Cultural Entrepreneurship & Documentation Program Grenada – Initially, I didn’t know what to expect when landing in Grenada and entering this beautiful island. Obviously, I was expecting heat. I was truly overwhelmed with excitement when taking our first drive through Grenada, to our hotel. Everything is so vibrant and it almost felt like I was in an entirely different world. The buildings were aged and some crumbling apart — which is unfortunate but I sort of admired the aspect of visually seeing the history in the structures. It gives character to Grenada and shows how alive everyone and everything is. The trees and flowers are breathtaking. It was so much to take in at once but the feeling of my first day here was something I’ll never forget.

On Tuesday we met the students of TAMCC that we will be working with. Each of them are unique and possess their own special skills that will be useful for our project. I enjoy the fact that we are brought together from different programs to create one fantastic finished product all together. Each of us have different goals and dreams and in this trip we can support each other, which I think is truly extraordinary.

We experienced something very rare on this day. Dr. Nicole Philip gave a fantastic and informative presentation on the history of Grenada. She spoke a lot about the Revolution which isn’t commonly talked about and isn’t even formally taught in schools. Our group of Grenadian individuals were opening up about their experiences and what really happened in that time. It was so eye opening to hear about the devastating things that happened and what really struck me about it was how real and raw the discussion was. This wasn’t something you would just read on the internet about — it was true personal and emotional experiences. It was very profound to be a part of that and hear this.

We began our interview process over Wednesday and Thursday which was very intense and fast paced. It sort of caught me off guard at how much we were expected to complete in the daily hours of 9am-4pm. We experienced many issues such as gear overheating, batteries dying out and it was a great learning experience at the end of the day.

I very much value working with and becoming close with the TAMCC students. I’ve gotten the chance to teach them much regarding photography which is so rewarding on its own to see the smiles on their faces once they capture photos. A few of us actually created some music together with a small banjo and something that is called a ‘finger piano’ which is actually called a ‘mbira.’ This was a great little moment that I cherish very close to my heart.

I’m overall so happy with the way things are going here in Grenada and I’m so excited for tomorrow and to see what will be in store!

Courtney Bolivar

Screen Arts

NSCC Waterfront Campus