Maracas Beach

Forgot to add these pictures and video of the girls at the beautiful beach only 20 minutes away from our house... just as a bit of a tease in case you were wondering whether or not you should come visit ;)

Love, C, L, E & Chlo

Livin’ the lime life

After a wonderful summertime in Montreal and Gatineau, good weather, fun times with family and friends, and a great few weeks spent in my parents’ ‘’Full House’’, we were finally ready for our big move to Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, in the Caribbean islands, also known as the West Indies. Everyone has been asking us how it’s been going since we’ve arrived in Trinidad, and all I can say is 'so far so good'. Coming from life in Ghana, anything will be easier. I now feel like some sort of a travel veteran (even though I am not, and have not seen as much as many), but that's what Africa will do to you. As most of you know, Ghana was a difficult country to get comfortable with for me in the beginning, but as time passed I did start to feel more at home and at ease with the whole idea of 'expat life' and made many dear friends that I now miss very

much. Eva misses her little friends too quite a bit but she'll be ok. It’s a special way of life to get used to, especially for someone like me who has always worked, is used to being a part of the workforce, and who is now a ‘housewife’ or spouse. I am still torn about whether or not I like it. Now, we start a new life on our second diplomatic posting in T&T. Good thing about experiencing a move like this the second time around everything goes faster because you know what you are doing and you are better prepared (psychologically). You know what to expect. Although it is a new country with different customs and culture, and things are not always what they seem.

We landed at 5am on a Thursday in Port of Spain, Trinidad. A High Commission driver brought us to our new house in Maraval, in the East end of the City. Sleepy and dazed, the sights we were able to take in, while the girls slept in the van, were breathtaking. A warm haze covered the city and there were mountainous tropical rain-forests all around us. It was humid, so humid you could breathe it in. This is what we live in now I thought, and for the next three years. So we arrived at our house, tucked away in a private nook called Fairways Close. First thing you see through the fenced-in gate is the pool and the huge white front patio. Awesome, we thought. We went for a dip as soon as the girls awoke from their nap. Inside, the view from our house is truly beautiful. We are located right on the mountain-side with flowers, palm trees, all kinds of tropical vegetation and birds visible. When I say tropical birds, I mean tropical, beautiful, colourful birds of all kinds. We have a ton of perroquets that come a fly around and ‘caw’ in the late afternoon. We have a mango tree and a lime tree (that actually belong to our neighbour, who have given us the blessing to eat the fruits) already giving us lots of produce right now, during the rainy season. Security is tight; guards come regularly by pickup truck on patrol, 24-hrs a day. We are also very close to the beach, much closer than in Accra. The closest swimmable beach is 20mins away called ‘Maracas Beach’. We’ve had the opportunity to go on several occasions already with our crappy rental car we’ve been using until we get our newly-ordered Nissan X-Trail. On the Sunday, only three days after arriving, friends and neighbours of ours, also Canadian who are with the High Commission and who have two young girls close to Eva’s age, brought us to the beach and introduced us to a few friends. It was great fun. People here are really welcoming and kind.

As I was saying, second time around things happen faster, and we seem to be more and better organized. Eva has already started school at the International School of Port-of-Spain, in Westmoorings (at the West end of the City). Her first day was on the Monday right after we arrived. We even managed to organize her daily transportation, a sort of private taxi service or pseudo-‘school bus’ by a family-run business called Mr Jeffrey, to and from school every day. This is very helpful for me because otherwise I would have to become a full-time ‘chauffeuse’ to this gang. As it is I have to bring Charles to and fro work every day, luckily it’s not too far and there are back roads we can take to avoid traffic.

And now, Chloe is going to daycare 3 times a week, to and fro, as well as a baby group once a week. So that’s plenty of driving around for me. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, we’ve had to familiarize ourselves quickly with driving on the other side of the road. Charles had the experience of driving on the left side of the road in South Africa when we were there on vacation in May. Honestly, it has been fine for me getting accustomed to driving with the wheel on the right. When you don’t have a choice, you get used to it faster I think. Otherwise I would be stuck at home all day and I can’t be bothered with that. I also mentioned that we signed Chloe up for daycare near our house at a place called Casa de Bambini. This place was recommended to me by another good friend. I believe it offers some of the best care for Chloe in town, they also run a Montessori school for older children. It’s not cheap but it’s very nice and the ‘aunties’ are reliable, CPR-trained and very experienced. Anyways, Chloe will be going 3 days a week, 8 to 1:30pm for now, until I find some work then we will see. I think the girls have been adjusting well to their new environment and home. If anything it has made them closer to each other. They are really close now, have been playing together more, and seem to genuinely love each other. People always say children adapt even faster than parents do. That was all part of my plan.

