Since we are on break, we have had some extra time on our hands. The other day, we decided to try out our new cricket set we got for Christmas. We do not have much yard space, but we do have a small concrete slab by the back of the church. Usually, we do not have much access to it because there is a preschool in the same yard and they use it, but now that both the preschool and we are on break, we can use it all we want. When we were playing cricket, we found an old rusty chair to use as a wicket. The wicket is placed behind the batter's bat. If the bowler (pitcher) hits the wicket with the ball, the batter is out. In real cricket, the batter runs after they hit the ball, but since that is next to impossible to play for runs with only two people, we did not. Instead, we counted up the number of hits the batter got. Once the batter got a wicket (or if the bowler caught their ball), we switched positions. Yesterday we passed a good portion of the day cutting out Biblical characters from felt. One of our neighbours had gotten a mini felt board set identical to the one at the church, except everything is a lot more tiny. She was overwhelmed by having to cut out the whole thing, so she gave it to us. We had forgotten about it until yesterday, but we got a lot cut out then. Some of our other neighbours gave us some games to play over break--Monopoly and Rummy-O. We haven't actually gotten around to playing those games, but we have played some others. We have been finding lots of ways to keep occupied.
~Roxy & Olivia
Today may not be the twelfth day of Christmas, but it is our twelfth day without water. That actually may sound a bit worse than it is, but the situation has been quite frustrating for us. They way the water system works here is that every home and business has their own set of water tanks. Here at the church there are two large tanks that hold, I believe, 1000 gallons between the two of them. These tanks are connected to the city water line that is supposed to refill them as they get low. However, since at least the 19th of December, there has been no water coming into the tanks. Instead, we can see the water that is supposed to be coming to us running out from under the road and into the ditch. We have called the water authority every day they have been open, but so far no one has even come to look at it. They did send out a truck to refill the tanks once, and another is supposed to be on order. In between, we were able to run a hose from the neighbor to refill the tanks once completely and another time partially. As a result, we actually do have water most of the time, but are very conscious of how much we use. We have also borrowed some large jugs that we keep filled for those times when the water does run out completely. The last time the tanks were empty, we took advantage of the opportunity to clean them out. It was pretty disgusting to realize how much sediment had collected in them. That became obvious when the fire truck refilled our tank, and the pressure of the hoses stirred everything up. The water was noticeably brown for several days. A load of laundry that we did without realizing how dirty the water was will probably never be white again. I've told many people that there are times that I can forget that I'm not in the United States. We have access here to many of the same things we would at home. But as we deal with the water situation, I am reminded that Trinidad & Tobago is still a developing nation. The infrastructure here is clearly not as developed as it is in America.
~Richard
Another thing that Richard and I have done this week is to attend two funerals of two different neighbors. We did not know either neighbor personally, but in both cases knew their family. The funerals were very different in many ways. One similarity is that they both took place at the homes of the persons who died. It is common here to set up tents outside the house beside the veranda which everyone has. Friends and family gather first for a night or two of a wake. Then finally for the funeral. In both cases during the funeral relatives came by during the ceremony and passed out water bottles to everyone.
The first funeral was for the brother of our neighbor Jameel. He was a young man who was found murdered. Only Jameel and his grandmother are left in the immediate family. They are Muslims. The Muslim funeral was brief. There were a few prayers in Arabic and a sort of homily by the Imam. There was no singing, no sharing about the life of the individual and not much emotion expressed outwardly with the exception of the immediate family. We did not accompany the body to the next house where there was to be another short ceremony before moving to the cemetery. The part of the funeral we attended took place at the grandmother's house. We were told that then the same would happen at the house where he had been currently living. We were also told that I would not be allowed at the cemetery because women were not allowed according to Muslim tradition here. I asked if that would be true even if it was my husband or child. I was told yes, but that I would not be sad about that because I would understand it.
The second funeral was for Joyce , who was a member of the Charlieville Mennonite Church where we live. In fact, before this building was completed, the church used to meet in her house. She beloved in her community. Her funeral was very much like those I have attended in the US. The amount of singing both by the group and by individuals sharing special music and the amount of sharing of memories about her was probably greater than most I've attended. But there was a lot of love and care expressed.
I doubt one can over-generalize from these two very different situations. I can only share what the two experiences were like for me. Our hearts go out to both families.
~Barb
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Happy Boxing Day and a Merry Christmas, too!
Today is Boxing Day--an official public holiday in Trinidad & Tobago, just as it is in most countries that make up the British Commonwealth. Unlike in the U.S. where the stores are busy today with shoppers rushing to cash in on after-Christmas sales and to return unwanted gifts, the stores here are closed. On Christmas Day, most people spend the day with families. Many attend early morning church services as well. Today, however, is a day to go out and celebrate. Beaches and parks will be packed with revelers who have the day off. Others will take the opportunity to take care of projects that need to be done around the house. It is common here for people to use December to do what many in the States think of as "spring cleaning." A lot of families try to get their homes thoroughly cleaned, replace old curtains and repaint rooms before Christmas. For those who weren't able to get everything done then, today is a good chance to still take care of things before the New Year.
~Richard
Let's work backwards on this list and I'll write a bit about some of our Christmas day. Originally we were invited to spend Christmas with some other missionaries, which would have included a traditional Trini family day and big meal at home. However, due to health problems, that plan was changed. Instead, we were invited to join another family on the beach. This family said it was their first Christmas to go to the beach. Most people do not go on Christmas. But they had relatives visiting and since it was the only day they were all able to work it out with their schedules, they decided to go then to the beach. And, we got to be included!
It was a bright, warm, sunny day here (sorry to all our dear friends in the cold). We enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch of curried duck (a traditional Christmas favorite here), roti, fish cakes and egg balls. Our contribution to the meal was as many of our Christmas sweets as we were able to make here. We had to explain that peppernuts were not like the peppernuts they sell in the stores here that are literally nuts covered in pepper. They thought it was funny that ours were called that when they had no pepper and no nuts in them.
After lunch we enjoyed visiting, playing in the ocean, hop scotch drawn in the wet sand and a little cricket and American football by the 5 youth present. Cricket, curried duck and a palm tree lined beach on Christmas. What a lovely day.
Barb
Even before that, we went to a candlelight service early on Christmas morning. It started at 5:30, and since the one we attended was held in the church right downstairs from our apartment, that was very convenient. So we got up at 5:00 and went downstairs very soon. We didn't even need to eat breakfast because that was provided as a part of the service. It was still dark at the beginning of the service at 5:30 in the morning, but it got light pretty fast. There were candles set all around the church, but the overhead lights were on too. The service was basically like a regular church service, and for the rest of the day I kept thinking it was Sunday! My family did a special again, and we did the same song that we had already done at 3 Christmas Programs, so we have had plenty chances to get good at it, I guess! By the end of the service, the candle at the very front was only a pile of wax and it was dripping all over the floor. So I was very surprised when I walked to the back of the church at the end and the candles at the back were still really tall! After the service was over, they served 'breakfast' for us, but I thought it was more like any regular meal. They had bread, rolls, ham, turkey, and chicken along with condiments for a sandwich, plus some people brought breakfast things and some people even brought dessert. I think it's impossible to go hungry in Trinidad!
~Roxy
Well, we still are out of water. We've been out since last Friday, so this is day 8. Towards the beginning, someone called the firetrucks and they came and filled the water tanks for us. So, that lasted us a few days. We asked the person who did that for us if we could call the firetrucks and they'd fill our tanks again, but we learned that if we place a request it would at least be a few days before they come and with the Christmas holidays, it complicates everything. Luckily, we were able to talk to our neighbor who filled our tanks with his hose. It makes it harder, though, to have to share water with the church. Like, after the church service yesterday, we found that there was a toilet in the women's bathroom that was still running. We could have never noticed and it would have wasted a lot of our water. We're lucky enough to have found some sources of water, but we still have to conserve a lot. We're hoping that WASA (I forget what it stands for, but that's the water company in Trinidad) will come fix our leak on Monday. That's our next hope since today is Boxing Day and tomorrow is Sunday!
~Olivia
~Richard
Let's work backwards on this list and I'll write a bit about some of our Christmas day. Originally we were invited to spend Christmas with some other missionaries, which would have included a traditional Trini family day and big meal at home. However, due to health problems, that plan was changed. Instead, we were invited to join another family on the beach. This family said it was their first Christmas to go to the beach. Most people do not go on Christmas. But they had relatives visiting and since it was the only day they were all able to work it out with their schedules, they decided to go then to the beach. And, we got to be included!
It was a bright, warm, sunny day here (sorry to all our dear friends in the cold). We enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch of curried duck (a traditional Christmas favorite here), roti, fish cakes and egg balls. Our contribution to the meal was as many of our Christmas sweets as we were able to make here. We had to explain that peppernuts were not like the peppernuts they sell in the stores here that are literally nuts covered in pepper. They thought it was funny that ours were called that when they had no pepper and no nuts in them.
After lunch we enjoyed visiting, playing in the ocean, hop scotch drawn in the wet sand and a little cricket and American football by the 5 youth present. Cricket, curried duck and a palm tree lined beach on Christmas. What a lovely day.
Barb
Even before that, we went to a candlelight service early on Christmas morning. It started at 5:30, and since the one we attended was held in the church right downstairs from our apartment, that was very convenient. So we got up at 5:00 and went downstairs very soon. We didn't even need to eat breakfast because that was provided as a part of the service. It was still dark at the beginning of the service at 5:30 in the morning, but it got light pretty fast. There were candles set all around the church, but the overhead lights were on too. The service was basically like a regular church service, and for the rest of the day I kept thinking it was Sunday! My family did a special again, and we did the same song that we had already done at 3 Christmas Programs, so we have had plenty chances to get good at it, I guess! By the end of the service, the candle at the very front was only a pile of wax and it was dripping all over the floor. So I was very surprised when I walked to the back of the church at the end and the candles at the back were still really tall! After the service was over, they served 'breakfast' for us, but I thought it was more like any regular meal. They had bread, rolls, ham, turkey, and chicken along with condiments for a sandwich, plus some people brought breakfast things and some people even brought dessert. I think it's impossible to go hungry in Trinidad!
~Roxy
Well, we still are out of water. We've been out since last Friday, so this is day 8. Towards the beginning, someone called the firetrucks and they came and filled the water tanks for us. So, that lasted us a few days. We asked the person who did that for us if we could call the firetrucks and they'd fill our tanks again, but we learned that if we place a request it would at least be a few days before they come and with the Christmas holidays, it complicates everything. Luckily, we were able to talk to our neighbor who filled our tanks with his hose. It makes it harder, though, to have to share water with the church. Like, after the church service yesterday, we found that there was a toilet in the women's bathroom that was still running. We could have never noticed and it would have wasted a lot of our water. We're lucky enough to have found some sources of water, but we still have to conserve a lot. We're hoping that WASA (I forget what it stands for, but that's the water company in Trinidad) will come fix our leak on Monday. That's our next hope since today is Boxing Day and tomorrow is Sunday!
~Olivia
Monday, December 21, 2009
After Tobago
On Saturday, Hope Mennonite Church had their Christmas program. We also didn't have water at our apartment that day. So, we went and showered at some people's house who weren't there at that time. The youth leaders had told us that we should come around 4:30, so we could practice before it started at 6:00. They also asked us to do a special, so we decided to do "Mary's Boy Child" again. Well, we were just about to leave when they said that actually we should come around 5:30. So, we waited and got there around 5:30. Most of the youth were there by then, but the leaders still weren't there. Anyways, it didn't start until around 7:00. We were planning to have the program first and then the meal, but since it was so late and everyone was hungry, we had the meal first. After a nice meal, our family did "Mary's Boy Child". But, since our water jug was now full, my mom had to use my flute case to do percussion. After we were finished, Roxy and I had to hurry and get into our costumes for the Christmas program. They didn't have enough staffs, so I was the only shepherd without a staff. I liked how they had the meal, so people were able to talk more and spend time with each other. We were a little disappointed we didn't get to see the Charlieville Christmas program, though, which was going on at the same time. But, we still made it to 3 out of the 5 Christmas programs, and we were planning to go to the 6th but it got canceled.
~Olivia
I can't believe it's almost Christmas! It seems like so much more than only 4 days!! Yesterday after church, our family drove up a VERY winding and narrow mountain road to get to a place called Lopinot (but the t is silent). We took a picnic lunch to the savanna there and ate and (some of us) played on the tyre swings. (Tyre is the British spelling, so that's how it's spelled here, but it took some getting used to!) Then we took a little walk around the Lopinot historical site. There was a self-guided walking tour that we did. We had heard that we could hear good parang music up there, but the parang festival there had just ended. Parang is a type of music you hear around Christmas that comes from a Spanish background. Although we have been hearing parang on the radio for literally the last 100 days, we have only heard it once in person. So we were looking forward to hearing more, but as it turned out we didn't get to. But then we talked to one of the men in charge, and he said that he wouldn't disappoint us, and then he opened this cupboard and took out a quatro (what I would call a ukulele) and two rhythm instruments: a chak-chak (maracas) and a tock-tock (a block of of wood with a mallet). He gave the chak-chak to Olivia and the tock-tock to me. So instead of just listening to parang, we actually got to participate!
~Roxy
The girls have made reference to several events of the weekend. Let me fill in a few details. In our last blog we told of our lovely, lovely 3 nights in Tobago. It was such a sunny, relaxing time for our family. Unfortunately, when we returned we were greeted with a series of difficulties. Late on the night we returned we found a message that the other Mennonite missionary has been experiencing health problems that have become serious enough that he and his familiy needed to travel back to the states today for him to receive some tests. Richard Keeler called to ask if one of us could fill in for him on Sunday. Richard agreed to bring the sermon that day. We continue to hold Richard and spouse Margaret in our prayers and were happy to be of help in a small way as they prepared to leave.
The next item to deal with was our car. While we had successfully gotten the fender repaired while we were gone, we returned to find that the fan had gone out. After a hot weekend of travel without air conditioning, we got it fixed today. The issue was so small that the mechanic refused to even charge us, which was nice.
Later on Friday we again lost water. We've spent a fair amount of time trying to get someone to repair another leak in our line that prevents water from getting to our house and will probably need to spend more. The latest word is that they are hoping to get someone to assess the situation before Christmas, but can't promise anything.
