Clap she up

What a week...good, bad, busy, exhausting, relaxing. I've been in San Fernando working this week, which is in South and is just under an hour commute. The hour, however, doesn't start until you get into a car, and if you don't get down to the taxi stand early enough (before 6:30am)there is a whole mob of people anxiously waiting for more cars to arrive. When Trinis wait for public transportation, all general human generosity and thoughtfulness pretty much goes out the window. There is no order, no line, no "he's been here longest." The rule is, whoever gets to the car first and is able to box out the hovering crowd gets a seat. So I have been getting up quite early to make my way to the taxi stand and avoid the rush (I was late one day and decided that participating in the mob was not going to work out for me and I decided to take a maxi instead. This was a 2 hour commute instead of 1, was hotter, less comfortable and more expensive, so this week I'll be setting the alarm a little earlier!) I have 3 more days planned in San Fernando and then my data collection is all finished!!

So the early mornings weren't the only part that were made sleep hard to come by this week, I also had a lot of evening activities. I've started tutoring again at Cyril Ross (house for HIV positive children), helped out a friend at an HIV awareness event at the university and went to the semi finals for the U-17 Women's World Cup. The game was awesome, Japan must do endless 1v1 drills because those girls had some sick moves and weren't afraid to use them! I loved the crowd, anytime someone got schooled everyone erupted and would praise the schooler/mock the schoolee for the next 10 minutes.

Tennille, Simmy, me and Danielle at the game

But the best part of the week was heading to Toco for a girl's weekend getaway. I went with Tennille, a friend from playing soccer with the university, and her two friends Adaeze and Tyrish. It was about a 2 hour road trip up to Toco, with a stop off at a famous chicken and fries place, before getting to Adaeze's aunt's house. Toco is wonderfully simple and country, we actually went crab catching on Saturday night! Crab catching includes walking around in the dark with a flashlight and a bag looking for crabs. Once you find one you strategically step on it and carefully scoop it into the bag. Later you season em up and make some stewed crab and dumplings or calalloo. I didn't have the guts to step on any, but I was a good crab spotter. We also played a few games of Scrabble, often getting on the competitive side, and a game of Monopoly that Tyrish dominated in. We cooked good food, hung out at the beach and did lots and lots of talking!

Like any girl's weekend, the talking was centered around boys, relationships, and of course a little friendly gossip. I didn't know anyone they were talking about, but I learned a few new Trini phrases that are some new favorites...

1. "I clap she up"(this is also a gesture that includes, obviously, clapping and a look with a lot of attitude). You'd clap someone up to emphasis your point, usually done a tad aggressively and to show your complete and utter disapproval and annoyance with someone.

2. "She gettin horned" Horned=cheated on and from the sound of it half of Trinidad is cheating on their significant other!

3. "He cuff she up bad" This would describe a real "stink" guy (awful guy) who beat up his girlfriend, heck he probably was hornin her too!

4. "That girl is slack slack" or "slack talk" slack is like loose, so describing someone as slack means they probably get around a bit, someone you might refer to as the village bicycle in the States. Slack talk would be like rude/loose talk

5. "She make a baby for he" This one is obvious, but it sounds way more interesting than she's pregnant.

There were plenty more, but so many aren't affective without the facial expression that goes with them. The moral of the story was that it was a really great weekend and I've now got a lot of dirt on a lot of people...too bad I can't remember any of their names or which thing was about them!


We caught a crab!!


The four of us on the crab hunt...me, Tyrish, Tennille and Adaeze


The sunset while hunting


Auntie Gracie, who we stayed with, Adaeze, Tyrish, Tennille and Happiness (yes, they call him Happiness. He helps out Grace with the house and was an interesting character!!)

Great week where nothing went according to plan!

Throughout life, you only get a handful of people that really get you, that you really enjoy and can fully be yourself with. Luckily for me, my mom is one of these people for me, she is just one of my favorite people and a real inspiration to me. (Don't worry dad, you are right up there too, but mom has the girl thing on you, sorry!) And, again luckily for me, she just came to visit me in Trinidad!! So I went home for a week to go to a friend's wedding (woo Bowden!), do some interviews (I just accepted a position with ConAgra in Council Bluffs, IA) and visit Brenton and the family. Then mom came back to Trinidad with me to spend a week gallivanting around the island. It was so wonderful to have her here and here's an account of some of our adventures...

