Paria Waterfall Hike

Yesterday, the Diego Martin youth group went on a hike. We left our house around 6:30 a.m. to drive to Maracas Beach, where we met up with the rest of the group. Then we drove about another 30-45 minutes until our car and one of the other 3 vehicles wouldn't go any farther. There was an SUV and a pickup truck that could make it a little farther. So, everyone piled in the back of the pickup, except those that were riding in the SUV, and we went until the road completely ended. Then everyone got out, grabbed their bags and started walking. It took us about 3 hours, including some stops, to get to the beach where we stopped to play in the water. Then, it took us another 2 hours to get back. The hike included 7 big hills, and we stopped at 2 beaches, plus tried to find another one on the way there. By the time we went back to Maracas, got some bake and shark and drove home, it was 8:00 p.m. We all showered and went right to bed! Today, my legs are pretty stiff, and kind of sore, but I enjoyed myself on the hike very much yesterday!
~Olivia

Here is what I learned from the hike yesterday:
1. I am not as young as I used to be.
2. My children are in much better shape than I am.
3. I am grateful to have a husband who walked at my pace and offered me a hand on the depth perception necessary parts.
I am also grateful to have had the experience, the fellowship, the exercise, the beautiful views and the personal challenges that a hike like that offers. I am glad to have gotten to meet and begin to know still more youth. There were 9 youth and 8 adults on this particular outing. God is quite an extraordinary artist as seen both in the fabulous diversity of nature and of people!
~Barb

The north coast of Trinidad is where the best beaches on the island are located. There is, however, no road that runs all along the north shore. There is a road that goes along the western part of the coast, which includes Maracas Beach--the most popular beach on the island, and one that we've been to a couple of times. There is another road that covers the eastern part of the northern coast, an area that we have not yet visited. There is, however, no road that connects these two coastal roads. The only way to drive from one to the other is to go all the way around the mountains that run all along the north coast. It was into this area without roads that we hiked. The only way to access Paria Beach is by foot, as we did, or by boat.
The ultimate destination of the hike was the beautiful Paria Waterfall. After hiking several hours through the forest, it was amazing to come to this place where the water came cascading down the rocks. It was also a very hot day, even by Trinidad standards. My shirt was literally drenched with sweat by the time we arrived at the falls. So the opportunity to soak in a refreshingly cool pool for a while was quite welcome.
~Richard

Along with all the water, my favorite part of the hike was the detours we took. One of them was optional. Basically, the adults and a few of the youth stayed where they were on the hike and just took a rest, and most of the youth went down the mountain a little on a detour. You see, we were trying to find a beach that the leader of the hike had told us was there, but after a little while, the path seemed to stop. We chose to keep going, trying to follow the sound of the ocean. We decided to stop when there was a long drop off that went down very far, and didn't even seem to end on the beach. It went down to a couple rocks, then into the ocean. We were pretty sure that this meant that we were on the wrong path. We doubled back to where the path ended, then turned farther right, where we thought the beach was, and tried again. The same thing happened, and again the beach looked much farther off to the right. So we just decided that this was the wrong way to the beach, and climbed back up the very steep way we had just come. When we got to the top, we told the group leader what had happened. Then he told us that, after we had gone down, he had remembered that you couldn't actually get to the beach through that path. How convenient! It was a fun excursion, though. Another detour we took, which was probably my favourite, was out to "Turtle Rock". We took a turn off the path, and ended up on a very narrow path. At one point, I could see through the trees that there was water off to my left. A little while later, I turned to my right, and saw water on that side too! We were walking on a strip of land that led off to this "Turtle Rock". At the end of the path, there was a larger clearing which was essentially a large rock. All around it, on three sides, was water! It was almost a tiny island in the ocean, because of how thin the connection looked from there! They said that they called it Turtle Rock because sometimes you could see turtles swimming in the water around there, but I think only my dad saw one. The whole hike was nice, and I am actually surprised that by this afternoon I wasn't even sore!

