Our group had quite an interesting in-country experience, in that we ended up being in the United States for a third of our trip. We had an easy trip from Pittsburgh to Houston, but due to lots of thunderstorms, we got a couple delays until our flight to Port of Spain just ended up getting canceled. Since it was weather-related, the airport was in total chaos. The students sat on the floor while Phil, our program manager, was trying to figure out accommodations for Houston and a new flight. The next available flight for six people was for 48 hours later, which was unfortunate to hear that we were going to be missing out on two days in Trinidad.
However, it was a great way for our group to bond and make jokes about how unfortunate our situation was, especially because four out of the six of us checked our bags so we were very limited with what we had. We spent a few hours in downtown Houston but spent most of our time relaxing in the fairly nice motel we stayed in, so issues we had with finding a motel ended up working out for us.
A little past midnight, technically on Tuesday, we finally landed in Port of Spain. We discovered that our bags were not on our flight with us, so we just went straight to Samise Villa, which is run by Denise and Samuel, who truly could not have been more helpful and accommodating throughout the entire trip. Denise offered to do laundry for us while we were sleeping, so by morning, we had clean clothes for the first time in three days. She took the act of kindness further and separated out our laundry for us, which I thought was very kind. She also managed to completely change our itinerary for a week and consolidate six days of activities down to four days, while still not losing many activities. While this meant for a busier time in Trinidad, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
We spent our first day in Port of Spain, the nation’s capital, and got to see some really great things while we did a little tour. We stopped at the Royal Botanic Gardens and saw a glimpse of the beautiful Caribbean greenery that we got to see lots more of throughout the trip. Another amazing thing we did that day, perhaps one of my favorites throughout the whole trip, was drive up the mountain in Paramin to have a nice meal and go to a beautiful lookout. The driver in the car that I was in called himself Smoothie, and he had the most infectious energy. He clearly loved his job and loved meeting all different kinds of people. He mentioned how people come from all over the world to see this view. For me, though, my favorite thing about that experience was getting an understanding of what community means to people in Trinidad. Throughout the entire car ride up and down the mountain, he was yelling out to people he knew to say hi, and everyone was waving at us. It was amazing to see how close knit that village was.
After that, we went to a bird sanctuary, which was another beautiful activity. We saw so many different birds, including lots of flamingos, as well as bats, snakes, crabs, and catfish. One of the most fascinating things to witness on that tour was when seemingly hundreds of scarlet ibises, the national bird, all flew to one small island within the swamp after sunset. I loved seeing how intelligent these birds were and how beautiful their red bodies looked in contrast to the dark green trees.
Then, we finally headed off to Matura, a small village in the northeast of the island. It was about an hour and a half to two hour drive from the bird sanctuary, while we were wet from the rain, and made it to the Nature Seekers guest house around 8:30. We had a nice meal, which was not the first and definitely not the last, and talked about our plans for our time in Matura.
We had a meeting with Cassandra, who is our point of contact at Nature Seekers and has been an amazing help, and we discovered that we were supposed to be conducting a presentation in about two hours while also administering activities to the Nature Seekers field staff. There was some miscommunication on the itinerary, so we did not know about this. This meant that we had to throw together an hour+ long presentation in just a short period of time. Thankfully, we had all that we needed, we just had to put it together, make it look good, and figure out how to run the activities portion of the presentation. Due to the presentation taking longer than anticipated, it was only me and Malik’s half of the presentation that was covered. I had to do a lot of talking and struggled with managing an energetic crowd since I tend to be a quieter person. It was definitely difficult in the moment, but it was a great learning experience for me and helped me realize that I can push myself to do what makes me uncomfortable and still get through it unscathed. We got great feedback from the staff, Cassandra, and Phil, which we will definitely use for the remainder of our semester. I believe that this added some challenges that were crucial to face in order to make our deliverables stronger.
Later that night, we finally went out to the beach to try to find leatherback sea turtles. Nature Seekers gives tours to show how they tag the sea turtles to be able to track their movements as well as their population and other general information. Since nesting season starts March 1st and lasts for six months, we were in the very early stages. This meant that we were unable to see any sea turtles out on the beach. We were there from about 8:00pm to 2:00am and did not see anything for two nights in a row. It was definitely something I would have loved to see but I have absolutely no regrets being out there for so long. We got to learn so much about leatherback sea turtles as well as get to know the field staff and Trinidad itself. It was an amazing cultural experience, but it was also phenomenal to see firsthand how dedicated the staff is. They do this every night for six months straight and barely get any sleep in the meantime. Their passion and dedication towards conservation was inspiring. If my future career makes me even half as happy as it seems to make them, I’ll consider myself very lucky.
Thursday morning, we went to the mermaid pool, which is a popular spot along a river due to its natural beauty. A local told me that they call it the mermaid pool because a woman was convinced that she saw a mermaid there brushing her hair on a rock, so the name stuck, even if that is not something that is generally believed to be true. This was so fun and relaxing, I could have stayed there all day. I left my phone at the guest house so I could be fully present, but we also had lots of fun using my underwater digital camera. There were a lot of locals there as well, and it seemed like a popular spot to go to on a nice day.
At the end of the day we went over to the Nature Seekers office to help them with smaller administrative tasks, which might sound mundane, but it was a great way to see their office culture and what a day in the life might look like for a Nature Seekers employee with a more typical 9-5 job.
On Friday, our last day in Trinidad, we visited Fondes Amondes, a nonprofit organization in Port of Spain who focuses on reforestation and fire prevention and education in their region. I truly feel as though I could write about this organization for 1,000 more words, so I will try to keep it brief. We got to meet people from different tribes from Trinidad, Jamaica, and Barbados, and had lots of conversations with the owners of the organization. It is run by Rastafarians, so they place a lot of emphasis on giving to nature because nature will give back to you. It made me think about my life and what I can do to be more environmentally friendly and treat the earth in kinder ways. While the intent is rarely ever malicious, our country really struggles with conservation and use of plastic.
My expectations for Trinidad were largely people-oriented, in that they would all be very welcoming and kind to us and one another. I can easily say that my expectations were exceeded, because they showed us so much kindness and grace with all the difficulty we had originally faced to get there. It was normal for them to say hi to strangers, which was refreshing to see.
I also expected to see beautiful landscapes and eat good food. Once again, my expectations were absolutely exceeded. The flowers and trees we got to see were amazing, and the stars we looked at from the beach for hours at a time are something that I will not soon forget. Also, I had so much fun trying the food, especially the doubles from a street vendor and a shark sandwich, two very popular foods there. Phil actually told us that as a group we ate very well and were very open to trying everything that was given to us.
Upon reflection, I feel that the reading titled “Top 10 Project Team Challenges” because of all the ups and downs that we faced throughout the trip. Each one made us grow closer together and get a clearer understanding of the priorities of our project. We had some scope changes, miscommunication, and general issues that were beyond anyone’s control. Although, I would choose to deal with being stuck in Houston for 48 hours every time if that meant getting to go to Trinidad. I truly could not recommend this experience enough.