"HERE"

 I read a most interesting article today that basically opined that it is extremely difficult to get someone to change his/her mind on a particular fact or issue. The article went on to argue that this 'attitude' (for want of a better word) is not confined to ill educated people. Indeed, the article argued that the more educated you are, the more difficult it becomes to get you to change your mind on anything.

So, I decided that for today only I will not write anything that could remotely be construed as trying to change your mind about anything and will talk instead about the latest Tom Hanks movie "Here" which my 22 year old son took me to see yesterday. I must confess that I was not keen to go and see it. Although I like Tom Hanks a lot as an actor and generally  have appreciated his various movies, I thought that this one might not be very entertaining. I couldn't have been more wrong!

The movie deals with the site of a particular property/house and the various changes that have taken place around it over the millennia, especially over the last 200 years or so with an emphasis on the present. While the scene changes from time to time, the view or perspective does not. Everything basically takes place in the movie in one room.

This got me to thinking about my own home in Maraval and the changes that have obviously taken place over the last 400 - 500 years. Now, I have absolutely NO evidence about what I am about to say. And cannot support anything that follows here with any facts or figures to support what I think or believe. 

I remember reading somewhere that there was an Ameridian village called Maraval located on the banks of the stream that we today call the Maraval River. It was located just where  Pizza Boys is in  present day Maraval. I also read somewhere that the shamans (priests) in these villages also lived  just a little outside of these villages that they "serviced".  The movie got me to thinking: I live on a hill just above Pizza Boys, Maraval - about 1 kilometer away. What if the shaman lived where my house is located? Or even in/on my property? What stories could the site of my property tell? (My house, by the way, although it has been renovated many times, is about 80-90 years old). What was the area in which I have lived for as long as I have owned the house (about 44 years) like before it was built? When I first bought my house there was a prep school just opposite. I have no idea when this school was built or what was there before. It was there and in operation when I bought my home/

So, if you find this interesting perhaps you would also be interested in the history of your own home and its surrounds. For example, "Sangre Grande" comes from Spanish and means literally "much blood". So? What exactly happened there for the town in East Trinidad to get that name? I read somewhere years ago that the Ameridians rose up in rebellion against the Spanish conquistadores and were literally wiped out in this spot (Sangre Grande). Is this true? What do you know about the place that you live in, or have lived in? What would you like to know about it?

Go and see the movie. If you find these questions interesting you will find the movie to be much more so than anything I might write here.