Dan's Site

Tobago

2008-03-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

Tauna's parents, Grandpa and Grandma Kern arrived for a visit. So, this last weekend we took a trip to Tobago, the sister island to Trinidad. For the geographically impared, I've provided a simple map below.

The 2 islands make up the country of Trinidad and Tobago. Although Trinidad focuses its resources toward the petroleum industry, Tobago is all about tourism and is more typical of a Caribbean island (speaking of petroleum, I have been paying the equivalent of $1.63 a gallon for gas since I got here last June. It hasn't varied a penny in almost a year, not to rub it in...). Anyway, we took a cheap little commuter flight ($49 round trip) to Tobago and checked into the Crown Pointe Hotel. We picked the Crown Pointe because it was within walking distance of the airport and right on the beach. I was an older hotel but it had a lot of Caribbean atmosphere.

The hotel had a nice restaurant, but the rooms also had kitchenettes that allowed you to make some meals on your own. We had a simple breakfast one morning on the patio, as you can see in the second picture below. In the way of explanation, Tauna is holding the toilet paper because there were no napkins or paper towels in the room. I didn't want anyone getting the wrong idea...

The next day we went to Pigeon Point, which has access to Bucco Reef, one of the most popular coral reefs for diving in the Caribbean. We took a tour in a glass bottom boat, which allows you to see the reef and the fish as you float over it. Unfortunately, the pictures don't capture the beautiful colors, and I could never time my shots right to get pictures of the amazing fish, but these will give you some idea... I am also uploading a small video to give you a better idea.

They also provided us with snorkeling gear and stopped and let us do some diving around the corals. It was amazing! Unfortunately, I couldn't get anyone else in the family to try it, but Tauna got a great picture of a goofy sea creature swimming under the glass bottom boat.

There is also an area they call the "Nylon Pool." Basically, it's a giant sand bar in the middle of the sea that is only about 3 feet deep. All around it drops off to 67 feet deep. The guide took us out for a little bathing in the middle of the sea.

They also rented jet skis, and we couldn't resist. They had a 3-seater, so Grandpa, Isaac and I took one out for awhile and had a blast. The guy that rented us the jet ski was excited too, he said Grandpa (81) beat the record by 6 years of the oldest person he had riding a jet ski! Tauna got some pictures while we were close to shore, but I wish she could have got a picture of the 3 of us airborne after hitting some of those waves! All Isaac could say was "WAHOOO!"

All of that kind of wore out Grandma and Grandpa (see Grandpa on the bed in the background)

So, we kept it kind of low key for the last day and just hung out at the beach by the hotel. We had a nice time and got the obligatory sun burns...

I had to close with a Caribbean sunset and a final picture of Grandma and and Grandpa that kind of says it all...

New Additions (2)

2008-03-01T17:56:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I posted the pictures of the dove that had nested in our hanging fern and laid a couple of eggs. Well, they hatched last week and it has been pretty entertaining watching them. Isaac has named the two new additions, "Trinidad" and "Tobago" or Trini and Toby for short. It has been like a mini National Geographic special. For the first couple of days their eyes were closed, and they looked like they had damp fur instead of feathers.

The mother was real protective and flew around nervously every time we came in or out of the apartment. Then their eyes opened, their feathers dried out and became more apparent. It was amazing how quickly the looked like their mom. The picture below is like 3 days after they hatched.

The day after that mom coaxed them out of the nest, helped them clean their wings and started the flying process. It was fascinating to watch. She got them out onto the scaffolding next to the nest (management is getting ready to paint the apartment building). Mom would sit out there with them one at at time and lift their wings with her beak. I love this picture, you can imagine the mom saying, "Come on, go!" and the little one responding, "Do I have to??"

Eventually, both little birds took off. We watched them flutter around for a little while, and then they really took off. A little later, I was standing in the kitchen and one of the little ones flew right into the kitchen window, "Bam!". Sure enough, within a couple of seconds, the other one, "Bam!", right into the kitchen window. It was hilarious (Aubrey, you get your sick sense of humor from your Dad...). Fortunately, both of them fluttered down briefly but then were able to fly off again. Their mom needs to teach them about glass...