~Roxy

Post-Carnival Roundup

Last Wednesday, we weren't completely sure whether or not to go to school because no one really seemed to be going since it was the day after Carnival. But, we decided to go anyways, which I thought was a pretty good decision. There were only 11 students out of about 60, I think, from forms 1-6 (except there's no form 3), but there were a few teachers and it was nice and quiet which I thought was kind of nice. Then on Thursday, we went again and there were 17 students; most of the teachers were there. But, there had been a student who was suspended but kept coming to school anyways. He was "unsuspended" today, but on Thursday he came and had a bunch of stones and ended up breaking a bunch of glass and threatening some of the teachers. No one was hurt, and everything turned out okay, but it was a little worrisome at the time. Because of all that, combined with the fact that we didn't think anyone would actually come on Friday, Roxy and I decided not to go to school on Friday. When our parents got up and got in the car to go grocery shopping, it turned out the car wouldn't start, so we couldn't have gone to school even if we had wanted to!
~Olivia

Last Friday, our family attended a 1-year-old's birthday party! However, it was very different from what we had expected. In fact, it was very much like the 25th anniversary celebration and memorial services we've attended in Trinidad, and not as much like what I had expected. It was a Thanksgiving like the other services I mentioned were. It had songs, prayers, and a sermon, much like a regular church service. There was barely any mention of the little boy until the sermon was over. Then he and his cousin (actually, his cousin's daughter), whose first birthday had been the day before, went up to the table where they put the cake and we sang The Happy Birthday Song to them, as well as Jesus Loves Me. After that, they served a huge meal like they do at all Thanksgivings, with roti, channa alloo, chicken, curried mango, pumpkin, and there were also soya chunks at this one. The dessert was ice cream (as ALWAYS, whether it's just a church meal or a birthday, or a Thanksgiving, or any big meal of any sort!) and birthday cake. Speaking of that roti, I helped to make some last Thursday! A lady from the Mennonite Church here came over and showed Mommy how to make 'Buss-up-shut' roti, also known as oil roti or paratha roti. Once she and Mommy had each flipped one (roti is cooked over a stove top), the lady suggested that I might want to cook and flip one too, which I did! My favourite part, though, is when the cooking is over and you take it off the stove. At that point, you put the roti into a towel and you 'buss it up'! This essentially means you smash up the towel until the roti is good and busted. I really liked this part, but I might have gotten a little overexcited and buss' it up too much. That's okay, though, because it still tasted good, plus it was so much fun!
~Roxy

I agree. That roti is our favorite kind to make and to eat. There are many kinds of roti in Trinidad. There are also many kinds of music. One of the nice things about the carnival season is that you really get a flavor for a variety of indigenous forms of music. They pretty much each have their own competition. Of course we had heard of the steel pan music before we arrived and enjoy that very much. They have junior and senior competitions for all the music pretty much but also have pan classifications for single, small, medium and large bands. Other forms include chutney and soca (a combination of soul and calypso). During carnival they are combined as musicians compete to be the soca chutney monarch. But my favorite discovery was calypso. I had an American idea of what that was, but it did not bare much resemblance to what it means here. The Kaiso calypso is a kind of music sung to an energetic beat and horns in which the state of the country is examined and sometimes funny sometimes poignant social commentary is leveled. It sometimes includes props and costumes to draw attention to the situation it speaks about. It is thoughtful and entertaining performance art. The most entertaining is the extempo competition in which people draw a topic and have to sing about it on the spot. The finalists are called on stage in pairs and banter back and forth as they sing trading good-natured insults either toward politicians or toward each other. While I'm glad to get back to normal here, I could listen to pan and Kaiso all year - while eating roti.
~Barb

Olivia mentioned that the car wouldn't start on Friday. When I turned the key, there was just a single click, and nothing more. Some of our friends sent over someone who was able to get it started so that we could take it in to a shop to have the starter worked on. It was fixed and running by Saturday noon, so we were able to get to church yesterday morning without any problem. Barb, however, had been planning to participate in a Lenten retreat over the weekend at the Mt. St. Benedict monastery. Without the car, though, she wasn't able to make it to the retreat.
~Richard

Church activities and Carnival

On Saturday, we had the first youth group meeting at Diego Martin Mennonite Church for the term. My parents led it. They will lead it every second Saturday of the month, and someone else will lead it every fourth Saturday of the month. Six youths came, as well as six adults. People were pretty quiet, and didn't talk a lot, but I still thought overall, it went pretty well. We had no idea how many people would show up, so we were glad at least some came. We started out with a prayer and some singing. Then, we had a little bible study and spent most of the time discussing the story. Although, the adults had more to say about it than the youths. And then people talked about what they had done previously during youth group and what they liked and didn't like and all that. For the first one, not knowing who would come or how it would work exactly, I was pleased.
~Olivia

