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Trinidad Trip, Sept 2003 |
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Laurel and I travelled to Trinidad with a group of students as part of the International Service Learning program (ISL - http://www.islonline.org), which regularly sends US college students to learn and to provide medical and educational service as well as humanitarian aid to some of the poorest places in Central American countries. This was the 1st such trip to Trinidad. Our group consisted of me, Laurel, three other UCLA students (Wei, and Aaron & Alex [twin brothers]), a Washington University student (Lisa), our team doctor (Dr. Wil Johnson), and the program director (Reverend Michael). All the students beside myself were pre-medical students. We stayed in the guest portion of the home of Dr. Lushington, a native Trinidadian, and were joined at times by three native girls who were training to do an ongoing eye clinic: Nicole, Michelle, and Keesha. We had this great crazy native driver named Ralph who took us everywhere.
DISCLAIMER: This summary is based solely on my direct experience, impressions, and info I got from the many people I talked to & worked with. I apologize for any errors or misunderstandings.
GENERAL INFO / IMPRESSIONS
Trinidad is an island about 1,000 square miles large with a population of about 1 million people. It's located in the bottom right corner of the Caribbean, just off the northeast coast of South America. It and its neighbor island, Tobago, form a country together.
The entire experience was exciting and rewarding in many respects. We got to see and begin to understand the land, the people, the culture, and the problems in ways completely unavailable to the casual tourist.
Trinidad is in many ways a land of contrasts. It is not a poor country; oil deposits provide for big business, wealth, and development. But the government is inefficient to say the least (some would say ineffective, apathetic, or even corrupt); we saw much of abject poverty. So resource allocation is a problem.
Most of Trinidad's people are, apparently, highly religious. There are, however, many religions represented (significant #s of all the major ones, with Roman Catholic, Hindu, Anglican, and Muslim the largest). This is sometimes in contrast with the generally laidback, easy-going Trinidadian attitude, not to mention their highly revered annual Carnival (which is supposed to be much wilder than Brazil's version or the comparatively tame US Mardi Gras). Another interesting note is that some elements of indigenous beliefs (including voodoo) seemed to make their way at least into the periphery of mainstream beliefs there.
The ethnic/cultural makeup of Trinidad is diverse and integrative, owing to its varied history. The native islanders were supplanted by the Spanish after Christopher Columbus discovered the island around 1499. Many French then came to develop the land, bringing African slaves. The British took over in the 19th century. Slavery was abolished in 1836, but indentured servants were imported from India to be the labor force. Many Chinese immigrants also came. In 1962 Trinidad (& Tobago) gained their independence from Britain.
All these different groups/influences did not remain separate; they mixed freely like nobody's business. Thus it was commonplace for us to meet someone whose 'racial' background was african/caucasian/chinese/indian. From this kind of intermixing comes a great feeling of equality and fellowship. Racial tension is minimal.
One of the memorable lines form the national song, which I heard sung at the school where I worked, was: "here every creed and race find an equal place, and may god bless our nation."
All in all, people were very friendly there. Strangers greeted each other, smiling. Our driver seemed to slow down to wave and crack jokes at friends every few minutes.
We had a hard time understanding the locals much of the time, even though we were all speaking the same language (English). This was due to thick accents (think Jamaican), rapid speech, and use of unfamiliar idioms. However this made for entertaining, if sometimes laborious, conversation.
EDUCATION / MY TIME AT THE SCHOOL
For the first week, I spent most of my time at a Junior Secondary School. This translates roughly to a US junior high or middle school. So I worked with students around 12-14 years old. The secondary schools in Trinidad are divided into three tiers: prestige, senior, and junior. They all teach students at the same grade level (they call them "forms"), but students must take an entrance exam which places them into one of the three categories based on academic ability, with the highest-scoring students going into prestige schools and the lowest-scoring going to junior schools. This not only has a significant (and predictable) effect on the morale and motivation of students in a junior secondary school, but the prestige schools have comparitively much more as far as funding/...
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