Port of Spain and Wrapping Up the Trip

Our days have been full to the brim ever since we landed in Port of Spain, Trinidad. We landed on Thursday to stay the weekend and site see around the island. It was bittersweet leaving Tobago. I've been told how much more different Trinidad is from Tobago and some people even went as far to say that Port of Spain is the New York City of the Caribbean. After experiencing downtown life on Friday night, I would say that that a analogy is accurate. Everything is much busier, fast paced, and more modernized than Tobago. On Friday, we toured the Angostura rum factory, a major attraction of Trinidad, learned all about its history, and even got to do some taste testing. Trinidad & Tobago are a major producer of cane sugar which is why they host the world renowned Angostura factory. One of their most popular products are their "bitters", which are used for cooking and drinks. Only 5 people in the entire world have the recipe and it is only made in Trinidad. We also got to learn about some of the rum we may or may not have been consuming throughout the trip. One that stood out in particular was Puncheon rum, which has too high of an alcohol content to bring back to the states. All I will say about puncheon is that we sure understand now why they call it "fire water"! We then toured around Port of Spain, then to conclude the day, we tried on carnival costumes at a local designers shop. Carnival is a huge festival in Trinidad every spring that people all around the world come to experience. A trademark of carnival is the elaborate costumes that are worn by practically everyone participating. Elaborate is almost an understatement; the fabric for the costumes is all hand tied and designers and seamstresses work around the clock to get all the costumes set before carnival season. In the gallery of the costume shop, below every picture of their handmade costumes were mirrors. I asked what the mirrors were about and he said when you stand in front of the mirror, what you see if what you bring to the costume; your passions, dreams, experiences, and character are all brought out and expressed during carnival. This is quite possibly the most beautiful aspect of the whole event. It was like being in a dream seeing all of the costumes in one place, they were beautiful! The event lasts for days, filled with dancing, hanging out, partying, and enjoying the scenery of hundreds of people all dressed up together. The dancing is all improve so anyone can join in at anytime. Unfortunately we're missing carnival season, it starts next week and I've been told countlessly that I'm missing out by the locals but that just means I need to come back, right?! 

On Friday evening, we went bar hopping on a strip that is referred to as The Avenue. It was almost overwhelming seeing all the people everywhere compared to Tobago. It was a fun night and a fun experience. 

On Saturday, we started the day bright and early, first starting out visiting two Hindu temples on the island. Trinidad actually holds a very large Indian community because at the time, life in India was not prosperous enough so over 140,000 Indians came over from India, stopping in South Africa and ultimately settling in Trinidad. They've done very well in Trinidad, earning much of their wealth in agriculture, the medical field, as lawyers, and in construction. In fact, the two largest construction companies in Trinidad & Tobago were started by Indians. 30% of them continue to practice Hindu, which is actually the oldest and numerically largest practiced religious tradition in the world. In Trinidad, the Hindu culture has not evolved because there has been no influence from the ever changing religious culture of India. A lot of religions experience some sort of evolution of their practices, beliefs, and traditions so it was interesting to experience some of the Hindu culture that had not changed. The temples were absolutely beautiful and we even were able to sit in on a practicing Hindu reciting the mantras sutras. We were instructed to put a dot of orange powder on our foreheads and follow along with him-it was such an interesting experience! Simply sharing a love for religion and holding a high religious tolerance, no matter what religion, is a signature aspect of the culture. It was a refreshing perspective on religion because I feel in the US, religion is a topic that is frequently tip toed around. After the Hindu temples, We then stopped for Chinese food, did some shopping and ended the day with a swamp tour, filled with bird watching and enjoying the sunset. The scarlet ibis is native to Trinidad and we were able to watch hundreds of them flock to an island and roost. The bright red birds was an incredible cite to see, all close together high up in the trees. The sunset was yet another beautiful one and on the boat ride back to the dock, we joked about seeing the giant anaconda that had recently made an appearance on the island. We did see a snake coiled up in one of the trees and needless to say, that was enough snake exposure for me for the day! 

On our very last day, we spent the afternoon at Maracas Bay Beach. I felt it was fitting to end the trip with a beach day and despite the occasional intense rain shower, the sun was out and the ocean was refreshing. I had a very traditional lunch called "bake and shark". Bake is basically a fried pastry and although the name of the food says shark, it was actually a very tasty white fish. I went back for more because it was so good! 

