Wednesday, Jan 19th -
In the evening we were treated to a very nice evening by the National Council of Indian Culture. The council has a compound where they hold events and big festivals for Diwali and other celebrations. They put on a program that featured Indian dancers, singers and tons of delicious Indian food. I’ve never eaten so much curry in my life. We had a wonderful time and were stuffed beyond words. We ate chick peas and potatoes, curried mangos, coconut chutney, curried jack fruit, curried corn on the cob, rice pudding, and some others that I have forgot what they were, because there were so many dishes. It was all delicious and we brought leftovers back to the Morton House.
On the way home we swung by the practice yard for Exodus, the Tunupunu (town we are staying in) steel pan band who is practicing for carnival. We only hung around for a few minutes, but it was so cool as you will see and here in this video.
Thursday -
We spent the day in Tobago. The day started very early. We left for the airport at 6:30 and flew 20 minutes to the island of Tobago. We got breakfast at the Tobago airport and were met by a family friend of the Rev. Veda took us back to her house (shuttled the 5 minute drive back and forth in groups of 3 or 4) to eat our breakfast and so we could change into our swim suits. We were then taken to a dock where we boarded a glass bottom boat. We headed out to Bucco Reef where we drifted over the reef and the first mate of the boat explained the different coral formations, vegetation and fish that we could see. We were also given the opportunity to snorkel along side the boat for a bit which I was the first to jump at. Next we headed to a spot called the Nylon Pool which is a pretty cool phenomenon. Because the reef breaks the waves pretty far off shore there is an area of calm that is still a good ways off the coast. It has a white sandy bottom (which is ground coral) and it is only about 3 feet deep. It is literally like swimming in a salt water pool because it is so calm, the water is so clear and the bottom is so white. They claimed that it was a fountain of youth. If you were younger than 40, you would always stay young and if you were over 40 you would take 10 years off your life by swimming in this spot according to our captain and first mate.
Once we returned to shore we headed to a spot for a local favorite – crab and dumplings. I gave tutorials to my classmates on how to pick crabs, but they weren’t much like our Chesapeake blue crabs. They were tasty, but small and in a soup of sorts.
After lunch we went back to Veda’s place to shower, swim in the pool and wait for our tour guide to come get us. We were picked up in a Maxi Taxi and driven all around the Island, stopping at several very scenic spots, as well as having our driver point out some other interesting items on the island. One of our stops was to a fruit and vegetable stand to get fresh coconuts. Several of us got them with the tops cut off so we could drink the coconut water straight out of the coconut and one of them had the jelly inside it that would turn into the pulp that we recognize once the water is gone and it is dried out. The man at the stand cut that one open once we drank all the water and made a spoon out of the husk with his machete so we could scoop out the jelly to eat it. I’m not a huge fan of coconut, but that was delicious!
We continued our tour around the Island right up to the point where we had to check in at the airport for our flight back. We returned to the Morton House at about 10pm, tired, happy and ready to sleep from a very full day.
Friday -
What a busy day! We started out with a visit to a Presbyterian girls’ high school. We met with several members of the administration and talked to them about their school and found they were a bit more rigid than their counterparts at the boys school when it comes to interfaith tolerance. Not that they were intolerant, but they took a harder line when it came to allowing non-Christian students to practice their faith at school. They did allow Muslims to wear hijabs and do acknowledge major holidays of the major religions within the curriculum. We then split into smaller groups and were given a tour by students and got to talk to them quite a bit.
Next we headed to a Mosque for mid-day prayers. When we arrived we were greeted by the primary school students who thought that we were celebrities. They wanted autographs from all of us and several wanted our email addresses. It was pretty funny. We can’t wait for the random Facebook friend requests that will surely be coming from 9 and 10 year old Muslim Trinnies. Barrett taught a gaggle of little boys and girls the “Roll Tide” cheer for his alma mater.