2008-03-01T17:31:00.000-08:00

One of Trinidad & Tobago's claims to fame is the Steelpan. The history of Steelpan is pretty interesting. You can read about it at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steelpan

Isaac saw some steelpan players and thought it would be "cool" to learn. Since he already plays the piano and violin, why not add another instrument to his repertoire? We found a place that does lessons and signed him up. He goes every Saturday morning for about an hour and a half with a bunch of local kids. The amazing thing is that it only costs about US$6.00 a month for the lessons. He is having a ball. I've got a couple of pictures and a video below. We'll add more as he progresses. The second picture is a custom the group has of introducing new students and having a prayer at the end of the lesson. I took the picture just as Isaac was walking from the center of the circle where he was being introduced formally to the group.

Sorry about the quality of the video, but I think you can at least see that Ike is getting the hang of it pretty quick. This is just his second lesson!

More Life in Trinidad

2008-03-01T16:22:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of open markets down here to get fruits, vegetables, meats, fish and even clothes and utensils. There are stands with candies/candied fruits or shoe repair. These open markets allow anyone to open a business without the overhead of opening a store. They just put up a table or a booth on the sidewalk and establish “squatter’s rights” to sell there. We have been getting some real good fruit, but have not been willing to try the meet or fish from these open markets.

They lay out on long tables with flies buzzing all over. Shark is a common choice for seafood. They sell little ones like the ones in the picture below, on the left side.

Sanitation is a real problem all over the island. Open sewers are common and trash is left everywhere. The picture below is the entrance to the market…

Speaking of food, I need to tell you what Tauna has been doing. She has made several local friends and they have been teaching her to cook local cuisine. She said she wants to make it for family and friends when we get back to the States. The picture below is a family from Church, the Ningwahs, who came over to our place to teach Tauna to make pelau. I think I posted a picture and description of pelau in an earlier post on local dishes. It turned out great. The have a boy, Richard, who is the same age as Isaac. They have become pretty good friends.

I have to post one more picture of Isaac though. He likes to learn to cook (he even watches all the shows on the Food Network and won't watch ESPN... where did I go wrong?). Anyway, he was helping Tauna in the kitchen one day. I walked in and found his ingenious way to keep from crying while he was cutting onions. I had to sneak a picture. Check out the swimming goggles.

New Addition(s)

2008-02-17T10:31:00.000-08:00

When I moved into this larger apartment prior to Tauna and Isaac coming down, I bought a few plants to dress it up a bit, including a couple of hanging ferns for the patio. Tauna had quite a surprise last week. She got out the fire hose (the only source of water out front) to hose down the floor and water the plants. She gave the ferns a good drenching, only to notice afterwards that one of the ferns has a dove nesting in it! It was pretty interesting. Tauna couldn't see it initially because she just reached the hose up to the basket and poured water in. The bird just sat there and got soaked. I got some pictures of thee bird (which Isaac has named "Claire." It's an Isaac thing to name any animal he comes in contact with, including "Jericho" a little lizard that has been hanging around the porch). I also got a picture up there one time when Claire was away and found out why she wouldn't fly off despite the drenching Tauna gave her. She has a couple of eggs she is caring for. Anyway, we thought it was interesting enough to put on the blog...

Carnival!

2008-02-16T17:30:00.000-08:00

If there is anything that Trinidad & Tobago is known most for, it is Carnival. The celebration and traditions go way back to when slavery was abolished. Without writing out the whole history, let me tell you that it has now become a wild, extended weekend party. If you can imagine New Orleans' Mardi Gras (which actually got its origins from Carnival) 100 times bigger. For the most part we avoided the wildest aspects of Carnival, but did enjoy a few of the traditions. On the Saturday before Carnival, they have what they call "Kiddie Karnival." Hundreds and hundreds of kids dress up in unbelievably elaborate costumes and hit the streets dancing behind semi-trucks pulling 6 foot high speakers blasting out Caribbean music. The music is so loud that it hurts your chest as the trucks rumble by, but the kids dance the entire day behind the trucks as they wind through the streets of town. I have a few pictures below just to give you an idea as to how elaborate the costumes were.

On Monday, they have what they call "J'ouvert," which I am told means freedom in French. It is the throwback Carnival, also know as "Dirty Carnival," which is understandable from the following pictures. They start the parade at 4am Monday morning, although the partying and drinking starts Sunday night. They don't wear all of the elaborate costumes for this day. They use what they did before anyone could afford the lavish costumes. They cover themselves with paint, mud, chocolate, motor oil or anything else they can use to "masquerade" without buying a costume. I had to work that day, so I had to go downtown anyway. I went early to work and thought I would walk at and get a few pictures of J'overt. After getting this set up at work, I walked out into the streets and there were tens of thousands of people walking the streets dancing and drinking. LOTS of drinking, and it was 6:30 AM! They have trucks pulling open bars in the parades so participants have an endless supply of alcohol. It's actually amazing that they have as few problems as they do every year!