On Saturday we learned that our neighbor Jameel's brother had died. Actually he had been murdered. Trinidad has an extremely high murder rate. It is 10:00 pm as I write this and Richard is with him, having given him a ride to the funeral home. We will attend the funeral tomorrow morning.
Our lives are very full indeed. We are grateful to know that we can be of service to those around us. We even found a little time today to begin (yes, I did say begin) our Christmas shopping. It is hard to believe that it is only a few days away.
~Barb
~Olivia
I can't believe it's almost Christmas! It seems like so much more than only 4 days!! Yesterday after church, our family drove up a VERY winding and narrow mountain road to get to a place called Lopinot (but the t is silent). We took a picnic lunch to the savanna there and ate and (some of us) played on the tyre swings. (Tyre is the British spelling, so that's how it's spelled here, but it took some getting used to!) Then we took a little walk around the Lopinot historical site. There was a self-guided walking tour that we did. We had heard that we could hear good parang music up there, but the parang festival there had just ended. Parang is a type of music you hear around Christmas that comes from a Spanish background. Although we have been hearing parang on the radio for literally the last 100 days, we have only heard it once in person. So we were looking forward to hearing more, but as it turned out we didn't get to. But then we talked to one of the men in charge, and he said that he wouldn't disappoint us, and then he opened this cupboard and took out a quatro (what I would call a ukulele) and two rhythm instruments: a chak-chak (maracas) and a tock-tock (a block of of wood with a mallet). He gave the chak-chak to Olivia and the tock-tock to me. So instead of just listening to parang, we actually got to participate!
~Roxy
The girls have made reference to several events of the weekend. Let me fill in a few details. In our last blog we told of our lovely, lovely 3 nights in Tobago. It was such a sunny, relaxing time for our family. Unfortunately, when we returned we were greeted with a series of difficulties. Late on the night we returned we found a message that the other Mennonite missionary has been experiencing health problems that have become serious enough that he and his familiy needed to travel back to the states today for him to receive some tests. Richard Keeler called to ask if one of us could fill in for him on Sunday. Richard agreed to bring the sermon that day. We continue to hold Richard and spouse Margaret in our prayers and were happy to be of help in a small way as they prepared to leave.
The next item to deal with was our car. While we had successfully gotten the fender repaired while we were gone, we returned to find that the fan had gone out. After a hot weekend of travel without air conditioning, we got it fixed today. The issue was so small that the mechanic refused to even charge us, which was nice.
Later on Friday we again lost water. We've spent a fair amount of time trying to get someone to repair another leak in our line that prevents water from getting to our house and will probably need to spend more. The latest word is that they are hoping to get someone to assess the situation before Christmas, but can't promise anything.
On Saturday we learned that our neighbor Jameel's brother had died. Actually he had been murdered. Trinidad has an extremely high murder rate. It is 10:00 pm as I write this and Richard is with him, having given him a ride to the funeral home. We will attend the funeral tomorrow morning.
Our lives are very full indeed. We are grateful to know that we can be of service to those around us. We even found a little time today to begin (yes, I did say begin) our Christmas shopping. It is hard to believe that it is only a few days away.
~Barb
Friday, December 18, 2009
Tobago!
With the school term over, our family decided to do as the Trinis do. We took a Christmas holiday in Tobago. The country we are in is called Trinidad and Tobago. It is mainly made up of the two islands after which it is named. About 95% of the population lives where we do on the island of Trinidad, and that is also where all of the Mennonite churches are. But when one wants a vacation, most people here go to the island of Tobago.
One can either travel there by small plane or by ferry. We took the ferry which takes about 2 1/2 hours. We were told that we should all take sea sickness medicine before we went which we did. The sea can get pretty rough, but we were all fine. On the way home the trip was much smoother because we traveled with the wind.
The two islands are quite different. Trinidad is very industrial. We learned recently, for instance that it is one of the top greenhouse gas producers per capita in the world. Tobago, on the other hand, is much more of the stereotype of a Caribbean island. It is laid back, quiet and absolutely picturesque. We took the ferry over on Monday evening and returned Thursday evening. It was a glorious several days and our big excursion for the year.
~Barbara
On our first full day in Tobago (Tuesday) we got to go out in the ocean in a glass-bottom boat! You see, we were on our way to the beach (we could walk to it) when we got confused and wanted to double-check that we were headed in the right direction. So we asked somebody, but he said that he didn't know because he was from Trinidad, not Tobago. But just then another man came up and told us that we were going the right way, and also that he had a glass-bottom boat! He was part of the crew of a boat called Miss Jo. There are a lot of different glass-bottom boats that you can get tickets for, and I guess people just own them and sell tickets. So an hour later our family all piled in the back of a pickup truck and headed from one beach to a dock where the boat picked us up. From there we rode out into the ocean a ways, then stopped a while and everyone assembled on the bottom floor of the boat. (We had been on the top deck of the boat.) There was a sort of well at the bottom where there was glass and we could look through. Then the captain explained about some of the "plants and fishes". Then we continued on until we got to Buccoo Reef. (When Trinis or Tobagonians say Buccoo it sounds more like boca or boco.) There they anchored the boat and threw out a rope with a floating ring at the end of it. Then they handed out snorkeling gear and sometimes life jackets to those who wanted to go snorkeling (which included all of our family). Then we got to go snorkeling!! We could follow along the rope and stick our heads under and see all the coral and everything! After everyone got back in the boat we proceeded to 'The Famous Nylon Pool'. This is a place that is out in the middle of the ocean, but shallow enough to easily stand in and warmer than some of the other water. All the sand there was made of coral that had been crushed up by the ocean. It was not very fine or soft, but apparently it was good for your skin if you rubbed it on (which was slightly painful, actually). Then we got back in the boat (on the top again) and rode back to the beach.
~Roxy
Most of Wednesday and a smaller part of Tuesday we spent at a beach near our hotel called Store Bay. It was really beautiful. If you looked out on the ocean, the water was a really pretty bright color of blue. I've never seen water so blue. It looked completely picturesque with the palm trees and the sand and the water and the waves crashing on the beach. The water was pretty rough while we were there, so we couldn't go very far out. Mostly we just stayed at the edge. One of my favorite things to do there was to sit down in the area just beyond where the waves crashed. I thought it felt like I was in a dishwasher. We also rented beach chairs with an umbrella, so we could just sit there and watch. And right before we left, we bought fun drinks there. Me and Roxy got a mix of pineapple, cherry and coconut cream. My parents got a punch made of sorrell (a fairly common soft drink here, made from a sorrell flower). For Wednesday lunch, me and my parents got the crab and dumplings which everyone told us we should try. Roxy got some roti with potato since she doesn't like seafood. I thought the taste of the crab and dumplings was very good, but it was very messy and it took a lot of work to actually get to the meat, which there wasn't much of. I got extremely messy eating it. I looked around and saw some other people eating the same thing who weren't nearly as messy as I was. I think some were staring at me. We spent a little time at another beach called Pigeon Point, but there was lots of seaweed and coral in the water. I kept stepping on the coral and it hurt and Roxy got so much seaweed caught in her hair. It was a mess! I preferred Store Bay, since it was so beautiful, even thought the water was kind of rough.
~Olivia
We had the option of taking our car over on the ferry, but decided against it. This was due in part to the cost, but also because I was looking forward to having a few days off of driving. As it turns out, leaving the car in Trinidad also provided an opportunity to get the fender fixed after the little accident we had a couple of weeks ago. Our friends the Jaiminis were kind enough to give us rides to and from the ferry terminal in Port of Spain. In Tobago, we caught taxis to our hotel on Monday, then back to the ferry on Thursday. On Tuesday & Wednesday, we simply walked where we needed to go. The hotel we had booked, on the recommendation of some of our other Trini friends, was easy walking distance to Store Bay beach. It was also close enough to walk to Pigeon Point, although that turned out to be a bit longer of a hike than we had anticipated (about a mile). There were plenty of restaurants and shops within walking distance to take care of what we needed, too. Our room included a small kitchen as well, so we didn't have to eat all of our meals out. There were also two pools where we were able to swim when we didn't feel like getting all sandy, or when the surf was too rough. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Tobago, and are hoping that we might have the chance to go back for another visit sometime while we're here.
~Richard
One can either travel there by small plane or by ferry. We took the ferry which takes about 2 1/2 hours. We were told that we should all take sea sickness medicine before we went which we did. The sea can get pretty rough, but we were all fine. On the way home the trip was much smoother because we traveled with the wind.
The two islands are quite different. Trinidad is very industrial. We learned recently, for instance that it is one of the top greenhouse gas producers per capita in the world. Tobago, on the other hand, is much more of the stereotype of a Caribbean island. It is laid back, quiet and absolutely picturesque. We took the ferry over on Monday evening and returned Thursday evening. It was a glorious several days and our big excursion for the year.
~Barbara
On our first full day in Tobago (Tuesday) we got to go out in the ocean in a glass-bottom boat! You see, we were on our way to the beach (we could walk to it) when we got confused and wanted to double-check that we were headed in the right direction. So we asked somebody, but he said that he didn't know because he was from Trinidad, not Tobago. But just then another man came up and told us that we were going the right way, and also that he had a glass-bottom boat! He was part of the crew of a boat called Miss Jo. There are a lot of different glass-bottom boats that you can get tickets for, and I guess people just own them and sell tickets. So an hour later our family all piled in the back of a pickup truck and headed from one beach to a dock where the boat picked us up. From there we rode out into the ocean a ways, then stopped a while and everyone assembled on the bottom floor of the boat. (We had been on the top deck of the boat.) There was a sort of well at the bottom where there was glass and we could look through. Then the captain explained about some of the "plants and fishes". Then we continued on until we got to Buccoo Reef. (When Trinis or Tobagonians say Buccoo it sounds more like boca or boco.) There they anchored the boat and threw out a rope with a floating ring at the end of it. Then they handed out snorkeling gear and sometimes life jackets to those who wanted to go snorkeling (which included all of our family). Then we got to go snorkeling!! We could follow along the rope and stick our heads under and see all the coral and everything! After everyone got back in the boat we proceeded to 'The Famous Nylon Pool'. This is a place that is out in the middle of the ocean, but shallow enough to easily stand in and warmer than some of the other water. All the sand there was made of coral that had been crushed up by the ocean. It was not very fine or soft, but apparently it was good for your skin if you rubbed it on (which was slightly painful, actually). Then we got back in the boat (on the top again) and rode back to the beach.
~Roxy
Most of Wednesday and a smaller part of Tuesday we spent at a beach near our hotel called Store Bay. It was really beautiful. If you looked out on the ocean, the water was a really pretty bright color of blue. I've never seen water so blue. It looked completely picturesque with the palm trees and the sand and the water and the waves crashing on the beach. The water was pretty rough while we were there, so we couldn't go very far out. Mostly we just stayed at the edge. One of my favorite things to do there was to sit down in the area just beyond where the waves crashed. I thought it felt like I was in a dishwasher. We also rented beach chairs with an umbrella, so we could just sit there and watch. And right before we left, we bought fun drinks there. Me and Roxy got a mix of pineapple, cherry and coconut cream. My parents got a punch made of sorrell (a fairly common soft drink here, made from a sorrell flower). For Wednesday lunch, me and my parents got the crab and dumplings which everyone told us we should try. Roxy got some roti with potato since she doesn't like seafood. I thought the taste of the crab and dumplings was very good, but it was very messy and it took a lot of work to actually get to the meat, which there wasn't much of. I got extremely messy eating it. I looked around and saw some other people eating the same thing who weren't nearly as messy as I was. I think some were staring at me. We spent a little time at another beach called Pigeon Point, but there was lots of seaweed and coral in the water. I kept stepping on the coral and it hurt and Roxy got so much seaweed caught in her hair. It was a mess! I preferred Store Bay, since it was so beautiful, even thought the water was kind of rough.
~Olivia
We had the option of taking our car over on the ferry, but decided against it. This was due in part to the cost, but also because I was looking forward to having a few days off of driving. As it turns out, leaving the car in Trinidad also provided an opportunity to get the fender fixed after the little accident we had a couple of weeks ago. Our friends the Jaiminis were kind enough to give us rides to and from the ferry terminal in Port of Spain. In Tobago, we caught taxis to our hotel on Monday, then back to the ferry on Thursday. On Tuesday & Wednesday, we simply walked where we needed to go. The hotel we had booked, on the recommendation of some of our other Trini friends, was easy walking distance to Store Bay beach. It was also close enough to walk to Pigeon Point, although that turned out to be a bit longer of a hike than we had anticipated (about a mile). There were plenty of restaurants and shops within walking distance to take care of what we needed, too. Our room included a small kitchen as well, so we didn't have to eat all of our meals out. There were also two pools where we were able to swim when we didn't feel like getting all sandy, or when the surf was too rough. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Tobago, and are hoping that we might have the chance to go back for another visit sometime while we're here.
~Richard
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Christmas Programs
Yesterday was the Christmas program at Carlsen Field Mennonite Church. It was scheduled to start at 3:30, and we arrived around 2:30 to help get things ready. Mostly, people were putting together bags of treats for the kids afterward. Soon people started to arrive. The chairs filled up fast and soon there weren't enough chairs for everyone. I was surprised at how many people came considering that there are usually close to 20 people on a regular Sunday morning. We heard at the end that there were around 150 people, but we think that might have been a little high. The service consisted of the drama the youths had been working on, some singing of Christmas carols, our family performing Mary's Boy Child, my parents performing The Virgin Mary (on the spot, just to kill time), some people performing Away in a Manger and the preacher saying something. One of the things I noticed was that there was a very high proportion of children to adults. From what we heard, there were about 120 children and 30 adults. That means that mostly children came without their parents. But, they could walk because I think pretty much everyone except some of the members of the church were from the village. But, I'm still amazed in general at how many children come to church without parents.
~Olivia
We just returned from the Chaguanas Christmas program. We had been asked to sing a song there also. It seems that providing music in the churches has been a fairly major part of our work here. How fun. This morning we were at Charlieville Church where Richard preached and they needed someone who knew The First Noel well enough to lead it. They spontaneously called on me and all seemed so impressed that I could lead it.
