LAST BLOG FROM TRINIDAD

hello everyone at home!

I have been talking to some of you a lot about what’s happening here and some not at all, and how the switch from Guyana to Trinidad came about, as we learn more details and what the project in Trinidad has unfolded like so far... or rather... what has been easy and what has been extremely difficult so far.

Our original program was cancelled in Guyana because of a lack of proper organization. Ironically the plan was then too put us in Trinidad where absolutely no planning had occurred as of yet. This meant that our program in a squatters camp in Guyana, that was highly developed in terms of tasks, social orientation and objectives, was thrown out because of bad logistical planning and we ended up with a program that had great logistical planning, but very few interesting components to the program, a more church based (specifically a colonial prestige about having white people in the church visiting, and doing some stuff) program that we had not agreed to nor were comfortable with that had leadership with a non existent adjustment period to plan our program properly. It also put us in a different work environment completely with programming that focused on fitting us in places we weren't really needed or useful, with some phenomenal/meaningful programming built in here and there.

The glory of hindsight; next time just cancel the program.

The potential for a great program exists in Trinidad, and we had an excellent week at a senior’s home this week. So it is not that Trinidad or the Presbyterian Church of Trinidad and Tobago is not a wonderful space for ecumenical work. It is simply that this program was put together too short notice, and ended up differing too much from what we expected, and we did not feel safe with the organization in charge’s responses to issues.

We communicated this to the United Church of Canada, i must applaud them and their comforting emails, kind calls, and support. They were committed to working the program out if it was possible, and once they saw that at this point it was not, they asked what day do you want to fly home. Through a great network of friends we have made here, who are amazing! We do have commitments we enjoy, and things we like in our program exist. So we didn't want to leave until we had fulfilled at least in part the majority of those commitments somehow (ex; presents for a home for abused children we spend time with weekly, that we'll no longer see; board games, sports stuff etc. clothing drive for a home for abused woman who are now recovering from substance abuse and finding new coping strategies that promote healing, etc.)

This trip however has been a huge learning experience for me! And we have made so many wonderful friends!!! I will cherish them always! It has not been a failure, even though it is being terminated a third of the way in. I have learnt a lot about what cross cultural exchanges can look like. I have practiced carrying myself calmly into situations where I feel I am being disrespected and trying hard to not become disrespectful myself (close to always successfully but not quite) I have also, again reflected on how much more useful we as people are at home, in our own context, where we don't need to learn the culture to do the work, and feel invigorated to stay home (Canada) and do some of the work I’ve always wanted to there.

And so... what now

I am sad that the project here is ending on many levels; the parts of the project that were interesting were to be occurring in January and February. It is too bad it wasn't that third of the program we got. In this sadness, I was brainstorming on how Miriam and I could do some of what we were excited about for January and February at home.

After all we both planned to be in Caribbean all Winter... so we don't have any plans.

So what about a city exchange within Canada.

What’s perfect about it is Miriam is considering U of W so she can take a spring class there and see if its for her! She has the same asthma triggers that I have allergies, and, both our parents are on board!

We can volunteer in each other's cities with one another and get involved with a lot of the organizations and so forth we have always wanted to be but never had the time for. We NOW HAVE THE TIME!

The world is so beautiful and mysterious

As more details develop I will keep you posted, feel free to email me ideas J

Dates in Winnipeg are March 25- May 25

10 year old humor! :) hope it makes you smile

the kids gave me a long list of riddles and some of them are not super funny but some of them are pretty good. so i thought you might all like some of them!

