Things I didn't mention :) that I thought I had posted but I jsut saved the post last week by accident

Trinidad has been really interesting so far, the culture is completely different but their material levels are the same.
Economically speaking people live close to how we do (in other words they have way too much stuff too, big screen tvs, etc.) with some having more and many less.
However, culturally or developedly speaking their human rights and animal rights and so forth, are not the same as us.
People with disabilties in paticular are not treated with any respect, it is really interesting for me to come into that context given my work with Inclusive Fitness and people with dsiabilties over the last couple of years.

we visited mud volcanoes The place is called The Devils Wood Yar, it is young volcanoes (respectively speaking) that erupted big time in 1852, but before that just grumbled under neath the earth, they now bubble, as you can see in my pictures on facebook, and its not hot, its acutally really cold, but the bubbles orginate in the boiling lava way below. The Amerindians thought that the Devil had come out of the ground and fell the woods in the first major eruption and thats why its called devils wood yard, because when it erupted it knocked a forest down.

We watched a Ramlila celebration
the Ramlela festival which  is a dramatic folk re-enactment of the life of Lord Ram, ending up in ten day battle between Lord Ram and Ravan, as described in the Hindu religious epic, the Ramayana. A tradition that originates from the Indian subcontinent, the play is staged annually often over ten or more successive nights, during the auspicious period of 'Sharad Navratras', which marks the commencement of the Autumn festive period, starting with the Dussehra festival. Usually the performances are timed to culminate on the festival of Vijayadashami day, that commemorates the victory of Lord Ram over demon king Ravana, when the actors are taken out in a procession through the city, leading up to a mela ground or town square, where the enactment of the final battle takes place, before giant effigies of Ravana. Ravana was evil and banished Lord Ram from the city, because Lord Ram wanted to date Ravanan's daughter. Then they have this giant battle and the people acted it out, but Ravana has powers and everytime he is killed he will reappear endlessly, unless he is struck with fire in the bellybuttton, so at the end of the reenactment a guy shoots a flaming arrow into the bellybutton of a big statue of evil Ravana and he is burnt to the ground.
Thanks Wikipedia haha

We also went to a place called Wild Fowl Trust,

its built inside a petrol indusitriaul refinery grounds. Its giganctic and features two lakes and 18 bird species including 4 endangered species of duck and peacocks, etc.
They try to maintain the balance of life, so they have snakes to eat the rodents and sutff, this is me holding a boa constrictor, we're friends, he was pretty cool!
Whats could about Fowl Trust is that one of the higher ups from Canada in the Petrol company, which I belive i shell, built the reserve, and most of the funds were donated by teh Canadian friends of the environment fund. There is a little museum and 6 hiking trails, we only did one of them.
We say gigantic fish, black tilapia fish, cadans (mini crocodiles), turtles, a bird that walks on lilpads called Jesus Christ Bird, I saw one humming bird, a snake bird which catches fish deep in the water, and then brings them to the surface and smacks 'em around till he eats them in one gulp, he has a long neck and cause he eats in one gulp hes called snake bird.
It was cool to see work being done on the environment here because as of yet it has been heart breaking to see the amount of waste unneccesairly produced here.
Lots of styrofoam is used, and stuff like that. And even when reusable materials are used, they aren't recycled.
no compost to speak of :(

Haven't written in a while

Hey ALL!
So I haven't written in a while, for no particular reason, we have been a bit busier with more and more meetings, more "limes" (which means hang outs with young people in the local dialect) and also have started some projects that mean we have planning and work to get done.
The projects we have started are small and involve planning a service this Sunday for church with youth at Nystar Presbyterian Church. We are meeting with them tomorrow about the service and what they hope to include in it. It was a bit difficult to negogiate this, because the Youth Coordinator wanted us to just take over the service but are role here is not to lead or 'run' anything but rather to partner in ways which we might be useful. Miriam is also doing a children's worship service the week after. So I am not really helping in the planning but she will tell me what she wants me to do :)

Everyday our schedules gets more and more concrete and we are suppose to have an official scheudle by Thursday this week :)
So far I know it includes
Working at a school Mondays and Wednesdays where i'll be teaching physical education and gardening/composting starting next week and until School breaks for Christmas. There are exams at the end of every grade here and teachers aren't specifically trained in physical education so I am going to teach lots of the physically active games I do for RETSD Edventures as well as the sports I know how to play and have coached.
In the garden I will be doing work on composting and talking about enviornmental preservation.
Its a bit of a 180 here though because there is not such thing as a Trinidad recycling program, so the 3 Rs need Revamping. Maybe one of our youth projects can be a letter writing campaign to ask the government for a national recycling program.

