Slow but steady progress on Spice Isle after Hurricane Ivan

Down the River Road in St. George, Grenada, a group of boisterous children play in front of a dome-like structure that looks more like a greenhouse than a school.

Five years on after Hurricane Ivan hit on Sept. 7, 2004, repairs to the Vendome Roman Catholic school are almost complete. Soon these children will be back in their normal classrooms.

Like many of Grenada's schools, this primary public school in St. George Parish was severely damaged in the hurricane.

Its location on the River Road is especially precarious.

Along the pot-holed road runs a meandering brook. But in storm surges, like Hurricane Ivan, the creek turns into roaring rapids. All of Grenada's rivers flow into this river, flooding homes, churches and schools that dot the local landscape.

Signs of complete devastation are still evident. The Roman Catholic church next to the school is completely gutted. All that stands are faded yellow walls. Not even a roof remains.

Behind the church overlooking the valley below, tall stalks of grass wilt over white tombs.

The devastating effects of Hurricane Ivan reached far in Grenada, which is called "Spice Isle" for its leading role in producing various spices. The financial cost of the disaster was estimated at more than 900 million U.S. dollars, roughly 204 percent of Grenada's gross domestic product (GDP).

For such a tiny country, the Caribbean nation was able to raise substantial rebuilding funds from the international community.

After the hurricane, China financed the construction of the new multi-million-U.S. dollar stadium, where international teams gathered to play in the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

But schools took a particularly hard hit. The hurricane damaged or destroyed all but two of the country's 78 schools just as the school year was set to begin for 30,000 children, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

After the hurricane, the World Bank allocated 5 million dollars to reconstruct 19 schools. The last one, fully funded by the European Union, will be completed by the end of November.

With a population of only 100,000, Grenada boasts one of the highest literacy rates in the world at 96 percent, according to a 2009 report by the United Nations Development Program.

Education is valued as a path to economic development and social upward mobility.

At the Vendome Catholic School, the girls are dressed in white blouses and navy blue skirts and the boys in khaki pants and white button-down shirts.

"You notice that the children are not dressed in T-shirts and jeans but in all kinds of fancy jumpers," said Betty Ann Lazarus, the foreign ministry's communications director. "Every school has a different uniform so you can tell where a student comes from."

"And if they've been bad, you know where to go," she quipped.

At a local market organized by the Food and Agricultural Organization, vendors and schools joined in celebrations to mark World Food Day on Oct. 14.

Lazarus pulled aside three girls who were wearing green and white uniforms, an apparent sign that they belonged to a school program that teaches food security, said Lazarus.

Minister of Agriculture Michael Dennis Lette told Xinhua that all the food at the market that day came from St. Andrew's Parish, located in the north and eastern agricultural districts.

The aim, he said, is to be self-sufficient and to raise awareness among all Grenadians about healthy living.

"They say, 'Eat what you grow, and grow what you eat,'" he said. "And that will help our health."

Source:Xinhua