During our time in Tobago, we stayed at Pax Guesthouse on Mt. St. Benedict near Waterloo village, which is right outside of Port of Spain. Pax is located right next to a monastery so we were able to experience a very traditional catholic service one evening and taste some of the yogurt made by the monks, a particularly acclaimed food in the area. Pax served us breakfast, tea, and dinner and it was nice to have our food prepared for us after cooking all throughout our time in Tobago! They made us very traditional food and the meals were complete 3 courses. Everything was absolutely delicious; I don't think there was ever a night that I wasn't completely stuffed after a dinner! We all got use to "Tobago eating time" and took our time to enjoy the food and the company. After every dinner, we were served either coffee or tea and would usually sit on the back porch and just relax. We were so spoiled! And after only having one water temperature for showers in Tobago (cold!!), it was nice to finally have a hot shower!  

So here I am now, sitting on the plane on my back to the states. It was bitter sweet packing last night. This has been an incredible trip and this past month has absolutely flown by. I've already noticed how much I have grown as an individual and as a global citizen. I've come to realize that when you are removed from your comfort zone, you learn the most about who you are, what you stand for, and what aspects of yourself you like and want to develop further as well as the aspects that you want to change. There were so many experiences that pushed me to grow and draw deeper conclusions about things that I initially didn't understand about the culture. For one, being a young woman who was clearly a tourist attracted a lot of attention from the local men and every girl in the group experienced pick up lines, stares, whistles, and flirtation from the local men whenever we went into town. This whole thing became extremely draining for me and it even reached to the point where I avoided eye contact with any of the local men when we were walking around town. The special education system was frustrating for me because as an individual with a physical disability, I understand how important it is to receive appropriate resources and accommodations. Seeing so many special needs children not given enough resources was very difficult. At first, it was easy for me to jump to conclusions of aspects of the culture, like the gender dynamics and the situation at Happy Haven of the culture lacking various aspects that we have in ours. With a lot of reformation with my initial thought processes when things like that came up, I decided to simply take it all in without critiquing it. After making this change, I realized that to us their gender dynamics may be disrespectful and from our perspective, their education systems should stop neglecting special education students, but to them, where they're at may be progress. While its difficult to sit back, observe and take it all in, Ive found that at the same time, I feel good about just simply observing because I feel there is a level of respect that comes with not criticizing things that are hard to understand in a different culture. Taking it all in also gave me a chance to reflect on what we have in the US and how blessed I feel to live in the states. Once I came to this perspective, seeing things from their perspective became much easier and more natural, ultimately leading me to another conclusion. Despite different systems, and structures, every culture has very similar roots that binds them for putting the systems and structures into practice and I feel that is an extremely valuable connection between every individual. We are all connected in one way or another, so who am I to judge? There were also so many aspects of their culture that I want to take how with me. I met the most hospitable, kind, accepting, and loving people while abroad and experienced their fun loving, happy culture that put a lot of things into perspective. I wish everyone could have experienced this amazing trip with me! Thank you to everyone who kept up with this blog while I was gone, it means a lot to me know how well supported I was for going on this trip. While I don't want to leave the paradise that was my home away from home for the past month, my new group of close 12 friends that I spent the past 25 days with, and the kids I grew close to with at Happy Haven, I'm looking forward to seeing my family and friends again, and gaining some independence back. I went for a walk yesterday and I realized it was the first time I was actually out by myself. I feel beyond blessed to have been given this opportunity to study abroad, and I want to acknowledge how grateful I am for my Mom and everything she did to help me make this trip happen; thanks mom! I'm already making plane for studying abroad again next year in a totally different part of the world. Here's to new experiences, new friends, and priceless memories that I will never forget. Until next time....