Tonight I got to play the water jug again as percussion for Mary's Boy Child while Roxy played violin and Olivia played flute. But the really fun part was some of the other music we heard. Most of the time the music in the churches here is very American. But tonight we had one group that included a steel pan. That was the first time we really heard and saw it live. Another group performed another kind of traditional Spanish music called parang. While we have been hearing it on the radio, this is the first live group we've heard. All this happened along with skits by the 2 cell groups, the youth group and the kids club from the church. The program took place in the Savannah (park) under and around a tent. Several times during the program the rain fell hard and everyone had to try to squish together under the tent. Then it would stop and we'd wipe off the chairs and try spreading out again. I think by the end everyone was somewhat damp, but happy nonetheless.
~Barb
Just a few observations from the two Christmas programs the last couple of days:
~Richard
~Olivia
We just returned from the Chaguanas Christmas program. We had been asked to sing a song there also. It seems that providing music in the churches has been a fairly major part of our work here. How fun. This morning we were at Charlieville Church where Richard preached and they needed someone who knew The First Noel well enough to lead it. They spontaneously called on me and all seemed so impressed that I could lead it.
Tonight I got to play the water jug again as percussion for Mary's Boy Child while Roxy played violin and Olivia played flute. But the really fun part was some of the other music we heard. Most of the time the music in the churches here is very American. But tonight we had one group that included a steel pan. That was the first time we really heard and saw it live. Another group performed another kind of traditional Spanish music called parang. While we have been hearing it on the radio, this is the first live group we've heard. All this happened along with skits by the 2 cell groups, the youth group and the kids club from the church. The program took place in the Savannah (park) under and around a tent. Several times during the program the rain fell hard and everyone had to try to squish together under the tent. Then it would stop and we'd wipe off the chairs and try spreading out again. I think by the end everyone was somewhat damp, but happy nonetheless.
~Barb
Just a few observations from the two Christmas programs the last couple of days:
- Both of the programs were held outside since neither of the churches have enough space inside for more than about 40 people. This marks the first time for me that I've attended an outdoor Christmas program without having to really bundle up in layers. In fact, at the program yesterday afternoon I was wearing short sleeves and still sweating in the heat. The rain and darkness made things much cooler this evening, but I still didn't need even a light jacket.
- Both of the churches also used the programs as a significant time to connect to the communities in which they meet. We had gone with members of the Carlsen Field Mennonite Church last weekend to hand out invitations in the neighborhood. I was amazed at how much response they got from this effort. A church that usually has about 20 people on a Sunday morning (essentially 3-4 families) ended up with around 150 for the Christmas program.
~Richard
Thursday, December 10, 2009
School Ends
Today, I had a Christmas party at school. My class has been doing something we call "Angels and Earthlings". Each person draws a name and that is their "Earthling". Then the "Angel" buys something for their "Earthling" every few days. So, today each person bought their "Earthling" a nicer Christmas gift today. We also had a lot of food and I am completely stuffed. After school, we stopped by my friend's house and they got us each a coconut off their coconut tree. Her brother used a machete to cut the coconut off the tree and her dad chopped the top off the coconuts so we could get to the jelly, also with a machete. My dad and I each had ours there. They cut a hole in the top and we drank the water out of it. It tasted pretty bitter and not very good, I thought, but it was fun because I got to drink out of a coconut with a straw. Then, they cut it in half. I was lucky, apparently, because I got jelly. So, they ripped off a little part of the coconut shell and I used that as a spoon to scrape out the jelly. The jelly was pretty much the same as the water just more slimy. We brought home Roxy's and one for my mom, too.
~Olivia
I also had a class party. Ours was smaller and less organized, but I enjoyed it anyways. In the morning, I brought 13 red balloons to decorate the class, but by the time the bell rang at 2:30 only 4 remained! For lunch, we ordered pizza, brought chips (of many types), and for dessert had cake and ice cream. Plus there were 2 kinds of soft drink. My teacher also brought a tree, a laptop, a projector and many movies. We ended up watching Superman and Batman; Public Enemies and Star Trek. Me and the two other girls in my class had a gift exchange, but our class's Angels and Earthlings game long ago got squashed. (People say things get squashed when they get canceled.) Today something happened that has not happened to me in a few years. There were more girls in my class than boys!!
~Roxy
While the girls were finishing up school for the year, we have been busy trying to finish up grades. In one of my classes I gave a final exam which meant that I had all the papers from that and was able to grade them. From my other class I have been waiting for final papers which I asked to have turned in by last Friday. However, the students technically have until tomorrow to get in assignments. So, I so far have 3 out of 12. That means I'll either have to work really hard this weekend to grade some from tomorrow or I'll be giving some very low grades to all those who do not turn theirs in.
I've been thinking lately about some of the things Americans say that make Trinis laugh at us. 1. "Americans often eat soup when it's cold outside." We got such funny looks when we relayed that piece of information. If they waited to have cold weather here, they'd never be able to have soup. 2. When asked the obvious question, "What color are oranges?" and we answered, "orange." Here they are bright green or pale yellow. It is orange season. 3. When we tell someone that Americans do not eat pizza covered with in either ketchup, mustard or hot pepper sauce. Sometimes Americans just eat it plain.
~Barb
This has (thankfully) been a less eventful week than last week. In particular, the drive to take the girls to school in the morning has been much shorter. I think many of the schools actually had their end of term tests last week. So a lot of students simply didn't go to school this week, which meant that there was significantly less traffic on the roads. Tomorrow is technically the last day of school for the term. However, the note we received from the principal last week stated in bold capital letters that STUDENTS ARE NOT REQUIRED TO ATTEND on Friday, 11 December. We took that to mean that, while the school will be officially "open," the faculty would really rather not have any students around to supervise that day. I have been happy for the shorter commuting times this week, and am looking forward to having a few weeks off of the morning drive.
~Richard
~Olivia
I also had a class party. Ours was smaller and less organized, but I enjoyed it anyways. In the morning, I brought 13 red balloons to decorate the class, but by the time the bell rang at 2:30 only 4 remained! For lunch, we ordered pizza, brought chips (of many types), and for dessert had cake and ice cream. Plus there were 2 kinds of soft drink. My teacher also brought a tree, a laptop, a projector and many movies. We ended up watching Superman and Batman; Public Enemies and Star Trek. Me and the two other girls in my class had a gift exchange, but our class's Angels and Earthlings game long ago got squashed. (People say things get squashed when they get canceled.) Today something happened that has not happened to me in a few years. There were more girls in my class than boys!!
~Roxy
While the girls were finishing up school for the year, we have been busy trying to finish up grades. In one of my classes I gave a final exam which meant that I had all the papers from that and was able to grade them. From my other class I have been waiting for final papers which I asked to have turned in by last Friday. However, the students technically have until tomorrow to get in assignments. So, I so far have 3 out of 12. That means I'll either have to work really hard this weekend to grade some from tomorrow or I'll be giving some very low grades to all those who do not turn theirs in.
I've been thinking lately about some of the things Americans say that make Trinis laugh at us. 1. "Americans often eat soup when it's cold outside." We got such funny looks when we relayed that piece of information. If they waited to have cold weather here, they'd never be able to have soup. 2. When asked the obvious question, "What color are oranges?" and we answered, "orange." Here they are bright green or pale yellow. It is orange season. 3. When we tell someone that Americans do not eat pizza covered with in either ketchup, mustard or hot pepper sauce. Sometimes Americans just eat it plain.
~Barb
This has (thankfully) been a less eventful week than last week. In particular, the drive to take the girls to school in the morning has been much shorter. I think many of the schools actually had their end of term tests last week. So a lot of students simply didn't go to school this week, which meant that there was significantly less traffic on the roads. Tomorrow is technically the last day of school for the term. However, the note we received from the principal last week stated in bold capital letters that STUDENTS ARE NOT REQUIRED TO ATTEND on Friday, 11 December. We took that to mean that, while the school will be officially "open," the faculty would really rather not have any students around to supervise that day. I have been happy for the shorter commuting times this week, and am looking forward to having a few weeks off of the morning drive.
~Richard
Sunday, December 6, 2009
End of Semester
On Friday we started end of term tests. Actually, Olivia had a few starting already on Thursday. We had two tests on Friday (one in the morning and one in the afternoon). And the same thing will happen Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Olivia is scheduled to have another test on Thursday morning, but Roxy is not and each class is also having a Christmas party that day. And the test Olivia has on Thursday morning, she took already on Friday. So, that seems a bit confusing. The tests are held in a big room with everyone in the whole school sitting together. People from different forms (grades) are put next to each other to prevent any cheating (e.g. someone in form 5 next to someone in form 2). The test in the morning was scheduled to be two and a half hours, but all the form ones and twos, including Roxy, finished before an hour and a half was up. But, they were not allowed to leave or talk or do anything except sit silently for the next hour or more. The form fours and fives, including Olivia, took most of the time. We think that the form one and two test should have been scheduled for an hour and a half, but the form fives and fours was about good for two and a half hours. Our school is so small that there are no form threes and we have not quite figured out what the 3 form sixes do all day (when they even show up in uniform). We are hoping that Roxy won't be so bored the next few mornings.
~Olivia and Roxy
While the girls are finishing up their term with tests, the classes that we've been teaching are already done. WITC has two weeks of finals, November 30-December 10, but the finals for all of our classes were this past week. So now we are busy grading final papers and exams. The semester ends with a luncheon this Friday, the 11th at the college. Final grades are due on December 17, but we are planning to turn ours in at the luncheon so that we will be able to enjoy our holiday in Tobago the following week. Teaching philosophy has been a very interesting and rewarding experience for me. I'm sure I learned more than my students did this semester. I'm looking forward to next term when I will be more familiar with how the school operates and will also be teaching homiletics (preaching), which is much more in my field.
~Richard
This week I gave one final, had a last class (which did not have a final, only a paper due) and preached today at the Diego Martin Church were we will be attending regularly next semester. It was good to be involved in all those activities, and it is good on Sunday afternoon, to enjoy the completion of them all for the week. Next week I grade final exams and papers.
The other activities dominating our week had to do with the car. Each day the traffic seemed to worsen this week stretching the normal one and a half hour morning commute for Richard to two and a half hours. It climaxed on Thursday morning when a truck refused to yield as he was changing lanes and hit the car. This was shortly after they had stopped to pick up one of the girls' school friends who has begun catching a ride in with us since her family does not have a car. Thankfully no one was injured. The speed at which this happened was a morning crawl. Still, Richard will have a fender to see to next week. Then this morning on our way to church we had our third flat tire since we've arrived. The one that was flat this time was one we had already replaced once. I don't know how much of the problem is the crazy condition of the roads and how much is the condition of the tires. In any case, that will also be something to attend to. When we finished changing the tire (and by we I mean Richard), I called the church to let them know that we would be late. By then the rain had started.. They thanked me for calling and then told me that they were still out of water (now they are in their third week of that) and were also out of electricity. When we did arrive the church service had already begun and the electricity had been restored. Our late arrival was not a big deal in any way to anyone. It's just part of how life works here.
~Barb
~Olivia and Roxy
While the girls are finishing up their term with tests, the classes that we've been teaching are already done. WITC has two weeks of finals, November 30-December 10, but the finals for all of our classes were this past week. So now we are busy grading final papers and exams. The semester ends with a luncheon this Friday, the 11th at the college. Final grades are due on December 17, but we are planning to turn ours in at the luncheon so that we will be able to enjoy our holiday in Tobago the following week. Teaching philosophy has been a very interesting and rewarding experience for me. I'm sure I learned more than my students did this semester. I'm looking forward to next term when I will be more familiar with how the school operates and will also be teaching homiletics (preaching), which is much more in my field.
~Richard
This week I gave one final, had a last class (which did not have a final, only a paper due) and preached today at the Diego Martin Church were we will be attending regularly next semester. It was good to be involved in all those activities, and it is good on Sunday afternoon, to enjoy the completion of them all for the week. Next week I grade final exams and papers.
The other activities dominating our week had to do with the car. Each day the traffic seemed to worsen this week stretching the normal one and a half hour morning commute for Richard to two and a half hours. It climaxed on Thursday morning when a truck refused to yield as he was changing lanes and hit the car. This was shortly after they had stopped to pick up one of the girls' school friends who has begun catching a ride in with us since her family does not have a car. Thankfully no one was injured. The speed at which this happened was a morning crawl. Still, Richard will have a fender to see to next week. Then this morning on our way to church we had our third flat tire since we've arrived. The one that was flat this time was one we had already replaced once. I don't know how much of the problem is the crazy condition of the roads and how much is the condition of the tires. In any case, that will also be something to attend to. When we finished changing the tire (and by we I mean Richard), I called the church to let them know that we would be late. By then the rain had started.. They thanked me for calling and then told me that they were still out of water (now they are in their third week of that) and were also out of electricity. When we did arrive the church service had already begun and the electricity had been restored. Our late arrival was not a big deal in any way to anyone. It's just part of how life works here.
~Barb
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Joint Service and Advent
This morning, the Mennonite churches all gathered for a special service. Every time there is a fifth Sunday in the month, a joint service is held to which all the Mennonites in the country are invited. The last time such a service took place was the first Sunday that we were here, when the churches gathered for their Annual General Meeting. That gathering was held at a meeting room in a local mall. So this was the first time that we were able to be a part of one of the regular joint services. We continue to be impressed with the way that all of the churches here work together. Their cooperation and support for one another is very helpful given the fairly small size of the churches, and also provides a valuable witness of Christians working together rather than separately. The service was hosted by the Charlieville Mennonite Church (so we just had to go downstairs for worship), but the worship was planned and led by people from all six congregations here. In addition to the usual elements of a worship service, we heard reports from delegates who had gone to Virginia Mennonite Conference and to World Mennonite Conference this summer. There was also a baby dedication for the newborn child of one of the pastors (the first child dedication we've seen here.) A special guest speaker was invited in to preach. Our family was also asked to sing at the service. All of this totalled about a 3-hour service. And, of course, afterwards we enjoyed a delicious meal provided by members of all the churches. As we have been told many times here, the unofficial motto of the Mennonite church is "When we meet, we shall eat!"
