Good Riddance, Almera

Got rid of the rental today. I had to extend my rental agreement because I couldn't buy anything without a contract, and can't see paying the exorbitant rental fee when I leave for graduation. I am sad to not have a car when I come back, but very happy to see that piece go. It has been nothing but trouble over the past few months. Shall we take a walk down memory lane with the Almera? [Cue the instrumental]
Snapped off someone's side mirror in the first week of driving the car here.
Got the bumped ripped off by a dump truck.
Got broken-into at a Family Sports Day for the Prison Services Department (go figure!). During this, my back passenger side window was smashed, the thieves jumped in, popped the hood, disabled the battery, and tried to pry my stereo out of the dash. They didn't get anything, but they totally messed up my whole console. When this was repaired, that door wouldn't open, parts of the dash were repaired, but the stereo was put in upside-down, the antenna didn't work, and the clock and air conditioning was re-set every time the car was turned off.
Got rear-ended at a red light, causing me to fly into the car in front of me. My car looked like an accordion, and to make matters worse, a box of bbq chicken exploded during impact, sending bits and pieces of it (along with pasta salad) everywhere in the car...can you imagine that smell in 90-degree heat after the windows are up? The damage caused the trunk to leak, and now it continues to leak, which has fostered the most fantastic environment for nice mold spores to flourish.
The back tire [or tyre] has a slow leak.
A flying rock on the highway caused a nice crack across the windshield [or windscreen].
I was told, "That car is blight!" [It's cursed].

I'm not sure what's going to happen once I get back to T&T/work (if that ever happens!), but I could "travel," which means take a maxi-taxi, taxi, bus. Maxi taxis are big vans that are color-coded depending upon the route they travel. These are usually squished with as many people as possible and the windows don't really look like they open (or slide) very much to let in air. Taxis are just cars with "H" plates (for "hired"), usually squished with as many people as possible, with no air conditioning in most cases. Buses run, but I don't know much about them. I am hoping not to travel because I really need a coach to do so, and don't want to get taken advantage of/robbed/etc. that can sometimes happen. To get transport, you stand on the side of the road and put your finger down or up (I've seen both). Also, if a taxi is driving by and they have room, they'll beep at you. A friend told me he tried to travel one day and ended up walking a mile before a friend stopped and picked him up. I also don't want to attempt walking anywhere because I get a lot of calls and whistles...it's a little unnerving. Also, I heard when it's rush hour or if it's raining, people push and pull and fight to get transport. Yikes!

God is a Trinidadian

So, we're in the middle of hurricane season, and you may hear on the news about storms and hurricanes killing people in the Caribbean. Not to worry: I've been told "God is a Trinidadian." We are the last island in the Caribbean chain, and outside the Hurricane Belt. I've also been told that there have been many hurricanes that have passed through the "And" part of the country; or right in the middle of Trinidad And Tobago.
In a nice ironic twist to the post title, 3 people have died of Dengue Fever in the last few days. "Several" cases have been reported over the past several weeks. It's impossible to get real information around here; and the Government officials in the Ministry of Health are always trying to downplay the severity of the issue (like any good Government Official).

Olympics

Watching the Olympics here isn't much different...except now that track and field events are taking place. For those who have watched the recent 100M men's final, you'll see that there were many Caribbean runners (only 2 of the runners were from non-Caribbean/West Indian countries). For the first week of the Games, we saw much of the NBC feed of the events, but now we have a Caribbean feed with local commentators who prove to be much more relaxed than the Americans (it sounds like we're watching Cricket). The "local" feed is from Barbados, but when T&T athletes perform, the local news channel chimes in to give feedback or results.
"We" have 28 athletes in the Olympics, most track and field athletes, 3 swimmers, 1 shooter, and 1 ping-pong player.
This morning, watching the men's final, the neighbors were screaming the whole 10 seconds of the race, and when the Trini came in second, there was much celebration. The radios are declaring "Richard Thompson Day." I don't believe any runner has medaled since Hasley Crawford (for whom the national stadium is named) in 1976 got a Gold in 100M.

What's up with work?

Work? What's that?
It's been almost a month, and still not a contract. My lawyer delivered a more-acceptable draft to the board, and I received an email stating that the committee chair (with whom I was dealing, and seemed to be pretty forthright...ha! again, I learned my lesson)was "extremely unhappy" with it and went so far to say that parts of it were "grave." It was very unprofessional, if you ask my opinion; and feel the tone is uncalled-for. What the hell is a negotiation, anyway? I didn't respond because I knew it'd be with some wise-ass comment like, "I can completely sympathize." Their contract was slapped together, presented late--which did not afford any continuity of services--and did not include items customarily in contracts. I'm also the first Audiologist the board has hired. I'm very happy that I sought legal counsel on this matter. It's my wish to get back to work after I come back from graduation exercises (yes!!), but I don't think this is going to be solved before I leave.

