Fair-weather Blogger

One of the things I've learned in my first three months in Trinidad is: I am not a disciplined blogger. I am more of a fair weather blogger if you will. Although, just over a month ago our laptop was stolen. After loosing all of my files, pictures, movies, music-- you get the point, I had an aversion to computers, which were not my beloved black Macbook. Now I have slowly worked my way back to the blog via facebook and hotmail, but I have a new soft and sympathetic spot in my heart for all those who have ever lost a laptop. Laptops are stolen all over the world everyday, in fact I actually had my first work laptop stolen in St. Louis Park, MN 5 years ago. That being said, the whole recent situation really didn't help my transition or strengthen my relationship with my new host country. However as each week passes with it’s new adventures I am reminded why I want to live slightly outside of my comfort zone and experience something new.

For starters we had a lovely holiday in October while Charlie’s dad, George and his aunt Betsy came to visit. We packed a lot in during their 10 days here. From the beach to the rainforest, the roti to d’ rum they had all the proper trini experiences.(Click on the slideshow to enlarge the pictures.)




One of the great things about visitors is you make sure to get to all the tourist spots and do touristy things that sometimes are neglected in day to day life abroad. Drinking coconuts in the park seems more novel when you don’t get to do it as often as you like. Also, their trip was full of wildlife sightings. We were only a few meters under the red howler monkeys, which actually don’t sound like monkeys. They sound more like lions or maybe even an angry house cat in a fight. During their visit we stayed at Asa Wright Nature Center deep in the rainforest of the northern mountain range. It is perhaps my favorite place in Trinidad thus far. One of the main reasons is because once you get there—there is nowhere else to drive—drive being the operative word. My least favorite thing in Trinidad is the driving and everything it entails; ridiculous traffic, crazy loose-cannon maxi taxis, narrow and often winding roads, round-abouts that take 15 minutes to get into… to say it was ‘organized’ chaos would be a stretch. More on driving in Trinidad at another time.




We’ve also gotten more familiar with our jobs. Charlie has tamed the four-year-olds, well as much as possible, and we are now in a routine. We have experienced ISPS International Week, complete with art competition and a collaborative peace art project! As well as, Divali—the Hindu festival of lights, our students put on a lovely program at school, with roti, mmmm (my other favorite thing about Trinidad). [A special shout to Lisa, if you made it this far, for the perfect bracelets and bindi to accompany my new red salwar.]



As many of you know the population in Trinidad is roughly 40% East Indian, 35% African descent, around 10% Chinese, and a bunch of others…including a substantial Syrian population. This makes for many amazing culinary delights, but also, brings lots of religions and public holidays. Nothing encourages people to appreciate differences and diversity like a day off work to go “down d’ islands”! On Divali our friends Marc and Rebecca invited us to join them for our first trip to a group of tiny islands, which reach out from the northwest tip towards Venezuela. Here I learned the basics in making the classic trini dish, Breadfruit Oildown. Later another trini friend, Jodi, took me to a predominately Indian village to see Divali in full form.



A couple weekends ago, Charlie and I ventured to Central Trinidad on a mission to get clay for my classes (now I’ve just got to figure out how to get that 20 year old kiln running…). We started the day with a slight hangover from extended hour clubbing in Port of Spain, but persevering we visited Ajoupa pottery. Bunty and Rory O’connor have turned an abandoned pottery studio in the bush to their oasis, home, studio, and personal botanical gardens. After our tour, we went to Radica’s to collect 400 pounds of clay in our little Yaris. This pottery studio works with course red bisqware, keeping alive traditions brought from India 200 years ago. As central Trinidad is inhabited by mostly Indians, there are amazing Hindu temples to visit.



Now it’s time for me to sign off for bed, after a grueling day: At noon today, Charlie and I made our third visit to the Licensing Authority to get our driver’s licenses. This is a process that should only require one extremely long frustrating day, however, due to early unannounced closings, lack of efficiency and overall organization we found ourselves there again today for the third time. After waiting in a suffocating room for two hours to get our pictures taken—one of many painstakingly slow steps--we have our precious licenses, although the toll taken to get it is quite evident in my photo, I look like one of the peasants from Les Mis.