What did the mat say to the floor?
I got you covered

Where do you send a shoe in the summer?
bootcamp

Why did the dinosaur cross the road?
There were no chickens in prehistoric times

What can you serve but not eat?
A tennis ball

What has 4 wheels and flies?
A garbage truck

Which side of a chicken has the most feathers?
The outside

Where do sheep go when they need a hair cut?
the baaa baaa shop

What do cows give after an earthquake?
Milkshake

Why was the chicken in detention?
He was using fowl language

What was the chicken doing at the health clinic?
egg-cercising

Why was the chicken at the doctor?
he had people-pox

Why was the picture in prison?
it was framed

What gets harder to catch the faster you run?
your breath

What do dancers come down with when they're sick?
ballet-aches

What does grass come down with?
hay fever

What did the sea say to shore?
nothing it just waved
:):)

Work, Diwali, and Gifts

We Celebrated Diwali last week, and we had to dress up so Miriam and I both bought Saris, and wore them to the Diya lighting, pooja prayers and firework celebrations. They're pretty difficult to go pee in!!!

At the school tomorrow I’m taking the grade 4 class (Standard 4, which is kind of like our grade 5) out in the garden to learn about composting and the environment and then teaching them PE. The teacher is not going to be there that day so I’m playing substitute! I made posters today about the 7Rs for the earth and the 6Cs

Reduce Reuse Recycle Rethink Remake Refurbish Repair (I think the champion of this is my Grandpa!)

Compost Conserve Collect Collaborate Conversation and Caring

My posters are pretty cool! I’m excited about them I hope the kids are! School ends at lunch tomorrow so i won’t have to prepare anything for the afternoon here.

Kindergarten here is called First Year and they don’t have any toys to play with, they have to do writing all day and other not fun stuff! Pretty happy I grew up in Canada, I played with sand and building blocks in Kindergarten and we learnt in a circle and how to sing and stuff. Not strict writing.

Jim Hodgson came from the United Church of Canada executive office, and visited with us yesterday! It was really nice to see him! We met in Toronto and became friends on facebook and have a lot of common political views, and so forth! He’s very smart! And super kind! It was nice to get to have a political chit chat about world and Canadian issues with him, felt like my living room at home with my family J  

This week we have a meeting to watch them plan a band camp for February, we won’t be going to the camp but we’re hoping to know what type of things they have to plan for here, because we’re hoping to host a youth retreat in December (between Christmas and New Years) on living in right relationships and make videos from the youth to the church. Youth here are really belittled and parental control is more like parental strangling to us anyways, Its a whole new culture! Again I am learning a lot and learning how much I love home!

We have started work at a home for abused children who have been taken away by the state form their parents. Its strengthening my resolve to be a foster parent one day in Winnipeg There is a two year old named Daniel there and he is the cutest thing EVER! (he reminds me of Bruno form Bolivia! L for all those who heard that storey or sermon) and his storey is really sad, but the kids there operate like a big family, they all look after one another and they all take turns helping with different tasks. We all ate Maple cookies and they liked them, I had brought them from Canada, I have another box, and I admittedly might just eat them by myself I didn't realise how good they were just kidding, I won't do that, we get enough sweets here as it is! I am getting to go grocery shopping today and am looking forward to picking out some food!

The kids at the home are really cool and I'm going to use what is left of my fundraiser money and whatever money I have to buy them Christmas presents. They don't even have a deck of cards, I should have taken all the ones everyone was offering me I was kicking myself for not having done that!

I got a list of their names and ages and I'm going to post it here without names for their safety, but with genders and what they’ve talked about liking and what I’m hoping to get them. If anyone wants to fund a certain gift I’m going to try to get prices for all of them this week sometime and will post it soon

Chubby boy toddler – 2 years – Big toy truck

Obsessed with Airplanes  boy – 3 years – Big toy Airplane

Quiet girl – 6 years – don’t know yet will ask Sunday

I love coloring girl – 7 years – pencil crayons set and coloring books

I do my hair pretty girl – 8 years – hair accessories

Dancing girl – 9 years – Dancing shoes

Playing Mommy to the toddlers girl – 9 years – not sure yet

Too many kids to remember something about all of them especially the quiet ones

Girl - 9

Girl- 14

Girl – 15

HannahMontanaBonanza girl – 17 years – Hannah Montana bag and poster

Shy basketball boy – 18 – Basketball

Big Brother (tries to take care of everyone and is protective) – 19 – Cricket Set