Love, 

Hannah

Perfect Day in Tobago

All of our excursions have been absolutely fantastic, our snorkeling and boating tour was quite possibly my favorite excursion so far on this trip. Frankie's Tour guides picked us up at 10am and we made our way to the Buccoo area which is one of many prime boating, snorkeling, swimming areas of the island. While our last boating and snorkeling tour was fun, we had about 5 minutes to snorkel, battling a strong current so we were excited to have a bit more quality time. The snorkeling was great and we saw all kinds of beautiful fish in the clear, blue water. The tour supplied us with unlimited food and drinks and we took full advantage of that. We boated around the island a bit and then stopped off again for some more snorkeling. In the morning, we boated past the "fountain of youth" which was a skinny little waterfall with three different streams of water cascading down. After enjoying a fast boat ride, the sun, and the good company of my classmates and two other people on the tour from Latvia, we arrived once again to "no mans land", a beach we went to on the last tour that is only accessible by boat. A BBQ of fresh mahi mahi, chicken, a traditional coleslaw and rice salad, and more drinks were waiting for us. We were starving so this was a fantastic setting to arrive to! We ate, played in the water, sun bathed, and had fun just hanging out and relaxing, admiring the amazing view of Tobago and sun that was just beginning its sink. After packing up on the island, we got back on the top deck of the boat. The tour guides had a fantastic sound system set up on the top deck and after getting some music going, we all danced, limboed, cha-cha'd all the way to the Nylon Bay, the shallow sand bar in the middle of the ocean. Just as the sun was setting, we all swam around, tackled each other and goofed off. There were so many times that I just looked around, trying to take it all in: I was in the middle of the Caribbean, watching a beautiful sunset with some pretty amazing friends. I'm one lucky lady and I don't think I'll ever forget that day; words cannot describe how perfect it all was. Most of the group resembled lobsters that night, sporting some pretty apparent sunburns and after nursing them with some much needed aloe, everyone called it a night. 

We're flying out if Tobago on Thursday to spend the weekend going on excursions and site seeing in Trinidad. Because Monday was Election Day and all the schools were closed, we have only 3 days this week at our service cites. Tomorrow, I'll be spending the morning at Happy Haven and then in the afternoon, I'll be shadowing a counselor at the Health Promotion Clinic. I'm excited to have that opportunity, especially since I feel pretty set on going into the field of counseling psychology. Today at Happy Haven, I had a chance to interview the teacher who has been mentoring me and after learning more about the place in society people with disabilities hold, the limited available resources, and negative "taboo" stigmas that they are frequently associated with, I felt an even stronger connection to Gods plan for my life and my intended career. Working with the kids has been an incredible, priceless experience and I sad that my time here is coming to an end. Upon arriving here, it felt like we had a long time to explore the island and experience the culture and after squeezing excursions, local events, time at the service cites, and time together as a group, our time here has absolutely flown by. I as having a conversation about what a special trip this has been with one of my friends on the balcony today (the sun was setting at that time, it was a perfect scene!) about how much we've grown more than expected as individuals. There's something about traveling to foreign country, experiencing a different culture, and being removed from your comfort zone that makes you take a step back and refocus on who you are, and what you stand for. 

Political Happenings in Tobago

We came to Tobago right towards the end of their House Assembly Election and being amongst everyone who is proudly supporting the parties, the political history of Tobago has become a bit more real. Essentially, the election is exclusive to Tobago and the main issue at stake is whether or not the central government in Trinidad should control the political happenings in Tobago. A lot of people in Tobago are skeptical of a central government controlling everything so it'll be interesting ti see what happens on election day, which is this monday the 21st. All schools are closed on election day and the school buildings are used as the actual voting cites, open from 6am to 6pm. Another interesting part of their voting procedure is that no alcohol is sold and advised to not be consumed from 12:01am to 6pm on voting day so that no one will be intoxicated during voting. I would have never imagined that my first political rally would be in a different country! We went to it last night after being told it was a Soca festival but realized once we got there that it was actually a rally for one of the parties. It was amazing to see all of the supporters so dedicated to the party and while my group got some questionable looks for being there (white tourists at a local political event), it was a good experience.  

        Our jungle tour guide was telling us all about the election and other information about Tobago throughout our day in the rain forests. Tobago has changed ownership a good 31 times before gaining full emancipation from the British in 1838. After, Tobago was essentially the bread basket for Trinidad by fostering a plentiful industry of coco, coffee, and coconut. Unfortunately, a hurricane in 1963 wiped out a lot of the crops and at that point, the oil and gas industry in Trinidad expanded and took off. A lot of Tobago's culture has come through in all of the little mini history lessons our jungle guide gave us, including their take on housing. The Tobago culture is a very proud one and the idea that a bank would own a house through a mortgage doesn't sit well with them. Therefore, they take their time and seek the help of their friends and family when they're building or making improvements to their house rather than turning to a bank to make it all happen at once. That's why we've been seeing a lot of partially complete houses around the island: some without decks, poorly constructed roofs, unfinished painting, etc. This is so different from our culture and a very humbling approach to living; they'd rather live with an incomplete house that is completely theirs than turn to the bank for help. I feel that the US culture incorporated immediate gratification in everyday spending, and emphasizes having more than what is already owned. So this perspective on taking your time and working with what you have is refreshing and a perspective I hope to further incorporate in my life. 

