Happy New Year

The churches here typically hold services to mark the end of the year. Instead of referring to the time as "New Years Eve" as we would in the US, the day here in Trinidad is known as "Old Year." So we attended the Old Year Service at Charlieville. It was quite convenient for us since we didn't need to venture out late at night or be on the roads with all the folks who had been partying for a while. (The amount of drinking and driving in the country was reportedly down considerably this year due to the introduction of breathalyser machines last month.)
The Old Year Service started at 10:00 pm, and followed the same general pattern as most any worship service here--lots of singing, praying, sharing, a sermon and an offering. In addition, one of the church leaders read through a listing of significant events in the church over the past year. The report often focused more on what food was served at the gatherings than on any decisions that were made. There was also a special time for silent individual prayer. So at the stroke of midnight, while lots of fireworks were being set off in the neighborhood all around us, we prayed out the old year of 2009 and welcomed 2010. The service ended at around 12:30. Then we had sandwiches, cake and drinks before everyone headed home.
~Richard

The night before Old Year, our family was invited to my friend's house for dinner. They told us to come around 5:00. Apparently that meant that they started preparing the corn soup at 5:00. First, the women went into the kitchen and chopped potatoes, sweet potatoes, eddoes, carrots, chardon benit (pronounced shadow benny), chives, pamento, and corn. They put a big black pot over a gas burner that was sitting outside on the concrete to cook the soup in. They set out snacks while it was cooking. During the preparation time, the women and boys were doing most of the cooking. The girls were decorating with balloons, and then we played cards until the soup was ready. The men sat around and told jokes, most of which started out "A Trini, a Jamaican and a Bajan" (someone from Barbados) "went up to heaven. St. Peter greeted them at the gate..." The interesting thing about that is that pretty much all those men were Hindu! Then, their conversation turned into a discussion about religion. Me and Roxy taught some card games to the other girls there and they taught some to us, but for the most part we didn't know the same ones. Or some of them we didn't think we knew, but we realized that we actually did know it, or at least some version of it, but we knew it by another name. I'm guessing dinner wasn't actually served until at least 9:00, it could have very well been 10:00. The soup was difficult to eat because we had to take the corn out of the soup and suck it off the cob, because no one had bothered to take it off. They just chopped the whole thing, including the cob. Then afterwards, we stayed around and limed some more and played more card games. Then, the women came and watched us, while the men's religion discussion got more heated. And the boys went and limed by the savannah. After a while, my mom started to turn her Styrofoam cup inside out, which amazed us girls who had been playing cards. We spent a while trying to do the same, but no one succeeded. By the time we got in the car, it was 1:00 in the morning! We had no idea it was that late! And the next night was Old Year, so we had a couple of extremely late nights!
~Olivia

Yesterday we officially began our interim pastoring at Diego Martin. Richard preached and I lead communion. We have enjoyed being available to all the churches and getting to know so many people this first semester. When we were at the Old Year service at Charlieville I thought how I would miss meeting with the folks there. But on the up side it will be nice to have a regular church home again. The potential to deepen and make meaningful relationships really depends on regular and consistant contact. We look forward to that. We are still figuring out what it means to be a pastor here. Many of the things we do back home are not done here. There are no bulletins to prepare, no office hours to keep, only one committee meeting a month with the congregation and less clear instructions from others. At the same time, there are lots of potential areas in which to work. People seem pretty relaxed about the whole thing.
After church we went out to eat to celebrate Richard's birthday which is today. Happy Birthday, honey!
~Barb

Things are not always what they seem. Especially in Trinidad. For example, take our water situation. One of my parents has, for the past 17 days, spent a portion of the morning on the phone with WASA (Water And Sewage Authority). Every time the answer has been the same: We'll try to get someone out to look at it soon. Obviously, this has not been entirely true, seeing that we are on our 17th day of no water. Finally, today, when my mom was on hold on the phone with WASA, a WASA truck pulled up! A man got out of it and asked my dad some questions, then wrote a report. So at least now they have seen the leak and written a report! Another example: school. Technically, school started today. But over the break, the government decided that all of the government and government assisted secondary schools would not start until Wednesday. Our school is a private school, but they seem to run on basically the same schedule as the government schools do. So, first of all, we are not completely sure that we would even be having school, and even if we technically are, many of the students (and possibly teachers) would probably assume that we aren't, and so not go. Also, our experience here is that at the beginning of a new term, people rarely show up anytime in the first week. So when we do go on Wednesday, I am sure that there will still be a lot of people who won't be there. Since we were not having school today, we took this opportunity to go visit the preschool next door, which was started by Charlieville Mennonite Church. Even though the preschool is government assisted, they are definitely not a secondary school, so they were in session today. When we walked in the door, we saw 44 very quiet, well-behaved preschoolers sitting at tables and 44 pairs of very dark brown eyes staring at us. The teachers told us that they were having quiet time and they would be going outside soon, but some of the parents were coming to pick up their kids already. Some of the children were very friendly, like the girl who sang me a song, but some were very shy, and when I asked them their names, just shook their heads no. They seem to have a really nice program going on there, and I hope we can visit again sometime.
~Roxy