Traveling To Trinidad!

Background: This trip to Trinidad and Barbados consisted of three faculty and two graduate students (me being one of them) from the ag department as well as six faculty and five graduate students from the health department. We were looking at global food security along the lines of the international dimensions of childhood obesity. This blog is purely my personal experience on the trip and does not reflect the views or opinions of others. It also has no relationship with the university or funding agency. 

Now that we have that over with; 

Thursday (April 11) we traveled from Houston to Trinidad with a stop in Miami. Besides the long day of traveling and way too many hours sitting in a car, plane, airport, or bus, (or standing in lines) the trip went rather smoothly. The line to get through immigration took forever! Then we had to find our bags and get in another very long line to go through customs. One member of our group however, could not find is bag… (this is his first international trip). Surprisingly he had a very good attitude about it and hoped for the best. If this had been me, lets just say I would not have handled it very well. He was told his bag was on the plane with us, so that meant someone else had to of taken it while we were standing in the immigration line forever. What are the chances of that person bringing it back to the airport? With everything still inside? Was it even an accident? I’d say the chances are pretty low he would ever see it again. Very low actually.

We got to Norma’s Bed and Breakfast at about midnight (that’s 15 hours of travel people!). Breakfast was at 7:30 the next morning and guess what arrived at Norma’s at about that same time? His bag. Yes, I’m not kidding you. It must have been an accident and whoever took it realized it wasn’t theirs and took it back to the airport, and it was brought to Norma’s within eight hours! I couldn't believe it. There are still good people in this world!

Friday (April 12) we met with some faculty and students at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. We also got a tour of campus which was a lot of walking in hot muggy air, but thanks to my 50spf, I did manage to stay un-burnt. The sun is quite different when you are this much closer to the equator. And being “pigment impaired” as some refer to it, a high spf applied frequently can be a life savor. 

After lunch we toured the nearby little town of Lopinot. We saw a very cool playground structure exercise thing.

And must I say some adorable kids!

We got our first look into some of the reasons Trinidad and Tobago is experiencing childhood obesity issues....

(nice photo bomb kid, haha)

There is a KFC on every corner, no joke.

And we got to see a small farmer that grows a bunch of different types of herbs as well as tilapia. 

Then we headed back to Norma’s and for dinner I had a double. It was an egg-like bread/tortilla fried thing with a chickpea something filling. It was kinda like a soft taco, but better. It was delicious, but it came with a little surprise. I got the milder one called a “slight” and I was warned of it being spicy before I started eating. Even with that warning, I was not prepared for the heat my tongue was about to experience. Apparently the sauce with the kick is only dabbed in the middle of the double. So your first few bites are wonderful and you start to wonder what everyone was talking about... and then it hits you. Like a slap in the face. Or rather like a flame on your tongue. But of course you eat the rest of it because that’s the only spicy bite and the thing is darn right delicious. After I finished eating and was half way through a bottle of water in a matter of seconds, the fire on my tongue started to flicker, but then my lips started to tingle. Next time I think I’ll ask if there is a “none” option instead of “slight”, drinking 16 ounces of water to douse my tongue is not something I enjoy on a regular basis. At all really, if I’m being honest. I also would like to point out the how doubles are purchased. They are all over the place, anyone can just pull over to the side of the road, take the cooler out of there trunk filled with all the fixings, and start serving. Food safety practices? Is this sanitary? Would this happen in the US? Not a chance.