Here I am...
This is the farthest I have ever been from home.
I'm helping a Trinidadian company deliver a speech enabled business directory assistance application for the local phone company, TSTT. I have a long history with this project. A little over three years ago, I met with people from OLTP/Voice Outsourcing in Indianapolis. We worked up an estimate for what this project would cost. And then we didn't hear from them. Until about five months ago. They have some basic functionality, but it's not working very well. So I'm here to help.
I was pretty freaked out about this trip. I looked at the map and found Trinidad off the coast of Venezuela, and I don't know why, exactly, but I had a real sense of dread about leaving home. I know I get a little agorophobic when I have a trip coming up, but this was something else. It's my first time out of the U.S. since we went to Baja in '91. And it's the first time I've ever needed to use my passport. On Saturday night, we watched Pirates of the Carribean, and seeing all that open water and everything just added to my dread. It was so bad, I didn't even get to see Travis and Julie and Sadie who were in town over the weekend. It sucked.
But I did an awesome job of packing.
One suitcase. Just one, Cuz.
Rachel had the great idea of staying at a hotel near SFO on Saturday night. I was a little reluctant, but if we didn't, we would have had to leave at 3:00 AM to get to the airport. Once we got packed and out the door, the dread went away. It was a nasty drive at the beginning - stormy, rainy, and a lot of wind. Fortunately there was nobody on the road, and once we got over the hill, the weather got better.
She dropped me off at the airport on Sunday and I flew all day. First to Miammi. Then I had a nice long walk from gate A27 to gate E7. Bienvenidos a Miami, indeed - get your sweat on. Then a three and a half hour flight to Trinidad. Then customs. Then baggage where I found TSA once again failed to close my luggage properly. But fortunately, I packed so well, everything was there.
The good folks at Voice Outsourcing recommended that I not rent a car and go with a txi service they recommended. I rented a phone and called Lester of Lester taxi. He was already at the airport, waiting for me.
Check this out...
I don't care that he spelled my name wrong, I felt like a rock star.
And I'm really glad I went with the taxi. Cars are right hand drive here and the roads are crazy. Crazy, I tell you. Plus it was dark and raining. I really don't think I would have been able to find my hotel on my own. But Lester got me here, no problem.
It is hot here. And muggy. It's about 85 degrees during the day, even when it was overcast and raining. At midnight, it's still muggy, and about 82. The air is thick. Everything smells different. I wasn't able to see much last night, but today, Lester drove me all around. It's beautiful here - very green, lots of trees. And it's also very poor. Part of it is the style of architecture - even new homes look sort of old. In the poor neighborhoods, it's better than the shacks we saw in Mexico, and it looks a little like the trailer neighborhoods in Clearlake - only there was more garbage around. The middle class neighborhoods all had security gates, and some even had razor wire on the walls. That was weird. And the richer neighborhoods were generally gated communities and even then there were walls, gates, and razor wire.
Check out this mango grove.
Those must be some good mangoes.
Paul's probably the only person who will appreciate this - Lester took me to Brian Lara's house. The government of Trinidad gave it to him. Here you go, nice job hitting 400 none out. Oh, and they let him import a Mercedes duty free. I forget the first three letters of his license, but it ends in 400. Lester has seen him around. Here's me in front of his house.
And here's me and LEster at Ft. George.
And here's a shot from up at Ft. George.
That's it for now. Sleep now. Work tomorrow.
posted by Eric Soderstrom at 8:54 PM
8 Comments:
Nice post. Wish I were there. I remember listening to this tape of a guy named Sparrow who sang Calypso music and was from Trinidad. I think it was an album called Spicy Sparrow. I'd listen to it back in the days when I liked my dad and I'd join him for sailing trips in the caribbean. A couple of songs stand out, one about a guy who envies headhunters in Africa who captured white women - racy undertones for sure:
"Two white women, travelin' through Africa (Africa!),
Fell into the hands of a terrible headhunter (headhunter!)
He cook one up, He eat one raw,
They taste so good, He wanted more,
More More More, More, MORE.........
ME WANT MORE!"
"I envy da Congo man, I wish he were me I'd like to shake he hand,
And if you knew how much trap I set,
But up to now, I never eat da white meat yet!"
FYI, I think all Calypso singers call themselves Sparrow.
The other was about the Russians sending a spaceship into orbit with a puppy aboard (I assume for some sort of test):
"Two Sputnik in da sky,
Have everybody hypnotize,
But Sparrow is very sorry
For da poor little puppy,
In da Russian Satellite."
Looking forward to your goat head soup recipe blog...
Hi Eric,
Nice to see you out seeing some proper sportsmen. If you're interested, I was at the game when he scored his 400 in Antigua. Looks like you're having fun - hope you enjoy yourself. See you soon mate.
Paul
Ted, thanks for that - knowing you've been here makes me feel a little closer to home.
And Paul, I guess you're going to have to find somoe patience and make me understand all this cricket buisness. Tomorrow I'm going to tell Lester you were there for 400. They are really gearing up for Cricket World Cup '07 here. Also, knowing you've been all around the round world makes me feel better about being so far from home.
I'm gonna embrace being here and now for the rest of my stay, although I do reserve the right to get sad from missing Rachel and Jake a whole big bunch.
Ted sed (quoting Sparrow):
"Two Sputnik in da sky,
Have everybody hypnotize,
But Sparrow is very sorry
For da poor little puppy,
In da Russian Satellite."
Probably Laika from Sputnik II (Two Sputnik, get it?). First dog in space, very famous. I also like that Sparrow refrained from using a line with "high" to rhyme with "sky".
I respectfully suggest that Ted update the Laika Pop culture references on Wikipedia with the Sparrow ref:
Laika in Popular Culture
Great posts, Eric. Thanks.
You welcome. Tank ya fo reedin' and commentin', man. Make ma feel closah to 'ome.
Found a clip of the Sputnik song. It's called "Russian Satellite."
Check it out at: http://www.emusic.com/samples/m3u/song/10869098/13448579.m3u
Scott, I updated Wikipedia. It was my first time so thanks for the inspiration.
Thanks for the clip Ted, I really enjoyed hearing the words put to music. I liked Sparrow's take on the poison aspect of the misson as well. Good job with the Wikipedia update. Now I guess I need to get the album . . .
I picked up a Sparrow CD on the way out of Trinidad. It has Russian Satellite, but not the cannibal song or whatever. I bought 3 CDs - plenty to load up the iPod for a Tiki Lounge soundtrack.
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