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February 07, 2006
Course, professor takes first-year to foreign lands
Diasporas are people settled far from their ancestral homelands. The FYSEM led by Professor Veena Deo was entitled “Diasporas of the New World: Trinidad and Tobago.”
Not only did this class get to read about diasporas on these southern Caribbean islands, they were able to travel to Trinidad and Tobago this past J-Term and had first-hand experience of life in a Third World country.
The class looked mostly at the two major ethnic groups in Trinidad and Tobago, the Afro-Trinidadians and the Indo-Trinidadians. The focus was on their interactions and collaborations. Food, culture, language, religion, and other aspects of their lifestyle were also discussed.
After a semester of looking at pictures and reading from textbooks, they bought plane tickets and headed south to the capital of Trinidad, Port of Spain. For the 12 days they were there, the schedule was “pretty intense” according to SOS leader Shiva Adhikari.
Nine days were spent on the main island, Trinidad, and three were spent exploring its sister island, Tobago. The group saw museums, a nature center, wild fowl trust, the ocean, a rain forest, a busy street market, and many other traditional tourist attractions. Thanks to their professor’s connections they were also were able to visit a temple and a mosque, read to students at an elementary school, and even sit in the chairs of parliament. A representative from the Save Our Sea Turtles Organization of Tobago spoke to them for one of their nightly lectures.
Author Earl Lovelace, whose books they read, as well as a Muslim man with a presentation on Islam were each there for an evening, too.
The Islamic celebration of Eid was going on while they were visiting, so they were able to see a cow sacrificed at a local mosque. This event had a deep impact on many of the Hamline students.
“It is one thing to see stuff on TV or read about different cultural/ religious practices in a book, but standing 10 feet away from seven men slaughtering a cow in the name of Allah is a mind opening experience,” said Angela Froemming.
It wasn’t all business. On a trip like this every second is a learning experience, but they found time to snorkel, swim, and relax on the veranda of their hotels close to the beach. One night was spent in the exclusive world of VIP at Zen, one of the country’s best night clubs. This trip was not about partying, though.
Did this January escape change their views of the world?
Absolutely. For Froemming, it was the exposure to the different religions that really brought her perceptions of life into a different light. The harsh reality of the gap between the rich and poor was larger than Carrie Johnson had ever imagined. What a journey it was. Experiencing everything from a night club to a cow sacrifice to an elementary school, these students learned about another culture that many of us will never see.
They weren’t the only FYSEMs to travel abroad this J-Term. Dr. Kari Richmeister took her class, “Germany in the 21st Century,” on an expedition through Germany, and Professor Susie Steinbach took her class, “America, Europe, and Africa: The Slavery Connection” to England.
Diasporas are people settled far from their ancestral homelands. The FYSEM led by Professor Veena Deo was entitled “Diasporas of the New World: Trinidad and Tobago.”
Not only did this class get to read about diasporas on these southern Caribbean islands, they were able to travel to Trinidad and Tobago this past J-Term and had first-hand experience of life in a Third World country.
The class looked mostly at the two major ethnic groups in Trinidad and Tobago, the Afro-Trinidadians and the Indo-Trinidadians. The focus was on their interactions and collaborations. Food, culture, language, religion, and other aspects of their lifestyle were also discussed.
Posted by dwright at February 7, 2006 11:24 PM
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