The prayer service itself was a bit bizarre. We had to sit outside the Mosque and basically could only listen. It was much different than my experience with the Mosque and Islamic center that I’ve visited in DC several times. Whit had a lengthy conversation with a young man who didn’t get why we would want to study their faith. He seemed to think we should either keep to ourselves or convert. He felt we couldn’t understand the Koran or their practices if we weren’t Muslim or that if we studied it we would surely decide to convert. As we see in the States, there are those of all faiths who are a bit fundamentalist and there are those that are open and accepting. You can’t paint any group with a broad brush and individual people are going to think and act as individuals. It is unfair to judge any faith because of the zealots within their large umbrellas.
Next we headed to an Ashram for a two hour lesson on the basics of the Hindu philosophy. We were taught by a woman named Mia, who is a student/follower of the local guru Ravi J. It was a very informative and interesting session.
For the evening we went into Port of Spain with Anthony, a member of Aramalaya Presbyterian Church, who we first met on Wednesday night at the NCIC dinner. He is a funny and fun character who showed us where all the young people go to socialize in the big city. We ate at a restaurant called Sweet Lime. Unfortunately, several of our group have been feeling a little under the weather, so they didn’t join us. We had a lot of fun and sampled a few different rum drinks along with creole and Jamaican style cuisine.
Saturday
Saturday started early with a prayer breakfast at Morton House with the Aramalaya congregation. I am writing this during a brief bit of down time before we split up into groups of 2 to shadow local pastors for the next 24 hours. We will be making rounds with and staying at the home of the pastor to whom we have been paired. Several of us are heading South to San Fernando. Barrett is staying here with Brittany to shadow the Rev’s son, who is also a pastor. They will be doing a pre-marital service at a couple’s house and a memorial service tonight for a famous physicist, as well as taking parts of tomorrow morning’s regular Sunday morning services. Alex and I will be together and are anxious to get to San Fernando to find out what it is we will be doing.
Holly, Laura, Sudie, Kristi, Alex, Whit and I rode down to the seminary in San Fernando and met up with our assigned pastors. Alex and I were with the Rev. Anthony Rampersad. He is responsible for the pastoral region in the extreme south west of the island. We found out that Colin, a student who we met last week is a student minister who helps Anthony cover the six churches for which he is responsible, and that on Sunday morning Alex would be with Anthony and I would be with Colin. We also found out that we would be staying with an elder and her mother at their house. We grabbed lunch at Subway, which was a nice change from all the curry we had been eating. (don’t get me wrong, I loved the food, but it was nice to just have a hoagie for a change) On the way from San Fernando to the region we stopped off briefly to see the worlds largest pitch lake in La Brea. There wasn’t a lot to see, but what was impressive was the state of the roads and ground surrounding the pitch lake. There is a lot of underground activity, so the roads were very lumpy (there just isn’t a better word to describe it) and we saw mounds of tar that had bubbled to the surface and dried. Next we headed to the Alfred’s house to meet Judy and her mother, to drop off our bags and to see where we would be staying. The area Alex and I were in was much more rural and closer to the water than most of where we had visited. Alex and I decided it was much more our style. Anthony then drove us around the region and showed us where all of the churches were. We got as close to Venezuela as is possible without getting wet. We stopped off at several parishioners' houses (and were served snacks and beverages at each one). Anthony did not have any special events on his schedule for Saturday, so our time was spent touring and visiting. He was hoping there would be a Hindu wedding (Holly and Laura got to attend one) or something else for us to attend, but we were very happy with what we got to do. We returned to the Alfred’s house for dinner which was prepared by Judy’s mom as well as several dished that were dropped off by a neighbor who was also a member of the Point Fortin Presbyterian Church. We ate more amazing local dishes – chicken, fish, shrimp, puddin’ (which turned out to be blood sausage – delicious!!), and potatoes. Before Anthony left us for the night he gave Alex his assignments for worship in the morning and we called Colin to find out what mine would be. Alex and I spent the rest of the night watching TV with Judy, writing prayers and preparing for worship in the morning.
