Quote about Port of Spain, Trinidad

A friend of ours just came from a professional meeting in Trinidad and Tobago. In 2003, we lived for six months in Trinidad in a suburb of Port of Spain, Diego Martin, and have fond memories of the twin island country. One might even say we is trini 2 de bone.

Our friend was overjoyed with her conference and the brief site-seeing she got to do around Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago's capital. She studies the writings of Derek Walcott who also attended the conference. The city moved her so much that our friend sent this quote of Walcott's, reflecting on Port of Spain. It reminds me of why I loved the place so much.

". . . so racially various that the cultures of the world--the Asiatic, the Mediterranean, the European, the African--would be represented in it, its humane variety more exciting than Joyce's Dublin. Its citizens would intermarry as they chose, from instinct, not tradition, until their children find it increasingly futile to trace that genealogy . . . This is Port of Spain to me, a city ideal in its commercial and human proportions, where a citizen is a walker and not a pedestrian, and this is how Athens may have been before it became a cultural echo. "

I relish in hearing of Americans having a great experience in Trinidad. Last November, we met a U.S. diplomat-type who had just spent six weeks in Trinidad and you know what she said? "I loved it there. I am Trini to de Bone, and all of that." If you want to witness a true melting pot, take the time to visit Trinidad.

While living in Trinidad, there wasn't much mention of Barbados by Trinis, however, there was a clear animosity towards Jamaica...dat place ent safe, guhl...too too much crime gwan on der. Well, we come to Barbados in September, with a love for Trinidad in our hearts and what do we hear? Trinidad has so much killins der, it ent safe, dahlin'! I doh go der, ya know! Does every place have to have another place they fear or feel superior over?

All I know is that we loved Trinidad and want to go back there while we live so close. The children were too small to remember the feeling of all those cultures mixing and living and blending together. Frankly, that is not a phenomenon they are seeing here in Barbados, but my thoughts on that may have to come in another post.

I'm not going to lie, since coming to Barbados, where the living is easy, folks are friendly and every last beach is divine, we have fallen for the place. There's a lot to like here in Barbados, but there's a lot to appreciate about Trinidad and Tobago. Let's put it this way, Trinidad is so much more than Carnival.

Image of coconut vendor in Port of Spain is from tuchodi's Flickr account.

Hello, Goodnight! Turtle Watching in Barbados

I had the great opportunity to go on a turtle watch walk with CERMES graduate students, led another PhD student, Darren. Darren is a marine turtle expert and works for the Barbados Sea Turtle Project. I mentioned Darren's terrific guest lecture previously.

Our walk and turtle watch was part of the turtle watch program going on all around Barbados while the marine turtles are nesting, from June 1 to the end of October.

We met up at 8:30 pm and were out until past midnight and on our watch we saw a single hawksbill turtle track (a failed attempt of the nesting female to come on land and nest). Darren also got a call that a hotel found some hatchlings running towards and into the

hotel. These hatchlings should have been running towards the sea but they get confused by the lights of all the developments in the area and ran towards the brightest thing they saw. In pre-development days, prior to all the hotel and fast food lights, the turtle hatchlings ran towards the brightest thing they saw, which was the sea reflecting the moon's glow. We let out the little turtles near to the shore, in a darker part of the beach and they scampered to the sea. It was so sweet.

In 2003, in my pre-bloggings days, we lived in Trinidad for six months. We trekked out to Grande Riviere to watch the leatherback turtles nest and we all fell in love with these giants of the sea. Towards the end of our (first) Caribbean stint, we went back and saw the babies come up out of the sand. We had no idea what we were doing and there wasn't really a research agenda going on in Trinidad, at least as far as I can tell. I will say, though, that there were turtle guides. We were strongly discouraged from going out on the beach to look at the leatherbacks on our own. We were told not to use flashlights unless we were told that it was okay. The flashlights spook and annoy the nesting turtles and she may not lay her eggs. We signed up for a turtle guide and we were told to go to sleep "and we'll wake you when we see a turtle." I can still remember the lovely sound of the guide waking us up with a gentle "hello, goodnight, we have a turtle."

The first two photos I took last night and these last few I had

to move over to my Flickr account, I took them in 2003 in Trinidad.

This is sleepy Caleb, all of five years old, posing with a

leatherback.

Caleb woke up very early to try to spot a hatchling and he did! he came running back into the room shouting with glee.

Caleb and Tillie (almost 3 years old here) with a bucket of turtleback hatchlings.

A nesting leatherback, after laying her 100 or so eggs, going back to sea.

Skype and Build-a-Bearville: Bridging the Miles Between Friends

We’ve been here in Barbados for twelve days but my daughter has been missing her friends a lot. Fortunately, we have Skype and Build-a-Bearville accounts to shorten the distance.

Today, I overheard this conversation while she was on the phone (aka Skype) with her good pal. My daughter’s Build-a-Bear avatar is named MaggieMay123 and her friend’s is AJ2Hip456.

MaggieMay123: Hold on, I’m going to do the Dance Sequence number 1 .

AJ2Hip456: Wait, why don’t you do the Trumpet? Okay, and I’ll dance. Start after three. 1 – 2 – 3.

And then AJ2Hip456 started dancing at the same time as MaggieMay123 played her trumpet. They both giggled.

The thing that was so nice about this interaction and the rest of their hour spent in Bearville scooting around to the Skate Park and the Coffee Shop (where they both got ‘jobs’) and Friendship Forest Park is that this is the same way these two play when they are right next to each other. It was as though there was no distance whatsoever.

My son has had his own web 2.0 interactions with another long-time friend. They Skype and talk longer on the phone than these two boys ever spoke before. They’ve played games via Skype.

When we return to Poughkeepsie, the continuity of friendship kept with these children will make it so the kids will not miss a beat.

In 2003, we lived in Trinidad for six months. We had a dial-up internet connection. There was no Skype back then. There was no Gmail. There was no Build-a-Bear or Club Penguin or Second Life. It’s like it was the dark ages and it was only six years ago. What will the fruits of the internets be in another six years?