Hello there again, I bring to you greetings from Trinidad and Tobago!
My second week here in Trinidad and Tobago has been nothing short than amazing. This week I was able to get into the groove of playing the role of a foreign exchange student for the summer. Taking Cultural History with Dr. Mathews (Trinidadian History Professor) at the University of West Indies has been very informative. I learned about all of the different nationalities and ethnicities that encompasses the country of Trinidad.
I also had the opportunity to create a beautiful doll that I plan to give to my baby cousin as a souvenir. The doll is called the Trinidadian Carnival character named the “Dame Lorraine”. The Dame Lorraine was created by African-Trinidadians by way of expressing themselves when they were finally granted permission to celebrate Carnival after slavery was abolished. I will post a photo below.
We were also able to see how carnival clothing has changed from character costumes in the 1950’s, to what is now celebrated by wearing fancy bejeweled head wear and bikini outfits while celebrating carnival in the 21st century. I will post a photo below.
My week has also consisted of visiting my service learning facility and becoming more in tune with the children at the children’s home. They are the sweetest and truly bring a sense of happiness to me by their welcoming smiles and their inquisitive questions about the United States. I have also had the opportunity to meet with the facilities on site Clinical Psychologist. She took me on a trial to show me how they assess the level of care that the children will require in order to help them past their traumatizing experiences. Being that I plan to become a Clinical and Mental Health counselor, this trip was right up my alley and I believe this will help me in my future career with being able to treat people of different cultural backgrounds.
This week we were also able to witness two different public holidays “Indian Arrival Day” and “Corpus Christie” . I love the fact that Trinidad publicly celebrates all holiday’s of different religions and different ethnicities. The only stores that were open were American owned restaurants and different adventurous activities.
Last but not least I was able to go zip lining on Wednesday! To some this may not a big deal but let me explain. I am 5’0 tall and quite small in stature. I am used to being close to the ground and this was definitely out of my comfort zone. Not only were we about 1500 feet in the air but it was also a workout. Every time we got past one obstacle we had to walk on a tight rope type of obstacle to get to the next tree house port. There was a total of 8 different zip lining tree ports and took about an hour to complete. The last level required us to zip line over the beach and was absolutely a breath taking experience (after facing my fear of heights). I had the time of my life and I am now confident that I can do anything. Below I will post a picture of my group after completing the zip lining course I am furthest to the right in neon yellow.
This second week has been an amazing blessing and everyday I wake up and am thankful that I was able to make this journey. I truly look forward to the next few weeks that I have here and plan to conquer all of the things that Trinidad and Tobago has to offer! Thank you for reading my blog and I will keep you guys updated next week.