Trinidad: is this real life?

I forgot to mention in my previous post- the people in the picture with Hannah and I are on the Left- Mr. Fullerton, who is a big part of our program and is one of the evaluators for our final presentation.  He works for the government on cultural affairs and is therefore the person who sets up a lot of the cultural events that we take part in. 

And on the Right is Michael Lucien.  He’s the dance instructor at Malick folk performing studio.  He’s the one who taught us our lovely sailor dance.  Both of them were walking with us at the parade on Saturday.  

I know- this is my second blog posting in a week- that might make this a new record. And I realize it’s sort of ironic that I’m picking up the blog posting when I only have two weeks left, but I have LESS THAN TWO WEEKS LEFT- and frankly, I have a lot to say about that. But first, a little about my weekend down south: This weekend the 30th annual Borough Day was celebrated in Point Fortin, Trinidad, a town of about 20,000 people in the far south of the island. The most widely used description of this celebration is that is it, essentially, a mini carnival. And after experiencing it, I would say that is pretty accurate.  It is like carnival in the sense that we had on our costumes, and we paraded through the streets to really loud soca and calypso music. We walked with Rosalyn Gabriel’s band again, although not even half of the people were there as compared to the actual carnival. So it was much smaller compared to Carnival- and there were none of the enormous bikini and bead bands.

After the parade, Hannah and I decided to show off our stilt walking skills a little.  Well,  it was actually Junior who wanted to see how we were coming on them.  Junior had brought several stilt walkers for the parade, and invited us to walk with them for the whole parade, but we figured the uneven road and the long walk might be a little too much for us.  So, it wasn’t until after the parade that we put on the stilts and walked around a bit.  Junior brought us over to other Moko Jumbies who were in the process of taking off their stilts, to show them how far we’d come.  Our next training session is Thursday, when we’ll be returning to San Fernando, and hopefully be taking back the pair of stilts that he is making for each of us!  We gave him shoes on Saturday for him to glue on, and now we are just eagerly anticipating the completion of our very own stilts.  I still can’t get over the kindness that Junior has shown to us the past few weeks.  Just the thought of him making us stilts- putting in time, effort, and supplies- and refusing compensation.  It was also interesting to see with our own eyes how well-known Junior is.  Just walking down the parade we watched as he acknowledged and greeted numerous people.  

So, Saturday was a good day and Thursday will hopefully also be great.  In the meantime, I’ve been studying hard for my exam that is tomorrow.  And of course, trying not to get too distracted by thoughts of Tobago this weekend! 

Yes, it’s true- today was the first day of a two and half week period of exams at UWI.  It was also the day of my first final- Men and Masculinities.  I can’t honestly say that I’ve ever been so nervous for an exam.  I suppose it was the fact that about 70% of my final grade depended on the final- or that a friend had just told me about last semester, when he forgot to put one number down in the right blank  and had his entire exam overlooked, so he had to retake the whole course.  The whole exam administering process was incredibly complex and very official.  It was a bit like taking a standardized test back in the states.  

But it’s over now, and it’s time to start studying for exam #2, which isn’t until the 6th, but it’s BIO, so I’ll need all the time I can get.  In addition to that, I have two essays for the Caribbean culture and society course I’m part of, as well as the final project I’ve been slowly working on with the Moko Jumbies.

Speaking of Moko Jumbies… Last Monday, I took a little trip down to South Trinidad and visited some people for my project.  Hannah was with me, and our first stop was a Indian mas camp.  The band leader showed us his costumes, including the queen costume that won at this year’s carnival.  So, we got a lot of good ideas for the costume we will be creating- now we just need materials and motivation!!  

After that, we stopped by Junior’s home, the Moko Jumbie band leader.  That was a very… interesting visit.  Junior and his wife, Victoria life in a very modest home with their two sons, both of whom are blossoming stilt walkers themselves.  The whole family is full of artistic talent.  Junior has his word working, building furniture, pictures, and of course.. stilts.  Victoria does wood burning art amongst other things.  And even the boys had drawings hung up over the walls.  I’m not exactly sure what it was, but I absolutely loved everything about their family.  They were a total rastafarian, close-knit, easy-going family.  We sat around their quaint little living room, listening to the radio, while Victoria made Hannah and I each a piece of wood-burning art.  The kids played checkers on the floor, and Junior talked about the world’s biggest pencil that he recently built, and this magnificent chair that he made, which the Prime Minister had sat in once. It feels like every house that I’ve been in during my time here has been so different- every one of them felt like it was from a different country than the others.  But Junior’s was definitely my favorite, simply because of it’s uniqueness.  Junior has also promised to build us some stilts before we go back!  Plus, him and his family, if they can get visas, are planning to come to the US this summer- Minnesota to be exact- to train some Moko Jumbies there for a little carnival they have.  