Man of the house – 20 – board game

Child Care student – 21- School supplies and card games

Disabled Adult Woman (from abuse) – 33 - Not sure yet

 I want to get them gifts that they all can use and share with one another but I want them all to get to open something for them! They don't have a basketball, or anything so it was hard to try to come up with things to do on Sunday. So we're hoping we can do that. The home is run by a an extremely kind woman and is faith based (again not many details for obvious reasons). Its pretty interesting, and totally packed!

I am looking forward to our weekly time there.

First day at school

Finally ORIENTATION IS OVER! and we have started work! although it isn't quite the full 14hour day I'm use to :)
I think that I am suppose to learn how to relax and not jampack my schedule I tihnk right now I'm like uggh, so much time i could be doing this that or the other thing if  I only had transportation to a b or c which I don't and so i get to stay in my room, or in the house (but I generally stay in my room, so I can be in less clothes, its soo hot or can be under my mosquito net) Maybe I'll even relax williingly when I'm home (that'd be nice eh J? xo)

I started work today, at a school. It went really well, all the kids are super cute, some a shade hmm... clinging!
The educational system here is sooo different from home, the schools are almost all denominational (religious) and the system is more punitive than our schools.
I feel bad for the kids they're ridiculed for bad grades, but there are no systems or paraprofessionals to assist them to get up to speed, they never get to catch up on what they are clearly very very behind on. It was pretty sad, anyways I may try with in one class room I'm in, wtihin which the instructor seems really nice and I can tell she feels guilty about the punitive approach, a little literacy circle for kids who are doing poorly in reading
The kids i worked with all day to day would be in grade 5 or so at home, (so a note to mom, Jessica and any other teachers/educator literacy workers out there email me please; if you have any literacy tips or anything for me let me know :)  tmuccgit@gmail.com )

Anyways! I did have a great day with the kids though!
All the kids were astonished by my eyes, there are not any Trinidadians with naturally green eyes, or blonde hair. I kept on being asked if it was fake, or if my eyes were real, and stuff by some of the younger kids. The kids who were a little older were just starring at my eyes. I took to closing them when they were suppose to be listening to the teacher.
A couple girls touched my hair and were like its soo soft! hahaha its quite funny but its also the strangest experience ever! When I was in Bolivia those kids had so much interaction with foreigners that I we weren't a shock to them.

Oh and they were astonished by freckles they kept on racing eachother to find one they hadn't found yet. They asked me what kind of bug bites they were. i have freckles on my arms
Fortunately Miriam is part red head or at least has more of that complexion and so I was like they're freckles, white people have them, go look at Miriam she has more! hahah it worked to get a few of them from dangling off my arms. The kids love Miriam too and shes great with them!
We played an impromptu game of I ran away with my hands in the air because too many people we're trying to hold them at once. And this is all just one recess!!! :) I'm tired hahaha

They asked me to sing the Anthem today and I was like umm... I did my best but I recently learnt the protest version that is arguing against climate destruction by the Canadian government and condemnign the construction of the Olympic village on Aboriginal land and the Alberta tarsands and I coudln't quite remember the whole regular version properly! :S I didn't tell them that I just stopped early haha

I got to teach physical education and I did Dragonfly, Mosquito, Human tag (Thank you Eco-U)
you split up into two groups and decide which of the three you're going to be as a group and then walk to face (team one and team two) eachother and its like rock paper scizzors en mass but if you lose you have to run to a certain boudary without being caught or you change teams!
Its a game where no one loses! which is great :)
and its adorable (Mosquitos bite humans, human hit dragonflies with their cars, and dragonflies eat mosquitos) We then played it a second way which was elephant, mouse, cat. Because elephants are afraid of mice, and mice are eaten by cats, and elephants squish cats hahaha
The funniest part was that all the kids ran when they did the same thing even though no one was chasing them!
Then we played a freeze tag game and simon says to stretch and do some final exercises!
Then I 'taught' geography which really meant that I answered a host of questions about Canada we looked it up on a map, and Trinidad fits in lake superior so they were pretty astonished about how big Canada was, we talked about the equater and how the sun affects our climat, about the different time zones in Canada because of time zones relations to latitutde and then about what snow was like and what you had to wear in -40
They're really cute!

