Up up and away

So it's time for our first move. We're sad to leave all the wonderful people we've gotten to know - but the feet are indeed restless now, and excited to explore St George, Grenada, for 2 weeks, and then Carriacou, Grenada for three.

Today - saying our goodbyes - it took a whole day. Also, we had to go to Scarborough yesterday since the ATM is still not working - we needed to repay our debts. B managed to borrow a car for free, of course with some favours involved again; buy fake flowers for one person, and toilet paper and garbage bags for another.

The day started with Bjarni getting up at 06 to visit Cheno to learn his recipe for Saltfish and Coconut bake. (Last week we were invited to Oswald the vegetable kings house to see how his wife Hazel makes hers.)
Then we had a visitor drop by, old Taylor, who came by to drop off some newly baked bread and excuse himself for not showing up for pizza. He invited us to come see his house "up da road by the church" within 3 hours. Fisherman Old Taylor is the father of 6 boys who seem to run all the business in Castara (rental cars, apartments, restaurants, boat trips, fishing). He is a 67 years old, fitter than you, for sure, keeps fishing and building his house and also obviously bakes bread. We continued with a tour of the village, and two of the others that did not show up for pizza excused themselves by saying it was too much rain, so that seems to be the socially accepted excuse. After a tour of the village, and a very heavy lunch, accompanied with another recipe and a few email addresses, we walked up to Taylor's house and he invited us in for soup. So delicious! And so heavy. No need to eat for a couple of days now!

We leave Tobago woth lots of great experiences - next stop Grenada. You will probably not hear from us within the next couple of weeks, no internet at the next place.

Cash is king

So, we are leaving for Grenada next Tuesday, meaning 3 days left in Tobago. We are ready to move on - and the last days have been slow... 3 days of consecutive rain, and I mean monsoon rain - pouring so hard on the corrugated roof it makes it hard to have a conversation. But on the upside - it has been cooler - by carribean measures...still around 27 degrees.

Anyway, the ATM in the village is out of order. Here, credit cards are just a piece of plastic, so we have had to be creative. We now owe one of the neighbours 20 SEK, Cheno (the guy with the car and saltfish) 200, and a restaurant 34. This was to get us enough cash to buy supplies for our farewell party, where we would bake pizza in the clay oven in the garden. We invited 7 people, to come last night. They all accepted gladly, so our last cash went to buy beer, rum and coke (of course) and ingredients for pizza for 9 people.

1 person came!

We had a great time though, delicious pizza and the rum was almost finished.

I have made a hilarious attempt to email the bank that the ATM is out of order(which I will not tell any of the locals, they would die from laughter)- but we have no hope whatsoever that it will be fixed in the next few days.

And we will cetainly not starve our last 3 days in Castara - having 7 pizzas in the freezer and A LOT of beer.
Though we are out of mosquito spray, so I might have to send out B to give some favours.

Car rental Tobago style

A month ago, while there was nobody else here but us and a few bewildered tourists, car rental was just popping up at nine and leaving with the keys in 10 minutes with a vague description of the car's location. (Though finding the Taylor girl in charge could take up to a few days.)

You left with the memorable phrase in mind "Scratches ok, but no big bumps" and to return it by locking the car keys inside the vehicle outside the office with about the same amount of gas that you had when you started. There really is no fear of theft here.

(Never seen so much modding kits, chrome, and nice rims on crappy cars)

But now with the small village bursting with tourists ( around 30? ) things are different, the regular car rental is totally booked and the staff nowhere to be found ( been trying to return a child seat for 3 days now ).

But we needed a car and having spent some time here I had a hunch that some of the cars I've rented are just regular cars from someone in the Taylor family. They seem to be about half the village business it seems. So me and E went on a walkabout talking to all the locals we knew (by now, quite a few...) and the hunch was confirmed. A hidden car pool was thriving in the village.

