After a long travel day driving to Boston, then flying to Miami to Barbados to St. Vincent, our Leaders in Action arrived in Kingstown! They got a well-deserved good night’s rest, and then got to experience their first day on the island. They’ve sent along some of their highlights so far!
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Cornelius, our guide at the Botanical Gardens, was so knowledgeable! We smelled nutmeg seeds, cinnamon bark, and learned about some beautiful flora! The parrots were a treat! What an awesome first day! – Trip Leader Jasmin
Meeting Tack-I, a local craftswoman and her father and 11-year-old son, as we walked the city streets of Kingstown. She asked for us to let her know when we will hike the volcano because she has only done it twice in her life. Connecting with local people is always the best part of traveling for me. – Trip Leader Odessa
I liked walking around Kingstown and talking to everyone about the island. – Frida
Getting to know new people both in our group and around the town. – Gwyn
Learning about island life by talking to some locals and seeing the markets and stores. – Gabby
It’s always nice to get to know new people and how they live their lives. We met one lady who worked on a ship doing cabin maintenance and she was really nice. – Aidan H.
I really enjoyed the food and I’m happy I finally got to try a coconut! Seeing how people go through the market and how everyone seemed to know one another was cool. – Dylan
I enjoyed learning about the mannerisms of Vincentian youths. – Theo
Yesterday was an experience that you do not get to see every day. Walking around the town and getting to see people that you would not see in a normal day fills me with a weird kind of excitement that you cannot describe. I really loved seeing the city from the top balcony of the building where we ate lunch. Being able to watch the city move around from up high was really relaxing and fun to watch. Overall a lot of the day was fun and exciting and I enjoyed mostly the entirety of the day. – Justin
It was cool walking around Kingstown and experiencing a different culture. Getting to know the people on the island and also the people in our group was great. – Aidan W.
Today we got to eat breakfast which consisted of cod fish, doughballs, and scrambled eggs. Soon after that, we went to a botanical garden and saw amazing plants. There was a plant that had its leaves close if you touched them. I got to have my first coconut along with its water which is nothing like in America. Then we went around the community and had conversations with the locals. Some had time to answer, but others were too busy. Then we had dinner at the hotel which was chicken wings and rice. Finally we had night meeting and went to sleep. I love everybody here. – Garrett
It was really cool trying the fruit from here as well as the drinks. It was also cool looking at the garden because there were many trees and plants/flowers that I never saw or knew about. The animals were also fun to look at and good to learn about. Overall, yesterday I learned many things. – Karen
The other day I got to see the city in St. Vincent. The people were very nice and accepting. The food has been really amazing, and the colors and the music really lift the spirits of everyone, which is the best thing ever. – Julia
It was very exciting to finally get to St. Vincent. It was really cool watching out the window of the bus when we first got here and seeing how different it was from the U.S. I also liked that we got to explore the island more yesterday. We went on a tour of the garden that had a bunch of plants I had never seen before. I loved getting to see all the new things St. Vincent has that we don’t back home. – Lilia
Yesterday was really amazing day–it’s hard to just talk about one thing. My favorite thing was definitely trying the new food and learning about the culture. I loved all of the food and drinks I had tried that I had never heard of before and I can’t wait to keep eating them. The people on this island seem very connected to each other and their culture, and it’s beautiful to see. – Leah
Yesterday was great. We finally arrived in St. Vincy. We were able to explore Kingstown in small groups. We got really immersed into the culture, which is really cool. Everyone was super friendly and loved talking to us. Today we visited the beach, and it was beautiful. The water is this cyan light-blue and is very warm. Some friends and I swam out and hung out about the waves. – Jack
Yesterday I went to Kingstown where we did a tour of the city. The drivers are horrible, but the people are really nice. When I was with my group asking for directions, some guy tried to mislead us and rob us. But the local people saw him and helped us out by showing us directions. I also tried new fruits and fish. It has been an awesome trip. – Griffin