Then it was lunch and they actually provide all the children with lunch (the government does) so we got to eat that too, it was pretty good! I tink they use less flavor for the kids, i don't know if its economics or kids tastes but I am loving school lunches :) We had one the day we visited the school too and it was also delicious

they SALT everything. I was really excited for steamed broccoli at dinner tongiht and I took a ton of it before tasting it. i have learnt a valuable lesson!!!! I didn't think someone could wreck steamed broccoli, broccoli is practically my favorite food! but it was maybe the most disgusting thing I've ever eaten, if not taste wise certainly emotionally because it was such a let down form what I was expecting, the broccoli tasted like green slimey french fries they were so salty.
I'm employing my grandfathers advice and joke "I hate it but I eat it" out here!  
I was jokign around at a dinner on Saturday that Carribean people must find Canadian food so bland! Everyone at the table with me agreed whole heartedly, and started talking about how they brought hot sauce with them so that they didn't have to endure the boring food!
 Jacey says I'm an extra bland cooker, which is true, when it comes to food I'm all about subtle to non existant taste, so this is certainly a shift! But I think I'll defiantely at least have a tolerance for spice wehn I get home I still might not cook with it though haha

Anyways, I asked for no salt to be put on things so that we could add salt if we wanted it, and it kinda went over okay, I'm finding that I 'm just going to need to make some of those awkward requests because as of yet, we are told everyday we can feel free to cook our own dinner, but we're always fed the minute we walk in the door so I'm never hungry by dinner time because 'snacks' are too big that I just want a V8 and a fruit or something 

Tomorrow we get to see the schools Diwali celebration assembly and then Wednesday we're going to a Hindu school (a public school still) to see their Diwali celebration.
Diwali^[1] is popularly known as the festival of lights. It is an important five-day festival in Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism, occurring between mid-October and mid-November.
Whats cool about that is that I studied Janism in my university class on Nonviolence.

 For most Hindus and Indians, Diwali is the biggest festival in the entire year and is celebrated with families performing traditional activities together in their homes. Deepavali is an official holiday in India, ^[2] Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Mauritius, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Myanmar , Fiji ,Suriname and Guyana
The name Diwali is itself a contraction of the word Deepavali which translates into row of lamps.^[3] Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps (diyas)  filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil. During Diwali celebrants wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks with family members and friends. Some Indian business communities begin the financial year on the first day of Diwali, hoping for prosperity the following year.
In Hinduism, Deepavali marks the return of Lord Rama,who Ramlilla was about. That I sent you the picture of the burnign guy, tahts who Lord Rama defeated. So after his kingdom of Ayodhya after defeating (the demon king) Ravana, the ruler of Lanka, in the epic Ramayana. And people lit lamps so that he could see the way, hence the festival of lights.
This is just what I found on the internet I will tell you more when the kids teach me stuff tomorrow and wednesday in their plays and performances :)

To end on a laughing note here is ajoke I heard on Sunday at a Youth Fellowship Service
A women gets arrested for stealing a can of peaches and has to go to court for sentencing.
At court the judge asks "how many peaches were there in the can?"
The woman answers "there were 5 peaches in the can your honour"
The judge says "then I sentence you to 5 days, one day for each item stolen"
Her husband stands up in the crowd and says "your honour, she also stole a can of peas!"

With Love and Hope for a Peaceful and Just World
- Tessa