Saturday Post -- 6/2/10

Dear friends,

It's now a week since we landed here in Trinidad and while so much is still so new to us, we feel very settled.

With five hours' difference from Glasgow to Toronto and only a single hour's deficit between Toronto and Trinidad (FYI, we're four hours behind GMT and they don't change the clocks here in the Northern Spring), we naturally assumed the worst of the jet-lag was behind us. Yes and no. While we have enjoyed an hour's extra sleep in the morning, our sense of exhaustion has been palpable. In many ways we're just recovering from the hectic last few weeks and (in Craig's case, anyway) retrieving the evening's snooze lost on the way down here.

Of course, at the same time, the heat is a not inconsiderable factor in this. We're not sure exactly what the temperature is – probably mid-to-late thirties – but let's just say we had our first (dreaded though hardly unexpected – this is Trinidad) power-cut on Wednesday and, with the ceiling fans out of action, probably between us produced enough perspiration to cause embarrassment to the East German women’s hammer-throwing team.

Acclimatisation has been required, additionally, to our new surroundings. Fundación Totaí is based in a part of town which didn’t even exist a few years ago. Indeed, when the foundation stone was laid for Casa Margaret (the main building here), the project was effectively based in the middle of nowhere. Since then the town’s (city's?) outward spread has been so rapid that it now sits in the suburbs.

This seismic change is visible in the town itself, which has increased in population by one-third. This, added to a growing upper-working-class, has sparked a major upsurge in traffic. Those of you who saw our presentation towards the end of 2009 will remember those images of transportation in Trinidad – the odd moto-taxi, a horse-and-cart here or there. These days, the roads are practically gridlocked wherever you look, with a major increase in motos but also the appearance of a hitherto unknown entity in Trinidad: the car.

Though it's a little strange for us to effectively move in with another couple (with the Holts returning to their home in June, there may well be three of us here), we could not have felt more welcome. K.C. (a volunteer from Seattle) and her husband Maicol (a native) have gone to great lengths to help us settle in, with K.C. dealing with most of our induction business. In K.C., Amanda has someone with whom she can go shopping and watch girly movies; in Maicol, Craig has someone who can mock him for being a “choco” (white guy) and whom Craig can bore to tears with his ramblings concerning the financial instability at Old Trafford.

Around us are great friends, some new and many old, not least Diego & Jo Santana and the many natives with whom Craig already has a deep friendship and for whom Amanda will some day be able to say the same.

Though we were advised to use this week to settle in, on Thursday afternoon we had a meeting with the Board of Directors to discuss our roles here. The next three months will be somewhat dominated by language learning. We've been able to enrol in classes with the local language institute which complement our individual levels in Spanish. Our weekdays will appear thus: for half a day, we will concentrate on our Spanish and in the for the other half, we will focus on our specialist areas. Amanda will be getting her hands dirty in healthcare – job shadowing the nurses in the clinic, helping with health checks for children in the local schools and newborn hearing assessments – while Craig will sit his online TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course, in order to gain the internationally recognised qualification. Additionally we will help out in various ways across the different areas, with Craig, for example, supporting sports ministry discipleship and, in the church, getting involved with the praise band and teaching schedule (first sermon is Sunday 21st!).

Beyond the next three months, we can envisage Amanda’s main focus being healthcare with a little church work, with Craig’s being more of a 50/50 split between church and education. But, as we know all too well, it is the Lord alone who knows what will transpire, and so we will endeavour to hear his voice in the midst of all of this.

We aim to post this update every week, probably around the weekend (if you are a church secretary, you may wish to visit on a Saturday evening in order to pass on updates to your congregation). We have no idea what sort of format it will take, but we can guarantee that it will always close with a few main points of prayer and praise:

Praise
• A safe arrival here in Trinidad.
• A genuine feeling of being at home among the volunteers and workers here.
• Following Thursday’s meeting, having a clear idea of our schedule over the next few months.

Prayer
• That we would adjust mentally and physically to our new climate and timetable.
• That we would be disciplined in our language learning – particularly Amanda, who is effectively starting from scratch.
• That we would find time in our busy schedules for personal Christian growth and for each other.

Que Dios te bendiga!

Craig & Amanda