~Richard
One of the fun things about attending our second joint service is noticing how many of the Mennonites here we know by now and perhaps even more who know us (we sort of stand out). Last time we went to one of these joint services we had only been here 3 days. Lots of people were introducing themselves to us for the first time and we were frantically trying to remember names. Now we sometimes still struggle to recall a name, but more often we are happy to see familiar faces. One of my favorite things here (speaking of name) is that when children get to know you, they often call you auntie or uncle. By now that is how we are addressed by several small children in the churches and by the school friends of our daughters. Sometimes when someone calls "auntie," it still takes me a bit to realize they mean me. But I love it. It makes me feel like part of the family.
~Barbara
Today is also the first Sunday of Advent! Once when we asked one of the local pastors if they celebrate Advent here, his response was, "Only at Charlieville." Since that is where the joint service was held today, they lit the first Advent candle! Meanwhile, our family is finding ways of celebrating Advent as well. We have always had an Advent calendar in which we add a piece to the Nativity scene every day from the 1st of December to the 24th. This was one of the things in the box of Christmas things we packed to bring here to Trinidad. However, that box got packed away somewhere and never made it here! So we were trying to think of something we could use as an Advent calendar, and we remembered the feltboard that we hadn't used since Bible School! We called a Charlieville church elder and asked if they would be using the feltboard at all during the Christmas season. He said that they wouldn't be, and was delighted that we could use it! (We were too!) So we found all the pieces we wanted (27) and today we set it up in our living room...along with a small Christmas tree! The tree was a surprise to me and Olivia when our parents pulled it out today! They had been planning some Advent activities as well. Each day of Advent, we light a candle and sing a Christmas song and do some sort of activity! There are small papers tucked into the candles (these candles have Christmas trees on them) saying the song and activity. Today we put up the tree and sang O Christmas Tree! Right now it is still bare, so we are expecting some decorating to be part of the activity someday soon. This is the beginning of the warmest (by FAR) Advent we've ever had!
~Roxy
It's so weird to me to have a Christmas tree in our house and then to step right outside in shorts and no shoes and be comfortable, if not a little warm. It's so interesting how many parts of celebrating Christmas are very much the same, but there are also some different things. A lot of the differences have to do with the difference in weather. Also, there's a type of music that I think we might have mentioned earlier in one of our blogs called Parang. There are some fun Parang songs, but if you listen to the lyrics, some of them are a little weird. They talk about all sorts of things. There was one we listened to earlier that would talk about drinking rum one line, and the the next line would say "Christmas only comes once a year" and the next would say "Christ is my savior" and the next would say "He rose again on the third day". I think they need to set their priorities. But, it's fun to drive around and see the Christmas lights, just like in Kansas. Another interesting thing is how many songs people clap too. We were singing Angels We Have Heard on High at youth group this evening and people were clapping. I thought it changed the mood a little, especially on the long glorias. But, I definitely like the enthusiasm about Christmas, and there are still many similar parts of Christmas.
~Olivia
~Richard
One of the fun things about attending our second joint service is noticing how many of the Mennonites here we know by now and perhaps even more who know us (we sort of stand out). Last time we went to one of these joint services we had only been here 3 days. Lots of people were introducing themselves to us for the first time and we were frantically trying to remember names. Now we sometimes still struggle to recall a name, but more often we are happy to see familiar faces. One of my favorite things here (speaking of name) is that when children get to know you, they often call you auntie or uncle. By now that is how we are addressed by several small children in the churches and by the school friends of our daughters. Sometimes when someone calls "auntie," it still takes me a bit to realize they mean me. But I love it. It makes me feel like part of the family.
~Barbara
Today is also the first Sunday of Advent! Once when we asked one of the local pastors if they celebrate Advent here, his response was, "Only at Charlieville." Since that is where the joint service was held today, they lit the first Advent candle! Meanwhile, our family is finding ways of celebrating Advent as well. We have always had an Advent calendar in which we add a piece to the Nativity scene every day from the 1st of December to the 24th. This was one of the things in the box of Christmas things we packed to bring here to Trinidad. However, that box got packed away somewhere and never made it here! So we were trying to think of something we could use as an Advent calendar, and we remembered the feltboard that we hadn't used since Bible School! We called a Charlieville church elder and asked if they would be using the feltboard at all during the Christmas season. He said that they wouldn't be, and was delighted that we could use it! (We were too!) So we found all the pieces we wanted (27) and today we set it up in our living room...along with a small Christmas tree! The tree was a surprise to me and Olivia when our parents pulled it out today! They had been planning some Advent activities as well. Each day of Advent, we light a candle and sing a Christmas song and do some sort of activity! There are small papers tucked into the candles (these candles have Christmas trees on them) saying the song and activity. Today we put up the tree and sang O Christmas Tree! Right now it is still bare, so we are expecting some decorating to be part of the activity someday soon. This is the beginning of the warmest (by FAR) Advent we've ever had!
~Roxy
It's so weird to me to have a Christmas tree in our house and then to step right outside in shorts and no shoes and be comfortable, if not a little warm. It's so interesting how many parts of celebrating Christmas are very much the same, but there are also some different things. A lot of the differences have to do with the difference in weather. Also, there's a type of music that I think we might have mentioned earlier in one of our blogs called Parang. There are some fun Parang songs, but if you listen to the lyrics, some of them are a little weird. They talk about all sorts of things. There was one we listened to earlier that would talk about drinking rum one line, and the the next line would say "Christmas only comes once a year" and the next would say "Christ is my savior" and the next would say "He rose again on the third day". I think they need to set their priorities. But, it's fun to drive around and see the Christmas lights, just like in Kansas. Another interesting thing is how many songs people clap too. We were singing Angels We Have Heard on High at youth group this evening and people were clapping. I thought it changed the mood a little, especially on the long glorias. But, I definitely like the enthusiasm about Christmas, and there are still many similar parts of Christmas.
~Olivia
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!
It's been an interesting school week, although we weren't too surprised about that. Monday was a pretty normal day, but somewhat low attendance. It was also very rainy. It rained most of the day and most of the night, and was still raining when we went to school on Tuesday. Students and teachers trickled in, and by mid-morning, only 6 out of 12 students in my class were there but all the teachers were there. But, then the principal was afraid the bridge that you have to go over to get there was going to flood out, so she sent everyone home at about noon. Then, yesterday again only 6 of 12 students (but not all the same ones as Tuesday) in my class were there. Today Roxy and I just stayed home for Thanksgiving and helped cook and clean mostly. And there's no school tomorrow because of the commonwealth meetings happening here.
~Olivia
This morning was really fun! We noted that it might have been the first time Olivia and I really helped out with the cooking (well, at least with more than the pies)! We made turkey, stuffing, cranberry salad, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and zwieback. We even bought whipped cream to go with the pies! Since we don't have any recipes here really, we found a lot online, except we called my grandma and asked her to email us the zwieback recipe. I had never made zwieback before, just eaten it! We also found that we could watch the parade online! We found a website online where an Oklahoma State Cowboys fan had streaming NBC where we could watch it! It was really choppy, though, especially when it was on full screen, so we had to watch it pretty small. But we were also excited to find that it was our favourite channel to watch the parade on, because since it shows from the end of the route, it has Broadway numbers that it shows too! So our morning was a pleasant mixture of cooking and enjoyment!
~Roxy
As the girls have noted, we are enjoying an American Thanksgiving holiday today. We had made the decision earlier in the week to keep the girls home from school to celebrate. Frankly, they are probably the only kids in their school who haven't already missed a lot of days. We've noticed that people here are more likely than in the U.S. to stay home from school or work if they're feeling just a little under the weather or if they have some sort of personal event like a birthday or minor religious holiday. We thought that celebrating Thanksgiving was worth missing a day of school. We've enjoyed all the preparations. For the most part, the fixings were not too hard to find. The one exception is the cranberries. We had to search a bit to find those, but we finally did!
It's also something of a celebration for me today as last night was my last regular class session. I do still have a fair amount of work to do, however. My students all turned in the big papers that they've been working on all semester, and which I now have to grade. I also need to finish writing the final exam that they will take on Monday. Then, of course, I'll need to grade those, too. But today is a day to take off from all that--to celebrate and give thanks for the many blessings we have. We again are grateful to so many of you reading this blog back in the U.S. for your support in helping us get here, and to everyone here in Trinidad for the ways in which we have been welcomed and made to feel home here as well.
~Richard
It's about 10:15 and our Thanksgiving guests recently left. Richard is finishing up some clean up. We've put all the food away. We had a wonderful evening, but we are glad that tomorrow will be a holiday and we can sleep in. Because today was not a day off for most, we weren't able to begin supper until around 7:00.
We have enjoyed the hospitality of many while we have been here, but one family in particular has really taken care of us. Ramesh is one of the Mennonite pastors here and Babes is known far and wide for her wonderful cooking. We have referred to them often in this blog. They live very close to us. Babes is always sending us food. Earlier this week when we stopped to buy eggs from her she gave us some plantains and also some five finger fruit (often called star fruit in the US) from her tree. So tonight was a great opportunity to share a meal with them and their two young adult sons, Avi and Arvin. We discussed how Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, explaining the food, family, football and shopping. They shared that in Trinidad Christians call a thanksgiving celebration whenever something good happens, an important marker in their lives or perhaps something they have been praying about that comes to pass. Then they throw a big party inviting all their friends and relatives, serving a large meal and having a time of worship.
Today we indeed have much to be thankful for. We are thankful to all those in Trinidad who have welcomed us. We are thankful for our wonderful family including the extended family we were thinking of especially today. And we are thankful for our friends in the US, many of whom have showed us your support and care in so many ways. Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
~Barb
~Olivia
This morning was really fun! We noted that it might have been the first time Olivia and I really helped out with the cooking (well, at least with more than the pies)! We made turkey, stuffing, cranberry salad, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and zwieback. We even bought whipped cream to go with the pies! Since we don't have any recipes here really, we found a lot online, except we called my grandma and asked her to email us the zwieback recipe. I had never made zwieback before, just eaten it! We also found that we could watch the parade online! We found a website online where an Oklahoma State Cowboys fan had streaming NBC where we could watch it! It was really choppy, though, especially when it was on full screen, so we had to watch it pretty small. But we were also excited to find that it was our favourite channel to watch the parade on, because since it shows from the end of the route, it has Broadway numbers that it shows too! So our morning was a pleasant mixture of cooking and enjoyment!
~Roxy
As the girls have noted, we are enjoying an American Thanksgiving holiday today. We had made the decision earlier in the week to keep the girls home from school to celebrate. Frankly, they are probably the only kids in their school who haven't already missed a lot of days. We've noticed that people here are more likely than in the U.S. to stay home from school or work if they're feeling just a little under the weather or if they have some sort of personal event like a birthday or minor religious holiday. We thought that celebrating Thanksgiving was worth missing a day of school. We've enjoyed all the preparations. For the most part, the fixings were not too hard to find. The one exception is the cranberries. We had to search a bit to find those, but we finally did!
It's also something of a celebration for me today as last night was my last regular class session. I do still have a fair amount of work to do, however. My students all turned in the big papers that they've been working on all semester, and which I now have to grade. I also need to finish writing the final exam that they will take on Monday. Then, of course, I'll need to grade those, too. But today is a day to take off from all that--to celebrate and give thanks for the many blessings we have. We again are grateful to so many of you reading this blog back in the U.S. for your support in helping us get here, and to everyone here in Trinidad for the ways in which we have been welcomed and made to feel home here as well.
~Richard
It's about 10:15 and our Thanksgiving guests recently left. Richard is finishing up some clean up. We've put all the food away. We had a wonderful evening, but we are glad that tomorrow will be a holiday and we can sleep in. Because today was not a day off for most, we weren't able to begin supper until around 7:00.
We have enjoyed the hospitality of many while we have been here, but one family in particular has really taken care of us. Ramesh is one of the Mennonite pastors here and Babes is known far and wide for her wonderful cooking. We have referred to them often in this blog. They live very close to us. Babes is always sending us food. Earlier this week when we stopped to buy eggs from her she gave us some plantains and also some five finger fruit (often called star fruit in the US) from her tree. So tonight was a great opportunity to share a meal with them and their two young adult sons, Avi and Arvin. We discussed how Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, explaining the food, family, football and shopping. They shared that in Trinidad Christians call a thanksgiving celebration whenever something good happens, an important marker in their lives or perhaps something they have been praying about that comes to pass. Then they throw a big party inviting all their friends and relatives, serving a large meal and having a time of worship.
Today we indeed have much to be thankful for. We are thankful to all those in Trinidad who have welcomed us. We are thankful for our wonderful family including the extended family we were thinking of especially today. And we are thankful for our friends in the US, many of whom have showed us your support and care in so many ways. Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
~Barb
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Church & Holidays
Living above a church means that your life is intrinsically connected to the church. For instance, we are supposed to turn on the light for the cross on the outside of the building each night when it gets dark. The switch for it is in our living room. That also means that when I get up at night to use the bathroom, my way is lit by a huge cross nightlight that fills my living room.
Recently, we came home from our teaching responsibilities to find that the congregation was having a night of prayer. Since our bedroom overlooks the sanctuary and the sound from downstairs rises easily to our bedroom, we moved our mattress into the living room, where the cross kept things very light, but the enthusiastic prayers and songs were not so noticeable. Although we have preached a couple of times at this church, it is not the church to which we have been primarily assigned. So it is one of 6 congregations inviting us to its events. Last weekend they had revival meetings. Several of the Mennonite churches here have them in November. I think it has to do with preparing for Christmas. They had 3 speakers, one for each night. Friday, the first night, we were teaching. As we pulled in and went up our stairs, we could hear the evangelist preaching. The girls remarked that she reminded them of Martin Luther King in the way her voice rose and fell. On Saturday and Sunday evenings Richard and I joined the congregation. Roxy and Olivia spent both evenings at youth groups for 2 of the other churches. They did that again this weekend. Meanwhile Chaguanas Mennonite Church was having their revival meetings this weekend and asked our family to bring a song. So after the girls got home from one youth group last night we hurried to the savannah (park) there where we set up a keyboard and Olivia accompanied the other 3 of us as we sang Praise, I will praise you Lord.