The Tuesday Carnival is the biggest day. That's the day that all of the adults come out in the lavish costumes. However, another common tradition for many local folk is to get away from the madness and go to the beach. Friends from church invited us to spend the day with them at Mayaro, on the other side of the island. There were about 4 families that rented an old beach house. Some of them stayed all weekend, but we only went up to spend the day on Tuesday. I subsequently didn't get any pictures of the big Carnival extravaganza, but we had a great time at the beach. It was a beautiful drive (although we were wondering where they were taking us for a while as you can see in the first picture). We made some new friends and had lots of great, local food: curry chicken, curry duck, curry goat, etc... There were people at roadside stands selling these huge iguanas (lizards) for cooking and currying as well, but none of them made it to our party (and I didn't have my camera ready as we drove by to get a picture of the dead iguanas hanging in the stands for sale). Our hosts told us iguanas taste great and they would be sure and have some for us next time...

Life in Trinidad

2008-02-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

I thought I would share some pictures of our new "lifestyle" here in Trinidad.

If you have read my earlier posts, you know there is a savannah (a huge sports field) next to our apartments.

Every evening people come from all over the local area to run, walk, play soccer or other activities in the cooler twilight hours. One of the activities that Tauna is really enjoying is an aerobics class that is put on by a professional trainer under one of the big trees. She comes out every weekday evening and anyone can participate. She just asks a $5 donation (that's 80 cents in US currency...). You can see Tauna in the back row on the right, or just look for the white lady.

I tried the class a couple of times but was so sore the next day I think I'll stick to running around the savannah (Ike took the picture below). He will occasionally join me around the track a couple of times then we all go to the pool for an evening swim.

Speaking of Isaac, he has a couple of weeks under his belt at his new school. He likes it. It's a Hindu sponsored school, which is a little different, but it is walking distance, so Tauna walks him to school every day. Isaac is required to wear a uniform and participate in Hindu prayers each day, which he finds interesting. The facilities are pretty humble. Classes are in a long hall where individual grades and classes are separated by only rolling chalk boards. So, there is a lot of noise and distractions.

Isaac is quite the celebrity, being the only white kid in the whole school. Kids are hollering out to him all the time, in the store, from car windows, all the kids know him. His teacher told me last week that the principal called all the girls in Isaac's class into the office for a special meeting to tell them that they would have quit hanging on Isaac all the time, that it wasn't "appropriate" behavior for young girls.

All and all the family is doing well in our new environment, making new friends, but really missing family and friends from home.

Pitch Lake

2008-01-27T13:23:00.000-08:00

We had a great family adventure yesterday. It started out with a drive to San Fernando, a city in the southern part of Trinidad, to attend the national Calypso band finals competition. Calypso Caribbean style music is huge down here. The competition is part of the build up for Carnival, which starts next weekend (I'll do another post about Carnival later). Anyway, by the time we got to the site of the music festival and heard the bands warming up, we decided we really haven't developed a taste for Calypso music and didn't think we wanted to pay the admission fee and fight the crowds all day to attend the concerts.

Since we were down that way, we decided to drive even farther south to "Pitch Lake", the largest natural asphalt (or tar) lake in the world. There are only 2 others, one in Venezuela (which is connected to Pitch Lake by an underground channel that flows under the ocean floor) and the La Brea tar pits in southern California. In fact, Pitch Lake is located in the town of La Brea. La Brea litterally means "pitch or tar" in Spanish. The tar pits in southern California were named after the town in Trinidad. Pitch Lake was discovered in 1595 by Sir Walter Raleigh.

When you first arrive, it isn't much to see. But we signed up with a local tour guide to see it up close and personal since we had come so far. Our tour guide, Cyril, has probably smoked enough weed in his life to to keep most of California high, but he was knowledgeable of the lake and pretty entertaining.

In addition to producing tar, the lake produces pools of mineral water that bubbles up from underground springs. In fact, it's surrounded by a marsh of mineral water thats covered with water lilies.

