Welcome to our family's blog! After years of considering service, we have discerned that the time is right and taken a one year service leave from our jobs as pastors of Manhattan (Kansas) Mennonite Church. We have just begun our year of service working for the Mennonite Church of Trinidad & Tobago. Here are some reflections on our first ten days here:
Thursday, August 6, 2009
We arrived in Trinidad this afternoon after more than 24 hours of travel. It does not normally take that long to travel here, but this time it did for us. We have been cared for warmly by the people we've met.
-Barb
Friday, August 7, 2009
This afternoon, we went grocery shopping for the first time. It was kind of interesting! Galen gave Roxy and I each $20.00. The thing is 20 Trini dollars isn't the same as 20 U.S. Dollars even though they use the same sign for dollars. I got 2 little bags of party mix and a little bag of caramel popcorn, and some Trini candy, whereas Roxy just got a big bag of crackers and cheese, but it was the same amount of money. There were a lot of interesting foods I'd never seen before in the grocery store, like for instance cow heel and chicken feet. Then in the evening we went to the “Youth Explosion”. That was cool, too. Each of the youth groups from the different Mennonite churches here did something, like a drama or song or something. We got to meet a bunch of people!
-Olivia
Saturday, August 8, 2009
So far we have mostly been unpacking, learning how to drive on the other side of the street, figuring out things like groceries and changing money and figuring out what is where both in our apartment and on the island. We also spent last night and today attending the annual church conference of the Mennonite Churches of Trinidad and Tobago. Last night the youth from all 6 churches gave a very enthusiastic program after which we all ate channa aloo roti - yum! Today we spent a long day at the annual business meeting which was an interesting opportunity to hear reports from all the congregations, but got very long during the constitution revision, the discussion of which managed to be both enthusiastic at times and tedious (especially on hard benches in an un-airconditioned room for about 8 hours). Actually, although it was long as are many business meetings, it was good to be there to get a feel for the issues the churches are dealing with and to meet lots of the people. The girls came with us last night, but today they stayed in our apartment which is the second story of the Charlieville Mennonite Church where we were meeting. The could literally pull our bedroom curtains and look down into the sanctuary to play "guess who's talking" and keep tabs on us. Tomorrow the conference ends with a big worship service.
-Barb
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Today's worship service was a joint service of all 6 Mennonite churches. It was held in a mall in Chaguanas with a special guest speaker.
This evening, we made our first trip into Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad & Tobago. We went with some of the church leaders and the delegates from Jamaica, with plans to look around some at the city and visit the Diego Martin Mennonite Church on the other side. However, on the way, our car died in a not-so-great neighborhood. Fortunately, there was a man by the side of the road who was a mechanic who was able to diagnose it as a broken alternator. At first, we hoped to be able to switch some batteries around or jump start the car so that we could at least get it back to our apartment. In the end, however, we had to leave the car in the driveway of the guy we met and take the battery with us to get it charged. Hopefully the car will still be intact when we come back tomorrow.
At the end of it all, we just had time for a late supper at a popular Port of Spain restaurant: TGI Friday's.
We've been in Trinidad for 3 days now. Some things that I've experienced for the first time include:
-Eating REALLY FRESH mangoes. (I may never be able to eat the ones in KS again)
-Driving on the left side of the road (The hardest part is remembering which side the steering wheel is on when I get in the car)
-Withdrawing $1500 from the ATM (equals about $250 US)
-Finding Cow Heel in the meat section at the supermarket (We didn't buy any)
-Sampling new soda flavors like banana, kola champagne & Pear-D
-Richard
Monday, August 10, 2009
Today, we visited a private, all-girls Presbyterian school that Olivia and I might be attending this year. Galen and Gloria, who work at Virginia Mennonite Missions, and Ganesh, who is one of the Mennonite pastors here, came with us. The school is called St. Augustine's Girl's High School. It seemed like a pretty good school in general, but my favorite thing was that they had a 'pan band'! A pan band is a band made up of steel drums, or steel pans. For lunch, we went to Pizza Hut, and learned a very interesting way that Trini people eat their pizza! On the table, where in the US you might find Parmesan cheese, instead there were bottles of Ketchup and Hot Sauce! Ganesh poured both all across his pieces of pizza. He said that once you eat it that way, you can never eat it another way again! While we were there, it started pouring down rain, and there was even lightning and thunder, and the power even went out a couple of times. So, on our way to the West Indies Theological College (WITC) we had to take a bunch of detours. When we finally got up on the mountain where the College is, the bridge that we were planning on crossing to get there was closed, so we had to take another detour. But up there, it was beautiful, both the landscape and the weather. So Mommy and Daddy talked to the President and the Registrar and another Secretary type lady, while Gloria took me and Olivia outside where we ran around (at least I did) and saw the quail they raise for eggs. Also while we were out there, I figured out how to put grass between my thumbs and blow on it to make a noise!!!