Market

I went to a market last Sunday with Colleen from work. It was really smelly because there were crabs and fish and chickens laying around and being chopped up. But there were tons of produce to get there from different vendors. I didn't take pictures because I'm not really a tourist here....but I wish I had a spy-cam to capture everything.

Litterbugs

People here love to litter! If you're opening a beer; throw the cap on the ground! If you're done with it; throw the bottle in the drain! If you're finished with your Styrofoam food container, just toss it in the grass! Cigarette wrappers, butts, and packs...throw it on the ground! It doesn't matter who's watching or where you are, littering is a culturally-acceptable practice. It's strange, though; there's always work for someone to do in cleaning up, and the trash does not accumulate the way it should with all the tossing going on around here.
Also, there's no recycling...don't know if I mentioned it before. If you buy a 6-pack of glass bottles, you pay $1.80TT ($.30US) as a deposit fee. It's almost worth the money NOT to collect the bottles and bring them back to the store. And when you bring them back, you need to stand in line and then wait for someone to handwrite some slip of paper that you then have to give to the cashier when you're checking-out, and then they have to call someone over and validate it. It's a real piss-poor system (as most "systems" are), and really deters you from recycling.
By the way: Trash is burned in the middle of the island here. You can smell it when you're on the highway, and sometimes you'd think they took every dirty diaper in the country, put it in one single pile and lit it on fire using urine as a stimulant to the flames. One of the poorest and most crime-ridden neighborhoods lays just across the highway from the landfill. When first getting here I was told, "if you ever get a flat tire here, keep on driving. Do not stop for anything." And it's true: In this area of the highway, people walk out in front of cars, throw things in front of cars, drag trash items (metal, toilets, wood) in front of cars just so you'll be forced to stop. Once you do, they'll rob you blind. When everyone is stuck in traffic in this area it's fine, but I never catch myself driving through it alone when traffic is flowing; you always want a buddy car with you. A few months ago a man got into a serious accident here. He wasn't assisted, but was robbed of $10,000 (he was a driver for a company).
Anyway, lesson for today: People litter (but the place isn't all that dirty and someone always has a job cleaning), trash burning is very smelly, and if you're driving through the Beetham and get a flat, keep driving (and I think if you're driving here and somebody steps out in front of you, try and swerve around them).

Food I haven't seen

Since I've been here, I haven't seen a single zucchini or summer squash, honeydew or cantaloupe melon, kiwi, pomegranate, Clementine, Boston lettuce, heavy cream (or any cream for that matter besides whipped cream in a can), lots of different cheese varieties, the millions of rice and noodles in a package sides, diet soda (besides Coke and Sprite) or other awesome sodas like Dr. Pepper and all the Dr. Pepper shoot-offs, Root Beer, or cranberry ginger ale.
There are the ones that come to mind now.

Eating Out

While I'm on the topic of food, I should mention that it's easy to eat out.
There are lots of Chinese, Barbecue , and Roti (Roti is an Indian food and deserves its own post)places to choose from. I've only seen one Sushi place (but haven't yet tried it), and heard there's another one, seen one Thai place (again, not tried it), a handful of Arabian food places (falafel and hummus!), some Italian places, one Irish pub (food stank), and tons of other local-food places.
There are fast-food places here just like home such as Subway, Burger King, Long John Silvers, Popeyes, Quiznos, KFC (which is a huge hit), Dominoes, and Papa Johns. The lines at these places are disgusting. Americans would never think about standing in line as long as I have for this type of food. I have waited in the KFC drive-thru lane for over 30 minutes. I have stood in line at Subway for 25 minutes, same for everything else.
There are also a few chain restaurants that we know like Ruby Tuesdays, TGIF, Benihana, Pizza Hut. Now, if you're going to Ruby Tuesdays or TGIF, you are getting dressed up because you are "going out." It's a very different experience than what I am used to (wouldn't touch Ruby Tuesdays with a 10-foot pole), but may reflect the amount of money people make here (the prices are relatively the same), the newness of having these chains here, the fact that there are only a few of these types of restaurants available to a very large population, or other factors that I can't quite wrap my head around.
Also, prices differ depending upon where you eat. In the West, where I lived before and where there are many ex-pats and wealthy people, prices are much more than in the East where I am now.