As I write this, the Carnival holiday is winding down. For the past week, there have been events televised every evening. We watched some of the calypso, steel pan and costume competitions. For the past two days, the TV has been showing the constant streams of people parading through the streets of Port of Spain--some in very elaborate costume, and many wearing hardly anything at all. There are smaller celebrations in many other places as well. Many Christians stay away from the celebrations on Carnival Monday and Tuesday because of the heavy drinking, lewd behavior and violence that sometimes breaks out. We are told that the beaches are packed as people who don't want to be involved in that sort of thing head there to get away from the reveling. In fact, a number of churches schedule youth camps over Carnival weekend as a way of providing alternative entertainment. Tomorrow it's back to school for all of us, although we've been warned that there may be very few students who show up.
While Carnival has been on full display, it has been very difficult to keep up with the Winter Olympics here. Not surprisingly, Trinidad and Tobago has no team competing in Vancouver--although there has been a 2-man bobsled team at a couple of winter games. I guess they figured that since Jamaica had one, there ought to be a Trini team, too. None of the local stations are broadcasting any of the competition. We have managed to find some streaming video online, but it is inconsistent. Also, since we are four hours later than Vancouver, the event finals often go late into the night.
~Richard

Because our work happens mostly at home and because we still have classes tomorrow, most of our carnival has been spent working at home. That's been fine with us as the roads and crowds are generally deemed unsafe. With the girls home we have managed to find time for family fun here. Today we finished our preparations in time for a cricket game on the concrete slab between the church and the preschool. We bought the girls a cricket set for Christmas. Of course theirs is really a children's set, not what real cricketers would use and our version of the game with only 4 people and limited space was quite scaled down. But since we are all new to the game (not to mention my lack of depth perception and general inability to see flying balls), scaled down was just right for us. This is what Carnival Tuesday looked like for us.
Most of the Mennonite churches here do not really observe lent. We are introducing it at Diego Martin. But since it is a new concept to digest, we are not planning to observe Ash Wednesday tomorrow. Still, we are teaching our music group at church the song From the Depths.
~Barb

February Facts

The dry season has begun here in Trinidad. There are basically two seasons here. The wet season runs from roughly June through December; and the dry season is roughly January through May. We are still getting occasional rains, but they tend not to be as heavy or last as long as they did in the wet season.
Unfortunately, the wet season was also drier than usual this past year. As a result, the reservoirs that supply water to much of the island are lower than usual. In order to make sure that the supply lasts through the whole season, the Water and Sewage Authority (WASA) is encouraging people to conserve water and has issued mandatory restrictions on usage. From what we've been able to understand, the restrictions basically amount to not using hoses for watering lawns, washing cars, etc. "Water police" have been deployed to go around and make sure that people are complying with the order. Yesterday, the front page of one of the papers featured a picture of sprinklers running at the prime minister's residence. The PM announced later in the day that the contractor in charge of lawn care had been fired as a result.
What is frustrating about the apparent water shortage is that last month, when thousands of gallons of water that should have been coming into our tanks were running down the drain instead, WASA didn't seem at all concerned. Thankfully, our tanks have remained full since the leak was fixed several weeks ago. We are hoping that we will be able to keep them that way for the rest of the season.
~Richard

We enter this week with a praise and a prayer request. Let's start with the praise. On Tuesday, David and Shirley Yoder arrived from Pennsylvania to begin a one year term of work here. David will serve as overseer for the churches here. We first met them in Virginia last summer. They and the mission board there were very clear that they hope a local leader will fill that position. But we clearly heard local leaders asking for assistance at this point. The churches here are working hard to develop local church leaders and we have seen leadership grow even in our time here. But at this point there are 4 local pastors and 6 Mennonite churches. So they feel they need to continue to build their base of pastors for now. As a result, everyone is pleased to welcome David and Shirley. We were able to meet them at their apartment on their arrival and very much look forward to working more with them.
Our prayer concern is that the renters we had in our Kansas home will be moving out on Saturday. That means we really hope we can find new renters soon but know that will be difficult since we can only offer a 5 month lease. Anybody want a 5 month sabbatical in Kansas?
~Barb

Today we did not go to school--it was canceled. However, the first we heard of this was on our way out of the school compound yesterday when we were handed a note containing this information. This is Carnival weekend, and lately the number of school children killed has been kind of scary. To get to our school using the public transportation in Trinidad, everyone has to pass through Curepe Junction, where they transfer cars and buses. That has been a slightly dangerous place since last term even, but for this Carnival time the principal did not want anyone from PAWI High School in Curepe Junction. Thus, she canceled school. Next Monday and Tuesday are not officially public holidays, but nobody goes to work or school those days. Some people at our school have planned to take the whole of next week off, but the principal has made it very clear that she wants everyone in school by next Wednesday. So, we have a Carnival break from today (Thursday) until next Tuesday.
~Roxy 'n' Olivia