~Barb
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. OK, not in the sense that one might expect back in Kansas where they've had their first snowfall of the year. With just over a month till Christmas, it's still 90 degrees Fahrenheit almost every day. But the continuous hot weather doesn't keep the Trinis from pulling out all the stops to celebrate the holiday. In fact, since there aren't particular markers to begin the Christmas season like changes in the weather or other holidays such as Thanksgiving and Halloween, people here are free to start celebrating whenever they want. We were in a mall four weeks ago that was already fully decorated for Christmas. It's not unusual to see houses blazing with Christmas lights, either. There are decorations along the highway near our apartment that have been there almost since we arrived, incorporating symbols for all the major religious holidays here: Eid (Muslim), Divali (Hindu) and Christmas (Christianity). And several radio stations are playing Christmas music all day long. One of them has been advertising their "100 Days of Christmas" for some time now. Since it never snows here, it's interesting to hear how the lyrics of some of the secular carols are sometimes adjusted. Christmas is also a time when the Spanish heritage of the island is more celebrated. Even though Spain claimed Trinidad for 300 years, and even though we are only seven miles from the coast of South America, there is usually very little Spanish influence evident in the culture. But Christmas celebrations include pastelles (a food similar to Latin American tomales) and parang (songs often sung in Spanish that exhibit a more Latin beat).
~Richard
School? We're not quite sure what this week is going to look like concerning school. There has been a 5-day strike going on which started last Friday. The idea is kind of vague, but it is sort of a general strike against the government, but maybe also about crime and the government's lack of response to that. On Friday and Saturday people were encouraged to wear red, today there was a big rally somewhere, and tomorrow and Tuesday people are encouraged to skip work. So there was some discussion and controversy both at school and youth group tonight about whether or not school was happening tomorrow. We decided that we would go tomorrow and if basically no one showed up we would not come Tuesday. We have, however, already decided to skip school on Thursday because of Thanksgiving. Some of our friends who are Hindu have already missed some school because of minor Hindu holidays that are not celebrated by the people as a whole, so we thought that this wouldn't be too big of a deal. Plus Thursday might be called as a national holiday later this week anyways because of the commonwealth meetings being held here. The meetings (including people such as Queen Elizabeth) will start on Friday, and the day that they arrive may be called a national holiday because one of the main roads may be shut down to everyone except the leaders of countries arriving! So we have been hoping that the day they shut everything down will be Thursday, and then we will be sure we don't miss anything! (But we probably wouldn't anyways...)
~Roxy
Roxy and I just got home from youth group. The youth groups have been practicing for their Christmas programs for a while now. At Hope Mennonite Church, where we were tonight, the Christmas play is written from the shepherd's point of view. It's more common here to not have any sort of script. One of the leaders just got the idea and he tells people what to do and if other people have ideas, they can contribute, so there's some improvisation involved. I'm playing one of the shepherds (the one who gets frightened easily). After we were done practicing for the play, we went out into the middle of the road and played some games. This is hazardous in many ways. For one thing, it was at least 6:00, maybe 6:30 by the time we went out there, so it was pretty dark already. Everyone was wearing flip-flops, so we just kicked them off in the grass and went barefoot. The road had lots of little rocks and bumps in it and wasn't the most comfortable surface to run on, but no one else seemed to notice that. There were a few injuries, however, including me tripping in a pothole and falling, but it was still mostly fun. Whenever a car came, we'd just stop our game, grab everything, run to the side, let the car pass and then continue the game as if nothing ever happened.
~Olivia
Recently, we came home from our teaching responsibilities to find that the congregation was having a night of prayer. Since our bedroom overlooks the sanctuary and the sound from downstairs rises easily to our bedroom, we moved our mattress into the living room, where the cross kept things very light, but the enthusiastic prayers and songs were not so noticeable. Although we have preached a couple of times at this church, it is not the church to which we have been primarily assigned. So it is one of 6 congregations inviting us to its events. Last weekend they had revival meetings. Several of the Mennonite churches here have them in November. I think it has to do with preparing for Christmas. They had 3 speakers, one for each night. Friday, the first night, we were teaching. As we pulled in and went up our stairs, we could hear the evangelist preaching. The girls remarked that she reminded them of Martin Luther King in the way her voice rose and fell. On Saturday and Sunday evenings Richard and I joined the congregation. Roxy and Olivia spent both evenings at youth groups for 2 of the other churches. They did that again this weekend. Meanwhile Chaguanas Mennonite Church was having their revival meetings this weekend and asked our family to bring a song. So after the girls got home from one youth group last night we hurried to the savannah (park) there where we set up a keyboard and Olivia accompanied the other 3 of us as we sang Praise, I will praise you Lord.
~Barb
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. OK, not in the sense that one might expect back in Kansas where they've had their first snowfall of the year. With just over a month till Christmas, it's still 90 degrees Fahrenheit almost every day. But the continuous hot weather doesn't keep the Trinis from pulling out all the stops to celebrate the holiday. In fact, since there aren't particular markers to begin the Christmas season like changes in the weather or other holidays such as Thanksgiving and Halloween, people here are free to start celebrating whenever they want. We were in a mall four weeks ago that was already fully decorated for Christmas. It's not unusual to see houses blazing with Christmas lights, either. There are decorations along the highway near our apartment that have been there almost since we arrived, incorporating symbols for all the major religious holidays here: Eid (Muslim), Divali (Hindu) and Christmas (Christianity). And several radio stations are playing Christmas music all day long. One of them has been advertising their "100 Days of Christmas" for some time now. Since it never snows here, it's interesting to hear how the lyrics of some of the secular carols are sometimes adjusted. Christmas is also a time when the Spanish heritage of the island is more celebrated. Even though Spain claimed Trinidad for 300 years, and even though we are only seven miles from the coast of South America, there is usually very little Spanish influence evident in the culture. But Christmas celebrations include pastelles (a food similar to Latin American tomales) and parang (songs often sung in Spanish that exhibit a more Latin beat).
~Richard
School? We're not quite sure what this week is going to look like concerning school. There has been a 5-day strike going on which started last Friday. The idea is kind of vague, but it is sort of a general strike against the government, but maybe also about crime and the government's lack of response to that. On Friday and Saturday people were encouraged to wear red, today there was a big rally somewhere, and tomorrow and Tuesday people are encouraged to skip work. So there was some discussion and controversy both at school and youth group tonight about whether or not school was happening tomorrow. We decided that we would go tomorrow and if basically no one showed up we would not come Tuesday. We have, however, already decided to skip school on Thursday because of Thanksgiving. Some of our friends who are Hindu have already missed some school because of minor Hindu holidays that are not celebrated by the people as a whole, so we thought that this wouldn't be too big of a deal. Plus Thursday might be called as a national holiday later this week anyways because of the commonwealth meetings being held here. The meetings (including people such as Queen Elizabeth) will start on Friday, and the day that they arrive may be called a national holiday because one of the main roads may be shut down to everyone except the leaders of countries arriving! So we have been hoping that the day they shut everything down will be Thursday, and then we will be sure we don't miss anything! (But we probably wouldn't anyways...)
~Roxy
Roxy and I just got home from youth group. The youth groups have been practicing for their Christmas programs for a while now. At Hope Mennonite Church, where we were tonight, the Christmas play is written from the shepherd's point of view. It's more common here to not have any sort of script. One of the leaders just got the idea and he tells people what to do and if other people have ideas, they can contribute, so there's some improvisation involved. I'm playing one of the shepherds (the one who gets frightened easily). After we were done practicing for the play, we went out into the middle of the road and played some games. This is hazardous in many ways. For one thing, it was at least 6:00, maybe 6:30 by the time we went out there, so it was pretty dark already. Everyone was wearing flip-flops, so we just kicked them off in the grass and went barefoot. The road had lots of little rocks and bumps in it and wasn't the most comfortable surface to run on, but no one else seemed to notice that. There were a few injuries, however, including me tripping in a pothole and falling, but it was still mostly fun. Whenever a car came, we'd just stop our game, grab everything, run to the side, let the car pass and then continue the game as if nothing ever happened.
~Olivia
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Baptism on the Beach
Sunday, we spent much of the day at the beach with the members of Carlsen Field Mennonite Church. In addition to enjoying some time with the sand and the waves, we were there to celebrate the baptism of two new members. We headed out first thing this morning in a caravan of several vehicles. The plan had been to stop at a river for the baptism service. But after a few stops that proved to be unsatisfactory, we ended up at Salybia Beach on the Atlantic Ocean--about an hour and a half drive from our place. It was our first visit to the eastern shore of the island. We had our worship service right there on the beach. The climax of the service came when Pastor Ramesh and one of the elders went out into the ocean with the two young women who were being baptized and performed the baptisms. Afterwards, we all shared a meal together in celebration, then spent several hours swimming, kayaking and "liming" on the beach.
~Richard
Earlier this week Roxy said, "I'm really glad we'll be at the beach on Sunday because otherwise I'd be feeling sad about missing the fundraiser." I think she summed it up for us all. For those of you reading this who are not from Manhattan, this was our church's big weekend when we serve a soup lunch to between 550-600 people. It is a lot of hard work, but also one of everyone's favorite times. We all work together. So, we have been especially thinking about our friends in Manhattan this weekend. However, if one can't be there, the beach is a pretty good alternative. This was only our second time at the beach since we've arrived. One might assume we would go more often, but it is still a drive and most of our days just roll past with the things of ordinary life. Today was special, though. It was the first time for our children to witness an immersion baptism. That seemed fitting for an island church. It was also our first time in a kayak, our first time having a picnic centered around pelau and our first time witnessing a Spiritual Baptist group. This group is a local religious group with no connection to what we in the US would think of as Baptists. I still don't know much about it, but it seems to incorporate African tribal religions and pieces of Christianity. Their group was gathered in one area of the beach while ours was in another.
~Barb
I thought I'd mention also that two of the people getting baptized decided not to get baptized the night before, so they changed the location of the baptism. But, they didn't exactly decide where it was going to be until we got there. It was really nice to have the church service on the beach, facing the ocean, and we had the beach almost completely to ourselves. It was so pretty and peaceful. Although there were some vultures that were on the beach too, which I thought was a little creepy. After the baptism and everything, Roxy and I took quick showers and headed off to youth group at Hope Mennonite Church. We've been going there pretty regularly lately. And they're working on their Christmas program now, so we've been involved in that.
~Olivia
Like Olivia mentioned, the beach was really pretty. Actually, it was almost like a sandbar at a point. The waves of the ocean crashed against one shore of the beach, while on the other side a calm river flowed. Depending on how high the tide was, there was sometimes a small passage between the two. We played in the river for a while before we decided to try the ocean. We quickly chose to return to the river! The ocean (although being very blue and pretty) was very rocky, had sudden drop-offs that you could not see under the water, had an extremely big undertow, and washed lots of black gunk up on us! Another advantage of the river was that the group rented a 2-person kayak for a portion of the afternoon and all of our family got a turn on it at some point in the afternoon (although not all at the same time)! None of us having been on a kayak before, it was really fun to try! We were glad for the life jackets, though. Although the day started out calm and peaceful on the beach like Olivia said, by about 2:00 in the afternoon, there were party buses and it was starting to smell like alcohol and, in some places, smoking. That's about the time our group decided to leave!
~Roxy
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Perceptions
It's so interesting here, how there is such a variety of race, but very very few white people. Some people are very fascinated by us because we're white and they haven't really ever known someone who's white before. Like, one of my teachers doesn't seem to understand how my eyes can be hazel without colored contacts. Some people don't understand how Roxy and I can have different colored hair and eyes, yet still be sisters. Both my eyes and hair are lighter than hers and here, everyone has black hair and dark brown eyes no matter whether they're related or not. When we were at the water park last Sunday, there were some little pedal boats there. At one point we were in one of the boats and Roxy had a little girl who came with the group from Hope Mennonite Church sitting on her lap (she couldn't reach the pedal otherwise). I was sitting in the seat next to them and Roxy asked me if her face was red, because she was worried it was sunburned. Before I had a chance to say, "Yes, you look very sunburned", the girl looked up at her and said, "No, you still look white to me." Then, some people from school went to the same water park yesterday and my teacher who I mentioned earlier was there and she was very surprised that my hair got darker when it got wet. She asked me why my hair was brown and when I explained to her that it gets that way when it gets wet, she asked, "So, tomorrow, once it has dried and everything, it will still be blonde, right?"
~Olivia
This week, my class has been preparing for a Social Studies test on the geography of the Caribbean. So I have been learning the capitals and locations of countries such as Montserrat and St. Lucia, but my Social Studies teacher did not know that Uzbekistan (larger than any of these countries) even existed! And there is no world map or globe at our school to check this, only a map of the Caribbean! One day this week, my teacher had to spend half the time explaining how 2 different countries (Haiti and Dominican Republic) could both be on the same piece of land and still be 2 different countries. Some people in my class, when looking at this Caribbean map, were stunned to find that Cuba was larger than Trinidad! One time when we were over at the house of one of the local Mennonite pastors here (who is originally from Guyana), we were watching a documentary on Guyana. His wife (also originally from Guyana) made the comment, "You know, Guyana is a pretty big country. It's even bigger than Trinidad!"
~Roxy
As Roxy has noted, many Trinis have a difficult time grasping the size of the United States. Having lived their entire lives on an island that is only about 30 miles wide and 60 miles long with a little over a million people living on it, they simply have no reference point to conceive of a nation with more than 300 million residents. The kids have had to explain a number of times that, no, they've never met Miley Cyrus. (Hannah Montana is at least as popular here as it is in the States.)
Many of the people whom we've met here have visited the U.S. But for a number of them, their experiences have been limited to Florida and/or New York City. Quite a few seem to have family members living in those places. So their first question is often whether we've been to Disneyworld. Or they may start talking to us about where they went in Brooklyn or Queens. We've given up trying to explain that we've actually never been to NY ourselves, as that seems to be beyond many people's comprehension (just as it is for many New Yorkers). We also tend not to mention that our hometown is Manhattan, Kansas since that only confuses matters more.
~Richard
What does a mother do? Olivia and Roxy recently mentioned to their friends that their mom just learned to make roti. Instead of being impressed, they could not believe that their mother had never made roti before. Many women here may make roti every day or every other day. It is almost as strange as having a mother who does not know how to tie a sari. On the other hand, having a mother who does not drive is pretty normal. Some women drive here, but many do not.
