During my time here in Tobago, I have been working in a local elementary school. When we arrive in the mornings, we are immediately bombarded with hugs and stories and questions.

One morning, one of the other Lutes and I were sitting on a bench outside of the school, when we were bombarded with the daily questions. But that morning, one question in particular stood out to me.

"Can you speak English?"

I was taken by surprise when this young girl asked me this question.

For those who do not know, Trinidad and Tobago is a two-island nation, and English is the official national language. Yes, the people living here have a different accent and dialect from what we speak in America, but you are still able to hold many conversations about almost anything with the people here.

I think that was one of the reasons I was so confused when this girl asked me if I spoke English. When she asked, I replied with, "Yes! I speak English!" Now it was her turn to look confused. She repeated, "Can you speak English?" I was very perplexed by this question. I responded once more, "Yes, I speak English!" After my reply, she leaned towards me and said, "Show me!" I had no idea what to do at this point! She kept looking at me like she was expecting me to speak another language.

Finally, I explained to her that I speak English just like she does, but we have different dialects and accents. She hesitantly accepted that answer, but I could tell that the wheels in her head were turning, and that she was still processing this.

That moment was followed by more questions and attempted answers: “Why are your eyes that color?” (My eyes are this color, we call it hazel, because my mom and dad have similar eyes- that was the shortened version.) “Does everyone in America have eyes like yours?” (Nope! A lot of people in America have eyes like mine, a lot have eyes like yours, and others have other colored eyes too!) “Why is your hair like that?” (Do you want to feel it? It’s kind of like with my eyes, my parents have similar hair, it’s all because of these things called ‘genes.’ You will learn about them when you are a little older.) “Your hair feels weird, why?” (My hair just has a different texture than yours.) “Why do you have bumps on your skin?” (Sometimes that happens when you grow up.) “Is everyone at your school white?” (No! America has a lot of people who are different colors and come from all around the world- the same is for my school.) “Do you have a boyfriend?” (Nope! *laughter*.)

These questions and conversations made me realize just how different I am from these kids. The population of Tobago is mainly of African descent, so as a white American I definitely stand out.

I had to read an article for my class called "American Students Abroad Can't Be 'Global Citizens,'" and this experience reminded me of that article. Often times, a part of studying abroad is to try and assimilate into the culture you are visiting, and to try to experience life as the local people live it. However, I have to always remember that I am a privileged American citizen who has the honor of holding one of those blue passports. Everywhere we go on the island, we are treated differently, always treated as tourists. Because of this, we can never truly be immersed in a different culture, but we can use our experiences to be more internationally aware and more responsible about thinking about critical issues happening in our world.

All of this makes me wonder how these students see me. They obviously see me for the color of my skin, commenting over and over again about “you and your white friends,” and constantly asking us PLU students if we are sisters since “they can’t tell us apart.” But I also wonder if they think of me as just another tourist who will leave soon and never come back. The girl asking me if I knew English really made me aware of how I was talking and of how different I sound from them, even if we are speaking the same language.

I hope the kids at the school can learn that yes, I might look different than them, and I might speak with a funny accent and play "ridiculous games" (turns out they think Ninja is an embarrassing game to play), but we are all still people, and I still care about them very much, even though I have only been here for less that two weeks.

Personally, I hope this experience challenges me to be more culturally aware when I travel abroad in the future, and even back home in the U.S.