Our Weekend

As Barb noted recently, we are in the midst of Carnival season in Trinidad. Carnival is the biggest event of the year here. Tourists come from all over the world to see and take part in the festivities. Carnival Monday and Tuesday (Feb 15 & 16 this year) are not "official" holidays, but there is no school and very few people go to work on those days. In fact, from what we're told, we can expect that many places will already be closed on Friday, and may not open until the following Thursday. We were told several months ago by some former missionaries that Carnival brings out both the best and the worst of the country. The best is the amazing music and culture on display in this season. Many Carnival costumes are truly works of art. Calypso features insightful social commentary. And steel pan bands feature the national instrument, which Trinis are proud to note is the only non-electrical instrument that was invented in the twentieth century. The worst is the incredible amount of drinking and overt sexuality that can be found at many of the Carnival parties or "fetes." More than one of our friends here have told us that the rate of HIV infection rises dramatically following Carnival.
This weekend, we again tried to find ways to explore some of the best parts of Carnival. We had purchased tickets for a Children's Carnival Fiesta that claimed to feature many different aspects of Carnival in a family-oriented atmosphere. By now we knew to call in advance to check whether or not the fiesta was still happening. We found out that it was not going to take place on Friday afternoon. In fact, they weren't sure yet exactly when it was going to take place. They suggested we call at the beginning of this week to find out. Instead, I returned the tickets for a refund today.
On Saturday, we again tried to find some good Carnival entertainment. We had been told that the best way to enjoy steel pan music is to go to the panyards where bands are practicing. But we never really knew where the panyards were or when the bands practiced. One of the members of our church in Diego Martin offered to take us to a panyard that he knew of. When we arrived there late Saturday evening, however, we found that they weren't practicing after all because a fete down the block was too loud for them hear themselves. We were beginning to wonder if we were ever going to be able to see any Carnival events while we were here. Fortunately, Sunday turned out to be much more successful for us.
~Richard

However, before we took part in any Carnival, we went to church. When we first came to Trinidad, the Diego Martin Mennonite Church had an adult Sunday School. Then around the Christmas Holidays, they went on break. Next week they will start up the adult class again. They were not having any children's Sunday School, though, and so Olivia and I were anticipating possibly being bored during those times. There is this newer family in the church, though, who have two daughters, ages 5 and 7, I think. We were thinking that they might be in the same situation on Sunday mornings. So Olivia and I offered to take them then, and do a Sunday School class with them then! We aren't exactly sure what to do for that, but we decided we've been to enough Sunday School classes to come up with something. Along with Sunday School starting back this week, youth group at Diego Martin will be starting this week too. My parents will be in charge of that, and they have asked us to help them plan the first one, which at least I am happy to do, since we have had some experience with Trinidad youth groups. I guess we have some planning to do this week!
~Roxy

On Sunday, after church, we went out to eat at Roxy Pizza Hut in Port of Spain. We heard that there would be a parade around that place and time. As soon as we walked into the Pizza Hut, we spotted some kids dressed up in elaborate costumes eating there. As we ate, a crowd began to gather right outside. When we were finished eating, we walked out and stood outside, thinking that those were people gathering to watch the parade. But, then we noticed that quite a few of them were in costume or getting in costume. We asked someone there, who told us that it was a gathering place for the people involved in the parade, and if we wanted to watch the parade, we should go up the road a little ways. As we were walking up the road to find the place where the parade started, there were many people in costume that we passed or that were heading the same direction. We were beginning to wonder if there was more to the parade than people walking around dressed up in costumes. Roxy suspected that maybe the parade was just people in costume walking along the sidewalk and that since we were also walking along the sidewalk, maybe we were in it too. But, then we found a street that was blocked off and where people were lining up. We found a place to stand that was far enough away from the blaring music that we could hear each other yell and then waited. Soon a group of children in brightly coloured costumes started walking. Some of the costumes had big things sticking out. Some of the kids were jumping to the music. I thought that would get tiring fast, especially in the hot sun. Plus, some of them had costumes that looked really hot! Each group walked for a little bit, then paused and the kids danced around for a while and people took pictures, then they started walking again. It was really fun to see all the creative costumes!
~Olivia

