Hello from Trinidad Everyone!
As you can tell, we got here safely and have been busy ever since. We arrived at about 7:30 on Monday (they are on the same time as us) into Port of Spain (the capital of Trinidad) and came back to the apartment where we're staying at a Mennonite Church. The apartment is very nice - air conditioned and all of us girls have a bed. It's a really nice place where we can come back to every night and cook dinner and just hang out. The people I am here with are wonderful and have really made this trip what it is. We have done so much already that I can hardly begin to even scratch the surface, but we've done things like gone to a nature preserve and hiked through the rainforest :), visited a college, met the US Ambassador to Trinidad, went on a boat tour, saw a huge fruit market, shopped around a bit, went to the beach, flew to Tobago (another island nearby) for an overnight trip, stayed in the homes of Trini people, did a work project, went on another overnight trip to see giant turtles lay eggs on the beach, etc. It's been a great trip. I've done some crazy things, including eating lamb and shark (and you guys know that I am usually not up for those kinds of things!) and I helped announce a play at a Cricket game. haha! It's been wonderful. We've gotten really close as a small group of 11 and had a blast laughing together and spending lots of time in the "maxi taxi" (our little van that takes us around). The people here are super nice and love talking with us so it's great to connect with them. We have a full schedule for the next 5 days before we come home and I'm excited to see what else will happen - the last two weeks have been amazing and there are lots of stories to tell about our time here. We have heard that the other trips are also going well and we're anxious to hear more about them. The cross cultural experiences are an awesome thing that Bluffton does and I'm so excited that I got the opportunity to come to Trinidad. I am learning so much about myself, America, and of course, Trinidad. This is a picture of our group with our bus driver and his family and a local Mennonite pastor and his family. More to come about this amazing trip!
Mary