There were some capitalizing local young boys wading into the marsh to pick the lilies...

and sell them to gullible visitors...

The adventure starts with walking through the marsh (at which point I realized I could have reached down and picked the lilies myself...). There are boards that have been placed on the pitch bed just below the water to walk on to get past the marsh and out onto Pitch Lake.

However, there were other pools that we had to cross out in the middle the lake (without boards), which not all of us wanted to cross...

The springs bubble up through fissures in the pitch which can be several feet deep.

Cyril said that there were different springs with different combinations of minerals that create pools of different colors and characteristics. The bright green one is for minor skin conditions, the brown one is for serious skin conditions, the milky green one is for tightening old age wrinkles and the clear pools are great for general aches and pains. People come from all over to soak in the pools.

Of course Tauna wanted a "souvenir" bottle of the anti-aging water to take back with us.

Isaac enjoyed the pitch itself. Cyril tells a great tale how the entire lake is a giant living organism with lots of mystical stories surrounding it.

In conclusion, what initially appeared to be a very dull-looking "tourist attraction" turned out to be an interesting natural wonder that we all enjoyed.

Back to Training

2008-01-13T17:00:00.000-08:00

Well, back to work.

We conducted some training this last week train and certify some of the local police officers as Crime Analysts.

But, like true Trinis, they always find reasons to party. So, why not celebrate completing the course? They brought in food and drinks for everyone. The funny thing is that they have the party right at police headquarters. It still strange for me to see alcohol (a LOT of alcohol) being consumed by police officers while still on the clock at police headquarters. However, this is real common. In fact, there is an "Officer's Mess" on the 5th floor which is restricted to police executives, but has an all day open bar which is used regularly by the command staff...

Here are a couple of pictures from our "meeting."

Cheers!

Back in Trinidad!

2008-01-13T16:47:00.000-08:00

Tauna and Isaac are finally in Trinidad with me!

It's great having them here. It is so wonderful to come home to a home cooked meal and find clean laundry folded neatly on my bed! They officially have one week under their belts and really seem to like it (despite a little culture shock...). We went to the beach yesterday and had a great time. One of the neighbor boys gets along with with Isaac and has adopted him as the "little brother he always wanted." He came along with us to the beach and helped Ike ride the waves.

Isaac starts school tomorrow. We'll see how that goes and post more later...

Hometown Christmas

2008-01-13T16:07:00.000-08:00

Being home for Christmas was great, but there was certainly a climate shift from Trinidad! This is a picture of our house on Christmas.

After turning our house over to a friend, Daria Gibbons to house-sit while we are in Trinidad, we drove out to Ohio to visit our daughter Aubrey and her family for a few days. It was great, although little Molly had not seen her Papa for 6 months (half her age...) so it took a little while for her to "warm up."

Ella, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of Papa and Grandmom. She wouldn't let us out of her sight. It was so fun. We got a hotel room close by because their town home really isn't big enough to hold all of us (all of our kids were there). We were getting ready to go and Ella came down in her pajamas, coat, and backpack and told her mom, "I'm going with Papa and Grandmom, you'll be okay mommy."

So we took her to to the hotel with us and she had a ball. She even said, "Papa has a GREAT house!" Although, the first night she was there with us (it was her first night away from home without her mom) we had all settled down with the lights out, just drifting off to sleep and a little voice came out of the dark, "Ok, I'm ready to go home now." It was pretty funny. We turned on the bathroom light, Grandmom put an arm around her, and she went to sleep...

We were also getting Alex ready to be a missionary. We are real proud of him. We took him to the Columbus, OH Temple before we left. He even looks like a missionary already!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-08T18:27:00.000-08:00

Christmas time is real big thing in Trinidad & Tobago. Much like the USA they love to shop and decorate and have parties with LOTS of food. For me, it's kind of hard to get in the Christmas spirit with temperatures 85-90. But, they still like to decorate. I've attached a couple of pictures from my apartment complex. It's kind of fun to see them decorate the coconut trees. But, I guess the manger scene is more appropriate in this setting than sitting in a yard of snow. The second one is my neighbors apartment. He really likes to decorate.

I'll be going home for Christmas and bringing Tauna and Isaac back with me.

Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.

Dan

Trini Food

2007-12-08T17:11:00.000-08:00

One of the unique experiences here in Trinidad & Tobago is the food. I have experienced a lot of new foods since I've been here. I thought I should "share" a few of them with you. All of these are dinners that friends or neighbors have made for me.