So we talked to one of the local fixers, Hillie who had cars, but didn't, but was willing to drive to Scarborough to fix it for us when he couldn't dig up a car locally to his big surprise and a few beers ( no I don't understand it either ). But I declined knowing it would take him a whole day to fix it, and how/where I should return the car was conveniently missing from the discussion.

So the day after we talked to the owner of "The naturalist" which had none, but recommended Alibaba tours, which don't, but mentioned Porridge who was nowhere to be found.

Back to square one. Talked to Oswald the vegetable king, who knows everybody, who recommended Jenny, an expat that lives in his basement, and she said she'd love to loan me the car but couldn't and she fixed me the number to a nice German girl, who's car was already rented...

Then we went for lunch and talked to Debby at Cascreole restaurant, which named all the people I had already tried but in the end, wondered if I should talk to Margarethe, which had... Wohooo! We finally got a car.

But then C lost her bikini...(obvious crisis!) we needed a car to do some shopping.,. Hmmm now I know how things work so I went to the car rental and she had a car but in Scarborough but she would to EVERYTHING to get it to me tomorrow.

The day after it took only a few minutes to find out that the car hadn't arrived so I headed straight for Cheno that I knew sometimes rented his car. He was not uninterested in getting some extra money, but with no insurance in case of damage and his only car, he dodged my questioning about the car pretty well. After 2 hours business meeting; I got the car for 200 TT (200 SEK) + some gas, a job doing his website, dropping off Oswald the vegetable king in Scarborough, a strange promise to talk to the professor (?),  another promise that he would teach me to do his coconut bake and salt fish. I feel like I'm in a quest based computer game here or back in Iceland where everything can be loaned but comes with such strings attached that you won't touch it with a ten feet pole.

The car... well 160.000 km on the odometer, on these roads, automatic, dead shock absorbers and some really really tired Japanese ponies masquerading as horsepowers.

But it had air condition with an incredible invasive wild cherry smell.

Everybody got carsick but smelled nice. And C is swimming again.

/B

It's Carnival!

So.. In order to get you in the right Carnival mood - please read this post accompanied by http://youtu.be/A2jTLEdX24c?hd=1 and http://youtu.be/xVjiPvn5rCA . And DO listen to the lyrics. This is Soca, but it is commonly called "nasty music"by the locals. You'll understand why.

Carnival happens every year, Mon and Tue before Ash Wednesday and is a huge thing in Trinidad. It starts inofficially on the Friday, when people start partying, and culminates in Carnival Tuesday which is the highlight. First thing we noticed was that Friday night, Castara was empty. It seemed everyone left. Then, come Saturday, Castara was simply invaded by tourists from Trinidad, trying to escape the madness and frenzy of carnival. We were sitting at a cafe at lunch - chatting with a few locals as usual, chilling, when two cars park outside. Out jumps around 10 people, leaves the car doors open, turns up the volume on the stereo (playing the above "nasty" music), gets some beers and there is a party. They brought food that they shared, and our quiet lunch was suddenly a roaring limbo party. After about an hour, they jumped back in their cars and left us with our jaws on the floor. Fantastic.

We chose not to go to Trinidad - kids and all, and checked the official carnival home page for Tobago activitites. Scarborough was going to have parades on both Mon and Tue. Not sure how busy it would be, and Tue being THE carnival day, we decided Mon would be safest, considering the kids, heat, parking etc. Also, asking the locals gave us as many different answers as people...The parade was supposed to start at 13.00 - so, just to be sure we didn't miss anything - we arrived at 10.30. This is what Scarborough looked like then:
A few people were out in the streets, certainly the ones who had partied since Friday. Here is one; filling up her rum and vodka bottle at the "first aid" station.

The parade, announced at 13.00, started at 15.30 - and looked like this:

By then, having been out waiting and trying to escape the heat for several hours (thank God for air conditioned KFC...) the kids (and us) had had enough and we drove home, deeply disappointed. After recovering sligthly we decided to go again on the Tuesday, when the parade was supposed to start at 11.00. Past experience in mind - we were not sure when to go- but decided on the same time - so we were sure not to miss anything.

