devils in trinidad

{Charlotte}

After a 24-hour flight, I finally arrived at Port of Spain Int’l Airport this Monday. During the first week, I gained a lot of new experiences and learned to adjust myself to the new environment. I met new people, traveled to interesting places and ate local food. I had cocnut drinks, “doubles”,and Trini rotis. I stay in a host family in a town alled Arima, which is very different from home. I come from Shanghai, a hugh city with the population of over 15 million people, and I can always feel the hustle and bustle of a metropolitan area. With no highrises, the town here has many small neighoods with 1 or 2 story high buildings. People here are very nice and friendly. People say hi to each other everytime they meet. They gave warm welcomes to foreigners. Drivers like making kind jokes with us from time to time.  I love talking to the local people and getting to know a lot about the local culture.

Our work is to investigate a local retail market and write a report to the government to help its growth. The market, which is over 50 years old, is a place where vendors sell fruit, vegetables, meat and fish. The main issue is the size of the market. It is not large enough to hold the outside vendors who are complaining about the conditions and facilities they have currently. Other issues including the problems of sanitation and security are also waiting to be solved. We first developed a preliminary questionnair to interview the vendors and gathered information about their current situations and desired improvements. We also talked to the market adiministators to know the background information we needed. Talking to the vendors, we saw the urgency of their wishes to gain improvements. That is the point of our trip here.