The first one is pretty basic, grilled chicken with macaroni pie. The green stuff is callaloo. It's a green vegetable, kind of like spinach. They mix it with pigeon peas and seasonings into this mushy sauce. The red stuff is like a potato salad, except it's made with bread fruit, this large starchy fruit that grows on trees, but they cut it up and use it like a potato. The red color is because they put beets in it.

They eat a ton of chicken down here. In fact, KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is located at nearly every major intersection. In fact, the KFC that sells the most chicken in the world happens to be right here in Port of Spain.

The next one here is pelau. It could be considered the traditional meal of Trinidad. It's more common than chicken noodle soup in the USA. Pelau is a mixture of chicken (although it is sometimes made with beef or goat, which is real common here), rice, pigeon peas (a small bean) all of which is browned in a caramelized sugar. It's typically served with a side salad.

Because of the large Indian population, curry is real popular. They like to wrap curried meats with potatoes, pumpkin and other stuff in roti, which is an Indian flat bread. There are roti shops in every neighborhood, their version of fast food.

This next one is the favorite at the beaches, Shark and Bake (or sometimes called Bake and Shark). The serve it at stands set up right at the beach. It's shark meat dipped in spicy seasonings, deep fried and put into a bun, which is also deep fried. There is a condiments bar with a ton of toppings to put on it. They are really good...

This one I have yet to try. It was delivered tonight, but I already had dinner, so I am going to save it for tomorrow. This is the ever popular cow heel soup. It's made with cow feet and a variety of vegetables, depending on the cook. This one includes corn on the cob, potatoes, pumpkin, some local things which I don't recall, and for extra flavor, they throw in little green boiled bananas! I'll have to let you know later how this one tastes...

Diwali

2007-11-10T10:57:00.000-08:00

One of the big national holidays here is Diwali, or Festival of Lights, which occurred yesterday. It's a Hindu holiday, but because of the large East Indian population in Trinidad, it has been adopted as a holiday here as well, not as big as Christmas, but still significant. The traditions revolve around feasting on Indian food (curried fruits, meats and sweets) and lighting countless clay lamps filled with oil or wax. It's really quite stunning when whole neighborhoods are lit up lining porches, driveways and sidewalks. There are also lots of fireworks. Unfortunately, a drowning rainstorm came up and put out most of the candles in the area that I was in before I was able to get any good pictures. However, I did take a couple of pictures at the Ramdahnie house, friends from Church. They invited me over for their Diwali dinner. I also brought the missionaries, pictured below.

Their little daughter, Rebecca, is quite a handful. She is almost 3 years old, 12 years younger than her next sibling, and 2o years younger than the oldest. Consequently, she is VERY spoiled. I am guilty of it as well, she fills a little of the void of missing my granddaughters. You can see from this picture why she gets whatever she wants, what a doll...

Finally, I wanted to send a couple pictures of the sky. I am always amazed by the beautiful cloud formations down here in the Caribbean. Sometimes when I go out for a run I have to stop and just look. The first picture was taken at sunrise out my bedroom window. The next one was taken from my porch at sunset. These aren't the most spectacular I've seen, but at least I had my camera handy.

Elections

2007-11-10T09:33:00.000-08:00

This week marked the National elections for Trinidad&Tobago. The last few weeks leading up to the election were rather "interesting." The campaigning process here is quite different than in the USA. It consists largely of cars driving around with huge speaker/megaphones strapped to the hoods shouting slogans and playing calypso-style music with lyrics for their candidates. Sometimes they get sound systems loaded into the back of flat-bed trucks and people ride around playing the music and shouting into the speakers for their candidates.

Basically, it is very loud and annoying. They crank up the volume so you can hear them from miles away. You can hear the constant beat and shouting of competing candidates. There are up until this year there have been two political parties, the People's National Movement (PNM, and the current party in power) and the United National Congress (UNC). However, this year, a third party threw its hat into the ring, the Congress of the People (COP) who have been disenchanted with both parties.