Of course there was no parade at 11. But it looked more promising, a few more visitors, so we decided to wait. Sometimes - waiting can be hard.....

FINALLY, at 15 - a parade!

It was really fun, being able to be so close - being in the middle of everything. (Though, the disadvantage being the volume - notice my strategically placed fingers...)

And here is a taste of the costumes and people:

After 6 hours, we were pretty exhausted, but much more happy with our carneval experience.

To beat or not to beat

Getting to know the locals has been one of the most rewarding experiences so far. Having spent 6 weeks here now we have been fortunate to scratch beneath the surface and really take a part of people's day-to-day lives. Also, we dare to pose some more questions, the things we really want to know. Like where are the women and children? We have focussed on getting to know people with kids so that E can play. First thing that struck us here is that you hardly see women and children in town. You see men. Two kinds: The men who work really hard from dusk to dawn, and then the young men "limin'"(meaning doing nothing, but play cards and smoke). We have found that there are two types of women; the housewifes who cook, clean and take care of the children, and the working women - who do the same AND bring home the money. We have gotten to know two working women with children that we spend quite some time with. One is the waitress of a restaurant. At 15.00, when her kids finish school, she picks them up and brings them to the restaurant. There they spend the afternoon while she works, doing their homework and having a snack (chips and coca cola). And play with E.

The other one is our lovely housekeeper. On Saturdays when she cleans our house she brings her 2,5 year old P with her. We are usually out, but this Saturday we were home so she and E played. This was quite an experience.
P was quite a handful. She would play pretty rough, and B, who was keeping a well-needed eye on them had to tell her "no - be nice" a few times, with no success whatsoever. After a few rounds of this, our housekeeper (having heard B) steps inside and, without a word, gives her daughter a huge slap on the upper arm. *Klatsch*. I was watching E and saw her eyes grow double size (mine too, anyway...). A few minutes later, P pushed E, and got another slap *klatsch*, accompanied with the words "if you are not good to her I will beat you!" (Double standard, anyone?)

We realise that it is custom here to beat the kids as a part of raising them (our housekeeper is still really lovely), but it is kind of hard to explain this to a 3year old, who is learning the (scandinavian) social patterns, and many times a day will say "you should not fight or hit anyone, but be nice and hug and kiss them" from a wonderful story they read in kindergarten at home. We learnt also that babies, too young to go to pre-school, will be placed on a blanket on the floor at home. If they attempt to leave it - the mother will simply hit the baby. B and I have had many discussions how this influences the children, and specifically the lack of verbal communication, not being told WHY things should or should not be done.

Maybe it links to the text on a t-shirt I saw a man wear: "The highest form of love is obedience".

Getting shot?

Our Swedish doctor was very helpful to set up a special schedule for F's vaccines before we left (at 2,3 and 4 months instead of the usual 3,5 12), and beginning of February it was time for the 4 month one. Not knowing at all how this works in Tobago before we left - we started by visiting the hospital in Scarborough in January (and knowing the pace of life here...) Scarborough hospital was an experience. The first thing you saw was the emergency room, filled with waiting people and some chickens walking about. There was a small information booth - and the woman directed me to the second blue door on the left - the infectious clinic. In there - in a room approx 2x3 metres, were 3 nurses. Oh no, we do vaccines in the Health Clinics - and helpfully and eagerly gave us driving directions to the Scarborough health clinic. After a short drive we arrived at a top modern clinic - I started at the information desk. Sure, we do vaccines, where are you staying? I said Castara and the man and the woman behind the counter burst into laughter: -So why did you come all the way here? There is a health clinic in Castara! They'll help you there! Obviously this was hilarious to them - but believe me - considering the size of Castara this fact surprised me - where on earth was this clinic? It was here: (And notice: still chickens!)

