Half-bright Fulbright

Friday, October 1, 2010

Today has been my favorite day in Trinidad and it's currently only 12:40! It started off a little rocky. I woke up at the ungodly hour of 6 AM even though I set my alarm for 6:30. It took me an hour to get to work 12 miles away. And to top it all off, I forgot the memory card for my camera. Every thing worked out great in the end. I went down to the theriogenology section to meet with Malcolm, my ride to the UWI farms. I got there at 8:55 and asked for him, also saying that I was supposed to meet him at 9. "Oh, you're early," Angelique said (Angelique is the nice women who thought I was a student in the mail room). I have to quickly learn that time is an abstract concept in Trinidad. Malcolm arrived, and, to my surprise, had a camera in hand! He was kind enough to let me use it in the farms. Actually, everyone at UWI has been so great. Dr. Lisanne Fermin and Malcolm took me to the UWI farm station and to a section of Trinidad called Carlsen Field that is strictly devoted to agriculture. The humidity and rain didn't stop me from having a great time petting cows, sheep, goats, and looking at the beautiful birds. I learned that some species of goats have wattles and that if two goats without horns mate, it is likely that some of the offspring will be hermaphroditic. The owner of the sheep and goat farm is a riot! Shiraz Khan is his name and his phone number is 678-KHAN! Gotta love that.

I think I saw about 20 different species of birds today, mostly at the Khan farm. Peacocks, chickens, turkeys, sandpipers, geese, ducks, parrots. You name it, Mr. Khan has it! The new species were really cool ones. Malcolm knows a lot about birds and helped identify a few. The Wattled Jacana is a small and pretty bird. The Smooth-Billed Ani, on the other hand, is not so cute. Other new birds included the Yellow-hooded Blackbird, a Pied Water Tyrant, and the Striated Heron.