Last weekend was the big final push before the elections on Monday. Each political party sponsors a huge rally/festival to garner votes. I guess the idea is that who ever can throw the biggest, best party wins! The UNC had their rally in the savanna next to my apartment complex (you can see a picture of the savanna in one of my first posts). The estimate over 75,000 people attended the rally here. It was a mess. The roads were gridlocked in all directions all day. I was pretty much stuck in the apartment complex. I walked out and took a few pictures of the rally, but they are early in the day before all of the bands and entertainment when it got too dark to really take good pictures and too crowded to move around. People were dancing and drinking in the streets for blocks around because it was too crowded to get into the rally. It was unbelievable the amount of alcohol consumed at the rally. In the picture you can see that everyone is dressed in orange. It's the official color of the UNC party.

The elections were on Monday, and the incumbent party, PNM won convincingly. Which was fortunate for me because they are the party sponsoring the police transformation project I am working on, and if one of the other parties had one, we were told it was likely that our contracts would be canceled. It's interesting, whichever party wins the election takes over the next day. There is no transition period like there is in the USA. The Prime Minister and his cabinet would have to move out of their homes and offices the day after the elections. It's quite a bureaucratic mess when political power changes (even more so than exists day to day here, which is saying a lot).

Polls close at 6pm and ballots are counted so that the winners are known by that night. This develops into another rally where the winning political party celebrates. However, this party is not for just the principle party supporters, it is for everyone. My neighbor, who is a good friend and police officer came knocking at my door to wake me up about 11:00pm. He said, "You can't be sleepin' my brudda, we winnin', we need to go to da party!" So I got dressed and went with him and his family to the PNM headquarters in downtown Port of Spain for the big celebratory rally.

Here is a picture of Ransome and his family just before we left. He got his kids out of bed as well. Notice the red index fingers on Ransome and his wife. These are ink markings that they voted. It's one of the controls used to ensure that people on vote once. They are all dressed in red because that is the party color for PNM.

I was amazed at the number of people that came out to celebrate the election's outcome. There were a lot of kids there, but again there was a lot of alcohol being sold by street vendors. There was a lot of food being sold as well. We stayed until about 2am. When we left there were still huge groups of people arriving. It must have gone all night...

2007-11-02T18:43:00.001-07:00

Ok, I am trying to post these videos again. The first one is a video of the band that was supposed to play at the Striker's game that I talked about in my previous post. They were pretty entertaining.

This second video is of the young girls that got up to dance once they heard the drummers playing. They learn how to dance young here!

Striker's Event

2007-10-28T17:26:00.000-07:00

I should probably be posting more work related pictures, but I don't have my camera with me as often as I should... However, I was asked to take some pictures of the Striker's "Kickoff" event. It was kind of a inaugural game, that my friend Richard set up. However, he doesn't plan well and it subsequently didn't go off very well. However, there were a couple of things that I thought would be fun to share.

First, they needed a team logo for their jerseys, but the screen company wanted a lot of money to design one. So, I offered to design one for them. It turned out pretty good (if I say so myself...) I designed it from scratch. They loved it. I've included a copy of it below. We are still trying to get some money together to get the jerseys printed.

For those of you who are "soccer ignorant" there name "Strikers" comes from the name of the forward position in soccer which is called a striker. The "FA" at the top stands for Football Academy (they call soccer football everywhere in the world except for the USA). The SYS stands for San Juan Youth Strikers. They have an official uniform for the advisors, and since I was "appointed" an advisor, I had to get one (picture below).

Although the team colors are supposed to be royal blue and white, they couldn't afford the new uniforms, so right now they are playing in some borrowed uniforms in black and yellow. I took a pre-game picture below where the intermingled with the opposing team and then they all bowed their heads in prayer together to start the game. I have really been impressed down here with the way they are not intimidated to include religion in government, sports, etc.

We were supposed to have a cultural show as part of the event, but like I indicated, Richard didn't plan well and we got started too late and he didn't arrange a tent or facility for the performers to get into costumes. I was disappointed because I wanted to see the show even more than the ball game, so just as the game was getting ready to start I asked them if they would mind playing something for me. The band is mostly a family (cousins, etc) who play traditional Trini drums. As soon as I asked, they just grabbed their drums and started playing. I've got a short video clip of them playing but I have had trouble trying to post it. So, I am just attaching a picture for now. If I get it to work I'll post the video later, they were really entertaining.

The whole crowd got into the music. All it takes is a little music to get Trinis going. There was this group of young girls that got up and started dancing. They were so cute! I got a little video of them and will try to post it later as well. In the meantime I'll post a couple of pictures of them.

When they were done I asked if I could get a picture with them. They were very enthusiastic about getting their picture taken!

