San Fernando is Trinidad's second biggest city and also home to another Fulbrighter, Nicki, who leaves next week. She volunteers at an HIV/AIDS clinic that I would like to spend a few days working with, so this was a perfect opportunity to see her one last time and get to visit the clinic before I work there. The clinic was great, I think I'll enjoy working there, but we also went to the hospital to visit some of the clinic patients that had been admitted. Walking through the hospital just broke my heart. Trinidad has some very modern buildings with all the conviences you could want, but the hospital seemed to be caught in another era. Beds, seperated by the thinnest of curtains, were packed together in rooms with windows open to try and produce a breeze in the non-air conditioned building. In the States, hospitals have a sterile, clean feeling and here everything felt dirty and grimey. People were barely covered up and so many looked so utterly hopeless. As we walked up to the first person we visited, the doctor was trying to find a new vein for her IV and she was shaking and looked so scared, I just wanted to hug her. I admire what Nicki does very much, I'm not sure I could handle it.
Ok enough with the sad part, Sando did have a lot to offer...I made my way to the "best Roti in town" and then walked up the San Fernando Hill to eat and enjoy the view. After the rather tiring, continually uphill walk, I was sweaty and hot and stuffed myself until I could barely move to walk back down. The view was wonderful though and the Roti was pretty good.
Next up...Wild Fowel Trust which is a bird sanctuary in the middle of an oil refinery. I hop in a maxi, tell them that's where I'm headed and they stop in the middle of nowhere to drop me off at a secluded looking security check point. I head in, thinking it was a short little walk to the Trust. HM turns out you have to have an appointment to go to this place and it is in the middle of the refinery with no transport to or from. Crap. Luckily the security gaurds were very nice and called someone to give me a ride there and the I got a ride back out from the girl who worked there (people here are really, very nice!). The Trust was WONDERFUL though, it was so peaceful and tranquil. Peacocks just hanging out, parrots squackin in the background and ducks roaming banks of the pond. The trip back home from the Trust felt like an eternity though, bouncing along in a packed Maxi through little villages. It was good to see another part of the country though. This are is mostly East Indian, so the landscape was dotted with Hindi prayer flags, Roti shops and temples.
So that was Friday, Saturday I went on a hike to the secluded Paria Beach and waterfall. It rained on us the entire hike to the beach and the trail was insanely muddy and my shoes suffered the consequences. The hike was really pretty though, with little stops of deserted beaches and a path onto a cliff out in the middle of the ocean. The pool of the waterfall was incredibly cold yet very refreshing. The weather cleared up for us to bathe and then got sunny and hot just in time for us to relax along the beach. The bugs were quite unfortunate though and used my legs and back as a personal playground. My swatting did nothing to deter them and I think I might go through an entire tube of itch cream!
Once back, fed and showered, I went to a popular Trini liming spot to celebrate a friend's birthday. There was live music and lots of interesting people (the friend works at the UN and is from France. We had an incredibly international group...Germany, Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, Canada, it was really cool). It has been a great few days, but now I'm going to sleep the rest of the day away! On a research side note, things are going really well and I think I have the rest of my time here (which is less than 4 months now!) all booked up with clinics and hospitals to visit. I'm really excited about how it is going, but I have to work on the report writing part...it is hard to stay motivated to write when the beach is so near by!
-Lots more pictures on facebook if you want to see more!
