AS TOLD TO BC PIRES

My name is Carla Rauseo and I am a physiotherapist.

I’m from Diego, born, bred and raised…on the playground was where I spent most of my days… I’m dating myself by quoting the Fresh Prince sitcom! But it’s actually true. I spent my youth in Blue Range. Back then it was a very different place than it is now, with much fewer houses and a lot more space. I remember occasionally coming home at night with my parents to find a snake wrapped around the gate, and I have memories of finding a horseshoe in the yard…a relic of times passed when Blue Range was a paddock for horses. The rules was simply to come home when the streetlights came on. Kids these days often [can’t] play as we used to.

I moved to Santa Cruz about 11 years ago to escape the Port of Spain hustle, traffic, and to be surrounded by nature. I don’t do traffic. Unfortunately, Santa Cruz now is not what it was then. I wonder if the infrastructure, now a victim of government neglect, would be able to handle the construction and the burgeoning population. Not to mention the number of stray dogs that break my heart.

I come from a small but close family, just me and my parents. But I have really wonderful cousins. We don’t see each other much throughout the year. But Christmas time is our time. I have an uncle who’s the family’s pictorial historian, always sharing old pictures of our [family] who have passed on, and how life was back then…I’ve learnt a lot from reading the reminiscent words of the aunts and uncles.

I have a partner and two four-legged children (11-year-old dogs), and a very cute parrot who beeps and whistles like the kettle, imitates the sound of trickling water and can blow kisses. I swear caring for elderly animals is like having real children. I’m constantly working to feed a large flock of humming birds but they are so gorgeous When the feeders are empty, they actually fly up to me and hover as if to say, “Where mih food?”

At St Monica’s Prep on Pembroke Street, during mango season ripe squishy mangoes would fall from the trees. Splattering all over our white shirts as we ate lunch. I’m sure this is one of the first things any alum would remember!

I have memories of staying in the St Joseph’s Convent courtyard until sometimes 6 pm playing volleyball. When I made the U-19 national team, it was both Saturday and Sunday training in St Paul Street. On terrazzo floors in Point Fortin and El Dorado, and then sometimes we were lucky to play in the Tacarigua Complex or the Jean Pierre Complex.

I did my masters in physical therapy at Springfield College in Massachusetts. Now, I’m working on my PhD. I fully admit I am a professional student. Doing a PhD is a lonely process because no one is really interested in your research except you. I find that a bit sad because when I do manage to talk to people about it, I learn from their experiences in healthcare.

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