Welcome back to the blog! Exactly 72 hours from when I am writing this my group will be leaving Pittsburgh to spend our spring break in Trinidad. While I have some general anxiety about making sure I have everything I need and that we make our flights (hoping for no delays 🤞), I mostly am excited for our trip to begin as this is the first time I will be leaving the country since I went to Canada in eighth grade. Academically, this week has been an absolute gauntlet with three separate presentations and a midterm to take, but I can’t complain too much about that because it allows me to not worry about other classwork while I am in Trinidad.  It’s hard to believe that we are already at the point in the semester where it is time to travel and work alongside our client, Nature Seekers.

In my past blog post I did an overview of Nature Seekers and what their main reasons for operating are, but I will restate some of the main points here as well as add my own personal impressions of the organization. Nature Seekers is an ecotourism based company that was originally founded to help preserve the native environment and help limit the poaching of leatherback sea turtles on beaches in Matura, Trinidad. Since its founding in 1990 Nature Seekers has expanded into a vital piece of the local community; bringing better support and economic opportunities for everyone. The original impression I had of Nature Seekers was the main reason that I chose to study abroad in Trinidad. I believe that the conservation of native flora and fauna is incredibly important, especially in today’s ultra consumerist society. As I have learned more about this organization my respect has only grown. When you look at how Nature Seekers has been able to continue to innovate and help the community with what they are given you see how much this organization cares about Trinidad. Nature Seekers reached out to us so that we hopefully could help solve their problems when it comes to booking their activities. This is important because it will help lessen the load on Nature Seekers’ staff when we help them implement a seamless booking system. An easier to use customer interface could also lead to more bookings as it is a more direct process to book an event. 

As we look ahead to our time in Trinidad there are a few main things that my team hopes to accomplish during the international component of this trip. To me the most important pieces of information to be learned are how exactly Nature Seekers runs their business from a day-to-day standpoint. I believe that this is very valuable information because it will allow us to better cater to their specific needs. As we see how they allocate personnel and resources to different activities we will be able to gain insight on how their current operations could be impacted when adding a new booking process. We also are hoping to achieve a better understanding of what Nature Seekers truly is about. It is very easy to make assumptions based on their website or articles published about them, but I believe we will only truly know what this organization means to the community by experiencing it first hand. My team is attempting to do this by engaging in the many separate activities offered from beach glass jewelry making to late night turtle-tagging.

Many times when travelling to a new place there will be some challenging or different cultural norms that you experience – I don’t anticipate Trinidad to be any different. The main norm that I will struggle with is the difference in our pace of life. Coming from the United States It has been driven into me that punctuality and fast working are ideal for people to implement into their lives. Trinidad takes a different approach and runs more on, “Trini time.” This does not mean that Trinidadians are any less productive, but rather they work at their own pace without the fear of having to meet extremely strict deadlines. This will not be the easiest aspect to adapt to as I am someone who likes to keep the ball rolling and consistently be on the move. However, I am going to try my best to enjoy the Trini time that I can by staying in the moment and enjoying when I can have extra time to read or write in my journal.

Over the course of the semester so far we have had many interesting readings that led to some very insightful discussions. One of my favorite readings that we have had came very recently. This article, Developing Intercultural Competence by Participating in Intensive Intercultural Service-Learning (I know, it’s a bit of a mouthful), was written by Nadia De Leon who was a professor at Stanford University at the time. The reason I enjoyed this article to a great extent was because it provided me with some important insights. Nadia De Leon goes on to discuss how “intercultural communication has also demonstrated that not all intercultural interaction leads to mutual understanding.” Direct interaction between individuals of different groups presents the opportunity for both groups to question stereotypes and misunderstandings they have concerning the other. As someone who is interested in how other people operate I find this valuable because it emphasizes the need to create trusting and meaningful relationships in order to learn about each other. A paragraph later Leon talks about the topic of reciprocity. She comes to the conclusion, in agreement with other sources, that “prejudice can be reduced between majority and minority groups when the interaction includes equal status for both groups…” This is an important conclusion to be aware of when working with a different culture or community, because I think many people fall into this trap when it comes to service work. Too many people fall into the notion of trying to “save” people or a community that they deem as needing help. When this viewpoint is taken it leads to a power imbalance because these groups no longer see each other as equals, which leads to less benefit for both sides. I am not here to save Nature Seekers or Trinidad, I am here to learn from them and give my help if they need it at all. 

I am extremely grateful and honored to be a part of this group heading to Trinidad. I would like to thank Bryan Schultz, Rick Moslen, Phil Hnatkovich, and Stephanie Spirk for supporting me as we learned in our classroom setting, and for answering my numerous questions. I am excited to meet with our client and develop relationships with Nature Seekers’ staff. I am looking forward to gaining academic and professional experience, all while being able to experience a new culture. As I get ready to leave this week I will continue to reflect on this journey so far, as well as finding a trusty journal to capture all that I can when in Trinidad.