Tobago—Field Studies Blog
Sørlandet students certainly enjoyed palm trees, delicious breezes and the turquoise waters of the Caribbean while in Tobago, yet their days ashore were not merely fun in the sun, but rather chock-full of experiences that enhanced understandings of each other, biology and culture.
Near Scarborough, students and faculty spent the afternoon on Bucco beach and together on terra firma celebrated their first oceanic crossing. Chicken-fights, soccer matches, three-legged races and other such community-building activities involved faculty and students alike. At an award-winning guesthouse they rinsed off sand and saltwater after sunset and cooked for one another on a barbeque, awaiting the night’s festivities: “Sunday School” a weekly get-together, more lively than its title suggests. The event has no religious component at all, but simply falls on the day of rest. In lieu of readings and sermons, the evening gathering features local music, dance, food and late night markets. Students snacked on jerk chicken and Caribbean sweets, bumped elbows with locals and expats who have made the island of Tobago their home and danced into the night to the music of the steel drum.
In Scarborough itself students attended Tobago’s annual Remembrance Day ceremony. The local militia, young and old, stood at attention in a town square in full uniform despite the tropical heat. Students familiar with their country’s particular Remembrance or Veteran’s Day ceremonies were given pause and the opportunity to reflect on the different ways around the world in which respects to the fallen are paid.
But perhaps most enlightening and jam-packed of Sørlandet's Field Studies in Tobago was a day spent with Naturalist Newton George. One of the most preeminent naturalists of Trinidad and Tobago, Newton has himself collaborated with David Attenborough and featured work in BBC’s WILD. Newton led students on a rainforest trek on which they learned of forest crabs, trap door spiders, bats and birds; deep into the jungle to Argyle falls; to Birds of Paradise Island, formerly Little Tobago, on which Newton has conducted his most renown research; and to a coral reef, where students snorkelled not far from where Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels, once made his home.