Grocery Shopping

I don't think I've written much about buying food here, maybe because I don't cook much, or because my idea of a meal is cereal while standing in the kitchen when I'm so hungry I could throw up.
There are grocery stores, much like the ones we're accustomed to, but there are some major differences.
They may be out of things like bananas, carrots (except expensive baby carrots), bread, yogurt, real butter (but they have tons of fake butter), or--like the other day--chicken (I waited while they reshelved it) or other meats (wanna buy hamburg meat? good luck, and it's called "mince meat").
The potatoes are usually soft from sitting in the humidity, there may be nasty, bruised tomatoes or wet bananas (when they're available).
Milk is rarely found fresh...it's all powdered milk (but I drink Soymilk and have no problems).
There is lots of local produce like pumpkin ("punkin"), patchoy (patchoi or bok choy), sweet potatoes (that are really ugly and dark), plantain, ochre, chive ("sive"), celery (which is very small), fig (small, green bananas), bodi (really long green beans), bananas, mangoes (there are to Julie Mango trees at work), papaya (Paw Paw), grapes, watermelon, and others I can't think of. Most people seem to go to the market to buy their produce, but I don't know how to do that, and I don't know if I'll get fair prices being a foreigner, and I try to stay away from crowded places where I can be "marked".
You can also go to small places where you can buy chicken all cut up, and cook all the parts (feet and all).
A good thing about the grocery stores is that it is very vegetarian friendly. There are many Hindus in the country, so the amount of meat-less meat and soy products you can buy is wonderful.
Other produce like lettuce, apples (being from the Northeast, I am really a snob about these, and take forever going through them), strawberries, and the like are the same we get over in the US, only it's taken an extra week to get to us so they aren't as fresh, and they are very expensive. I paid about $7 (US) for a container of strawberries, and I rarely see them.
Most produce is packaged, and you can't choose your own (broccoli, apples, grapes, tomatoes).
Food prices are very high here, especially for the amount of money the average person gets paid, and there is a lot of unrest about the recent increases in eggs, bread, and rice. There have been some robberies of food delivery trucks lately because of this. Also, the road food prices have gone up, causing a lot of anger. For example, there are things called "doubles" and it's chickpeas (called "channa" here) curried and folded into a soft pita-bread-like thing. It's wicked good, but prices have just gone to $4 (TT...divide by 6 to get the US price of things), and people were in disbelief...it's the only thing that was talked about on the radio for a week.
I spend about the same amount on food that I did when I lived in Florida, and there is a lot less to choose from. I miss cereal mostly, and Fluff, and Hummus (which I've seen for $6 US), but I do pretty well with everything here.

Onliest

Another word they use is "onliest" instead of the word only. It's quite interesting to hear the way that the English language is adjusted (by our standards).

Medical Stuff

Many patients, when asked, have no idea what happened in their medical histories, if they had a procedure (everything is surgery), when it was done ("some time ago"), and what medications they were given ("some tablets"). It can be very frustrating when trying to obtain a clear medical history.
Going to the pharmacy is quite interesting. There's one big chain "SuperPharm" where you can shop around and get stuff you want like a Walgreens, but if go to a mom and pop store, or if you want "some tablets," you're gonna have to ask. First, the pharmacist is going to ask you what you want/need/symptoms/etc., and you're not going to have any privacy because the next person in line is breathing down your neck. Many Trinidadians are "Fast" (should've introduced this term much earlier...it means that they are all up in your business. They eavesdrop, spy, snoop, "maco" meaning all of those things. It's just a cultural thing. Maybe it's because the country is so small, you're going to know the person ordering drugs or their mother/aunt/sister/uncle/cousin, and it's always interesting to know what's going on with a person medically. It relates back to the personal space that doesn't exist here), and it's difficult to speak with a pharmacist over a 7 foot counter if you have anything that is embarrassing (also, being a "snobby" northeasterner, everything is embarrassing. I want my privacy!!!) that you want treatment for. And no matter what, you're gonna have to say it. And being the only white person in my area, it's easy to spot me out. I'm waiting for someone to go by whispering, "she's the one with the [fill in horrible condition that you want to keep private here]!"
One good thing about the pharmacy is you can get almost anything without a prescription, and the pharmacists know what to give you if you tell them your symptoms. You do need a 'script for antibiotics, however, and I haven't tried to get any other "good" medications, so I don't know what's really behind that counter. Also, forget about getting a bottle of tablets, you can just get one. Yesterday, at my friendly neighborhood pharmacy, a woman asked for Ambien...and bought just 2! I don't understand...either you have a sleep disorder or you don't. Whatever; guess I'm just being fast myself with all this wondering.

Trinisms

There are so many things that Trinidadians, or Trinbagonians say that takes a bit of time to get used to, but I can never think of them when I'm ready to write about them.
"Again"--anymore. "You were so late coming to the party, I didn't think you were coming again."
"Short pants"--shorts
"Ears"--one or two ears, it doesn't matter. Like, "I'm hearing better in my right ears."
"Van"--pick-up truck
Luckily, there really are no vans here, and VERY LUCKILY, there are no minivans!!! That has been a wonderful thing here. However, they have the same stereotype here that women can't drive. It's funny, though, because all the motor vehicle deaths are from male drivers.
"Slippers"--flip-flops

One thing that has been really strange is the cultural "acceptance" of infidelity. It is very obvious in the vocabulary they use to describe this, and it is very different to the American way of describing cheating, all using negative words. Here are a few:
Horner man/woman--the man or woman you are cheating with
Horned--to get cheated on
Outside man/woman--ditto

One day, while stuck in traffic in my car (surprise!), a man, who was sitting in the back of a truck with a group of men, asked, "are you married?" I replied, as always here, "yes," and he asked, "do you need an outside man?" I said, "No, thanks." The whole concept of cheating is kinda like that...it's almost expected and accepted. I say, "No, thanks."