The Hike
So one thing mom really wanted to do was go on a hike, so I called up some friends to plan a nice, simple hike for us to some beautiful waterfall. A friend posed Rincon, telling me it was a 45 minute walk with a couple challenging hills but a great end destination...mom was up for the mini-challenges so we set it up. Have I ever mentioned that Trinis have a way of distorting time? The 45 min was really and hour and 45 minutes and the little challenging hills were actually one of the following: straight uphill, gradually uphill for a really long time or plummeting downhill. I'm not sure there were more than 15 feet of straight ground the whole time! This face explains everything...

But, a couple falls, scrapes and bruises later we did reach the waterfall and it was incredibly beautiful. I've never seen a taller waterfall and the pool was clear and cool, just right after the hot hike!


The whole thing was quite a challenge, but we did it! It was quite a sense of accomplishment getting back to the car (and mom was quite proud she wasn't last!). Everyone was impressed with mom's tenacity and a few of the girls told me how brave they thought she was, sounds about right to me!

Hotel Flip Flop
So after the hike, the plan was to stay a couple nights in Blanchisseuse and relax by the beach, b..u..t, that isn't quite how it all worked out. Neither the hotel nor the taxi driver who was going to take us there ever answered or returned any of my phone calls (still, to this day have not called me back even though I had a room reserved!) so we needed a new plan. On the way back from the hike we stopped at Maracas Bay to feast on the famous Bake n' Shark (mom thought we were saying bacon something and was very confused by the fried piece of meat inside the fried piece of dough we gave her!). The meal was delicious and happened to be right next to the Maracas Bay Hotel...light bulb! So we stayed the night there, did the next day at the beach and rested our tired legs! The whole thing worked out better than we could have planned and gave us an extra day to gallivant some more. This one is proof that we were on a beach, you can kinda see sand and water in the background.



The Rain Game
So right now it is the rainy season here in lovely Trinidad which means you just never know what you are going to get. One morning we had planned to go to the botanical gardens and the zoo...it poured and flooded a bit (ended up having a delicious lunch and shopped around a little strip mall). Went to yoga in Port of Spain...it poured and flooded a bit (still made it out alive and in time to go see our chick flick). Wanted to spend our last afternoon hanging out, reading and relaxing...it poured and flooded up the valley to my house and we got stuck in a maxi trying to get home for 2 hours (still enjoyed the rest of our afternoon though). So the rain won sometimes, but we always seemed to make a come back!



Gasperee Caves
Since we had an extra day, we went on a tour of Gasperee Caves on a "3 Hour Tour" (the name made us a little worried, we don't have too much experience making coconut radios, but no Gilligan's Island repeats on this particular day). We ended up being the only two people on the tour that day, so we could go at our own pace and decide what all we wanted to do. The tour guide even let us swim in the lake inside the cave, which you are totally not allowed to do! The caves were really cool, I had never seen anything like it before, but sorry, pictures just don't really do it justice, so I am just putting a couple up.




So we did some other stuff too...went on a fabric shopping extravaganza, ate some good Trini food, went to the movies, did some yoga, went for walks, read, went to a game for the U-17 women's world cup that is hosted by Trinidad this year and ate some more. It was a really great week! Here are just a couple more pics...

Felt the Earth, Move, Under my Feet

I sleepily rolled over, trying to readjust and get comfortable again to fall back asleep. I peeked at the clock and saw that it was 4:40am, go back to sleep. Then I felt a strange jerking, there was a rumbling sound and everything started to shake. All the sudden I was wide awake, threw off the covers and hopped over to the door. This was my first earthquake! I know, from my years of training in elementary school that the safest place to be during an earthquake was in a door frame and that was the only thing going through my mind. From the time it took for me to get out of bed and over to the door (probably about 4 feet in distance) the shaking was over, everything was back to normal. Nothing had fallen off my desk or counter, there was no dramatic rattling of dishes, it might have been the most boring earthquake in history, but as my first one, I thought it was quite exciting. I stayed awake for awhile wondering if there was more to come, but the only thing that happened was another intense rain storm (the last couple weeks we have had SO much rain!) The newspaper said that it was a 5.1 quake on the Paria Peninsula (in Venezuela) that did not cause any damage here in Trinidad. So what else has been going on, you may ask...well lots of work, lots of soccer and not a ton of anything else. I've visited 3 blood donation centers as a part of my project in different areas of the country, so it has been fun to see how things work in different regions. Politics have shaken some things up with my project as well, since the new government is in power, they may be replacing the Ministry of Health team that had been working with the HIV Surveillance Project that I'm researching. Hopefully the change will be for the better and they will take my findings seriously. I am heading home in just a week, YAY!! I can't wait to see everyone and spend some time with Brenton and the family. I also get to go to a college friend's wedding while home and have some interviews with companies for when I get back (wish me luck!). I'll be back at the beginning of September and mom is coming with to spend a week with me here...then I'll have just 2 months left. Wow. Hopefully I'll be able to get everything done and still get to see all of Trinidad and spend time with some new friends! Here are a couple pics...soccer team I've been playing for, curry duck cook off, and a picture from a concert (sorry I wanted to put up a video of it, but it isn't working!).