When Olivia was asking her friend about how they celebrated Divali, after talking a bit about it, she asked Olivia, "How do you celebrate Divali?" She knew Olivia was Christian rather than Hindu, but many people here celebrate all of the 3 big holidays - Divali, Eid and Christmas. It is just a matter of which neighbor plays host. We are beginning to consider how we might host all of our neighbors at Christmas time. With the knowledge that America is a bigger country than Trinidad I suppose it seems odd that some people there live in communities in which they do not have regular contact with all of these religions.
~Barb
~Olivia
This week, my class has been preparing for a Social Studies test on the geography of the Caribbean. So I have been learning the capitals and locations of countries such as Montserrat and St. Lucia, but my Social Studies teacher did not know that Uzbekistan (larger than any of these countries) even existed! And there is no world map or globe at our school to check this, only a map of the Caribbean! One day this week, my teacher had to spend half the time explaining how 2 different countries (Haiti and Dominican Republic) could both be on the same piece of land and still be 2 different countries. Some people in my class, when looking at this Caribbean map, were stunned to find that Cuba was larger than Trinidad! One time when we were over at the house of one of the local Mennonite pastors here (who is originally from Guyana), we were watching a documentary on Guyana. His wife (also originally from Guyana) made the comment, "You know, Guyana is a pretty big country. It's even bigger than Trinidad!"
~Roxy
As Roxy has noted, many Trinis have a difficult time grasping the size of the United States. Having lived their entire lives on an island that is only about 30 miles wide and 60 miles long with a little over a million people living on it, they simply have no reference point to conceive of a nation with more than 300 million residents. The kids have had to explain a number of times that, no, they've never met Miley Cyrus. (Hannah Montana is at least as popular here as it is in the States.)
Many of the people whom we've met here have visited the U.S. But for a number of them, their experiences have been limited to Florida and/or New York City. Quite a few seem to have family members living in those places. So their first question is often whether we've been to Disneyworld. Or they may start talking to us about where they went in Brooklyn or Queens. We've given up trying to explain that we've actually never been to NY ourselves, as that seems to be beyond many people's comprehension (just as it is for many New Yorkers). We also tend not to mention that our hometown is Manhattan, Kansas since that only confuses matters more.
~Richard
What does a mother do? Olivia and Roxy recently mentioned to their friends that their mom just learned to make roti. Instead of being impressed, they could not believe that their mother had never made roti before. Many women here may make roti every day or every other day. It is almost as strange as having a mother who does not know how to tie a sari. On the other hand, having a mother who does not drive is pretty normal. Some women drive here, but many do not.
When Olivia was asking her friend about how they celebrated Divali, after talking a bit about it, she asked Olivia, "How do you celebrate Divali?" She knew Olivia was Christian rather than Hindu, but many people here celebrate all of the 3 big holidays - Divali, Eid and Christmas. It is just a matter of which neighbor plays host. We are beginning to consider how we might host all of our neighbors at Christmas time. With the knowledge that America is a bigger country than Trinidad I suppose it seems odd that some people there live in communities in which they do not have regular contact with all of these religions.
~Barb
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Spiritual Emphasis Week
As we mentioned in our last post, this was Spiritual Emphasis Week at WITC, so we didn't have any classes to teach. Therefore we had a little more time on our hands. (I did still preach this morning at Charlieville, so needed some time to prepare for that.) One of the fun activities we engaged in was a visit to Mount St. Benedict for tea. Mount St. Benedict is a Catholic monastery located high on a hillside in the Northern Range that is noted for having one of the best views on the island. So on Friday, we picked the girls up from school and headed straight over to the Pax Guesthouse at the monastery where we had reservations for tea at 3:00. The formal dining room is currently under renovation, but we enjoyed our tea, scones and cake on the verandah overlooking the Caroni Plain. We also met another American family that was checking into the guesthouse. They are here for three years as the father teaches at the University of T & T. It was very peaceful up there above all the traffic that marks our daily lives. It was also rather interesting to look down at the airplanes coming in for a landing at the airport far below.~Richard
In addition to Richard's sermon preparation for today, we kept busy with several other work related tasks. In addition to our leadership team meeting at the Diego Martin church on Monday evening, I spent some of my time grading papers for class. But another activity that marked our week was baking. If you asked our family what food from the United States we most miss, I think we might all agree that it is fresh milk. The milk we get here is not sold in the dairy case. It is reconstituted powdered milk and even that is very expensive. Most Trinis do not eat milk and cereal for breakfast as our family is used to doing. So, with more time on our hands this week, Richard and I decided to bake breads for breakfast more like Trinis this week. I had also been wanting to learn to make roti, the staple bread here. I finally arranged for my lesson with Babes Jaimani, one of the pastor's wives here and a woman whose good cooking I had heard about before we arrived. She said I had to start with sada roti which is the everyday roti. It is a flat bread, much like pita bread, made on top of the stove on a tawa or flat stone. While she was over, she also taught me how to make homemade fry bake, which is what you make for bake and shark, and pholourie from a mix. It was fun to begin my Trini cooking lessons. Adding up all the things we cooked this week we made homemade sada roti and fry bake twice (once with Babes and once later on my own), pholourie, 2 tea rings, granola bars, chocolate cake, pizza crust and peanut butter cookies for an event at the girls' school. It was good to have the time to enjoy these creative cooking ventures.
~Barb
'The event at the girls' school' was a gospel concert last night. (It occurred to us that it was Halloween, but that is a holiday not celebrated here, so no one else would have thought of that.) Each household was responsible for selling 10 tickets. As it turned out (although we tried) we only sold 4 tickets--one for each of us. So last night we were driving up to the school when we drove into rain. By the time we got to the school, it was still raining, and it was also apparent that it had been raining for some time by then. They had 2 small tents set up--one over the stage and one over the sound equipment. People were all crowded around under the tent for sound equipment, and any other place they could find shelter. Soon the rain settled down, and some of the teachers at the school came by all the chairs, dumped off the water, and wiped them down with rags. People started meandering over to the chairs, finally getting to sit and watch the concert, only to feel the raindrops again in a few minutes! We were excited to finally see a live steel pan though.
~Roxy
Today, our family was invited to go to a water park with some people from the churches. A group of people from the church in Chaguanas was going along with the Hope youth group, who Roxy and I have met with some. My parents decided not to go partly because my dad had to preach at Charlieville Mennonite Church this morning. So, Roxy and I got picked up around 7:40 this morning, and with a stop for doubles, made it to Hope Mennonite Church. Now, a water park here isn't exactly what I'd picture when someone says we're going to a water park. There aren't big rides. The one we went to had two big slides, which went into a small pool, about 4 1/2 feet deep, but just big enough for people to come off of the slides. Then there was a pool for smaller kids that was only about two feet deep but had a lot of small slides and was big enough to play around in. There was also just a big pool to swim around in that went from about 3-5 feet. The last thing they had was a big lake (that was dirty, you wouldn't want to swim in it) that had little pedal boats that you could ride around in. There were tires lining the edges to make it not as hard in case someone ran into it. On one of the tires, we saw a crab and two toads, one toad sitting on top of the other one. We spent all afternoon at the water park, and Roxy and I came home pretty sunburned even though I put on sunscreen 3 times. It was a fun afternoon, but I'm pretty exhausted, especially since I'm still recovering from a cold. My voice is pretty much gone after being sick, then going to a concert, where I had to yell to be heard, then singing a bunch in church today, and then spending all afternoon at the water park!
~Olivia
Monday, October 26, 2009
Random Reports
Yesterday we visited Pitch Lake, one of the island's main tourist attractions. Pitch is what asphalt is made out of. It is also what kerosene is made out of, and so when it first came out it was called Trinidad oil. Port of Spain (the capital of Trinidad) is apparently one of the first places kerosene was widely used. But our tour guide said that the majority of pitch is used in paving roads and airport runways. We got to walk out on the lake! It is mostly like hot tar, so it is more stable than I imagined it being, but you can't stand in one place for too long or you will sink in. But the best part (in my opinion) was that since we came in the wet season of Trinidad, there are great big pools of water (in some places up to my neck or above) and they have minerals and stuff in them and we got to play in them!
~Roxy
We've been enjoying reading the billboards along the highways. Some of them are written like people here talk, so it's really funny to read. Like, one of my favorites is one that says "Doh ketch your tail for Pigtail!" I think that one's for barbequed pigtail or something. There's one for Digicel, which is one of the two cell phone companies here, that's really funny too, but I forgot exactly what it says... something about "value fuh yuh money production" and "call meh on mih digi". Today I brought my camera on the way to take pictures of funny billboards and that sort of thing. There are also some differences in other signs they have here. Like, instead of Yield signs, they have Give Way signs and there are signs at most gas stations that say, "No Naked Lights", which pretty much means no open fires, I think. Or, "Stick No Bills" means don't put up any ads. Also, we found a restaurant on the way back from pitch lake that had a sign advertising that you could get cow heel soup, ox tail soup, or vegetable soup there.
~Olivia
Yesterday was the only Sunday this month on which neither of us was scheduled to preach in one of the churches. I had gotten a call on Friday afternoon asking if we could share some special music at a family thanksgiving service on Sunday evening in memory of the family matriarch. It is a Hindu tradition to have prayers at certain intervals following someone's death, I believe as a way of guiding the person's soul towards it's next incarnation. Many Christians who come out of a Hindu background have carried on this tradition by holding a service of thanksgiving for the person's life sometime around the first anniversary of the death. This service was for the grandmother of one of the women we've gotten to know fairly well who is currently attending Hope Mennonite Church. I agreed to have our family sing as part of the service. Then, on Saturday night at about 9:00, I got another call asking if I could also preach the sermon for the service. Pastor Rawl Gunpath, who is currently serving at two of the Mennonite churches here, had been scheduled to preach. But on Friday, his wife, Linda (who also teaches at WITC) gave birth to their second child. Due to some complications, Linda was still in the hospital, so Rawl understandably wanted to be available to her and their new daughter. So I agreed to preach. I am very grateful for the library of sermons that I have saved from all my years of pastoring! It all worked out well, and Linda was discharged Sunday evening.
~Richard
This is Spiritual Emphasis week at the college where we teach. During that week there are no regular classes, only special events. As a result, we have a bit more free time this week. On another note, we were invited to meet with the Diago Martin Mennonite Church leadership team tonight to begin planning for our interim pastoring there. It was a good meeting. It reminded me again of the difference between preaching, which is what we are doing a fair amount of now, and pastoring, which is what we will be doing again come January. I think the leadership team there will be a good group to work with. We will be filling in there from January to mid June while their pastor is on sabbatical.
~Barb
~Roxy
We've been enjoying reading the billboards along the highways. Some of them are written like people here talk, so it's really funny to read. Like, one of my favorites is one that says "Doh ketch your tail for Pigtail!" I think that one's for barbequed pigtail or something. There's one for Digicel, which is one of the two cell phone companies here, that's really funny too, but I forgot exactly what it says... something about "value fuh yuh money production" and "call meh on mih digi". Today I brought my camera on the way to take pictures of funny billboards and that sort of thing. There are also some differences in other signs they have here. Like, instead of Yield signs, they have Give Way signs and there are signs at most gas stations that say, "No Naked Lights", which pretty much means no open fires, I think. Or, "Stick No Bills" means don't put up any ads. Also, we found a restaurant on the way back from pitch lake that had a sign advertising that you could get cow heel soup, ox tail soup, or vegetable soup there.
~Olivia
Yesterday was the only Sunday this month on which neither of us was scheduled to preach in one of the churches. I had gotten a call on Friday afternoon asking if we could share some special music at a family thanksgiving service on Sunday evening in memory of the family matriarch. It is a Hindu tradition to have prayers at certain intervals following someone's death, I believe as a way of guiding the person's soul towards it's next incarnation. Many Christians who come out of a Hindu background have carried on this tradition by holding a service of thanksgiving for the person's life sometime around the first anniversary of the death. This service was for the grandmother of one of the women we've gotten to know fairly well who is currently attending Hope Mennonite Church. I agreed to have our family sing as part of the service. Then, on Saturday night at about 9:00, I got another call asking if I could also preach the sermon for the service. Pastor Rawl Gunpath, who is currently serving at two of the Mennonite churches here, had been scheduled to preach. But on Friday, his wife, Linda (who also teaches at WITC) gave birth to their second child. Due to some complications, Linda was still in the hospital, so Rawl understandably wanted to be available to her and their new daughter. So I agreed to preach. I am very grateful for the library of sermons that I have saved from all my years of pastoring! It all worked out well, and Linda was discharged Sunday evening.
~Richard
This is Spiritual Emphasis week at the college where we teach. During that week there are no regular classes, only special events. As a result, we have a bit more free time this week. On another note, we were invited to meet with the Diago Martin Mennonite Church leadership team tonight to begin planning for our interim pastoring there. It was a good meeting. It reminded me again of the difference between preaching, which is what we are doing a fair amount of now, and pastoring, which is what we will be doing again come January. I think the leadership team there will be a good group to work with. We will be filling in there from January to mid June while their pastor is on sabbatical.
~Barb
Thursday, October 22, 2009
News, Weather, Sports
NEWS
People here, in Trinidad, seem at least as concerned about the swine flu as they are in the United States. There have now been 4 deaths from the swine flu now in Trinidad. In fact, some schools have closed down because of the swine flu, just as they have in the United States. The principal has been fairly clear that no one should come to school if they have any sort of symptoms of the swine flu. The other day, someone in my class came to school with a runny nose, and was sniffling all day, and the principal kept telling her she was going to send her home. She didn't, but she wouldn't let the girl share a textbook with anyone.
At school, we get free lunches from the government. People call them box lunches because they come in little white boxes. I think they are much better than the lunches that you have to pay for in the U.S. Well, people sometimes trash them all over the place and that sort of thing, and yesterday someone threw one at someone else. Then the principal used a lot of time and energy to figure out who it was, spending most of yesterday afternoon and I'm not completely sure she figured out who it was. But, anyway, so today, they made a rule that each person has to write his/her name on their box lunch, so they can find the culprit easier if that ever happens again. Personally, I think that is very funny.
