WAIT Initiation Trip
Grenada and Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies
March 5th-24th, 2007
Written by Cathlene Bell
Week One: Grenada – Spreading the Word
After several hours of travel, we touched down in St. George’s, Grenada, where we were enthusiastically greeted by our host, Rev. Roddy Portelance of Sudbury, ON - as well as four of his seven children! Rev. Portelance, a longtime missionary in this small but beautiful country, wasted no time in verbally acquainting us with the history and culture of Grenada. We returned to our home for the next two weeks, and slept soundly, awaiting the next day’s events.
On Tuesday, three representatives participated in a press conference with two television stations and one newspaper. Media exposure to such a professional degree was a new experience for WAIT, but we recognized it as a very valuable opportunity to share our message on an even larger scale. We were also finally able to meet Linda Straker, AIDS educator and freelance journalist, who help coordinate all of our performances and meetings. Next, the representatives visited the Grenadian National AIDS Council, the facility in which national statistics are calculated, and new awareness campaigns are developed. The Director, Mrs. Carolyn Alexis-Thomas, provided WAIT with valuable information about the HIV/AIDS situation in Grenada.
We then traveled upwards to an old wooden building perched high in the mountains of St. George’s, which housed the PAM – Programme for Adolescent Mothers. We met with five girls, aged 15-17. After showing them a few clips of our performance DVD, we talked with them at length about the social issues relating to HIV/AIDS. Though at first it was difficult to understand the heavy Caribbean accent, the hearts of the young girls shone through. One girl shared about her newfound commitment to abstinence, and her determination to share the message of abstinence with others, in spite of her precarious daily circumstances. Inspired to become forces of change, the girls were eager to learn more about WAIT. We agreed to work on the skit, and figured out parts that the girls would learn. Half an hour later, all five girls were proficient in at least one skit part. We told them about our performance the following day, and asked if they would perform with us. They heartily agreed. We left PAM with a new sense of hope, knowing that the youth of Grenada are willing to take on this mission.
The representatives returned home, where the remaining contingent had worked hard all day to prepare for tomorrow’s performance. After dinner, we continued with internal preparations by giving the Portelance family the WAIT Powerpoint, and conveying the serving heart necessary for a successful performance. We got to put the training to work sooner then we expected, as the McDonald family (friends of the Portelances) dropped by to visit. We pulled together an impromptu performance, which blew the McDonalds away. They were then inspired to share their musical talents with us, as the family sang and played guitar to a number of church choruses. It was a perfect end to a very fulfilling day.
On Wednesday morning, we continued to prepare for the evening’s performance at the Grenadian Red Cross Building, which would be attended by several high ranking government officials. We set off for the Red Cross Building at 3:00, while Uncle Roddy drove to PAM to pick up the girls we worked with the day before.
We had about an hour before the performance was scheduled to start, so we rehearsed the skit with the PAM girls and Ariel Straker, the 15 year old daughter of Linda Straker. As we wrapped up rehearsal, the members of our first Grenadian audience began to trickle in.
Our inaugural event began with opening remarks from several pastors and government officials. One notable speaker was Senator Ann David-Antoine, who firmly emphasized the importance of positive choice-making in the battle against HIV/AIDS. We then did our full performance. For most of our team members, this was their first performance, and it went very well. We received lots of positive feedback and requests for trainings, and as we packed up to leave, we were confident that our victory in this performance was a sign of things to come.
On Thursday, we returned to the PAM Center – this time, to perform for the entire school. Our PAM trainees again joined us in the skit and gameshow, and they also performed a dance to Richie Spice’s “Children are Crying Out for Love.” It was very inspiring to watch as these girls took their own talents and skills, and used them to convey a powerful message.
In the afternoon, we went from an all girl audience to an all boy audience – a Boy Scout troupe on Grand Anse Beach. At this point, we were experiencing difficulties with our sound system, and thus had to work without microphones, but everyone gave their 100%, and it resulted in a very well received performance. The boys responded well during the gameshow and final act, and they helped us pack up afterwards.