      We have a "free" weekend this weekend where we're completely on our own (our advisors left for a 2 night stay at a resort). I believe the plan today is to go back to some of the local vendors at Pigeon Point beach this morning, and spend the afternoon at a beach closer to our guesthouse called Bacolet Beach, cook a group dinner tonight, and then go out. Tomorrow, we'll probably go to church and hangout in downtown Scarborough. This trip has been flying by, it's crazy to believe we only have about 10 more days here! 

Happy Haven

I was a bit nervous when I stepped out of the taxi when we arrived at Happy Haven School. Happy Haven is located on the outskirts of downtown Scarborough and is a school that is for students with disabilities, grades kindergarten through high school. While this sounds like a wide age range, the school has about 35 students and a total of 3 classrooms. In my last post, I talked about being anxious to do something meaningful here rather than lay on the beach all day and this was finally my much anticipated opportunity. Mondays are swim days so we took the kids swimming at the local Tobago YMCA, then come back to the school for break time, lunch time, garden time, and then lastly, class time. While the students were running around and playing on their break, I thought about how I don't have hardly any experience directly working with children with mental disabilities and at that moment, the splendor is this opportunity sunk in; I have the chance to work with these special kids in a completely different culture, learning from them as they learn from my culture. It started off slow but my first day there was fantastic. The kids started warming up to me and Erica, another student on the trip. Learning about the special education system here and after chatting with the principle, I learned that Tobago simply isn't ready to integrate special education classes into a general school. Tobago can be classified as a developing nation and have set a goal to be a fully developed nation by 2020 and hopefully by then, special needs children won't be so isolated. The goal of the school is to teach the kids basic skills that they need to function: social skills, communication, personal hygiene, cooking, etc. To do this, the teachers have their kids participate in a lot of hands-on activities. The kids there were absolutely precious! Usually special needs schools have a stigma of having children with a lot of behavioral problems but at Happy Haven, most of them just needed a little extra attention with developing basic skills. I've spent 2 days there so far and already it's been an awesome experience. The teachers sure do have their work cutout for them; when enrolled, many of the kids do not have an official doctors diagnosis and are usually picked out in preschool as a special needs students so teachers at Happy Haven only have their observations of symptoms to work from to help them develop appropriate skills. This surprised me because in the US, any form of disability services in the education system requires a doctors note. I've been learning a lot of valuable information about special education in general and how much it varies per culture. 

Today we spent the day doing rain forest hikes on different parts of the island. The rain forest was so lush with native palm trees, ferns, and vines (some that we swung on!). Fun fact: our tour guide told us that the largest wild animal in the rain forests around Tobago is the wild pig, ha! The second hike we did led to Argyle Falls, which had 3 waterfall tiers that cascaded into a deep pool. We spent some time swimming their and it was a perfect end to the day. 

