Compare and Contrast

Then vs. Now

Remember when you were in elementary school and your teachers would ask you to make to compare and contrast by making a list? Well I thought I would retreat back to my younger years and do the same with SVG and the USA!

Many people ask us how St. Vincent is different from the United States.  Here is a short list…along with some similarities!

United States	St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Drive on the right side of the road	Drive on the left side of the road (or in the middle because many of the roads are very narrow and curvy)
Missouri-lots of flat areas to ride bike or go on long walks	Lots of places to walk but almost all are HILLY!
Electricity is reasonably priced-we run AC all day long, have dishwashers, dryers etc.	Electricity of very expensive here, therefore there is no central AC, but only units, we have a switch that turns on our hot water heater so we only have hot water if we turn on the switch, and no dyers-we hang all our cloths out to dry.
110 watt outlets	220 watt outlets
In Missouri we were days away from a beach	In SVG we can see the beach from our house and its about a 20 min walk/5 min drive!
Wal-Mart, Starbucks, McDonalds on every corner	3 KFCs on the island, 1 Subway, and 1 Pizza Hut, oh and 2 Ace Hardware stores. There are lots of local stores that sell various items, but no one stop shops.
Cable TV	Cable TV-we thought we were going to miss all of the presidential election adds, we were wrong, they show them here too!
US Dollar	Eastern Caribbean ($EC) for every $1 US there is $2.65 EC
Hunt deer and turkey	Hunt Iguanas (season is October 1 through January) and lots of fishing!
Drove everywhere in our own cars	We walk a lot to the grocery stores and also take public transportation. We use the school van sometimes as well.  There are vans everywhere for public transportation and it costs between $1 EC and $1.50 EC (so about 30₵ to 50₵)
May see some loose dogs or cats from time to time outside	Goats are everywhere! Along with dogs and a few cows here and there.
Squirrels everywhere	No squirrels
Primary language is English	Primary language is English!
Four season (cold and warm)	2 seasons (rainy and dry) but always warm, since we have been her it usually always gets to around 85 or 90 degrees.
Few fruit trees	Almost every tree is a fruit tree: avocado, golden apple, sugar apple, breadfruit, mango, papaya, banana, and lots more.