Family Visit

It's been a while since our last entry because we've been busy with visiting family for the past week. My mother, sister and two nephews (ages 18 and 20) spent the last eight days with us. For my mom and nephews, it was their first time to travel outside of the U.S. and Canada. We enjoyed the opportunity to take a bit of "vacation" time as we explored a few new places that we hadn't yet visited in Trinidad, and returned to some of our favorite sites on the island.
They arrived on the evening of May 24, which was also the day of the eagerly-awaited election here. There had been some concern about some possible unrest and potential violence, but the election came off without a hitch. There were some long lines at the polls, and a few complaints of irregularities, but nothing more out-of-the-ordinary than the United States has experienced in recent elections. In the end, we witnessed the election of the first-ever female Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Her election wasn't especially surprising, but the margin of victory was rather astounding. Her party nearly doubled the number of seats it holds in parliament as it moved from 15 members to 29. One of the notable differences between the parliamentary system and the American system is that she took office almost immediately, having been sworn in less than 48 hours after the polls closed. Her entire cabinet was in place by the end of the week.
~Richard

The day after our guests arrived was Richard and my 25th wedding anniversary. The group was interested in seeing the leatherback turtles nesting. Trinidad is one of the few places in the world you can see this. Since the best beach for this is quite a drive (about two and a half hours from us), we decided to celebrate our anniversary by going overnight to a charming Caribbean Inn in turtle country. Although we had seen the turtles once before with another set of guests, this time we went farther in, and because it was later in the season, we got to see, hold and release some of the tiny hatchlings. They stayed in our hands paddling with their fins as we listened in the rain to the guide describe their slim chance of survival. Then, after watching several adult turtles lay their eggs, we walked to the moonlit shore and released these babies into the ocean. It was both sad and hopeful. Mostly, it was sweet. We had such a good time that we said we just might have to return for our 50th anniversary.
~Barb

One of the fun things that we did with our family here (that we'd wanted to do but hadn't yet) was going 'Down D Islands'. There are some tiny islands off the far northwest tip of Trinidad. We got there right on time, but, as it is in Trinidad, everything took longer than we expected it to. First we had to go to about 3 different buildings just to get the tickets and everything to get on the boat. Then we got to the Chaguramas Port and waited for a long time more for another group that was joining us on the tour. Once we boarded the boat, the ride itself was surprisingly short. Then we tied up the boat at the edge of Gaspar Grande, one of the islands off the coast. There are others that we could have gotten boats to, also, but Gaspar Grande has this big cave, Gasparee Cave, which is where we were headed. One thing that surprised me, when we tied up the boat, was that Gaspar Grande really didn't have a beach. They said that lots of limestone was found on the island. Then we walked uphill for a while (following this cute little dog they called Pumpkin) until we got to a house that was owned by the tour organization. We rested there for a while (and ate) and then walked down to the cave entrance! Our guide was really good, because he grew up playing in the cave before they had steps and everything. He said that there was a tree sticking out of one of the holes, and they'd slide down the tree and then dive into the pool at the bottom of the cave! Then they installed steps and, our guide said, took all the fun out of getting down there. We hadn't brought swimsuits, because we hadn't heard anything about swimming, and in fact there were signs down there saying we couldn't. But our guide let some people swim anyways. I liked how he let us climb all over and there weren't really things in the cave we couldn't touch! When we got back out of the cave and sat on the balcony of the house I mentioned earlier, the breeze felt amazingly cool after the stuffiness of the cave! We just sat on the balcony for a while and watched the ocean (and ate). When everyone was out of the cave, we headed back to the boat and then back to Trinidad!
~Roxy

On Sunday there was another joint service, since it was the 5th Sunday in May. All six Mennonite churches met at Sangre Grande Mennonite Church. This was the last joint service we'll be in Trinidad for. Our guests were still here, so we all rode up to Sangre Grande in the van we rented. There was a church service and then a meal afterward. Since it was Indian Arrival Day (a holiday celebrating the arrival of Indians as indentured servants in 1845), they prepared an Indian meal. It included fried rice, stewed chicken, salad, macaroni pie and some Indian sweets: kurma, barfi and cake. It's very exciting because each time we go to the joint services, we know more people. Actually, at this one, there were more people from Sangre Grande since that's where the service was being held and I don't know those people as well, so maybe that's not so much true for this one. But, I was still somewhat surprised how many people I did know.
Our guests left early this morning, and we very much enjoyed having them here.
~Olivia