-Roxy
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
This morning we didn't do much. Daddy and Galen went to pick up the car and it was all fine, safe and sound.
This afternoon, we met Paul & Evelyn Kratz, VMM missionaries who have been here for two years. They were going to leave today, but Evelyn is flat on her back, so they're looking for a flight where she can fly on a stretcher. After that, we visited Hope Mennonite Church's new building, and met Dolly who lives next door and her three kids Polly Ann, Kerri Ann and Esther Ann. Then we went with Galen and Gloria to Colin and Sintra's (our neighbors) and saw baby Luke again! They gave us so much Mauby drink! Plus some orange juice.
-Roxy
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
This has been an unusually free day for us. Richard and Galen spent a bit of time out picking up the now working car from the mechanic who fixed the alternator. The girls and I spent the day in, relaxing and tending to household and other loose ends.
Here are the abundant contents of our refrigerator door in Charlieville when we arrived: Mayo, dark corn syrup, tamarind chutney, something called “golden syrup” that says it can be used to flavor rum punch and coconut water, aloe gel, Caribbean chunky salsa, minced ginger, coffee, ketchup, green seasoning, hot chow, molasses (2), raisins, cream cheese, liquid garlic, barbecue sauce, taco sauce (1 hot & 1 medium), mustard, hot sauce, chili sauce, 2 bottles of unlabeled red to brown stuff and one of a homemade Trini hot condiment made of shredded green mangoes.
-Barb
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Today, Galen & Gloria went back home to Virginia. We will miss them greatly, but it's also time for us to start doing more things on our own. We are very grateful that we were able to spend so much time with them while they were here.
We spent some time today preparing for some of the teaching that we'll be doing this fall. I'll be teaching Homiletics I (an introductory preaching class) and Barb will be teaching Marriage & Family. We are hoping that our classes will be scheduled the same day so that we don't have to make too many trips up to WITC. We will also be helping out next week with the VBS here at Charlieville Mennonite Church. I'll be teaching the adult men, while Barb will be in charge of the “youts.”
We went into Chaguanas today to get copies made of the girls' school records. We had planned to stop at the supermarket, too, but it rained quite a bit again today and the street in front of the store was so flooded that we couldn't get into the building.
-Richard
Friday, August 14, 2009
This morning, we went to the market with Babes, who is our neighbor and also the wife of a Mennonite pastor. The market was very interesting. Mostly people sold lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. It was very crowded! But, then there was a smaller room where they were selling meat. Most of it was fish. I thought it was kind of creepy, because the fish were whole; they still had eyes and everything. The people selling the fish would just cut off the parts you wanted, well, at least I think that's what was going on. Who knows? There was a bunch of raw meat and whole fish and guys with big knives chopping things. Anyway, the fruits and vegetables were good, not creepy like the fish. Then we ate Doubles for the first time! They were good, but spicy! And we didn't even get the hot sauce! Trini people like spicy stuff!! This evening some people came to stay with us. There are 6 of them. They came to help with VBS at Carlsen Field Mennonite Church.
-Olivia
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Our apartment is often where short term work teams stay. Through a series of events, one got scheduled to stay here for 10 days shortly after we arrived. They will also be using the 5 person car we are allotted during that time. So today we all began to organize ourselves. Richard and I keep our bedroom while the girls move into a small bedroom that can only be accessed through ours. Another couple moves into their room. Another man sleeps on the living room floor which, if you push all seating to the walls holds his mattress. In the downstairs part of the church is an office where 2 other girls are staying and there is another small bedroom there behind the kitchen where the group leader is staying. All meals are negotiated around our kitchen table. The apartment is probably close to 850 sq. ft and also includes a room with a toilet and another with a shower. We will be helping with VBS at Charlieville next week and they at Carlson Field. We spent time today preparing.
-Barb
Sunday, August 16, 2009
This morning we worshiped at the Charlieville church since we'll be teaching VBS here this week and the work team took the car to Carlsen Fields. About 35 people were present for the 2-hour service. The sermon was presented by Deolal, one of the church elders, since the congregation is currently without a pastor. There are currently only four pastors for the six Mennonite congregations, which is why it is helpful to foreign missionaries like us come to help with leadership development and fill in where necessary. The ultimate goal is to have enough indigenous leaders trained that there will be a pastor for each church plus one to act as an overseer for all the churches.
This afternoon, we joined the work team that's staying with us on an outing to the Caroni Swamp, a major tourist destination that is very close to where we live. It was our first real tourist outing since we've been here. The swamp is one of the largest mangrove swamps in the world. We took a boat tour during which we saw several caiman, a couple of snakes, a few crabs and lots of birds—most significantly the scarlet ibis, which is the national bird of Trinidad and Tobago.
-Richard
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