We will also be taking a course on Practical Theology at St. Andrews Theological College on Saturday mornings (from 7am-9am) and then have different meetings  Thursdays are oru days off and Tuesdays we spend at different places that are not concretized yet.

From Dec 10-25th we're focused on Christmas stuff (dinners, food bank drives, etc) and January 4th we go to Grenada to visit Jhanderys who is on a similar trip to us but in a different location. In the initial plan for Guyana we were suppose to be all together. I am really looking forward to spending some time in Grenada with Jhan we have been skyping a couple times and she's great! Grenada also sounds great, its a very small Carribean island, with not much tourism but nothing but beaches :)

After Grenada we will be spending 2-3 weeks at Serenity Place a rehabilitation facility for women with substance abuse issues or who have been victims of domestic violence, but most often both in reverse order.
I will be teaching some fitness classes there and learning from the ladies about their lives and struggles. We will also be living there, so we'll participate in chores and gardenning and everything they currently do in their daily routines.

After that we are hoping to spend two weeks in Tobago, which is a small island off the cost of Trinidad, which is beautiful! Hopefully when this happens, and when I have more official dates my parents are going to come visit for one of those weeks.
In Tobago we're going to be working with some young families on life planning and child care. We'll be at a Seniors home doing visits,  a seated exercise class and working with some children with down syndrome to do musical therapy and learning. Miriam will be doing some children's worship work, and I'll be doing some tutoring with one little boy.
We are also hoping to be at the YMCA every day at lunch for a couple hours helping in the pool, getting some exercise and I'll be workign with some of the aquacise instructors.
Lastly we'll be working at a school called Happy Haven that is a school for children with dsiabiltiies. So Tobago looks pretty jam packed I REALLY HOPE we get to go there, there is some contention about us having a place to stay...
we shall see

I have gotten good news about my Grandfather's recover and that is really helpful! I ask that if you pray you keep him in your prayers along side my grandmother who anxiously awaits his return from the hospital, and if you don't pray think happy healing thoughts :)

SHOPPING
Thats right we went shopping I can't list what I bought people because then they'll know! but we went to a shopping street called HIGH street and we went to an Indian Bizarre, I bought myself one dress! and I still have lots of things to pick up for people. Some of you won't get anything till i get home, and others of you, if I found something perfect before November 8th then I will be sending it home with Jim of the United Church of Canada who is coming to visit us, he is the link between UCC and the partners here.
We're looking forward to his visit


Leslene who is the administrative assistant for CANACOM left yesterday which is very sad. She did my hair before she left which was really nice of here so its in braided corn rows.
I am not use to how short it is but I can ignore it completely like this :)

The house has a cat, and it is the FATTEST CAT I have ever seen, it looks like it has a second cat clining to its belly, and what it runs it trips on itself!

The baby has learnt my name, and found my room, and wakes up really early, and comes upstairs (i should clarify the baby is one and a half) and bangs on my door yelling my name ahhaha
I throw her up in the air and she likes it a lot! shes pretty cute, we're working with her to learn more words. Unfortunately the one word she has got is TESSAHHHH

I am registered for an online course in the Winter, and am looking forward to school readings. And have decided to do my thesis as soon as I get back :) Then I'll be all graduated like :) haha

We went to a pool the other day and its INSIDE A PETROL PLANT, so what the Wild Fowl Trust which is like a bioreserve but bigger and breeds endangered animals. Anyways, it is interesting how things here are organized. The pool was lots of fun! I got my nails done to by one of the girls we were hanging out with, she does it as a hobby but shes really really good! So that was fun, it makes me feel extra girlie, because we have to wear dressed and stuff to a lot of the church things we go to and I have my nails done, haha. Its a far cry from sweatpants!!