~Olivia
WEATHER
~Roxy
SPORTS
While sports fans in the U.S. are looking forward to the beginning of the World Series and are midway through football season, all attention here is on the nation's two favorite sports: cricket and football (what Americans know as soccer). In 2006, T&T became the smallest country to ever qualify for the FIFA (soccer) World Cup. This time, however the team had a disappointing showing in the World Cup qualifying round as they failed to win a single game over the last couple of months.
Right now, everyone's attention is on the national Twenty20 cricket team as they head into the finals of the Champions League T20 tournament in India. (Twenty20 is the shortest of the three versions of cricket played on the international level. A match is usually completed in a mere 3-4 hours.) The matches are carried live every morning on 2 of the 5 TV stations that we receive. They are then replayed in their entirety on both stations again in the evening for those who were working. This afternoon, I went to the supermarket just as the semifinal match ended. The TV screens that usually play ads were all tuned to the post-game show; and people were standing in the aisles all over the store watching it. No doubt TVs all over the country will be tuned in tomorrow as T&T takes on the New South Wales Blues for the championship. Hopes are high, as T&T already beat the Blues once earlier in the tournament!
~Richard
Sunday, October 18, 2009
So, last night was the actual Divali. My friend who invited me to the Divali celebration last weekend invited me last night to her house again. Yesterday was also her birthday. Daddy wasn't able to go because he wasn't feeling very well. We weren't sure what we should wear to it, but Roxy and I just wore pretty casual clothes. Then, when we got there, my friend went upstairs to change into something called a sari. It is a type of traditional Indian clothing that is very pretty and some Indian people here wear for special occasions. Her brothers were lighting little candle type things that they put all over their yard, called deyas. They let me and Roxy and Mommy light some, too. Then, my friend's mom came over and showed us where the food was and told us to eat supper. We ate supper with my friend's dad. Not many other guests had showed up yet. After a while, some people did start to show up. One of them was their neighbor who is in Roxy's class at school, and a friend of Roxy's. She also had on a sari. Then my friend and Roxy's friend decided they wanted us to wear saris too. So, they took us up to my friend's room where she had and extra sari, and something that is somewhat similar, but is called a salwar, I think, but that could be wrong. Anyways, that was really fun to dress up in those! I had a pink sari, and Roxy got the blue salwar. Then we went for a walk, which I will let Roxy write about.
~Olivia
Both of our friends from school who Olivia mentioned (My friend Stephanie in the red sari and Olivia's friend Dipika in the orange sari) live in a village called Bamboo 3. (Bamboo 1, Bamboo 2, and Bamboo 3 are all separate little villages.) The large majority of Bamboo 3 is Hindu, so there were a lot of deyas at almost every house we went by. They had a lot of packages of what we call sparklers but they call starlights, so we just lit them in the deyas by the side of the road. There were firecrackers being set off all over the road so we had to be careful not to step on them. (I don't think there are such thing as sidewalks in Trinidad...) On our walk, we also got to visit Stephanie's house and meet her family. It was nice to get to see a little of their village and their families.
~Roxy
There were many nice things about our experience last night. For one thing, the whole school system is very different here. We drive a long way to take our children to school as do others. They go to school with kids from a large area of the island. Therefore, we had not really gotten to meet any of the other children or their families. I feel like we are beginning to know Olivia's friend's family and had a chance to at least meet a family of one of Roxy's friends.
When we sat down to eat, the father of the hosting family came to sit and eat with us. As he began to explain to us the reasons for this Hindu celebration, we learned that he is a Hindu priest. So not only were we invited to a Hindu home, we were at the home of the priest of the village. I told him that I was a pastor. He was all about talking religion. He wanted to talk and talk. It's not every day that I get to share a meal with a Hindu priest and have a lively but friendly discussion of comparative religion.
The daughter came to me to get my permission for Olivia and Roxy to dress in the Indian garb. I gave it and she invited me up to help them change. She seemed to think that I, being a mom, would know how to tie Olivia's sari. I had no idea. She had only a vague idea even though she was wearing one. Apparently that is the job of the mother. She had to go get hers to show us all how. No, I still do not understand it. But I found a role as photographer.
Today Richard preached at the Mennonite Church in Chaguanas. After being with some of that group for a women's meeting on Sat and a cell group on Tues last week, we are starting to feel like we are getting to know some of the folks pretty well. All in all it was a good weekend of building relationships and discussing faith.
~Barb
One of the things that has impressed us in Trinidad is the encouragement for each of the various religious groups to take part in one another's celebrations. We were initially surprised when we arrived at how open Christians were to sending their children to either Muslim or Hindu schools, and vice-versa. When we met our Hindu neighbor Kishore, he made the comment to us, “with all the crime in the country these days, Trinidad needs people like you more than ever.” We understood this to mean that he was not only tolerant but also appreciative of the work of the churches here.
In our time here, we have witnessed the Muslim celebration of Eid al-Fitr and now the Hindu festival of Divali. Because it happened to fall on the same day that we visited the church in Sangre Grande, we were not home on the day of the Eid. We learned later, however, that one of our Muslim neighbors had stopped by to invite us to join in their celebration. We also received a Divali invitation from Kishore, but had already accepted the invitation to Bamboo that the girls already wrote about. These have been important opportunities for us to gain greater insight and understanding into the local culture.
We also participated in the 25th anniversary thanksgiving service for our friends and neighbors, Ramesh and Babes. The thanksgiving was an explicitly Christian celebration, but also included a number of their Hindu and Muslim neighbors. We have been struck by the ways in which each of these groups is able to authentically observe their own traditions without worrying about offending others. Such openness provides both the opportunity to understand one another better and a greater possibility to share the message of the gospel to those of other faith traditions.
~Richard
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Divali and Esperanza
Divali season has arrived in Trinidad. Divali is the Hindu Festival of Lights, and is a major public holiday in Trinidad & Tobago. Hinduism is the second largest religion in the country, after Christianity. About a quarter of the population here is Hindu. In the area where we live, the percentage is even higher. In fact, the main Divali festival for the entire island takes place only about a mile from our apartment at the Divali Nagar grounds. While the day of Divali isn't until next Saturday, the 17th, the celebration began already this past week. Starting this past Thursday, the Divali Nagar grounds have stages of music, dancing and other festivities every evening until Divali. There are also many booths that sell various Indian products and foods (all vegetarian). While we have not yet had the opportunity to make it down to the big celebration, we did get invited to a smaller neighborhood celebration. But I'll let someone else tell about that. . . .
~Richard
One of the reasons American church workers are invited here is because there are not enough local Mennonite pastors to tend all the churches. One of the main goals for the churches is to train pastors so that there will be enough for all. One local pastor has been pastoring two churches now for some time. He will take a sabbatical in January. At that time we will fill in for him at one church. At the other, Esperanza, a new local pastor hopes to begin. This pastor and his family were part of the Mennonite Church of Chaguanas. But they have now been coming to Esperanza in hopes of stepping into the pastoring role. But their relationships at MCCh are still strong. For instance, this man's wife has been very involved with a women's group there. She decided that she would like to start a women's group at Esperanza also. So rather than leaving one to join the other, she invited them to form a new, joint group. And she invited me to come be a part of it and bring a devotional.
Like all church activities here there was lots of singing, tambourine playing and food. They asked me if I knew how to make pumpkin pies. They said they only get good pumpkin pies when missionaries come. So, I made some. Thank goodness for recipes on the internet. I also preached at Charlieville Mennonite Church this morning. So my week was pretty full with classes, sermon and devotional prep and pie baking. That's where I was yesterday afternoon until the Divali celebration.
~Barb
As was mentioned earlier, our family got invited to a Divali celebration. You see, I have a friend at school who is Hindu, and so on Thursday, I was asking her about Divali just because I was curious. So, she was telling me about it, and when she realized that I had never been to a Divali celebration, she invited me to come and bring the rest of the family to the Divali celebration in her village.
On Saturday night, after picking up Mommy from the women's thing, we headed over to my friend's house. After her brother rode his bike around trying to find us, but didn't, and we went down the wrong street which was a dead end and spent a while trying to figure out how to get back, my friend herself got the bike and came to find us. Then we followed her to her house. Her house was right next to a big savannah (savannahs are what we'd think of as parks). She introduced us to her family, including aunts and uncles and cousins who were there. Then she disappeared for a while to get ready. During that time, we talked to her mom mostly, and got to see her cow. When she was ready, she took us over to the savannah and we got some food. Then we sat down and watched the program. There was a stage and lots of folding chairs. There were 6 contestants to be the "Divali queen". Right as we sat down, the first one was introducing herself. After each contestant said a little about herself, there were some dancers. Then the "queens" were each asked a question, for example "If you could go back and change a moment in your past, what would it be and why?" The judges scored them based on their answers. Then there was more music. All the music, though was in Hindi. My friend's brother played in a tassa band. Tassa is a type of drumming. After we heard her brother, it was almost 10:00 already and we headed home. We never got to see who won the contest for being queen. But, I thought it was very interesting. Even now as I'm sitting here and typing in our apartment, I can hear music from some sort of Divali celebration, I think, and firecrackers too. There's a lot of things going on during this week for Divali. Someone even put Hindu flags all along the road right next to our house.
~Olivia
This evening, Olivia and I took our turn at Esperanza, meeting with their youth group (which I have called the Hope youth group also; the church goes by either name). Another youth group we have been meeting with (the one from Carlsen Field) has already started working on their Christmas play, but at Hope they are working on another play that will be performed at the end of this month before they start work on the one for Christmas. It seems like the youth groups here like to do a lot of dramas, which is something Olivia and I have enjoyed and also felt like that is something we can connect with! The youth group has also been planning to take a trip to a water park at the beginning of November, and instead of asking everyone to raise their own money, the offering they take goes towards that. It's amazing how active these youth groups are!
~Roxy
~Richard
One of the reasons American church workers are invited here is because there are not enough local Mennonite pastors to tend all the churches. One of the main goals for the churches is to train pastors so that there will be enough for all. One local pastor has been pastoring two churches now for some time. He will take a sabbatical in January. At that time we will fill in for him at one church. At the other, Esperanza, a new local pastor hopes to begin. This pastor and his family were part of the Mennonite Church of Chaguanas. But they have now been coming to Esperanza in hopes of stepping into the pastoring role. But their relationships at MCCh are still strong. For instance, this man's wife has been very involved with a women's group there. She decided that she would like to start a women's group at Esperanza also. So rather than leaving one to join the other, she invited them to form a new, joint group. And she invited me to come be a part of it and bring a devotional.
Like all church activities here there was lots of singing, tambourine playing and food. They asked me if I knew how to make pumpkin pies. They said they only get good pumpkin pies when missionaries come. So, I made some. Thank goodness for recipes on the internet. I also preached at Charlieville Mennonite Church this morning. So my week was pretty full with classes, sermon and devotional prep and pie baking. That's where I was yesterday afternoon until the Divali celebration.
~Barb
As was mentioned earlier, our family got invited to a Divali celebration. You see, I have a friend at school who is Hindu, and so on Thursday, I was asking her about Divali just because I was curious. So, she was telling me about it, and when she realized that I had never been to a Divali celebration, she invited me to come and bring the rest of the family to the Divali celebration in her village.
On Saturday night, after picking up Mommy from the women's thing, we headed over to my friend's house. After her brother rode his bike around trying to find us, but didn't, and we went down the wrong street which was a dead end and spent a while trying to figure out how to get back, my friend herself got the bike and came to find us. Then we followed her to her house. Her house was right next to a big savannah (savannahs are what we'd think of as parks). She introduced us to her family, including aunts and uncles and cousins who were there. Then she disappeared for a while to get ready. During that time, we talked to her mom mostly, and got to see her cow. When she was ready, she took us over to the savannah and we got some food. Then we sat down and watched the program. There was a stage and lots of folding chairs. There were 6 contestants to be the "Divali queen". Right as we sat down, the first one was introducing herself. After each contestant said a little about herself, there were some dancers. Then the "queens" were each asked a question, for example "If you could go back and change a moment in your past, what would it be and why?" The judges scored them based on their answers. Then there was more music. All the music, though was in Hindi. My friend's brother played in a tassa band. Tassa is a type of drumming. After we heard her brother, it was almost 10:00 already and we headed home. We never got to see who won the contest for being queen. But, I thought it was very interesting. Even now as I'm sitting here and typing in our apartment, I can hear music from some sort of Divali celebration, I think, and firecrackers too. There's a lot of things going on during this week for Divali. Someone even put Hindu flags all along the road right next to our house.
~Olivia
This evening, Olivia and I took our turn at Esperanza, meeting with their youth group (which I have called the Hope youth group also; the church goes by either name). Another youth group we have been meeting with (the one from Carlsen Field) has already started working on their Christmas play, but at Hope they are working on another play that will be performed at the end of this month before they start work on the one for Christmas. It seems like the youth groups here like to do a lot of dramas, which is something Olivia and I have enjoyed and also felt like that is something we can connect with! The youth group has also been planning to take a trip to a water park at the beginning of November, and instead of asking everyone to raise their own money, the offering they take goes towards that. It's amazing how active these youth groups are!
~Roxy
Thursday, October 8, 2009
School Schedules & Logos Hope
Yesterday, Barb and I went to Port of Spain to visit the Logos Hope ship, which is basically a huge floating Christian book store. The girls had visited the ship with the Hope Mennonite Church youth group a couple of weeks ago, but we hadn't been able to make it down there until Wednesday. One of the issues faced by an island nation such as Trinidad & Tobago is that so many things have to be imported from someplace else. In planning for our classes, we have found that finding appropriate books on the island is very difficult. We could order from Amazon.com, but the shipping is rather expensive and takes a long time. Furthermore, the used books sold at lower prices through Amazon Marketplace affiliates cannot be sent here. The Logos Hope ship is one way that this need is addressed. It is a large ship in which one entire deck has been set up as a book store and sails around the world to various ports, selling books that otherwise might not be available to the local residents. Volunteers from about 50 nations around the world make up the crew. For the past three weeks or so, it has been docked at the cruise ship terminal in Port of Spain. Next week it sails on to the next port of call. It was interesting for us to be able to browse through the collection of books that is much larger than any bookstore we've found anywhere in Trinidad. We also took the opportunity to walk along the waterfront and explore a bit of the city on foot.