Drumming at the Curry Duck Cook-Off, people were dancing like crazy to the drummers, I think alcohol had something to do with it!


Me, Sharon and Christian enjoying our Curry Duck!


A butterfly at the house, I just thought it was pretty...


Me, Oceane and Karyn at the Pan Concert


The soccer team!! Guess what, during our last game (Sunday) I scored a goal!!! I have maybe scored like 5 times in my whole soccer career, so this was very exciting and a perfect way to end my season with them!

Last One Standing

Dave is leaving tomorrow which means I'm the last Fulbrighter left in Trinidad. I think a new crop of them should be coming about a month before I leave, so I'll be the expert I guess. That's kinda weird! Although I think I really do know my way around pretty well now and have some people now, so maybe I won't be the expert but I can certainly help! I'm sad Dave is leaving, but luckily we had a good farewell for him up in La Laja...that's really what the rest of this is about.

So La Laja is up in the mountains on the Northern Coast, up literally where cars can barely reach. We had a regular car, not a 4-wheel drive jeep or van, so we had to walk about 15 minutes to get from the road to the house. The walk was almost completely done in a light misting rain, which was actually really nice because it kept us cool on the practically straight uphill climbs. We each had our overnight bags and then 2 or 3 grocery sacks with food for the weekend weighing us down. Oleo, Dave and I started the trek happily, excited but Alister and Olivia were more serious, knowing the torture to come. The hills were numerous and relentless, slippery and muddy. We had to stop 3 times to breath and poor Oleo, with his recent asthma attacks, was close to going into cardiac arrest. But when we turned the corner, seeing the house and the view, every step was worth it. The house's water supply is supplied by a nearby natural spring and there were trees with oranges, grapefruits, plums, breadfruit and much more, flowers of all colors and types dotted the landscape.

Our weekend pretty much consisted of three things: cooking, eating and relaxing. We'd prepare a meal all together, eat and clean it up and then sit around and talk, read, walk around the grounds taking in the sights. The house had a tin roof and the rain tinged on it throughout the weekend. You could hear the rain coming in the distance, a low roar that would creep closer and closer. Finally the rain would reach us and the crash it made on the roof almost drowned out all other sound. It was a cozy feeling, listening to the rain, book in hand, smells wafting in from the kitchen.











So that's La Laja...it was really great! Since then I just have one day left with the Blood Transfusion Service. I spent a week at the center in Port of Spain and then a day in the Point Fortin and San Fernando centers (both in the southern part of the country). Tomorrow it is off to Sangre Grande (east side) and then a weekend to relax! Actually I probably better do some work since my time here is quickly dwindling! Dave leaving made me realize how little time I have left to finish the project and how much work I have left to do! Guess I better stop writing and start doing something huh...

South to North, landing in the Middle

I've had a whirlwind of a couple days, traveling from the the southern city of San Fernando to the Northern Coast Paria beach and ending with a night spent "out on the town" in Port of Spain. Let's start south shall we...

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!

BATS

Tamana Bat Caves...I have been looking forward to going to the bat caves since I came to Trinidad, and last night I finally got the chance. The caves are home to millions of bats that fly out at dusk in search of food. There are mostly fruit bats and insect bats found there. Dave (fellow Fulbrighter), Mary (friend from church) and I went with a small group from Hike Seekers, heading to the famed Mt. Tamana. The journey began with the narrowist, bumbiest, most unlevel road I've ever seen in my life and ended with a barely visible path through the bush. We suddenly just stopped next to a fig tree and our leader said, ok we're here! We got there right around 6pm and as we made the steep, slippery climb to the mouth of the cave we could see a couple of bats flittering around. The higher we climbed, the more bats passed by overhead and the excitement built! Finally we reached what looked like a big hole in the ground that was the mouth of the cave. We took up a place in front of the mouth of the cave as the darkness began to descend on us. The darker it became, the more bats began to trickle out of the cave until there were hoards of them whizzing past us. You couldn't move, you just had to stand up straight and still and they flew by all around you. I could feel them whoosh past close to me on either side and tried to become as small as I could so they wouldn't hit me!




