There are only a couple days until I get the opportunity to venture abroad to Trinidad. I cannot believe how the semester has flown by. It feels like it was just yesterday I was applying for this program and starting the class. I did not know what to expect as I have never had a formal client in the business world with deliverables. Now it is actually time to go to Trinidad, experience a new culture, but more importantly meet our client. I am so excited to travel abroad with my fellow classmates that have become my friends over the course of the semester. I am looking forward to a ton of things while I am in Trinidad. I am excited to try lots of new foods, listen to loud and fun Trini music, interact with people who are making a positive impact in the world, see nature’s beauty, maybe some turtles, and so much more. For all of the reasons I just stated, travelling excites me. It is so fun to travel and experience different parts of the world. Getting a better understanding of other cultures can allow us to have a better understanding of people. The experiences that come with travelling are often memories you keep with you for the rest of your life. This time last year at Pitt, I was preparing to go to Cyprus and going through the class is nowhere near as exciting as the joy I felt while studying abroad. Having this amazing experience made me super excited for my Global Service-Learning class because I had a general sense of what my travel abroad experience would bring me. From an academic and professional perspective, I have already learned so much in the class. We created a scope of work for the client. Prior to this class, I had no idea what a scope of work even was. I have also learned what deliverables are and how we will implement them. I have learned a lot about good client relations should be, and how effective communication goes a long way. All of these excite me in my opportunity as I now have acquired all of this new knowledge for my trip. Applying what I learn into my real life is the most exciting thing because my personal knowledge creates meaning in my life and experiences.
In Trinidad, their culture is quite different from what I am used to. I think language will be the most challenging thing to adapt to because it is not going to sound as clear or slow as I am used to. They speak English but they will have a strong accent, fast, and lots of terms I might not be aware of. Language is how people conduct business, so it is essential that there is a clear understanding between our group and the client. Another obstacle might ne the pace they do business in. They generally run on “Trini time” where life runs on a relaxed pace. Here in America, and especially attending a public college, life is most certainly not relaxed. Every day, I have to attend classes, do assignments, study for tests, attend club meetings, go to worship groups, manage my online retail store, oh and eat at least three meals a day, maybe go to the gym, maybe see my friends, maybe relax, maybe do my laundry. No but seriously, life as a college student can be a lot of juggling your time. For example, I am writing this in bed because I had classes and studied all day for two exams this week. So, adjusting from this pace of life to “Trini time” will hopefully be a relief but odd at times too. I am so used to being on the go in order to accomplish what I need to accomplish. I schedule out all my days so I can do what I need to do, and often run out time because that’s life. Trini time will be a big change from a college student’s day to day. But I am excited to adapt to the culture and view it as an opportunity for enjoyment of life, and distract myself with colleges endless demands.
Personally, I hope I can learn how to live on “Trini time” when I come back into the states. I cannot wait to experience Trinidad’s culture and get a sense of what “Trini time” means to them. I hope I can learn to be more open minded. I think this would come with any experience travelling abroad. Life will be different from my standard routines and rituals and that’s ok. I am excited to embrace this change of pace and hopefully learn how I can love life more than I already do. Loving life includes caring for the environment and our client is caring for the environment. Nature seekers is protecting sea turtles from poaching and protecting their nesting times. I want to learn as much as I can about how they are caring for the turtles through the power of their organization. Understanding the foundation of an organization goes a long way in life. I am impacted by businesses everyday so I think understanding an organization can have many benefits to going through life with a clearer understanding of how the world works, and more importantly the working world. Working is how people get by and learning how others work can teach us about what we might want to do in the future for work, know what we don’t want to do, or just simply have an understanding for others. On this experience I hope I can learn everything I can with the resources available. I want to learn about things that are not in my conscious, because the unexpected learning is often more fun.
Preparing for this trip, I have had to read many articles in preparation for my class discussions. Throughout the semester we have been able to have nice conversations about these articles and apply them to the basis of our work that we would be doing. With readings, we have also had a guest teacher. I have really enjoyed when our guest lecturer has come in to talk with us. She has had a lot of experience in the consulting business, so I trust that what she tells us is helpful and accurate for our program. The one day we talked about communication. We discussed the importance of communication, how to communicate well, how not to communicate, and we even ran a little communication activity. We were split up into pairs and one was designated to be the talker and one was designated to be the listener. We were to be sitting back-to-back to one another while the talker, which was me, shocker, explained how to draw an image I was given. My partner would then have to draw the picture based on what I communicate with her. Before this activity, I definitely thought I was going to be able to communicate effectively so she could draw what I was seeing. I am definitely a talker, so I thought this would be easy. Turns out this was incredibly difficult for me and for us. I did my best to explain the picture in front of me and I thought I was doing a good job but apparently not. After we were done the activity, we turned around and showed each other the picture and what the picture was supposed to look like. This was a funny comparison, but there was also some frustration as she could not communicate with me. Clearly the one-sided communication deemed to be very inefficient. Looking back, I should have assumed this was going to happen, but I learned the hard way. I felt like I had failed in communicating because I thought I was doing a good job but she wasn’t intaking what I was saying in the way I wanted her to. This showed an important aspect of communication that creates problems. A miscommunication! You can communicate, but if your message is not received in the way you want it to, then there is no point. You need to communicate with another and make sure each party understands. This is so incredibly important in the business world because communication is how business works. Without effective communication, serious problems can arise. The disconnect between the two of us in this simple activity shows how communication can go a long way. The aspect of one of not being able to communicate back to one another was the most impactful. I definitely learned that communication needs to be two sided because problems cannot be resolved when one party cannot communicate to the other. So, moving forward and applying this to our client we need to make sure we have effective communication with the client. But more importantly, good listening. You need to be able to listen to one another so that effective communication can take place. I cannot wait for my trip that’s only a few days away. Woohoo!