Sunday -
For me Sunday started very early. Judy and I left the house at six to pick up Colin who borrowed her car for the morning. Colin and I dropped Judy off back at her house and headed south for our seven AM worship at Cedros Presbyterian church. There were about 15 people in attendance. At 8:15, with a fish sandwich and a can of juice brought for us by a woman in the congregation, we headed for our second service of the morning. We had just enough time to drive from one church to the next and the service began upon our arrival. The congregation was about the same size, maybe a few more people and we did basically the same service, although I did notice subtle differences in Colin’s style and sermon, due to the dynamics and style of each church. At both of these services I was responsible for the Prayer of Thanksgiving, blessing the offering, and extending a greeting from our group as well as explaining the purpose for our trip. I was warmly received at both services. They insisted we stay for coffee after the service, although Colin and I had to chug it, jump in the car and head to a third service at Point Fortin. Anthony and Alex also arrived for that service. There was a guest preacher, so Alex, Colin and I had no leadership responsibilities in that service. It was good to worship with Judy, her mother and several of the folks we had met the day before. After church we headed back to the Alfred's house for lunch – no surprise, it was wonderful. After lunch they asked if we wanted to see how they make roti, so we went to visit Marlene and her family (responsible for half of our dinner the night before). There was a special service at four to celebrate and send off a lay pastor who was being assigned to another region, so several women were making food for the reception to follow. Alex and I even got to help grind the chick peas.
Side note for anyone that doesn’t know what roti is….there are many ways to prepare them- but generally it is a wrap, kind of like a tortilla with curried chick peas and potatoes, sometimes meat, sometimes vegetables. The wrap actually had ground chick peas in the dough itself.
Even though we had just had a huge lunch, they insisted that Alex and I each each have some roti while they made wraps for the reception. They also made some “chow” (I have no idea how it is actually spelled). They cut up pomme sitie (sp?) – a fruit growing in their back yard – and seasoned it with hot pepper sauce and garlic. They also gave us ice cream cones…we were bursting. Matthew, their fifteen year old son tried to explain Cricket to us and had me playing his electric guitar. The biggest surprise was probably when the father brought in a live hen and handed it to Alex and I. He was very hard for us to understand, and I think he was having a lot of fun messing with us. He kept referring to me as Rasta Christ, Colin as African Christ, and for Alex we never quite figured out what he was saying – either BaldHead or Bowl Cut Christ. It was a memorable visit to say the least.
The special service in the evening for Mr. Ivan Paul was great. Members from all 6 churches gathered at Point Fortin and there were probably over a hundred in attendance. Alex and I were very surprised to be asked to participate in this service as well. I did the Prayer of Confession and Thanksgiving, while Alex handled the blessing of the offering. There was lots of music at that service and it lasted close to two hours. We stayed around and fellowshipped with our new friends, took lots of pictures and exchanged email addresses. We got many invitations to return and stay with people.
Alex and I agreed that the weekend was definitely the highlight of the whole trip for us. We were sad to part with our new friends, but were extremely excited to see the rest of our group so we could swap stories and see what everyone had been up to. (Of course they put about 10 roti in a bag for Alex and I to take back with us to Tunapuna). The clerk of the Point Fortin session drove us back up north to Morton House. The Saint Andrews students came up to Morton House to visit and have a send off party for us, but several of us didn’t get back in time to see them. Alex and I got back close to 9pm.
Pictures below of Alex with Anthony and both of us with Judy.
We were exhausted. After catching up with our classmates we packed and passed out.
Monday
We left Morton House at 6am, boarded the plane at 8:30 and after a delay at the gate for a mechanical issue we are now airborne and headed for Houston. By the time I get back online to publish this post, we will be in Texas, and most likely I will be publishing once I’m back home in Austin.
What an amazing trip…..and we got credit towards our Master’s Degree to boot!!!!! Can’t beat that!
Photo Albums with all my pictures uploaded to Facebook Album 1 Album 2
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