things today – rice and lentils, okra, BBQ chicken, BBQ marlin with garlic sauce, spicy ratatouille, plantain, watermelon, papaya, and the list goes on.  I also discovered nutmeg jelly for toast in the morning - so delicious.  I will need to get to the grocery store to track this down for sure. 

Grenada fact of the day:

Kirani James is a famous Olympian…do you know why? 

http://www.olympic.org/kirani-james

You will find the answer in the link above.