Tobago Beaches, and Cultural Immersion

We've been on this beautiful island for just about a week now and rather it feeling like a school trip, it's basically been a vacation. I'm definitely not complaining but I'm feeling pretty eager to start working in "Happy Haven", which is a school for children with disabilities on the outskirts of Scarborough. We met with the principle on Friday and created a schedule that starts on Monday-I couldn't be more excited! I felt very encouraged after the meeting because it sounds like we're both have the philosophy behind service where meaningful service involves learning from each other and working as a team rather than one just helping the other. The entire group toured around Scarborough together to visit everyone's service cites; some students in the group are at at the Health Promotion Clinic and others are at various schools around Scarborough. It was so fun to visit one of the elementary schools, the children were so adorable! Here, all school children have uniforms and most of the buildings had concrete trelace walls that are open to the outside since its hot year round. The first school we visited had 1 huge, long room that was separated by chalk boards for different classrooms. The kids were packed in each classroom so that was a drastic change from what I've been use to in all my years of education. The kids has excellent manners and one of the girls tugged on my arm and said "Miss, you look very nice today"....this just goes to show how warm and welcoming the people in this culture are! Later that afternoon, two women from the Health Promotion Clinic came to talk to us about HIV, gender issues, gender dynamics, and inter-partner violence in Tobago and that sure was an eye opening discussion. In short, they talked about the implications of living in a small society with a culture that fosters male dominance and female suppression. While some of the content information of the discussion was heavy, I feel extremely blessed to have this opportunity to learn about another culture that is very different from my own. Although it sounds like we've been mostly just hanging out and having fun, every experience that we have had here has been filled with learning. I've found that immersing myself in a new culture has made me grow in so many different ways; I have a new found appreciation for basic things from home (like hot water, the only temperature here is cold!), and cultural aspects (equal opportunity). I'm excited for further immersion the remaining weeks! We spent the day at Pigeon Point earlier in the week, which is the signature beach of Trinidad &Tobago where a lot of postcards and travel guides have an image of Pigeon Point on the cover. I don't think I've ever been to such a beautiful place! It was the perfect beach with clear, blue waters, stunning views, and white sand. Today, we spent the day at Store Bay, which is another popular beach in Tobago. This past week we've been exploring local cuisine and one of the groups favorite dishes is Roti, which is basically a stone ground, wholemeal flour tortilla with an assortment of chickpeas, potatoes, chicken, and chana. We discovered a place at Shore Bay for Roti so we had that for lunch  and then went on a glass bottom boat tour. One of the stops on the boat tour was "Nylon Bay" which is a shallow sand bar in the middle of the ocean. Legend has it that swimming in the Nylon Bay for people over 40 will make you look 10 years younger and for those who are under 40, they will have eternal beauty, and couples who kiss under water will last forever.....not a bad place to swim, huh?! It was pretty surreal to be standing on a sand bar in the middle of the ocean! We also stopped at "No Mans Land" which is a beach that can only be accessed by boat. The water there was incredibly warm (a whole lot warmer than the water the guesthouse, ha!) and as with every location in Tobago, the sites were incredible, filled with views of kite and wind surfers (the captain of the tour boat said some of the kite surfers catch enough wind to jump over the boat!!), a profile view of Pigeon Point, and more clear blue waters.  Just when I think this island cannot become more beautiful, With every new excursion (next week we're hiking through a rain forrest!) I'm proved wrong! 

Pictures!

View from our house in Scarborough 

Fort King George located on Scarborough Hill

Grocery Shopping and Fort King George

Yesterday, we were given our weekly allowance of $300 TT's (which is roughly $50 US dollars) for grocery money and taxi fare. As a group, we were dropped off at a local grocery store to pick up groceries for that week. I don't thinks I've ever missed a well-stocked grocery store in my entire life! It was fun working together to come up with meal plans for the week and all contributing. It was difficult at first to find the basics (like milk, for example, which was a really small section with either whole milk that had an English label, or French milk that we assumed was skim milk because the label was all in French). In terms of fresh produce and meat, there wasn't a whole lot to choose from, so we later stopped at a fruit stand to pick up some fruits and vegetables. That was a fun experience since the stand was right off the busy street so there was traffic noises, people everywhere, and overall chaos with a fruit stand in the middle of it all. I bought some bananas, grapes, and the biggest papaya I've ever laid eyes on. Their apples were actually from Washington, which was a reminder of how large of a role that the US plays in other countries around the world. The whole experience of being in town was chaotic, overwhelming, memorable, and fun. It was definitely a reminder of how city hustle and bustle is culture bound; navigating the streets of Tobago was much different from the US where cross walks were limited, horns were being used on a frequent basis and the length of the side walks could only accommodate single file lines of people. While this was a little stressful after experiencing orderly streets, traffic rules, and overall structure, the cool thing about being in Scarborough was that a majority of the people were so happy, despite the chaos around them. Smiles were being shared, loud, up beat music was being played from shops, people were stopping to chat-it was an overall friendly atmosphere and a refreshing change. After grocery shopping, we visited Fort King George which is a military fort from 1777. Tobago has a long political history of originally being claimed by the English who attempted to colonize the island, and then the Dutch who found a township called "Lampsinberg", which is near The British occupied Scarborough. The Dutch and the English/French were constantly in battle throughout the hillsides of Tobago, which are still denoted by various battlements and cannons across the island. The island was then given to the Duke of Courland, and their part in the settlement still holds true today. The history of Tobago continues to be a complicated one as the island changed hands multiple times but ultimately, Tobago was granted sovereignty in 1763 but was then occupied by the French twice, but then ultimately joined Trinidad as a British crown colony in 1889. We did a little research before we left for this trip but being able to be at the fort was pretty amazing because it was packed with so much history. The view from the fort was incredible and the fort and buildings surrounding the fort were beautiful. I was talking with my professor about the fort and learned that because all the various occupations of Tobago fell during the time of the slave trade, the French and English brought in slaves to build the fort. This was a so bearing thought but also illustrated how deserving the Tobagans are of respect for the suppression they experienced.