I visited the clinic one morning - and after a round of the normal good morning's etc, spoke to a very helpful nurse. (By the way, all the women and children I always wondered why I never see in the village - they were there) I had brought F's Swedish health book (written in Swedish...) and we started by a round of translations and discussions what she needed. After about 40 minutes we agreed that they do have the same vaccines - only Polio is taken orally and not by injection as in Sweden. Great, I said, and felt very content and proud that we got this far, so when can I come back for the injections? Oh no, you cannot have them, she explained. I was so surprised having felt so in agreement with her - but then again tobagan English can be...a challenge. After another round of discussion I found out that they give the last injection at 6 months, so she would not give F her's until she reached that age. But - at the time of injections (every other Thursday) there would be another nurse there, not her, so I could try her. So, I waited a couple of weeks and went back to perform the same procedure with the other nurse. She was ok to give it, but wanted to find a Polio injection so that F would get exactly what she got in Sweden. This would be needed to be sent from Scarborough, so I could come back in two weeks. So...today was the big day.


F waiting outside the "Doctors room"

I went to the clinic this morning - only to find a third nurse. The procedure of translating and discussion was now performed for the third time. We came to an agreement too - yey! - but she said Polio injections do not exist in Tobago so I must have misunderstood that (very likely...) Before I could blink F had a needle in her leg and a drop of Polio vaccine in her mouth. Only 2 weeks after schedule! And again a really nice testament of the people here always willing to help.

Wild Jungle

From Swedish wikipedia:

Ordet trotsålder syftar på perioder i ett barns utveckling när det testar gränser. Syftet är att lära känna omgivningens sociala normer, att hitta balansen och lära sig se skillnaden mellan sina egna och andras behov, att experimentera fram vad viljan kan göra, att lära sig hur man uttrycker sig och hur man beter sig.
Metoden för detta är empirisk och kräver många och långa strider. Detta kan vara tålamodsprövande för de personer som lever och umgås med barnet.
Om en vuxen skulle bete sig så skulle man tala om social inkompetens eller kanske envishet, tjurighet, negativism, egocentrism, bristande självkännedom, dumhet, skrikighet, våldsamhet eller just trots.


Travelling with small children - we learn every day what works and what does not. We have become experts in handling almost every situation and mood, making the best out of it. But - I will not lie - even though it works it can be darn tough. Today was exhausting. But it turned out to be a pretty OK daytrip after all. The destination was Argyle Waterfalls, close to Roxborough (where we ended up by mistake last time...) We had quite a few stops on the otherwise 45 minute drive there (snack time, car sick, too hot, too cold (AC - thank God), diaper change, feeding....) though I have developed incredible nursing skills from impossible positions - even car seated (both of us!).



Finally there, we paid a small entrance fee including a local guide to take you the 20 min hike through the rainforest to the waterfall.

Guide Esther, B and E on his shoulders (to prevent her from walking backwards)



F on my stomach sleeping and E imitating Ester's walking stick

Esther showed us different trees, flowers and vegetation on the walk, and spot out birds and other animals. We have invented the name "IKEA-plants" - plants we use as decorative plants at home are everywhere here (but in other sizes). And now we have seen how orchids grow, on the trunk of trees, explaining why you use bark in the pots at home.


Silk cotton tree
Bird nests


We reached the waterfalls and B and E had a refreshing swim.(I chose not to wake the sleeping child)

We saw some amazing bamboo - and learned that they grow 6 inches a day (!)

Very tiny humans, very huge bamboo!

Trekking parent style -very hot but still standing

We planned to take another road back home than the one we came on, but discovering that E's shoes were missing those plans were abolished. Considering we hade quite a few stops driving to the falls, we suspected they were left behind. A quest for the red shoes began - was it this green curve or the next or the next??? - and finally - success:

In the evening having put the kids to bed - we chose to try our first take-away:




Lovely. And on Wednesday we have a babysitter for the first time.