Unfortunately, the Strikers lost, but I got a great picture of the opposing team being awarded the trophy. The guy in green is their goalie. He was pretty funny...

That's all for now. Like I said, I'll try to add some videos later.

Message for Ella

2007-09-30T12:53:00.001-07:00

I have to make sure that my granddaughter Ella doesn't forget about her Papa, so the video provided below is specifically for her!

The Strikers

2007-09-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

Since I've been going for morning runs around the Savannah, I've met a lot of people. I usually say hi and wave to everyone I meet. Sometimes they stop me to ask where I'm from and why I am in Trinidad(white people really stand out around here, particularly when we are wearing shorts...). The other day in the market a lady asked me, "Aren't you the white man who runs around the Savannah in the mornings?" One guy I met is Richard Harrison. He coaches a soccer club (although they call it football here) on the Savannah, the "San Juan Strikers." We have become friends and he even goes to Church with me on occasion. I have been adopted as the team "spiritual advisor." Richard asks me to open their practices with prayer and a spiritual thought. I have been surprised at the positive reaction I have been getting from the team. These young men are mostly inner-city youth from gang infested neighborhoods. Richard likes to target these young men to give them a positive alternative. Most have no money. In fact, a lot of them showed up for the first practice bare-footed. I have been trying to assist with time and a little money, but Richard also finds other sponsors to ensure that all the boys get new shoes and uniforms.

I had a picture taken with the team. I'm pretty easy to pick out on the left. Richard, the head coach, is on the right. By the way, for those of you that don't know, if you click on any of the pictures you can see them full size.

Working

2007-09-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

I thought I should throw in a couple of pictures that show that I work down here also.

The following are a couple of pictures of police stations I have worked with. Some are a little better, but most of them are pretty "humble."

One of my primary responsibilities is training police personnel how to do crime analysis. This picture was taken at one of the seminars I was teaching.

Our project has a pretty high profile in the country. There is a lot of news and media coverage. Most educated adults have heard of our project. Consequently, we have the opportunity to meet a lot of government leaders. The first picture is taken with the Commissioner of Police, Trevor Paul. The second is with the Minister of National Security, Martin Joseph. The last picture was when I met the President of Trinidad, His Excellency Professor George Maxwell Richards.

Regards to all, Dan

Liming...

2007-09-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

In Trinidad, getting together with friends for food and drinks is a significant part of the culture. The call it "liming". Or, "goin' for a lime wit me bruddas." Two of the most popular spots are the beach and the river. Beaches in Trinidad are not as extravagant or "touristy" as most of the Caribbean. Trinidad depends on the petroleum industry as opposed to the tourist industry. It's sister island, Tobago, is more typical of the Caribbean tourist spots. I haven't been to Tobago yet, although it only costs about US$16 for a 2 hour boat ride to go over there. If I can just get some time set aside I plan on going over and checking it out. I'll post some pictures when I do.

However, Trinidad does have a couple of beaches that I enjoy. The most popular on the island is Maracas Bay. I've got a picture of it below.

The other place they like to go is the river. A family that has befriended me at Church, the Rojas, took me to the river for a lime. It's called the Coura river and is real popular.

Food is always a big part of Trini activities. They bring these big iron pots and either cook them over an iron gas grill that they drag along, or the build a campfire out of dried bamboo and cook their meals over that. Almost everything they cook is in the big iron pots. A couple of favorites are "pelau" and "fish broth", pictured below.

By the way, here is a picture of the Rojas family. The kids kind of adopted me and call me Uncle Dan. I think it's because I invite them over to swim in the pool here at my apartment.

Trinidad Apartment

2007-09-12T14:36:00.000-07:00

This is my apartment in Trinidad. It's a relatively nice complex with a pool and a tennis court. I have a small 2 bedroom apartment. It's all provided for me by the Ministry of National Security as part of my contract here in Trinidad.

The apartment complex sits next to a large field that they call a savannah. It's used for cricket and soccer games. There is a running track around it. One lap is a mile. I've been running around it in the mornings to try and stay in shape a little bit.

Staying in Touch

2007-09-12T08:20:00.000-07:00

Ok... I'm going to try and start a "blog" so that I can share my experiences with friends and family. I have had some pretty interesting experiences working with police agencies across the United States and in various parts of the world, but have not shared those experiences as effectively I probably should. I hope you find some interest and enjoyment out my postings.

Dan