~Richard
No school tomorrow! We were very surprised to discover this afternoon as we were leaving school that we need not return until Monday. Our parents had their first faculty meeting at WITC this afternoon and so needed to pick us up early. When they arrived at the school office, the secretary told us that we needed to pick up our note before we left. We thought (or at least I did) that she meant that we needed to get the principal to sign a note or something for us to leave early. But then she showed us a note saying that there was no school tomorrow! It's amazing how such random things can happen and at such short notice here! But it just means we get to sleep in a little more tomorrow!
~Roxy
Speaking of days off school, Richard and I have been trying to figure out ours. Last week in classes some of the students informed us that in two weeks(which would be next week) we would not have classes because it was "spiritual emphasis week." We called the office to try to get an official ruling on this. They confirmed that and referred to a schedule. We were very excited to learn that someone had a printed schedule and asked for a copy of it.
So, we rearranged our class schedules and told our students about the changes in due dates, etc. Then, today we were invited to our first faculty meeting. While there, folks began to discuss spiritual emphasis week and decided to move it back two weeks. That means that we do have classes next week after all. But at least we did get a copy of the grading expectations and a tentative schedule for next semester including our potential classes. We had to trim things down quite a bit. They would love for us to teach more. At this point the plan is for us to step in for a local pastor who will be taking a sabbatical in January. So we told them that with doing that we can only teach one class each, although I have been asked to supervise a thesis project. I'm still considering that. Schedules and expectations are quite mobile it seems.
~Barb
~Richard
No school tomorrow! We were very surprised to discover this afternoon as we were leaving school that we need not return until Monday. Our parents had their first faculty meeting at WITC this afternoon and so needed to pick us up early. When they arrived at the school office, the secretary told us that we needed to pick up our note before we left. We thought (or at least I did) that she meant that we needed to get the principal to sign a note or something for us to leave early. But then she showed us a note saying that there was no school tomorrow! It's amazing how such random things can happen and at such short notice here! But it just means we get to sleep in a little more tomorrow!
~Roxy
Speaking of days off school, Richard and I have been trying to figure out ours. Last week in classes some of the students informed us that in two weeks(which would be next week) we would not have classes because it was "spiritual emphasis week." We called the office to try to get an official ruling on this. They confirmed that and referred to a schedule. We were very excited to learn that someone had a printed schedule and asked for a copy of it.
So, we rearranged our class schedules and told our students about the changes in due dates, etc. Then, today we were invited to our first faculty meeting. While there, folks began to discuss spiritual emphasis week and decided to move it back two weeks. That means that we do have classes next week after all. But at least we did get a copy of the grading expectations and a tentative schedule for next semester including our potential classes. We had to trim things down quite a bit. They would love for us to teach more. At this point the plan is for us to step in for a local pastor who will be taking a sabbatical in January. So we told them that with doing that we can only teach one class each, although I have been asked to supervise a thesis project. I'm still considering that. Schedules and expectations are quite mobile it seems.
~Barb
Sunday, October 4, 2009
This Weekend in Trinidad
On Friday I walked to the fruit stand near our house. There are not many places we can walk from our house and with the heat and humidity what they are, I find I walk much less here than I do in Manhattan. But the fruit stand and minimart run by Null and his family are the most frequent trip I make. It is nice to have a farmers' market everyday. The neighborhood fruit stand is small, but when we want to buy more produce than we can carry, we go to the large open air market in Chaguanas. Anyway, on Friday I bought fresh lemons among other things and made lemon bars to take for a snack for the girls when we went to WITC. We placed the hot pan on two glasses turned upsidedown in two bowls of water. This is the local trick to keep the ants out of food while it is cooling. It works too. Since the buildings do not have screens and are rarely built for air conditioning, there are many places for creatures from outdoors to enter and depart.
We packed up the snack and other supper items and headed out around 2:00 to pick up the girls from school as we do every Friday. On our way we realized that our AC wasn't working in the car. Then the car started to sound funny followed shortly by steam coming out of the engine and the smell of something running very hot. We pulled over. The radiater was pretty much empty. Fortunately we had a thermos of water we had brought along to drink. We poured that and some other water we found in the trunk into the radiater. That got us on the road again and to the girls' school. When we got there we found a spigot and added more to the radiater. We also found a sizable leak in a hose. The car freshly watered, we drove up the mountain to the school. I taught my Marriage and Family class while Richard and the girls spent the evening hanging out. This week I will have to write a midterm exam for the class. It's hard to believe it is time for midterms.
On Saturday we got the radiator hose fixed. It cost TT$80 for the part and TT$20 for the labor. That's about US$13 for the hose and US$3.50 for the labor.
~Barb
Now tha
t we have had the chance to visit and worship in each of the Mennonite churches here, we are starting to go back to several of them to preach and bring special music. This morning, we were at Carlsen Field, the newest of the churches in Trinidad. I preached, and we all sang a couple of songs with Roxy playing violin on one and Olivia playing a keyboard that was brought in for the occasion on the other. The church is only about a 15-minute drive south from where we live in Charlieville, and has been officially organized only within the past year. It started when an older man in the neighborhood of Carlsen Field (so named for the American air base that was there in WWII) wanted to have a church close by for his family to attend. Since there wasn't any other space available at the time, he simply added on to his house, and that's where the church is me
eting now until they are able to find a place to build on their own. The photo above shows the outside of the house/church building. On the left is a picture of the interior, with Pastor Ramesh Jaimani preparing for communion.
~Richard
We've been here for almost 2 months. It's weird to think that it's already October and it's still so hot. Today seemed especially hot. We were at Carlsen Field Mennonite Church this morning and Daddy preached. The church isn't very well ventilated and the fans didn't seem to help much. Then this afternoon, for lunch we walked over to the mosque because one of our neighbours had sold us tickets for a meal there. The problem, though, is that even though the mosque is right across from us, there's a highway in between us and it and we had to walk over to the walkover (a bridge for walkers over the highway, there are also bridges like that for cars called flyovers). It's still not a long walk, but it does take longer than if we could walk "as the crow flies".
Last night we went to Carlsen Field youth group and started practicing for the Christmas program. We'll probably be in at least 2 Christmas plays, but they try to schedule all the Christmas programs on different Sundays.
On Friday, Roxy and I had KFC in Trinidad for the first time. In case you didn't know, Trinidad has more KFCs per square mile than any other country. They are very proud of their KFC too. My teacher ordered it for our whole form and a few other people, one of whom was Roxy, too. She was bragging to me about how their KFC actually had some flavour to it. Mostly I thought it was just more spicy, but then I did get the spicy kind.
~Olivia
We packed up the snack and other supper items and headed out around 2:00 to pick up the girls from school as we do every Friday. On our way we realized that our AC wasn't working in the car. Then the car started to sound funny followed shortly by steam coming out of the engine and the smell of something running very hot. We pulled over. The radiater was pretty much empty. Fortunately we had a thermos of water we had brought along to drink. We poured that and some other water we found in the trunk into the radiater. That got us on the road again and to the girls' school. When we got there we found a spigot and added more to the radiater. We also found a sizable leak in a hose. The car freshly watered, we drove up the mountain to the school. I taught my Marriage and Family class while Richard and the girls spent the evening hanging out. This week I will have to write a midterm exam for the class. It's hard to believe it is time for midterms.
On Saturday we got the radiator hose fixed. It cost TT$80 for the part and TT$20 for the labor. That's about US$13 for the hose and US$3.50 for the labor.
~Barb
Now tha
t we have had the chance to visit and worship in each of the Mennonite churches here, we are starting to go back to several of them to preach and bring special music. This morning, we were at Carlsen Field, the newest of the churches in Trinidad. I preached, and we all sang a couple of songs with Roxy playing violin on one and Olivia playing a keyboard that was brought in for the occasion on the other. The church is only about a 15-minute drive south from where we live in Charlieville, and has been officially organized only within the past year. It started when an older man in the neighborhood of Carlsen Field (so named for the American air base that was there in WWII) wanted to have a church close by for his family to attend. Since there wasn't any other space available at the time, he simply added on to his house, and that's where the church is me
eting now until they are able to find a place to build on their own. The photo above shows the outside of the house/church building. On the left is a picture of the interior, with Pastor Ramesh Jaimani preparing for communion.~Richard
We've been here for almost 2 months. It's weird to think that it's already October and it's still so hot. Today seemed especially hot. We were at Carlsen Field Mennonite Church this morning and Daddy preached. The church isn't very well ventilated and the fans didn't seem to help much. Then this afternoon, for lunch we walked over to the mosque because one of our neighbours had sold us tickets for a meal there. The problem, though, is that even though the mosque is right across from us, there's a highway in between us and it and we had to walk over to the walkover (a bridge for walkers over the highway, there are also bridges like that for cars called flyovers). It's still not a long walk, but it does take longer than if we could walk "as the crow flies".
Last night we went to Carlsen Field youth group and started practicing for the Christmas program. We'll probably be in at least 2 Christmas plays, but they try to schedule all the Christmas programs on different Sundays.
On Friday, Roxy and I had KFC in Trinidad for the first time. In case you didn't know, Trinidad has more KFCs per square mile than any other country. They are very proud of their KFC too. My teacher ordered it for our whole form and a few other people, one of whom was Roxy, too. She was bragging to me about how their KFC actually had some flavour to it. Mostly I thought it was just more spicy, but then I did get the spicy kind.
~Olivia
Monday, September 28, 2009
Yesterday morning, we worshiped at Esperanza, or Hope Mennonite Church, our last to visit of the 6 Mennonite Churches here in Trinidad. It was really nice to get to do that, especially since Olivia and I have been involved in Hope through the youth group. A lot of the Churches here, we noticed, seem to have really good youth groups that meet regularly and have a lot of people, but when we go to those Churches, none of these youths seem to really come! At Hope, though, we noticed that they had a larger age range than the others, from small babies to fairly elderly folks. Hope is in the process of building a church building, so right now it is fairly open, but when it was raining, it was open enough to keep us cool, but not wet! It felt nice. When they do finish, and if they achieve all their dreams, they will have the largest building of all the Mennonite Churches here! When we got there, Daddy asked us where we usually parked when we came to youth group, and we told him just somewhere on the grass. But we had already driven past the patch of grass we usually parked on, and little did we know that we were parking in a drain that one couldn't see from the road! So when the service was done, it took a long time, a long rope, help both from people from the church and some people passing by, and a plank of wood to get the car out. While we were trying and not getting anywhere, the wheel was spinning like crazy trying to get itself out of the ditch, and it made mud fly everywhere! Luckily once we got it out, we borrowed a hose from the people next-door to the church (who are also members) and we got help cleaning the car. So after all that, the car was looking better than it had since we'd first seen it.
~Roxy
Each of the churches has its own uniqueness and personality, but they all share some things too. All of the churches begin with lots of singing. On our visits, only Charlieville had any accompaniment other than percussion - they had a guitar. After singing and opening prayers, it is time for offering. Then there is a time for testimonies when people from the church may share anything from a prayer request to a song or a scripture that has been meaningful over the week. All of the churches have had lay people as music and worship leaders. Finally it is time for the sermon. The person presenting it (often the pastor but not always) comes up and reads scripture and then begins to preach. The sermons are a little but not a lot longer than at home. When the sermon ends there may be a closing song and some announcements.
The fact that these elements are present in worship consistently is not surprising. What is more surprising is that they are present in many gatherings. All youth group functions seem to follow the same basic template, although the sermon is more of a devotional. Yes, you should always come with offering even if you are a youth. We were at a small group that was the same basic order. Of course some youth group meetings and small group meetings include food as well. Even special events like birthdays that end in a 5 or 0 or big anniversaries are shared with friends in and out of the church but follow the same pattern. They are called Thanksgivings, and I'll let someone else tell more on that subject.
~Barb
Last night, we went to a Thanksgiving celebration for someone's 25th anniversary. There was a church service type thing, and about 4 people or groups of people were invited to do music during it. Our family was one of the people doing that. We sang Love the Lord Your God, with me and Mommy on one part, Roxy on the second, and Daddy singing the third part. There was a point during the service where they cut the cake, and I played some hymns on my flute during that time. There were lots of people there, many whom we knew from the churches. At the end, after the service, we ate a meal. They had 2 tables, one of which was for vegetarians. But, that wasn't enough room for everyone, so they had a group of people eat first, and then a second group, and it went on until everyone had eaten. We were noticing how even at a nice event in which everyone was all dressed up, people still ate with their fingers, using the roti to scoop up the other foods.
~Olivia
~Roxy
Each of the churches has its own uniqueness and personality, but they all share some things too. All of the churches begin with lots of singing. On our visits, only Charlieville had any accompaniment other than percussion - they had a guitar. After singing and opening prayers, it is time for offering. Then there is a time for testimonies when people from the church may share anything from a prayer request to a song or a scripture that has been meaningful over the week. All of the churches have had lay people as music and worship leaders. Finally it is time for the sermon. The person presenting it (often the pastor but not always) comes up and reads scripture and then begins to preach. The sermons are a little but not a lot longer than at home. When the sermon ends there may be a closing song and some announcements.
The fact that these elements are present in worship consistently is not surprising. What is more surprising is that they are present in many gatherings. All youth group functions seem to follow the same basic template, although the sermon is more of a devotional. Yes, you should always come with offering even if you are a youth. We were at a small group that was the same basic order. Of course some youth group meetings and small group meetings include food as well. Even special events like birthdays that end in a 5 or 0 or big anniversaries are shared with friends in and out of the church but follow the same pattern. They are called Thanksgivings, and I'll let someone else tell more on that subject.
~Barb
Last night, we went to a Thanksgiving celebration for someone's 25th anniversary. There was a church service type thing, and about 4 people or groups of people were invited to do music during it. Our family was one of the people doing that. We sang Love the Lord Your God, with me and Mommy on one part, Roxy on the second, and Daddy singing the third part. There was a point during the service where they cut the cake, and I played some hymns on my flute during that time. There were lots of people there, many whom we knew from the churches. At the end, after the service, we ate a meal. They had 2 tables, one of which was for vegetarians. But, that wasn't enough room for everyone, so they had a group of people eat first, and then a second group, and it went on until everyone had eaten. We were noticing how even at a nice event in which everyone was all dressed up, people still ate with their fingers, using the roti to scoop up the other foods.
~Olivia
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