puzzler

fotos. . .

fotos

We're Leaving Tunapuna soon.

Today is my last day in Trinidad. Everyone else is leaving Sunday AM, but I had an unexpected death in my family this week and am going home so that I can attend services. So this will be the last blog entry. I will post a lot of pictures after this entry. Some of the pictures are from events that I’ve already written about, but we did some camera sharing tonight.

Today was our last day at the orphanage. It was great to spend some time with the kids making friendship bracelets and other crafts. We really enjoyed getting to know the kids there and it was hard to say good-bye. We would love to share their little faces with you, but we were not allowed to take pictures there. We will hold those kids in our hearts forever.

Down the street from the orphanage we attended a Indian Bizzare. Several of us got Henna tattoos. You’ll see a picture of our beautiful designs.

A favorite past time at home was working on a puzzle. We worked on a Charlie Brown mosaic puzzle for hours and hours and hours. Everybody took part in putting it together and finally after 10 days and 19 puzzlers, we finished it. A couple of pictures are included so that you can see just how hard it was. Xavier was definitely the puzzle master and stayed up til 2AM to finish the second puzzle.

There are a few shots of our walks through the rainforest. Bamboo. . .lizards. . .pools. One of the most amazing experiences was watching the Leatherback Turtles lay eggs. There are a few pictures of our time there and even a few with some tiny baby turtles.

Finally, I have a couple of pictures from the Habitat site.

Hope that you have enjoyed these posts and that it has helped you feel a little closer to your child on this magnificent experience.

See you in NC,

Toni

And now for the shout-outs:

Jazmun wants to give a shout out to her mama! Amanda would like to give a shout out to her momma and her boyfriend. Afreya wants to make a shout out to Fortune Mountain Chinese Restaurant in Tuna Puna. Kiira wants to shout out her fiancé, David—(please bring her engagement ring to the airport). Maggie wants to shout out her parents, her brother, and Zach. Jamilah wants to shout out to her family. Hannah AB shouts out to her brother, David. Emma wants to make a shout out to her parents. James wants to give a shout out to his dog. Everyone asks that parents bring the following items to the airport—FOOD, PHONES, and FACEBOOK. We’ll see you Sunday evening.

and finally the termites. . .

more pictures

trying this picture thing one more time!

So much to say. . .

So since the last post some of the highlights have included:



Visiting the Brazil Secondary School

Asa Wright Birdwatching tour

21st Century Steel Pan Festival

Attending Mama Gloria's church

Getting freshly made delicious yogurt

A long Hike through the forest that ended in a natural pool with a waterfall

Turtle Watching



Below you will find pictures of our visit to Brazil School where they put on a performance for us of steel pan music and soca dancing. They treated us like royalty! They had a feast of traditional foods including curry chicken and roti. They also let us taste all kinds of fruits. Some sweet and some very sour. (You should have seen Gustavo's face when he tasted that one!). For the kids who eat Sour Patch Kids, this fruit was just fine. The kids loved meeting other students their age and by the end of the day they were all talking about "friending"each other on facebook. Some things are the same with kids no matter what country you go to!



The scariest part of the weekend was the tour of Asa Wright Nature Center. We went looking for birds but found a snake instead. The snake was a Pit Viper. It was curled up on the side of the path. The staff of Asa Wright made sure we were safe, but it was quite scary for me. Some of the kids, of course, thought it was really cool. Below you will find a video (I hope if the technology works) of Jamilah eating a termite. I had one too and it tasted just like....carrots. I bet you thought I was going to say chicken!



Below is a picture of us all dressed up for the 21st Century Steel Pan Festival. It was a wonderful cultural experience especially because the bands were playing music that we all recognized quite well including my favorite song,"I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas.



Finally the last picture is of one of the kids in a waterfall. Oh . . .the life. Except for the mosquitos. We are having tons of fun and getting the opportunity to see this country while servicing. What could be better.



-toni

pictures soon come

I'll make sure to post plenty of pictures next time, but right now our bus awaits!!!!!

Until Tuesday. . .

Hello Fellow Blog Followers,

This will be a short post, but I wanted to make sure to write something because we aren't going to be back at a computer until Tuesday. Here's some of the activities that we will be doing during that time. . . we are so excited!

Bird Watching
Swimming
Shopping
Hiking
Turtle-ing
and attending the 21st Century Pan Festival where they will play songs from the 21st century on steel pans!

