SUNDAY 17 DECEMBER, 2017 –
UWI TODAY 100
TH
ISSUE
15
HOST A STUDENT
What’s your
Tradition?
Among the activities
hosted by the Division of Student
Services and Development (DSSD), is a Christmas
dinner for the foreign students staying in Trinidad
during the holidays. Last year, they asked the students
to tell themwhat they traditionally do at Christmas.The
responses are from regional students and it is always
interesting to see the similarities in the way Caribbean
people celebrate. One thing that everyone can agree on is
that universally, the twomost common elements of every
festival – no matter what kind – are food and family.
Here are some responses.
Nicholas Coleman
JAMAICA
At my home, we usually do Christmas cleaning and
change the drapes. We also make fruit cake. Also, we
have a special Christmas dinner where we have beef
ham and smoked chicken; something we only do at
Christmas. It’s also a time to spend with the extended
family.
Ramona King
BARBADOS
Going to Queen’s Park on Christmas morning in
your best clothes, and admiring the old men dressed
in their colourful pimp suits with matching walking
canes and hats. The Royal Police Band plays beautiful
music.
Reenah Samuel
ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
Harvest, a church programme where churches,
specifically Baptist and Methodist, give thanks for the
harvest of the year. They bring fruits and vegetables
and other local delicacies.
Monya Nelson
JAMAICA
During the Christmas season, family members
come together and have Christmas dinner. Breakfast
includes ackee and saltfish, boiled bananas and dinner
includes roasted beef, baked chicken, rice and peas
and a season’s favourite, sorrel.
Ramia Coleman
JAMAICA
We paint the house, change the curtains, clean and
decorate. We bake fruit cakes and we make sorrel.
We have Grand Market on Christmas Eve where all
the vendors are out till Christmas morning selling all
kinds of merchandise at very cheap prices. We play
music on that night and spend it with our closest
friends and family. At Christmas you get to see all the
family members you haven’t seen for a long time.
[Christmas at UWI] programme to facilitate this aspect would
give the student a more personal touch, that one-on-one love
touch, from the University.”
The DSSD extends this touch by liaising with the halls of
residence administrators for a list of students who are staying
on campus, and by reaching out to all UWI’s faculty and staff
to find potential hosts. Interested faculty and staff indicate their
preferences – the number of students they’d like to host and
when they’d like to host the students, for example – and are
pairedwith students. Everyone’s Christmas traditions will differ,
said Josann. “Whereas one staffmembermay have a huge family
get-together on Christmas or Boxing Day, another may go to a
Christmas event, like a Christmas concert, and they are allowed
to take the student with them. There’s no one structured way.
You can involve them in whatever you are doing for the season.”
Making contact and arrangements for their time together, is
now in the hosts’ hands.
So far, the response fromUWI’s faculty and staff has been
heartening. In 2016, Josann said, there weren’t enough students
to pair with all the hopeful hosts.
Faizal Mohammed, a past employee of the Management
Audit Department – he retired last year – remembers his
disappointment last Christmas when he learnt that there were
no students for him to host. He and his family participated in
the programme during the two previous years and were happy
to open their home onChristmas Day to students from Jamaica,
Barbados and the Solomon Islands, where, they learnt, “shark
is revered as a god and nobody eats shark over there,” he said.
Their Solomon Islands guest kept in touch and “she came and
sang a song and acted as a hostess,” for his retirement/60th
birthday party last year. “She was very, very warm towards us,”
recalls his wife, Carmen.
Marissa Brooks, who works at The UWI’s Human
Resources Department, hosted students during the 2015 and
2016 Christmas periods. “It’s always exciting because it is the
first time meeting these persons and my family looks forward
to learning about them and their backgrounds,” she says. “Last
year we had graduate students from the Samoan Islands and
we were so happy to learn of their cultures.” The students also
enjoyed themselves, she said. “The students fit in as if we knew
them all along … We had an outdoor buffet setting for lunch
and the weather was incredible. The students got to relax and
eat for the entire day!”
One of the students she hosted, Matthew Kensen, a PhD
student hailing from the South Pacific, attests to this. He
enjoyed “seeing and experiencing what a Trini Christmas is
like. Family, food, friends, and sorrel and Ponche de Crème,”
he laughs.
Marissa says that the Host-a-Student initiative has
particularly touched her. “Since becoming involved, I have
initiatives where I help at least one student throughout the
year whom I realize needs financial assistance,” she says, and
she encourages colleagues to sign up for the Host-a-Student
programme, “all the time. Christmas is about sharing and
spreading joy and love. I couldn’t imagine being away frommy
family for Christmas, so I believe that people who can afford
to host others should open their homes during the holidays.”
Faizal agrees wholeheartedly.
“Thank God we are in a fortunate position to help others
right now,” and to let them know that “somebody cares enough
for them to do something like this.” Carmen adds that, as a
parent, “I’d like someone to do this for my children and make
them feel warm. It was a pleasure having them dine with us.”
Although he is retired, Faizal and his family are looking forward
to being hosts again this year.
As for Jefferson, his initial sadness was broken from
the moment Kathy-Ann and her family picked him up on
Christmas day. “Miss Lewis started talking to me and my
spirits were lifted…She told me ‘Jeff, you’re going to have fun,
you’re going to be happy, just like if you were back in Grenada.’
I said, ‘Miss Lewis … I am hard to please’ … She exceeded my
expectations ten times [over].” He recalls the warmth of her
family, the mountains of food he was offered, the Christmas
present she gave him (a long-sleeved t-shirt in his favourite
colour, red), singing karaoke and the invitations to come
back the following year. “I didn’t know these people and what
shocked me was that they were greeting me as if they knewme
for years…Theymademe feel like family…I was blown away.”
Asked if he’d recommend that other regional and
international students take advantage of the experience, he says,
“110 per cent! …The experience is phenomenal.” Though, at
first, he feared he wouldmiss out on the Christmas that he’s used
to, Jefferson shares that he still felt “the love and togetherness,
the energy, the laughter, all the joys that come with Christmas
…That experience showedme that no, you could be away from
home and still, if you’re in Trinidad and meet the right people,
you could have a blast.”
UWI Staff
member, Marissa
Brooks, a long-
standing supporter
of the Host-A-
Student initiative,
graduated this
year with a
Master’s degree in
Creative Design
Entrepreneurship.