We watched the parade for a while and then decided to head out to the savannah to try yet again to hear steel pans. Sunday was the junior pan competition. Because this is happening a week before the actual carnival and because these events were centered around youth, they were a little tamer.
Well, we finally got our pan music. The competitions for the primary and secondary schools were already over, but we got to see most of the performers from the under 21 category. They were amazing! We had watched some of the pan semifinals last weekend on TV. To our untrained ears, the difference in quality between the adult and the junior groups was slight.
Since we had heard that hanging out where the bands are practicing is the way to hear pan, we left the competition for a little and went across from the savannah where an adult finalist band was practicing. It is amazing that we could walk right up to them and interact. I was close enough that I could have grabbed a stick, and believe me that was a temptation. Ah, but no one in the band offered me the chance to join in. The only connection I was able to make was to compliment one guy on his tee shirt, which had pictures of the Obamas on it. The finals are next weekend and these folks are in serious practice mode at this point.
After a couple of weeks of trying to find healthy ways to connect, it was great to finally have our day nibbling at the best of carnival.
~Barb

All About School

On Sunday, coming home from church, our car broke down. Again. So, that meant that we weren't able to get to school Monday or Tuesday. We got it fixed Tuesday morning, actually sooner than we had expected. We still had time to go into Port of Spain that afternoon to get violin strings for Roxy and tickets for the Children's Carnival tomorrow. So, we missed two days of school. However, it doesn't really seem like we missed anything at all important. On Monday, I was told there were only 4 out of the 9 teachers who came to school, 2 of which are students at the college there, so live right on campus. So, my class only had one class session because the other teachers who came weren't even supposed to teach us. Then on Tuesday, my form teacher was still gone although more teachers were there, but only about half the students in my class came. So, missing two days of school didn't really mean anything.
~Olivia

Our school has entered a mural competition! The competition is that any school that wants to can choose a wall somewhere on the school compound, and paint it. The VAPA (Visual And Performing Arts) teacher at our school told me that most schools would have one big wall to the back of the school that would be tall, but ours doesn't. So instead, we are painting the wall next to the basketball court. Unlike most walls (which would be tall and so would only have a portion painted), ours is approximately the length of a basketball court and slopes up a hill to the height of about 5 feet at the top, so we have been painting the whole thing! Mostly it is a project for the form twos, but a few of the days, they have needed help, and so I have helped paint some of it too! They are mostly painting people; some fictional and others students and teachers from the school. One morning a student came around and took pictures of all the classrooms, and so they have painted a few of those on the wall too. The painting must be finished for tomorrow. With all the drips we have gotten on the court, we might as well be painting that too!
~Roxy

Our school (the classes we teach at the theological college) are also underway. Last night was our third week of classes. As I write that I wonder how it can be possible. I am teaching a class that is basically the next class for social work majors after one I taught in fall. That one focused on family and group work. This one focuses more on community work. I realize that I have probably used my community work social work skills as much or more in pastoring as I did in social work.
This semester I was able to find a text book on the island that I really like and is up to date. I found two copies of it only, though. I bought them both with the idea that I would use one and I would put the other on reserve in the library. But my students protested arguing that one copy on reserve would not be enough for all of them to share. One student has a copy machine at home. She offered to copy the book for everyone for the cost of materials. So far she has been managing to bring some of what I have assigned for the next week, but not always all of it. She thought it would all be done next week.
These students have so much happening in their lives. She, for instance, works during the day as a security gaurd, then teaches dance classes, is a single mom with a teenage son and is taking something like 5 classes - more than a full load. Another of my students is in a similar situation only she works at a bank. Another has a new baby. The students from other countries are more likely to live on campus and be younger. There are small dorms there which I would guess house no more than 10-20 students in all. I really admire the level of commitment many bring given all that they are juggling. I thought I had a busy crazy life when I was a student. I certainly did fill my time. But I have to say that I did not contend with all the things many of these people do. Teaching them has been such a great part of what I've gotten to do here.
~Barb

The class that I am teaching has been going well, too. This semester, I am much more comfortable with the subject that I'm teaching than I was last term. Unlike philosophy, which I hadn't studied formally for more than 20 years, preaching is an area in which I received an advanced degree less than a year ago. It's also something I do on a regular basis, so have much more real experience with the subject.
I had originally been told that I would have two students in class. When I received the roster on the first day, however, there were three students on the list--one of the two I had originally been told about and two others. I was also told that there was another student who really wanted to take the class, but wasn't able to since he was also enrolled in Barb's class, which was scheduled to meet at the same time. Since he is a Social Work major, her class was required for him to graduate. But since he is getting a minor in theology, he really wanted the preaching class as well. So after checking with the rest of my class, we moved the time up a couple of hours. I now teach from 3:00 to 5:00; then Barb teaches her class from 5:00 to 8:00. It means that we need to pick the girls up from their school a little early on Wednesdays to make it to WITC on time. But we still only need to go there one day a week; and the student who really wants to be in both of our classes is able to do so.
~Richard