Every Sunday night, I would join a group of friends and locals in the community for pick-up basketball games, commonly referred to as a “sweat.” down at the community park. Basketball was very popular in my community of Gouyave. Their local team, Sissons’ Sparklers, are widely recognized as the best team on the island, featuring a number of players from Grenada’s National Team. We would often scrimmage the Sparklers during the week as they prepared for games and tournaments. As an avid fan of basketball growing up, it was an easy way for me to make friends and integrate into the community.

In the spring of 2018, I joined a local team to play in an island-wide tournament hosted in Gouyave. Additionally, when my brother Tom visited me in the summer of 2018, he joined me on the court for a “sweat” and to meet my friends on the court. To this day, playing basketball with them is one of the things I miss the most about my community.