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April 26 36 hours in Trinidad... or: BWIA = Be Waiting In AirportEarlier this month, my co-worker Stefanie and I were sent to cover a story in Port of Spain, Trinidad. A Jamaica-based mobile phone carrier (which happens to be Dan's employer) launched in Trinidad & Tobago, where there was previously a telecommunications monopoly, so there was a lot of hype around the story in Jamaica. It was only my second assignment as videographer and it was the first time the network had travelled to another island in the Caribbean specifically to cover a story, so I felt a lot of pressure to do a good job. Fortunately, the day went really well and I got some great feedback about the footage. I really hadn't touched a camera much since school so I was pretty happy with what I was able to pull off. I added a few stills from my video footage in a photo album, just to show off a bit
 It was a pretty intense day because the one company had a huge launch with giveaways and a big truck blasting music doing circles around Independance Square, near where one of the main stores was located. Then, the competitor came back with some really energetic and vibrant street theatre and a few of their own giveaways. It was a lot to take in and a lot of hard work but we had a great time and the piece ended up looking really good, so I was pleased. We're hopeful that we'll get to cover other launches around the Caribbean in the future because it was such a fantastic experience to work in another country, but we'll have to wait and see how things progress.
Our flight home the next day was to leave really early and we had to leave our hotel at 5am, so we decided that the best thing to do would be to stay up all night so we wouldn't sleep through our departure time the next morning. Dan has had to do this early flight before, so he suggested heading out to one of the clubs for some red bull and vodka to help the night go by. Also, Stefanie hadn't been to Trinidad before so she wanted to have more of an experience in the little time we had left. We weren't able to hook up with anyone we knew down there so we headed out to have a few drinks, then ended up at the club I went to with Dan the last time we were in Trinidad. We ended the night with a Trinidadian special called "doubles". It's essentially curried chickpeas in a roti but it's not wrapped up for you so it can get a bit messy. Very tasty, though.
We got our cab at 5am and boarded our plane on time, looking forward to hours of uninterrrupted sleep on the flight home. I should stop to explain something here: there is no direct flight from Jamaica to Trinidad. You either have to go to Miami and back down or you take an "island hopper" operated by BWIA that stops at several islands on the way. I'd been warned about BWIA by Dan and several others, who jokingly told me that BWIA actually stands for Be Waiting In Airport and/or But Will It Arrive. We ended up on the BWIA flight which went fine on the way down, although it's a bit of a pain to be flying for an hour, sitting on a runway for an hour, flying for an hour, sitting on a runway for an hour... you get the picture. On the way home, our first stop was Barbados. We sat on the runway for an abnormally long period of time, when the captain made an announcement. He told us that something was wrong with the plane and we had to disembark.
We were very hungry and extremely thirsty because we hadn't been served breakfast on the airplane yet. We had mostly Trinidadian and Jamaican money on us, which didn't prove too useful when we were advised that the foreign currency exchange booth would only exchange for American money. The airline advised us that they wouldn't serve us any food unless we were delayed for three hours or more. Luckily, I found 10$US that I'd tucked away in my wallet and we were able to get some water and some small, crappy sandwiches. Almost right after that, the airline decided to provide us with some food. We ended up stuck there for seven hours. The airline staff and the local staff at the airport were horrible. We'd spent all our money on a meal as soon as we arrived so that left about 6 hours with nothing to eat or drink. The airport staff literally laughed in our faces when we explained ourselves and asked for someone to escort us to an ATM to take out some local currency, and instead, offered up some metallic-tasting tap water. We would have put together another news piece about the crap service we we received if we hadn't been so hungover and exhausted.
Finally, we get on a plane that's supposedly going to take us straight to Kingston. We're in flight for about an hour when we hear an announcement: "I have to apologize ladies and gentlemen. There is another problem with the plane so we have to head back to Trinidad because that's where our repair workers are located. Actually, we've already turned around and we're about to land in Port of Spain." When we landed, we were advised that we would be put on a plane straight back to Kingston... we only had to wait another 7 hours!! Luckily, the second 7 hour delay in Trinidad was much more bearable as they provided us with food and an escort to the ATM so we could buy such necessities as mochaccinos and crappy celebrity magazines. Our plane finally took off at midnight and we arrived safe and sound in Kingston, a mere 23 hours after we'd left the hotel in Trinidad. TrackbacksWeblogs that reference this entry
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