Much love to you all, and another update soon :)

The Beach, and The Yacht Club.. oh... and work meetings

The title is a bit of a joke, I am actually really enjoying the majority of the work meetings!
We have met at different churches with different Reverends and Ministers and Deaconesses. We have visited a couple of schools and a rehab facility for men with substance abuse issues that I am likely to work at for a couple of days or a week or two, not sure yet.
Because of the switch from Guyana to Trinidad, and because of Trinidadian culture, wherein, face to face meetings for 5 minutes are valued higher than a 4 page resume, there was very little time to put a complete porgram of 6 months together, and it would also have been culturally inappropriate to just slide us in where people said they wanted workers and we had qualifications, because there was not a meeting face to face.
So our orientation month (ends November 1st) is a lot of meeting people who are involved in small and big ways with the work we may be doing in the remainder of our visit here.

We went to the beach the Saturday after we got here, our ride came on (this is a quote and not neccessairly a reflection of my own opinion, and not necessarily not) "Trini time" which means to say that our 11am beach trip happened at 3 pm, and we swam as the sun set!

We ate at the beach, it was called "Shark and Bake" I have no idea if it was really shark but it was a type of fish I had never tried before, and I was told that it could very well be hammer head sharks. Whatever it was it was delicious, it was like salty pickerel taste meets cod texture with a sweet batter.
i also tried Tamarin ball, its supposedly a "treat", "desert" snack! If the Camera would have been on my face when i tasted that...... ohmy goodness it was the most disgusting thing ever! it topped onion! (for those of you who do not know, I can't stand onion)

Then we had corn soup, it was okay, and at the same stop, our Trinidadian friends had pigs feet! One of the young Reverends is going to take us surfing one weekend in November or December, and when I offered to contribute financially (I'm learning thats a no no) she said I could contribute by trying pigs feet and horse! i dont know if I'll end up doing either! But I really really really wanna try surfing!

Sunday we went to church, we met the Reverend who will be responsible for our chaplancy. (fornightly counselling and venting sessions, as well as sessions to work through some of the cultural questions and so forth). We will be taking a class he is teaching at St. Andrews Theological College on Saturdays in Practical Theology.
I am really excited for the course, cause I love school! and because it will be interesting to see what 'Practical Theology' means!

Sunday night we went out with some friends of the CANACOM organizers, they are here for orientaion month and then leave us :( to go home to Jamaica.
We went out for different types of local good, spicy shrimp, butter chicken, I ordered stuffed eggplant and it was fantastic, and no one else like it :( ;) so I had to eat it all! :)

At 12:01 we were sitting in the car while Adrianne, the driver and a Trindad Youth, and Nicqi, Reverand Ashwood of Canacom, were inside, they tried to exit but were stopped, and called me inside. It was offically my Birthday in Trinidad, and on a cake, for lack of candles was a cigarette, and they sung my happy birthday in the gas station!(The lit cigarette and straw paper obivously why they weren't allowed to leave) It was a truly unique birthday surprise!

Monday I had a really hard day being away, I recievedlovely emails from Jacey, my parents and siblings, and my Grandma! all of which, warmed my heart and made me miss home. This is the only birthday "I've missed" (I think that story is Hannah's and if you don't remember it Hannah, which you won't it goes somethign like when Rebecca moved you wondered how she'd get older if she missed her birthdays, ask Jessica, shes got the memory for those things)
Anyways~! My Dad called adn we talked for almost an hour, I skyped with my mom for an hour! IF you're not on Skype yet! DO IT! and then I will miss you less cause we can video call :)
and I called Jacey right before bed on Skype, IT was lovely to talk to home!

Yesterday was amazing sight seeing, we visited the temple at the sea. An Endenture labourer from India, brought to the Carribean, was a devoted Hindu and wanted a temple, he built a temple in the city, but it was illegal under the Colonial Rule to build temples on their land, so after being released from prison, stone by stone, he built at temple at sea. We then also went to another large and beautiful hindu temple.
After which we visited a Substance abuse rehabilitation facility and then went to a youth gathering at a Yacht club on the Carribean Sea.
It was a great night and I cut up pimentos, and ate a piece of one raw, and helped cook a little!

Today we visited the Church of Scotland, and the top Presbyterian girls school in Trinidad.
The principal there's cousin is the representative for the United Nations in Palestine right now and she may put us in touch :)

Tonight we are having our first meeting about our living arrangements, and what is and is not working thus far, among talks of philosophy's surronding cross culturaly volunteerism and so forth.