We all did get hit though...some of the younger ones didn't have the best radar! I got nailed on the back of the leg (and after letting out a bit of a scream) discovered that I had quite disorientated the bat and one of the guides grabbed him and stretched him out so we could see it. The bat seriously had the scariest little face I've ever seen. It had a little horn on its nose, intense eyes, and its miniature fangs were biting at the air. It's face kept contorting trying desperately to fight off his captor. (Don't worry, we let him go and he was just fine!)


We then ventured around the back of the cave where we could actually go inside. The place was littered with bats, they were in every nook and cranny. There seemed to be a lot of younger, little bats in this part and they weren't flying around, just hanging. The place had quite a smell to it and water kept dripping from the cave ceiling...at first we thought it was bat poop and were VERY happy to discover that it wasn't!




Overall, this has been one of my favorite experiences here in Trinidad so far. It was so cool to feel the bats whizzing by and then to see them all over the cave. Not something that I want to repeat frequently, but a priceless experience for sure!

Fatal Error

I really thought that I had things around here pretty well figured out...turns out not so much. Today I learned of some cultural mistakes I made for my project and then made a really embarrassing misinformed assumption while running errands today.

Trinis love letters (and stamping things, but that is a whole other matter). You have no idea how many times I have heard "Well you have to make your request in writing by sending a letter to..." some director with a strange title and an impossible to spell name. Just today I was asking to get some information from the hospital like what year it was built and what the bed capacity is, and I was sent away to write a letter with all of the information I want listed. And these letters have a special format and you need fancy letterheads to make them believable. Well today I also learned that in many cases a letter from me is inappropriate because I really am a nobody here. The letter has to come from my mentor, who has a fancy post at the university and is a professor. He must introduce me and my project and then if the person responds positively, I can communicate with them. Well the director of the largest HIV treatment facility and therefore a pretty important piece of my research on HIV facilities, is a bit of an egomaniac and a big protocol nazi and was VERY offended by the fact that I sent him a letter and refused to have "an audience" with me. Now we have to gravel at his high and mighty feet for him to allow me to do any work at his clinic. So while it might have been my cultural error, I really hate writing letters and would prefer to make my own contacts, but it seems that my lowly status will force me into a backseat.

Ok this one is much funnier and more embarrassing...I have a checking account here at Republic Bank and today I went to deposit a check. I also needed to go to the grocery store, so instead of going to my usual bank, I opted to go to the one right next to the store. Thought I was being pretty clever there...turns out not so much. I went in and filled out the deposit slip, waited in line for the teller and went through with the whole transaction. At the end I asked for my balance...$13,000 and some change. WHAT? Holy cow, I was expecting about $2,000 (Trini money, don't forget!). I asked the teller if she was sure, she said yes, so I walked out, slightly confused. While I was getting groceries I started thinking about it and it just wasn't adding up...she said it was a savings account, but it is a checking. There is 6 times more money in there than should be. I headed back to the bank, this couldn't be right, my money had been deposited in someone else's account, that had to be it. I told them what I thought had happened and, looking very concerned, they took my receipt and ID and went to chat. They then came and asked me where my account was...I said I had opened my account on campus. Well guess what-I was at the RBTT bank, which I thought stood for Republic Bank Trinidad and Tobago. It doesn't. They are completely different banks. Yes, I tried to deposit a check at the wrong bank.

You've suffered through all this reading, so here are some pictures

The frogs are invading!! The Logie's have a nice pond and I often find frogs waiting at the gate when I get home at night. It is like they know I'm coming home and that I'll let them in!


At Sports and Family Day for the church I've been going to. This was one of those blindfolded, find the golf balls while your partner shouts directions at you kind of games...we got 2nd!


Can you find me? oh right I'm the really white one in the middle! Here are some of my team members!


Me with the group of people that I came with. Carol is right next to me and was the first person I met at the church.


The habitat house after the last day I was there...I can't believe how far along it is! They are hoping to finish it in the next few weeks.

So there you go...check back soon because on Saturday I'm heading to a bat cave and I'll put up pictures as soon as I can!!