We started out on Friday early in the morning, and left Lance Aux Epines to travel to our next performance: St Johns Christian Secondary School, also known as Chepa. Because the PA system broke the day before, Uncle Roddy stayed back and worked on fixing it. We had a very long drive; about an hour of winding roads and scares of potentially falling off a cliff. We tried to make good use of our time in the van by teaching the Portelances “Change the World”. They all learned it very quickly, so we then explained how to emcee different acts of the performance, in order to allow these new trainers to have more involvement within the performance. We soon arrived at the school, and performed for around 300 students. It was amazing! From the very first act the students were out of their seats jumping, screaming and going crazy. They especially loved 9 year old David Paul, our youngest member. After the performance, 80 audience members signed up to join WAIT! This overwhelming response was our cue to speak with the principal, to set up a training as soon as possible.
After the performance we stopped by a grocery store, and so many people were responding to our shirts and were very encouraging. We came back home for lunch, and soon after Uncle Roddy returned with his eldest daughter Shizuka, who had just arrived that afternoon. Uncle Roddy reported that his efforts to find someone who could fix the sound system were unsuccessful, and that perhaps someone in Trinidad could fix it.
At 4pm, three WAIT members went to meet with a minister who has an abstinence program. We organized a performance for his youth on Sunday and then a 10 minute performance for his whole congregation after. We then went to our last performance of the day, for a church youth group at the Lucas Street Holiness Church. We had a bit of a slow start, but the energy was soon raised high by the soulful voices of the congregation. We had a great performance; the most interesting act was the gameshow. One young boy was so knowledgeable, that we invited him to participate onstage for the remainder of the performance. He was an inspirational representative of the power the youth of Grenada have. Head Pastor Ursula Antoine (a mother of 15) was very moved by our program, and 4 of her older children were eager to become involved as youth coordinators.
On Saturday, March 10th, we partnered with Linda Straker and the National AIDS Council’s “OUCH” Anti-Stigma Campaign to educate to citizens of high-risk areas of Grenada. We spent the morning handing out brochures, doing mini-performances, and explaining about WAIT, all of which was generally well received.
On the way to our next performance, we waved to a lot of people who all responded with a friendly wave and smile back. It was so nice to see people connect with strangers in such a warm, embracing way. This next performance was at an orphanage for kids infected and affected by HIV. The kids were of a wide age range, from toddlers to teens. We went through our performance and then spent some time with the kids. At first we tried teaching them dancing, but the kids weren’t really interested. We tried many different things but the thing we noticed that was working the best was just talking to them and embracing them as well as playing with the young ones. All they needed was someone who recognized their value. At this point, we became even more aware of the need for our message.
On Sunday, we had two performances at St. George’s Baptist Church. Our first performance was for the youth Sunday service, for about 20 teens. In the audience we recognized the boy who attended our performance at Lucas Street Holiness Church, so we invited him to perform with us. He was in the breakdance act, the skit, and the gameshow, and did an awesome job! Several other kids also showed interest in joining. Afterwards, we did a short performance for the entire congregation. We performed Uncle Roddy’s original song “If You Want to be Heard,” and the skit. The entire congregation enjoyed the performance, and many people thanked us after the service.
Once church was finished, we returned home with Linda Straker and her family in tow. Linda was determined to cook us an authentic Grenadian meal, which we heartily enjoyed. Later on we went out to Grand Anse Beach, which is rumored to be one of the best beaches in the Caribbean. We spent the last few hours of daylight snorkeling and enjoying the beach, which is always nice after lots of hard work. We returned home for dinner. After dinner, we felt that it was important to do a little internal discussion about WAIT, so Lan went over the 3 stages of WAIT Membership, the role of Parents, and all the fundamental values we have. We felt the need to do this, because this coming week would involve much more teaching, especially on the part of all the Portelances, so we wanted them to be equipped with all the tools they would need to impact the youth of Grenada.
Stay tuned for Week Two!