Eva enjoys school but is very tired at the end of her jam-packed day of lessons and activities. They really keep them busy all day, she has actual lessons and a curriculum up on our fridge, like a big girl! One day in the life of Eva at present for example: Up at 5:50am, eat breakfast & brush teeth before her ‘school bus’ arrives, Mr Jeffrey, at 6:45am, first class Language Arts, 2nd Math, then 30min break, 3rd and 4th lessons in the Learning Centre, then Lunch, followed by 5th class Cooking and 6th Phonics, ending at 2pm but she only gets home just before 3pm because of traffic and dropping off the other kids on the ‘bus’. Crazy, huh? for a 4 year-old! I was worried at first but I think she’s getting used to it all and making friends at school. There are also other classes on her schedule like Spanish, Media (where they do intro to computers), PE, Town Meeting, and Parent Story Time and Crafts. But they seem to do Math and Language Arts almost every day. On Thursdays she also has Gymnastics after-school from 2:30 to 3:30pm. We also plan on signing her up for swimming lessons, probably on Saturday mornings, asap. I know it sounds like a lot but Eva’s a tough cookie, she can handle it, and it is better for her to stay busy.

Another thing I have really been enjoying so far is tasting all the awesome Caribbean food: their local ‘trini treats’ like pickled mango (yum!) and tamarind balls, and street foods, like the famous-at-the-beach ‘Shark and bake’, ‘doubles’ and roti, and corn soup. This is something we could not do at all in Ghana and I regret now, because of issues with food hygiene and handling, we were at high risk of becoming seriously ill (and, as some of you remember, Charles and I even did experience becoming ill on several occasions). There’s a lot more Caribbean food left for us to taste and experiment, so I am excited about trying as much as I can. One thing I have come to really like too now are testing the various hot sauces on sample. You can find all types here and put them on anything and everything you can imagine  Need I say more? Charles is in paradise. Not so good for the girls because they are not accustomed to spicy food, but maybe their palates will develop a taste for small amounts of ‘pepper’ like the locals call it, as time passes.

Good news about both our Sea shipments from Montreal including all the stuff we bought at Costco, Loblaws and some items I added from IKEA, as well as the bulk of our stuff, coming from GHana, it will be arriving at our house this Friday, so that’s great! We already received our first Air shipment from Ghana a few weeks ago, with the kids’ beds, our TV and other electronics and important stuff. Looking forward to getting ALL our stuff though, so we can start decorating and feeling more at home here in this giant white house. We were even playing with the idea of painting a little bit, a few walls throughout the house here and there. So we may still do that to add a bit of life to our home in the meantime. Once the house is a bit more presentable, we will be happy to host a few parties, or ‘limes’ as they say here.

I’m keeping myself busy of course, joined the baby group here ‘Busy Bees’ almost immediately with Chloe; as well as the CWC (Canadian Women’s Club of T&T) to meet people and socialize. I haven’t had a chance to do a whole lot of employment research yet, although I did apply online to one posting for Abbott pharmaceuticals as a sales rep but did not hear anything back. I would like to start investigating more seriously for work opportunities in the next few weeks, but I am not rushing into anything that I may regret. I’m hoping to find something not too stressful, work in a doctor’s office or clinic, doing a contract or part-time work on a project in the public health sector or with an NGO. It may be a tall order. We will see what happens, I have three years. Right now the priority is getting settled with the girls and Charles in our new home, and getting comfortable here. We’ve also started running again here. I go for about 25-30mins early in the morning 4 times a week, with a friend. Charles goes in the evening. We even started running together, with Eva & Chloe in the super-stroller, last Saturday morning around the Savannah Park downtown Port of Spain. It was great and the girls enjoyed being out and the fresh air. We are very excited about my mom & aunt Vicky coming to visit us in October. Charles is leaving for a week to go to conference for work in Ottawa, so they are coming to help with the girls and visit T&T. We are planning to bring them to Tobago for a long weekend before Charles leaves.

Anyways, after a long day at the beach, I am tired and going to have to say Good Night and until next blog! XO