And Tomorrow! WE fly to TOBAGO

Hope you're all well

Adjusting

The adjustment was much more difficult than I was expecting, and continues to be a challenge, in part culture, in part heat, in part wanting to be with Jacey and my Family, especially my grandfather and grandmother, in part feeling suffocated by living under someone else's roof, and their albeit kind attention, their attention!
My parents have afforded me a lot of independence my entire life, they raised us with deliberate freedom to make decisions and taught us to take care of ourselves and others well enough that they didn't feel they needed to supervise me anymore, once I hit about 18, despite being able to always go to my parents, for anything and everything, its quite a whole different experience to be 'babied' in a way, a way I haven't had since I was a baby (despite being spoiled ripe). But everything is learning!
The heat is hot!
It has been around plus 35 everyday and goes down to about plus 30 at night for you know some relief from the heat!
I have had doubles, and some other Trinidadian food, last night I even helped cook some but that will come later.
I am doing really well with the spice because, people see how white I am and don't put any, and their not spicy, is just a little bit spicy for me!
The other day in meeting someone asked me if I had a sun burn because my cheeks were rosey. I unfortunately have not spent much time in the sun as of yet but will be as soon as possible! so I had the luxury of explaining that I was not sun burnt I was just white, and that was my natural skin tone! it was halarious!!
The water in Trinidad is fine to drink, and I'm slowly getting better at not knowing what were doing day to day and not being upset about it!
All in all I think this is good!
The other Canadian on this trip name is Miriam,
we are getting along very well considering we are very different in terms of interests and so forth, we come from the same Church body in Canada, although her involvement in the church far exceeds my own, because my interest in faith, is social justice, and really social justice only. And Miriam could probably explain the majority of UCC policies at the congregational level.
She is 18 and just graduated, we won't be working together as of Nov 7th, but will be living together for all or the majority of the next 6 months.

6 months still feels so long when I say it, it hurts a little on the inside, but we've been having a good amount of fun admist bouts of homesickness. This is the first day where I havne't thought, 5 times an hour, about how to sneak to the airport and come home! Today i thought of it twice the whole day :)
And tomorrow maybe once, and know I realised today that we only are here for 5 months and two weeks, and 3 daysish...
:D

Day One

Day one!

The flight was long, and the two flights together was mathematically longer, after both flights we arrived at Trinidad airport. Customs was easy, our bags weren’t rifled through and everything was a breeze. We were very early though and had an anxious wait for our ride at the airport! With their arrival was waves of relief and I passed out in the car ride to our billet house.  After arriving we had a lovely breakfast of omelettes with coffee. It reminded me a little bit of Bolivia because the coffee is instant and your enjoying your food but it’s also making your boiling hot, and yet you eat it!

It is soo hot! My mom gave me some chocolate bars, they are now wrapped melted mush, they melted in the car ride.  

We had local lamb and chicken cooked on a big grill for dinner

My Billet Mom, has a street meat shop out of her house Thursdays -Saturdays, it’s in what is built like a second Garage and the food is good!

My room is large and spacious, and our internet is already up and running. I have to much clothes still probably , my uniforms are not here yet but I’ve heard they’re way too big which is too bad. But better than way too small.

We have learnt a little history about Trinidad on the drive, as an example their public schools are based on faith denominations but we haven’t done our whole orientation were doing that later in the week. This weekend is going to be more focused on travelling around Trinidad a bit and then Monday all the orientation is going to begin!

I have just found out that we aren't travelling to Grenada right away we are heading there in December, coming back in January.
Hope you're all well

Leaving in Three Days!

I am heading off to Trinidad in 3 days,
I am not really sure where I will be in Trinidad, or what I'll be doing when I get there,
But its going to be interesting,
My trip is funded and organized by CANACOM (The Carribean and North American Counicl of Churches for Mission) and its Canadian partner United Church of Canada, of which I am a member of the congregation! This trip is one of their many and varied global overseas partnership programs. It is a JOMAT trip, Joint Overseas Mission Action Team.
However, these reflections, and details are my opinion and thoughts, and the adventure, I hope you will share with me.
This Blog is a way to keep in touch lazily and efficiently, because I do not know how much time I will have on the trip to be online.
Hope that this blog is filled with a happy 6 months of travel :)