So, moving on- I got to see the sea turtles!  They were so incredible.  Probably one of the most unreal things to have seen in my life.  We also went to the swamp, where we got to see a bunch of the scarlet Ibis- the national bird- which is vibrant red in color.  Other than that, preparation for exams/final projects are in full swing, which means we’re keeping very busy!  But this also means my stay here is down to 19 days!  This realization was followed by excitement, fear, anxiety, sadness, relief, happiness, ….. amongst other things.  In that short time, I have so much to do, plus I’m planning a short return trip to Tobago- a must do.  We’ll see how it all works out, and I’m sure I’ll be back to the US, suffering from reverse culture shock in no time!  Hopefully I’ll be able to update at least once before then, though.    

A lot has happened.  But I will try to keep this brief.  I’m realizing how awesome it is that my program gives us such a wide variety of opportunities here in Trinidad.  I’ve seen and experiences more than most Trinidadian people have, which is making me realize that there is so much to do back home, so much that I have ignored because it is my home.  So this summer, depending on how much money I have left, I am going to try to become a tourist in my town and in the area in hopes of experiencing more.  Anyways, now onto what I’ve been up to—

So last time I wrote, we had just participated in Phagwa and had a blast as usual.  Since them, some of the highlights have been performing in the national music festival with Malick folk performers, Toured several Hindu temples and and East Indian museum in chaguanas, went up to the mountains to hear a group of musicians who make all of their instruments from things of nature, had a lab trip to the beach on the east coast, went to karaoke night at a bar nearby, went to a party on a boat, hiked to a waterfall, hiked to some incredible caves, hung out with moko jumbies at a car show, went to an authentic Trinidadian “river lime,” and well.. you get the idea. So, some highlights of those highlights-

The music festival rehearsals were a lot of fun, and a great way to meet a lot of people.  When performance day came, we dressed in huge flamboyant outfits with layered skirts and head wraps.  But, we came just shy of moving on to the finals.

My lab trip was on the east coast of Trinidad where I’d yet to visit.  It was a huge deserted stretch of beach littered with dried up jellyfish.  It was beautiful, though and reminded me a little of the more deserted beaches from back home.  It also made me miss Tobago.

Jaja and his two sons are the performers of the band “Jewels of Nature.”  They had some incredible instruments, all made out of bamboo, coconuts, sticks, seeds, etc.  very impressive.

I’ve been in touch with the manager of one of the moko jumbie bands on the island and Friday, he invited Hannah and I to come to the opening of a car show happening on the island at which some of his members would be performing.  So of course we went.  Upon arriving, he had us put on one-foot stilts and costumes, and we walked around in the back while the others were up front by the stage.  Afterwards we walked on stilts several blocks through port of spain with the others to where we were meeting our taxi- all part of our “training” according to Junior, the manager.  So basically we were the Moko Jumbie groupies for the night, following them, admiring them.  There were only four of them there that night, and one of them was only eight years old and he was on 3 1/2 foot stilts.  He was Junior’s son, and he’d started walking on stilts when he was 11 months.  Seriously.  It was so great though, and inspirational… so we’ll see how far we can get now.  

The hikes were both amazing- pictures will be coming shortly.  The caves were surreal.  The waterfall incredible.  I’ll have more about the hikes later.

Other than that, I’ve been going twice a week to a children’s home to hang out with a bunch of kids for my service learning project- which has been a lot of fun, as well as quite interesting.  The kids here definitely interact quite differently…

So, with that brief summary I leave you with the picture of me sitting here in my room in Trinidad with two fans going, sweat dripping down my back nonetheless, and a fresh sweet melon that I just purchased at the market in my hands….yum.  

my goal for the next two months: learn to be a moko jumbie.

more to come…

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1qdrTd/refspace.com/quotes/s%3A0

Sunday was Phagwa!  My hair is still tinged green, and my nail still have hints of pink, but it was so much fun.  Imagine a squirt gun war with pbc pipe guns and dyed water.  Then add in colored powder on your face and some singing and dancing and tada!  That’s Phagwa.  It’s a celebration of the Hindu new years and of spring, so we joined the UWI Hindu society which was a group of incredibly fun and welcoming students, and went to two temples, a Hindu school and a public savannah to celebrate with them.  At two locations, we were given free food, and and two locations we were put on stage to sing a Hindu song, or at least clap while the local students actually sang.  I’d say this just about makes up for missing the j’ouvert celebration carnival monday morning.

- randomly, and sort of unintentionally joined a 20 person choir.  we perform in two weeks.

- bought my first candy bar in two months.  a kit kat.

- discovered the glory of an air conditioned library. maybe I will be studying a lot this semester after all…

- got kicked out of the fitness center.  hand towels are required for entry.

- missed the northwest.  a lot.  even the rain.

-craved real milk.  real chocolate milk from the uc.

The infamous sailor dance.  So, most people don’t actually have choreographed dances like we did for carnival.  I’m thinking that they found us incapable of dancing on our own, so they taught us this ridiculous dance for us to do instead.  Well, it was fun anyways!

Canboulay- this was supposed to help us blend in, I guess.  We were the police, along with about thirty other locals.  We marched into the crowd of rioting stickfighters, fought them briefly, then retreated back with them chasing us with their sticks.