I will have a lot to report with the next entry.

Today was a very special day...we started it off with Hannah AB's birthday. There is more to share with her about her birthday, but she doesn't know what it is yet. . .I'll tell you about that with the next post too.

There was no rain today so the Habitat group was able to go to work. Here at the orphanage we have cleaned cabinets and started the work of organizing the library. If I had more time I'd tell you the issues that we had with replacing shower nozzles. . .that still hasn't been finished. Maybe I'll have more time next time to write all about that, but I'm sure I'll have plenty to say by then with all the stuff we have planned.

Until Tuesday. . .
toni

The Light Restaurant

Last night it started raining. And raining. And raining. We also noticed that there were more frogs around and tons of termites flying around our house. (The frogs were outside, the termites were inside). Battling the elements goes with the territory around here. We were happy for the frogs which were WAY bigger than the frogs that we have at home. We joked that the light outside our house was a "restaurant" for the frogs as we watched them stick out there tongues to grab dinner.

Since it was still raining this morning, we decided to go for a half day to our sites. The Habitat project was cancelled for the day so the kids are working in their offices instead. I'm here with a group of kids at the orphanage where we have replaced a light bulb, cleaned and straightened a closet and removed stuff from the floor of one closet that was leaking.

After lunch both groups will meet up at an Indian Bizarre down the street from the orphanage. I'm not sure what that entails, but I'll write more about it tomorrow.

I've been at the orphanage all three days so far that's why I don't have pictures of the Habitat folks and there is no picture taking of the kids here so that's why I don't have pictures from here. I will bring some pictures in tomorrow or the next day of other fun things that we are doing here (like when Jamilah and Gustavo created a mango net in order to get mangoes that weren't ripe yet.)

lovin' it and lovin'your kids,
toni

Making Memories, Witnessing History

This morning at 8:15 AM we started our work here in Trinidad. We climbed down from the Top of the Mount and started our service projects for the week. I am here at the nursery with 6 students, Gustavo, and Amanda (one of our students from UNC that has joined us this year). Maggie, Afreya, and I put on a new bathroom door. The first time I've ever done something like that! It wasn't easy. Other projects around here have included washing dishes, sorting clothes in the kids'closet, fixing a shelf, tightening the lines on the clothesline. . .If they ask us to do it, we do!!

I am including a few pictures from our journey so far. You should see a picture of some of us at the airport, our view from the air as we made our way across the Caribbean Sea and our view from the Top of the Mount.

Last night we had an epic game of Taboo when we came home. While we were playing Taboo, much of the rest of the country was celebrating. They had their election yesterday and for the first time, the citizens of Trinidad elected a female Prime Minister!! Kamla Persad-Bissessar is the Prime Minister elect!!! Quite exciting. We are getting the opportunity to talk to people about politics which has included asking them why they have a red finger. We learned that when people vote here they have to dip their finger into ink that is very hard to remove (the ink, not the finger!). That way no one votes twice. Cultural experiences are happening all over the place :)

tonight--we'll see what's store for us. Personally, I want there to be a big effort to finish our 1000 piece very complicated puzzle. It's getting there!

All of the kids want me to pass on hello messages so I won't do that individually, but you should know that all of your kids say hi!

Until next time,
toni

We Made It!

Yesterday afternoon we made it to the beautiful country of Trinidad. All of us held our breath as our bus driver, Iman, took the bus up the mountain and made turns that a bus just shouldn't be able to make on the side of the mountain! We arrived at our place "The Top of the Mount" and met some of the people who will be taking care of us. We played cards, worked a puzzle, and some people hiked up to the tower that's near where we are staying. (I haven't done so yet so I'm not able to share with you what that is like, they all seemed to enjoy the hike). From where we are staying, we can see all over the island. It is breath taking during the day and at night. Today is election day so the Habitat project isn't in service. Instead, we all are at the orphanage getting to know all of the kids. We've played Red Light, Green Light, Wax Museum, and I taught the kids the Princess Pat song.

For the most part we are just hanging out getting to know each other. We are learning the lay of the land and making sure that our plans are flexible, we figured that one out when a rain shower came from no where and was gone as quickly as it came.

There are no pictures on this blog yet, but I'll try to remember to bring my camera tomorrow in order to add pictures so that you can see what it is like here.

Learning a lot so far. . . . .stay tuned!